Page 48 of Wanderer

Riley

Gareth and I squabbled a bit over which car we would take now that mine had been repaired. Walt had even put on new snow tires, the old ones too worn to be safe. With the snow once again coming down outside, I won that argument. Gareth drove us to the entry point in my car. After all, he had more experience driving in the snow.

He steered my newly repaired car carefully through the streets of downtown Greyhaven toward another route that I hadn’t explored. We had to wait until Paxton properly crossed the wards, because I couldn’t venture out of Greyhaven without enacting the curse.

Gareth pulled the car over a good few hundred yards from the marker that signaled where the wards began. “Now we wait,” he said, keeping his focus on the road ahead of us. Snow was coming down in that way I’d grown used to during my time in Greyhaven. Thick, fluffy flakes landed on the windshield until the wipers whisked them away.

It didn’t take all that long for Paxton’s beat-up old camper van to come into view. I was surprised it had made the journey, honestly. He pulled over to the other side of the road and exited at the same time we did.

We stood and stared at each other for a long moment before Paxton broke the standoff and rushed forward. I met him halfway. He clutched my shoulders, staring at me intently for a second. Then he yanked me close, wrapping me in a massive hug. “I’ve missed you, Ry.” His voice broke. I felt his hands tremble.

“Missed you too.” I pulled away, my eyes as wet as his, though neither of us acknowledged the rare show of emotion. Keeping an arm around him, I led him back over to where Gareth waited. “Come meet Gareth.” In an undertone, I added, “Remember, he’s safe.”

Paxton squeezed me before stepping forward to shake Gareth’s hand. He managed to look as if the gesture didn’t faze him in the slightest. “Welcome to the family, such as it is.”

“Thanks. Listen, it’s cold as balls out here. How about we head back to my house, or would you rather get some sleep in your cabin?”

“Cabin?”

I brandished the key I’d kept hold of—after asking permission, of course. It had delighted Debra that my brother was moving to town. Once he got on his feet, he could rent somewhere like Oscar had. The town was great for having the cabins, but they hadn’t designed them for long-term use. Only as a stopgap until newcomers found their feet. “This,” I said, wiggling it. “Is the key to the cabin I was staying in. Now I’m living with Gareth. The mayor agreed it would be best to give you the key. Better than staying in your van, right?”

Paxton moaned in delight, his dark eyes sparkling. “Tell me it has decent water pressure and a full-size bed.”

“It does,” I confirmed with a grin.

“I love this place already!” This was the most enthusiastic I’d seen him in years. “It’ll be even better once this curse is off me. Tomorrow, though. Today I just want to shower, and have dinner with my little brother, his mate, and anyone else you want me to meet. Then we can hit the hard stuff tomorrow before my curse has a chance to kick in.”

Right, we were in a time crunch. Much like my curse, Pax got a couple of days’ grace, then people started treating him like shit or forgot him completely. Sometimes I thought his curse was worse than mine. I could handle being with him longer because I’d known him prior to the curse, and we were blood related. Still, after a while, it got to me, making me gruffer with him than he deserved.

While Gareth was probably ready to get this curse broken, I knew Pax was probably gearing up for Gareth to use magic on him, which I understood completely. Though he hadn’t had magic used on him as often as I had, Boyce had still abused him. He saw the damage inflicted by Boyce’s magic, and that had affected him almost as much.

“Would you rather eat out or at our house?” Gareth asked Pax.

It gave me tingles to hear it called our house. It had been so long since I could consider anything as mine. Yet here I was with a mate, a home, friends, and a town that accepted me as I was. After he’d come to help Keeley, I’d shown Oscar what I could do. It felt unfair to have Fen know and not him. Both were my friends. I’d actually made friends of my own.

“I’d like to see more of the place, but nothing too fancy.” Pax looked a little overwhelmed. Eating out was probably pushing it, but so was heading to a warlock’s house. He didn’t have the luxury of a mate bond to protect him.

“The diner?” I asked Gareth.

“Yeah.”

A sudden gust of wind took Paxton’s response from me. Then I heard the now familiar sound of wings beating. Dragons. Guess Pax was getting the welcome wagon after all.

“You said it, but I didn’t fucking believe it!” Pax shouted over the noise of the two dragons landing.

It was easy to pick out Fen. Even in dragon form, he was pretty. In that form, he was sleeker than his cousin. Tatsuya was massive, his form built for brute strength and being the muscle. Fen was graceful and elegant. His body was long and lean with ice-blue coloring on top and an underbelly of navy.

The pair landed further down the road and shifted in a fluid movement. Like me and Pax, they shifted with their clothes intact, which was useful since the snow was coming down around us. They jogged the distance with Fen’s limp obvious next to Tatsuya. Fen stopped in his tracks just before he got to us and sniffed. “No fucking way!” His eyes widened, and he looked hopeful, awestruck, then fearful at… my brother.

No.

No way!

“Are you?” I wondered aloud.

The wind blew the dragon’s scent over us. “Shit!” Pax exclaimed.

“Hey, is that a bad or good shit there?” Fen looked ready to flee as he waited on the answer.