Chapter Three

It felt like it had been forever since Charles and Mark had spent time together. It had definitely been longer than ever before, but considering the circumstances, that wasn’t surprising. Their clan had been attacked and Mark taken. Mark had met Lester and had fallen in love with him. They’d both found a new home.

But more than that, things were different because Rex wasn’t with them. That had never happened before. They’d been friends since childhood, and it had always been the three of them against everyone and everything else. Charles had thought it would be that way for the rest of their lives. He’d never questioned that because it was just how things were supposed to be.

Until now.

Charles couldn’t avoid thinking about what had happened to Rex, and every time he did, it hurt. He’d avoided Mark because of that. It hurt too much to see Mark when Rex wasn’t with them, but Charles had come to realize that he’d already lost one friend. He didn’t want to lose another, especially when Mark was right there.

He glanced sideways toward Mark, who was staring at the TV screen. He’d come to Charles with the excuse of watching a movie, and Charles had agreed. He’d hoped it would enable them to regain a semblance of their former relationship. At least they were in the same room. It felt good, but at the same time, it was so different that Charles wasn’t sure how to deal with it.

Clearly Charles wasn’t behaving like he would have before, because Mark put the movie on pause and sighed.

“Do you even know what we’re watching?” Mark asked.

Charles blinked and turned toward the screen, but it didn’t tell him much. “I’m not sure, but there are a lot of explosions.”

Mark snorted. “Yes, there are. It was one of Rex’s favorite movies.”

A pang of something that felt like guilt tightened Charles’s chest. Sometimes he wondered what would have happened if he’d reached Rex in time during the attack. He’d tried, but it had been chaos, and by the time he’d gotten there, it was too late. For some reason the mages had blown up the clan house, and Rex had been inside with his family. Just like that, Charles had lost one of the most important people in his life.

Then he’d lost his parents and the rest of his family. The only person he still had was his sister, and that was only because she hadn’t lived with the clan. His life had been reduced to the ruins of what it had once been, and he still wasn’t quite sure how to live with that.

He probably should be by now. Several weeks had passed, and he’d started a new life. He couldn’t erase the memories, and he didn’t want to, but surely, things should be getting easier.

He supposed he should be happy things weren’t getting harder. They would eventually. He doubted the coven would vanish from his life, although he could hope. Eventually, they’d do something, possibly attack the pack, and when they did, Charles would have to act. He still wasn’t sure how, but he had faith in Lester and his friends. They knew the coven, and if they thought they could help keep the pack safe, they would.

“It’s weird, isn’t it?” Mark asked.

Charles didn’t have to ask what he was talking about. He nodded because it was weird. “Rex would hate it.”

Mark chuckled. “He’d probably punch us and tell us to get our heads out of our asses. He wouldn’t be wrong. I don’t like the distance between us, Charles.”

“I don’t either, but sometimes it’s hard to look at you and not think of him.”

Mark nodded as if he wasn’t surprised. He probably wasn’t. If Charles had to guess, Mark felt the same way and was battling the same emotions.

They’d always been three, but only two remained, and it would take some time to learn to navigate that. They would eventually. Charles wasn’t about to lose another friend. They just had to learn how to fill the hole Rex had left.

A quick knock on the open living room door made both of them look up. Theo stood there, watching them. For a moment, Charles almost panicked. He knew what his old alpha would have done if he’d found him and Mark talking like this—to act like men and stop being sissies.

Charles hated that man, and even though it had happened in the worst way possible, he was glad Mark’s father would never be an alpha again. He didn’t deserve to be one. He hadn’t even tried to save his clan. After the attack, instead of helping the survivors and his own son, he’d washed his hands of what remained of the clan.

“Sorry to bother you,” Theo said with a smile. “But a few of us are meeting in Chance’s office to talk about the coven, and I thought you should be there. Lester is coming, along with his friends. They’ll update Chance.”

“We’ll be right there,” Mark said as he rose to his feet.

Charles stayed where he was, even though Mark had said they would both go. He didn’t feel he belonged in that office with everyone else.

But he wasn’t surprised when Mark looked down at him once Theo left them alone. “Well? Am I going to have to carry you to the office?” he asked as he poked at Charles’s leg with his socked toes.

