Page 26 of Flint's Arrow
“Actually, that was both Pax and Python, and yes, I heard that, too, repeatedly.” Arrow’s mouth twitched. “In detail. Multiple times. I’m pretty sure Wren was taking notes.”
“Wren’s surprisingly creative when he’s protecting people he loves.” Flint traced the condensation on his water glass. “They’re good at that, all of them - they’re all very protective.”
“You’re lucky to have them.” Arrow’s voice held no jealousy, just a quiet sincerity. “It must be nice to have a family like that.”
“It is.” Flint studied Arrow’s face, looking for the sneer, the dismissal, the arrogance, but he found nothing like that at all. “So,” he said carefully, “how was your day?”
Arrow took a slow breath, holding Flint’s gaze. “Busy. I quit my job.”
Flint was thrilled that Arrow was so open about it. “I heard.”
“From Cyrus?”
“Yeah. Your supervisor called him, apparently, putting one and one together and getting four.” Flint leaned forward slightly. “Why’d you do it?”
“Because keeping my job would’ve caused problems for us,” Arrow said simply, like it was obvious. “My work was in the city. Yours is here. I had a fancy loft that was more about showingoff than actually living, and you have a home surrounded by people who care about you. The math wasn’t complicated when I stopped allowing my massive ego to get in the way.”
Fuck. That’s real honesty right there.Flint’s chest tightened. “You built your whole life around that job.”
“I built a whole life around being scared,” Arrow corrected quietly. “Scared of being seen as weak, as less than, as the wolf who wasn’t good enough. So I chased money, status, and a job that let me feel superior to everyone else. But none of it mattered in the end because all of it was just a huge façade. If you think about it, like I did, none of it was real.”
The waitress returned with their food, and Flint waited until she left before asking, “I get what you’re saying, but what are you going to do now?”
“At the moment, I’m renting a room at the Pine Lodge here in Big Sky.” Arrow picked up his fork, not quite meeting Flint’s eyes. “I’m not trying to pressure you. That’s got nothing to do with any of this. I just need to be near you in the hopes I can see you more often...you know, when and if you’ll let me.”
He moved.Arrow had quit his job, left his apartment, and relocated to Big Sky. For thechanceto see Flint more often. Not a guarantee, just a hope.
“That’s...” Flint swallowed hard. “That’s a lot of change really fast.”
“It needed to be fast.” Arrow finally looked up, and the honesty in his gray eyes stole Flint’s breath. “I fucked up so badly that slow wouldn’t cut it. You needed to know I was serious. That I’m not just saying I’ll change - I’m doing it.”
Flint cut into his chicken, using the action to give himself time to think. The mating bond hummed between them, less painfulthan before but still unfulfilled. His snake wanted to close the distance, to wind around Arrow and never let go. But Flint’s human side needed more than a biological instinct.
“Tell me about your funniest case,” Flint said before the silence stretched too long.
Arrow blinked at the sudden subject change, then a real smile crossed his face - the first Flint had seen. “Did you want to hear about the one guy who tried to hide his embezzlement in a World of Warcraft account, or the one where a tax evader literally mailed himself to Mexico in a crate?”
“Definitely the crate one.”
Arrow launched into the story, describing how they’d tracked the guy across three states before discovering he’d convinced a shipping company to load him into a wooden box labeled “Agricultural Equipment.”
“We found him stuck at the border because customs wanted to inspect the ‘equipment’ and the person escorting the package was too scared that they’d find the guy we were looking for. He’d spent sixteen hours in that box by the time we got him out, pissing into a bottle, and living on granola bars.”
“Did he make it to Mexico?” Flint asked, grinning.
“Nope. The customs agent heard him sneeze and totally ignored the escort’s wishes and opened up the crate. They found him curled up with a sleeping bag, a few bottles filled with piss, and about twenty granola bar wrappers.” Arrow shook his head. “He’d embezzled two million dollars and spent a good chunk of it on the world’s most uncomfortable escape plan.”
Flint laughed. “That’s amazing. You’d think he’d almost be glad someone got him out before he suffocated.”
“We’ll never know. But now it’s your turn.” Arrow pointed his fork at Flint. “Funniest job.”
Flint thought for a moment. “I was hired to take out a bear shifter who’d gone rogue, and he’d been killing humans in Seattle. I set up my shot in an abandoned building, and I had the perfect angle. Right before I pulled the trigger, a pigeon landed on my rifle barrel.”
Arrow’s eyebrows rose. “A pigeon.”
“A damned pigeon. And it wouldn’t leave. I tried shooing it, but every time I moved, it flew away and then came right back. Meanwhile, my target was walking around below, completely oblivious.” Flint gestured with his hands. “Finally, I named the pigeon Renaldo and accepted my new life as a pigeon dad.”
“What happened? Did you get the shot?”