Charles sighed and got up. “That meeting isn’t really my place.”

“It’s not mine, either. I’m not a future alpha anymore. I’m no different from you now that we’re here, and I like things that way.”

“But you’ve been at the coven house. You’ve seen some of the mages, so you have more information than I do about them.”

“But I don’t remember anything about the attack, while you do. We both have information, just different stuff.”

He might be right. Charles still didn’t think there was much he could do, but he wasn’t going to keep arguing. If people wanted him at the meeting, he’d be there.

He was curious, and he hated being kept in the dark. Mark’s father had always made decisions on his own, even concerning the clan, and a lot of the time, they’d been bad decisions. Finding out about them too late meant that no one could do anything to protect the clan, and Charles was glad Chance was different.

He and Mark wouldn’t have to fix any of Chance’s decisions. He was a good alpha, and he had people who would support him better than Charles ever could.

Charles wanted the coven to pay for what they’d done. They’d attacked a clan of peaceful people who’d been minding their own business. They’d killed entire families, children and grandparents, mothers and fathers. They had to be stopped, but Charles wasn’t sure how. He certainly wasn’t willing to sacrifice the pack to get revenge.

But he didn’t see an alternative. Thankfully, he wouldn’t be the one making decisions. It still left him uneasy that the pack had to step in like this. It made him feel guilty, especially after losing his entire family. The coven was dangerous and would continue to hurt people until someone stopped them, but before that was done, a lot of blood would be spilled.

Thinking about that made Charles’s stomach churn.

The pack had welcomed him and other survivors. It had been home for them since they’d arrived, and Chance had promised it always would be. Some people weren’t happy, but most pack members hadn’t bothered Charles. He hated to thank them by throwing them to the wolves—or, in this case, the mages—but he truly didn’t see another option. It wasn’t like he and Mark could fight the coven on their own. They’d both die or, worse, be used by the coven to hurt people. That wasn’t something Charles wanted to be part of, which meant he’d be one of the people who would fight against it.

He didn’t have a choice. He was involved even though he wanted nothing to do with this, and there was no way out of it. The coven had pulled him into this fight, and now he would have to see it through.

* * * *

Red had been surprised to get a text from Charles. They’d exchanged phone numbers, but Red hadn’t actually expected much from Charles. Charles was still healing from losing his family and from the physical consequences of the attack against his clan. He needed time and space, not to have Red make heart eyes at him.

But Red had hoped, and he’d been happy when he’d seen the text. He’d agreed to see Charles in the forest right away, not surprised that Charles wanted to take a walk and needed some space to breathe. Red didn’t mind being there with him as he did so. The house where he used to live with his family was getting emptier by the day, and he felt like he was rattling around with no goal and nothing to do.

He and the others had promised Chance they’d find jobs and contribute to the pack, and they were. The problem was that Red didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life. So far, he’d been helping here and there when people needed him, and it worked out fine, but it left him too much time to think, and it didn’t feel like he should continue that way. He wanted something more permanent, where he could settle down and feel like he truly was helping, but he didn’t know what, and it made him wonder if he could find something like that.

At the time he and Charles had agreed to, Red left the house and headed toward Chance’s house. When he got there, he found Charles already on the porch, waiting for him. Charles smiled at him and bounced down the steps, doing his best to look upbeat, but Red could see through it.

He didn’t know Charles that well, but he’d been hiding his own feelings for a long time. He knew what that looked like, even from the outside.

“Did something happen?” he asked when Charles reached him.

To his surprise, Charles didn’t dismiss him right away. Instead, he sighed and gestured toward the forest. He seemed to want to put some space between himself and the house, and that made Red even more curious.

“Just a meeting,” Charles said as they started walking.

“What about? The coven? Or has someone else decided you need to get kicked out of the pack?”

Charles snorted. “I have no doubt people would still try to convince Chance if they could, but I suspect they know he won’t budge. He’s made his decision, and he won’t let anyone tell him what to do or not do.”

Red nodded. “He’s a good alpha, and he keeps his promises.”

“He is. I hate the way it happened, but I’m glad he’s in charge now instead of Mark’s father. That man was a horrible alpha.”

“I don’t think it’s easy to be a good alpha. You need to care about others more than you care about yourself and what you can gain from the position.”

“Well, Chance is nailing it.”

“What was the meeting about? Can you talk about it? Do you want to talk about it?”

“I’m not even sure why I was there. Possibly because I was with Mark when Theo found us. Lester and his friends updated us about what they’d been doing, and I have to admit it feels good to know that if the coven attacks, we won’t be utterly useless like the clan was. Lester’s putting a lot of thought into this, probably because he knows the coven and can guess what they’ll do.”

“It’s good to have him on our side.” Red truly meant that. Initially, he’d been wary, like everyone else. Lester was a mage, and they’d heard about what the coven had done. Besides, Lester had arrived with Mark, who hadn’t been in great shape. People had wanted to believe him, but they hadn’t known if they could.

Red didn’t have any problems believing that Lester was on their side now. In fact, he was sure was about that. Like Charles had said, Lester and his friends were working hard to find ways to protect the pack from the coven. It might not be enough, but it was more than what the clan had had.

“Chance suggested we try to contact the coven and talk to them,” Charles said. “He wants to believe that talking to them will be enough to make them change their minds about whatever they’re planning.”

Red frowned. “I can see why he wants to try things that way, but I doubt it’ll help.”

“I don’t know. I want to hope he’ll be able to talk some sense into them.”

“They didn’t hesitate to attack your clan and kill entire families. I doubt that talking to them will change anything about that.”

Charles nodded.

Red was glad he hadn’t been in that meeting, because if he’d heard the suggestion, he might have laughed in Chance’s face. He understood why Chance wanted to try that, but even he could tell that the coven wouldn’t step back, and he’d never had to deal with the coven. He just knew what Lester had told him, and it was enough for him to be convinced that whatever happened, the coven wouldn’t retreat.

They were looking to obtain something, and while Red didn’t know what that something was, he could easily guess. They wanted power, possibly land, and money. The best way to obtain that was to take over packs and clans.

But that wasn’t what they’d done in the case of Charles’s clan. They’d attacked the clan, had dragged some dragons away, and killed the rest. They hadn’t moved to take over clan territory.

Red had no idea what the mages thought or what they wanted in the end. He didn’t think it mattered, either. The only thing that did was that they were willing to hurt and kill people.

“What did Lester say about it?” he asked.

“That he’ll think about someone they can contact.” He looked as skeptical as Red was feeling.

“Does anyone think there’s actually a possibility that it’ll stop the coven?”

“Maybe not stop, but if we can find allies inside the coven, it would be to our benefit.”

That much was right. There was no way the coven would compromise with the pack when they were powerful enough to take on a dragon clan, but maybe they could make it so that the coven had fewer mages fighting. They could get inside information and be warned when the coven moved. It wasn’t a lot, but it was more than what they had now, and even though Red didn’t have a lot of hope this would work, he wouldn’t dismiss it entirely.

He was still fearful. The coven had taken out an entire dragon clan. They’d done so using magic, which hopefully they wouldn’t be able to do if they attacked the pack, thanks to Lester, but it was still terrifying.

Red didn’t have magic. He wasn’t a fighter, even when he shifted. His armadillo form wouldn’t do anything against a bunch of angry mages intent on destroying the pack. He’d fight until the end, but he suspected that end would come quickly.

That didn’t matter. The pack was Red’s home, and he’d promised himself he would fight for it. He hadn’t quite expected it to be literal, but it didn’t matter. He’d do what he had to do, and even if he didn’t make it, hopefully the rest of his family would.

He still wouldn’t say no if they found another way to stop the coven. He doubted any of the people in charge of the coven would be willing to listen to what Chance had to say, but it was good that Chance wasn’t dismissing any opportunity.

Only time would tell if this was a good or a bad idea. In the meantime, it was better than doing nothing. Red couldn’t even imagine what it was like to be in Chance’s place. Chance wanted to protect his people, but he didn’t know how. He’d made a choice when he’d welcomed Mark and Lester into the pack, then Charles and the others. There was no going back, even though it might mean the end of the pack.

* * * *

The last thing Charles wanted was to scare Red. When he’d texted him, he’d been thinking about the two of them spending time together in the forest so he wouldn’t have to continue thinking about the coven and what was happening, but instead, he’d spilled everything as soon as he’d seen him.

Red had questions, and Charles wanted to answer them. It made sense that Red wanted to know what was happening. Charles might dislike everything that involved the coven, but he was glad he knew. Not knowing would be worse.

Everyone in the pack should know what was happening. They hadn’t had a choice in welcoming Charles and the others, but this was their home, and it was their families who were in danger. If they had to fight the coven, they needed to know what and who they were fighting. They needed to be aware of how dangerous the coven was.

But Charles didn’t think that Chance would tell them, at least for now. He already had enough problems after Francis and the mess he’d made the other day. Charles didn’t like it, and he felt that the pack needed to be united, but he wasn’t the alpha, and he was glad about that. He could never make the kind of decisions Chance had to deal with.

“I don’t know,” Red said. “I mean, it sounds good, and of course I hope no one here will have to fight, but it sounds almost too easy.”

Charles chuckled. “Diplomacy is anything but easy, but you’re right. If the coven wanted to use diplomacy, they would have. Instead, they destroyed our clan. Our people hadn’t done anything to them. We hadn’t even known the coven existed.”

The mages had only revealed themselves when they’d attacked, and by then, it was too late to do anything about their presence in the area. Charles could only hope that the fact that the dragons and the pack didn’t live close by would help. If the coven wanted to attack the pack, they would have to travel much farther than they had with the clan. It might give them pause. At least now the pack knew about the coven, and they knew what to look out for.

“Lester said he might have a few names,” Charles explained. “He didn’t look like he thought it was going to work, either, but he’s going to try, and so is Chance.”

Red nodded. “We’ll all try. None of us wants to have to fight and put ourselves and our families in danger.”

“We might not have a choice,” Charles murmured.

“We might not, and it’s not fair. You’ve already been through enough.”

Charles and Red both had, but what could they do? Until the coven was stopped, there would always be a possibility they’d lose people they cared about. Charles might have lost his family, but he still had people he loved, and he didn’t want to lose any of them.

He glanced at Red. He couldn’t say he loved Red, but he liked him, and he definitely didn’t want anything to happen to him. He wouldn’t say it out loud, but he thought Red suspected he felt this way about him. They’d been spending time together lately and texting and calling each other. Charles had no idea what he was doing, but he felt like maybe he didn’t have to know. He could see where things went naturally and go slow.

Part of him was telling him to shut it down. What if the coven attacked and something happened to Red? What if Charles lost him, too, after getting attached even more?

But Charles couldn’t live in fear. No one could be a hundred percent sure that the coven would attack the pack. Maybe they’d gotten what they wanted when they’d attacked the clan, and they were done terrorizing people. Maybe the pack lived too far from the area where they lived, and they wouldn’t feel it was worth coming all the way here. Maybe the pack didn’t have what they wanted.

Charles could try to convince himself of all of that, but something told him that eventually he’d have to deal with the coven again. He’d better be ready when that happened.

He wasn’t sure he could ever be.

Charles would fight if he had to, but the thought of losing the few people he still had terrified him. He wanted to bundle them up and hide them away as far as possible from the coven. If there was a way to do so, he would, but he couldn’t think of anything. He could only focus on his fear and the need to hide, but that wouldn’t help in this situation. Charles had to face his problems head-on, and right now, his problems were all centered on the coven.

“Lester is working on protecting the pack, though,” Red said, sounding hesitant.

Charles was scaring him without giving him enough details for him to know that, yes, the pack would be protected. It might not be enough, but they could only hope it would, at the very least, slow down the coven. Lester and his friends had promised they would come up with a list of people they might be able to trust and another list of people they definitely couldn’t trust and should take out as soon as possible.

Apparently the coven didn’t have a single leader like the pack did. There was some kind of council, and they made their decisions together, including when they’d decided to attack the clan. Lester seemed to think that if they took out these leaders, they might be able to stop the rest of the coven, who wouldn’t know what to do without people guiding them and making the big decisions.

Charles hoped so. The fewer people they had to fight, the better it would be. The problem was that it wasn’t only one person. They couldn’t just take out the alpha and pray for the best. With several leaders, they would have to kill or neutralize all of them, which would be as complicated as it sounded.

But it was still better than doing nothing. Doing nothing wasn’t something they could afford, which was why Lester and his friends were working on creating defenses for the pack. Chance was doing the same in a different way, and Charles wanted to hope it would be enough.

It had to be.

“Yes, Lester’s working on that,” Charles promised. “He was born in the coven, so he knows them well, and he can guess what they’re going to try. He wasn’t allowed to be present when the coven attacked the clan, so he didn’t see what they did, but we were able to describe it to him. He knows what spell they used so that we couldn’t shift into our dragons, and he knows how to neutralize that spell. That would be a massive help.”

Red stumbled on a root and tilted forward. Charles grabbed his waist, hauling him back to his feet. He didn’t let go of Red, even though he probably should. It wasn’t the first time he’d touched Red like this, and while this time it was so Red wouldn’t fall on his face, he didn’t understand why he couldn’t let go. He felt like if he did, he might not get this opportunity again.

It was ridiculous. He didn’t know what Red wanted. He didn’t even know what he wanted. He just knew that when he was close to Red, he felt like he could breathe again, and he wasn’t willing to lose that.

“Everything all right?” he asked once Red was steady again.

Red nodded. He didn’t step away, but Charles had to let go. They couldn’t continue walking if he held on to Red’s waist. But as he took a step back, Red took his hand. For a moment, they stared at each other. Charles held his breath, wondering what Red had in mind.

He was both shocked and not shocked when Red linked their fingers together. Red’s cheeks flushed, and he looked away before Charles could say anything about it, but as he guided Charles deeper into the forest with their hands still linked, Charles felt it didn’t matter.

Hopefully, they’ have time to talk about this, what it was, and what it meant, and if they didn’t have time before the coven attacked, at least for now, they could share this closeness and happiness.

* * * *

Red had no idea what was happening, but now that he was holding Charles’s hand, he didn’t want to let go. Thankfully, Charles seemed to feel the same way. He didn’t pull away or ask Red what he was doing as Red pulled him along. Red didn’t know where they were going, but as long as they stayed in pack territory, it didn’t matter.

He swallowed. Was now the best moment to start something with Charles? Probably not. The pack was in danger, and Red didn’t know how to help. He didn’t need a distraction, but at the same time, Charles was the best distraction he could’ve hoped for. He might not know what the future would hold for them, but he didn’t have to. For now, they could both live in the present and try to ignore the fact that they might die in a few weeks.

But instead of thinking that, he wanted to focus on the future he wasn’t sure he’d have. What would he do once the coven was neutralized? That was easy. The first thing was to bring his grandfather here. He’d have to talk to Chance, but he doubted that the alpha would have anything against it. Red’s grandfather wasn’t a bear shifter, so some of the pack members might have a problem with his presence, but Red didn’t care. He just wanted to be close to his grandfather for the first time in years. He’d already wasted enough time. He didn’t know how long his grandfather still had to live, but he was in his eighties, and Red wanted to make the most out of the next few years.

Maybe they could move in together. With everyone leaving the house, there was more than enough space for Red’s grandfather to move there.

And maybe he wouldn’t be the only one.

Red glanced at Charles in a way he hoped wasn’t obvious. Charles was walking next to him, glancing around the forest with an almost peaceful expression. Red didn’t particularly want to talk about the coven, but they needed to, and if it helped give Charles some peace, he wouldn’t mind listening to every single detail of what had happened during the meeting. Besides, he wanted to know. He was terrified, but this was his home. The only way to fight was to know what he was fighting.

“What will you do when this is over?” he asked, trying to distract both himself and Charles.

“Well, I want to find a home,” Charles said right away. “I’ve been living on my own for a long time, and it’s weird to have to share a house again, even though I’m grateful to Chance for welcoming me. Besides, I suspect that he and Theo wouldn’t mind having more privacy. I’d look now, but I’m not sure it would be worth it.”

Because soon, there might not be a pack or a house left for Charles. Red didn’t want to think about that, though. He didn’t want to think about anything that included the coven. Surely they deserved some peace after what the two of them had gone through. They didn’t share the same experiences, and the coven hadn’t hurt Red, but it still hadn’t been easy. He’d thought that now that he and his friends were here, he’d find peace, but not yet.

Except in a way, he had found peace. Right now, he felt good. He was content with his world, even with everything the coven was doing. He was walking hand-in-hand in the forest with a gorgeous man, making plans to bring his grandfather over and imagining his future. What more could he want?

He stumbled on a root again. He needed to stop daydreaming and focus on where he was putting his feet if he didn’t want to break something before they even had to fight.

“I’m sorry if I scared you,” Charles said as once again he kept Red on his feet. “I hate seeing you so distracted that you’re not even watching where you’re going.”

“That has nothing to do with what you told me,” Red said as he pulled away.

Charles ran his hands up and down Red’s arms as if checking that he was all right.

The touch made Red shudder, and he found himself leaning forward. He didn’t have anything in mind except being closer to Charles, a man he liked and wanted to get to know better.

He didn’t have an explanation for the way their lips met. He barely even realized he’d been the one to press them together. He hadn’t thought about it, but now he froze, not knowing what to do.

Red knew what Charles had lost and how confused he was. The last thing he wanted was to force him into something he wasn’t ready for or didn’t want. The kiss had been a whim, something he hadn’t thought of before doing it, but he knew better than to continue. He never wanted Charles to feel like he had to give him something in exchange for his friendship. He’d hate it if things became like that between them. Red could take rejection, but he couldn’t take making Charles unhappy.

He started moving back, an apology already on his lips.

That was when Charles squeezed Red’s arms harder and pulled him close, wrapping his arms around Red’s waist. He swallowed the sound of surprise that Red made when he found himself pressed against Charles’s chest. Their lips pressed together again, more firmly this time, and Red opened up.

He’d thought Charles didn’t want this, but he was sure he did now. From the way Charles was kissing him, it was clear he wanted it as much as Red did. He didn’t hesitate, taking what he wanted from Red, even though Red had been the one to initiate the kiss. Charles was in charge now.

Red loved it.

He’d had to make so many decisions when he lived on the streets. The entire time, he’d been terrified he’d choose wrongly and would ruin the little he had. He’d felt better after Theo had taken charge, because that meant that someone was taking care of him, and on this occasion, too, he felt like Charles was taking care of him.

The kiss that had initially been hesitant and more for comfort than anything else turned blazing. Charles pushed closer, demanding that Red surrender to him, and Red did so gleefully.

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had this. Back on the streets, it was better not to trust people, and after seeing what Matty had to go through a few times, Red was glad he never had. He’d had his friends and his hand, and that had been enough for him.

He’d never realized how much he missed his kind of touch, how much he missed being pressed against a hard chest and kissed as if he didn’t need to breathe.

There was no way this was a one-off. It couldn’t be.

Red certainly didn’t want it to be. Charles made him feel wanted and cherished, and the kiss gave Red a pleasure he could barely remember ever feeling. More than that, he liked Charles, and he wanted to continue spending time with him. If that time included more kisses, Red was all for it.

Eventually, Red had to breathe. He gently pushed Charles away, but he didn’t let him go far. He pressed their foreheads together and closed his eyes, enjoying the quiet moment as he allowed his heart to slow down.

“Sorry,” Charles murmured.

Red blinked his eyes open. “What are you sorry about?”

“I feel this was a lot, especially since you weren’t expecting it.”

Red snorted. “You weren’t expecting me to kiss you, either.”

“No, but you were gentle and sweet, while I took over completely.”

Red pressed a kiss against the corner of Charles’s mouth just because he could. He smiled at the way Charles blinked as if he hadn’t expected it. “I liked you taking over,” Red told him. “You can take over anytime you want.”

“Yeah?” Charles asked, the hesitation finally vanishing from his expression. It looked like he believed Red, which was what Red wanted.

“Yeah. I like this, Charles. I like you . I want to do it again.”

Charles’s smile was sweet and glorious. “We can arrange that.”

Red laughed. He felt light and happy, and while he knew that reality would crash back into his life soon, for now, Charles was the only thing he wanted to focus on. It wasn’t like the coven was going anywhere, and neither were Red’s problems.

Hopefully, neither was Charles.