Magical Midlife Battle （Leveling Up, #8）(114)

“Yeah.” Kingsley leaned forward again. “This is the part where the student outdoes the teacher.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my pack over the last few days. I’ve been measuring my people against yours in training. I need to make some changes.”

“They are loyal to you.”

“And that’s what blinded me, I think. That and…we aren’t usually tested. The pack, I mean. My people. Either we are helping lesser packs by taking down bad leadership, which they handle to the letter, or we’re meeting with packs at a similar power level and everyone is on their best behavior because we each need something. I haven’t seen much of their true colors.”

“Maybe it’s just their reaction to me and our history.”

“Maybe. But Jessie won’t let you skulk away in the middle of the night again, so unless my family falls out with her, we’re going to be in each other’s lives. I need my people to understand that and be okay with it.”

Austin stayed very still, feeling something hard and painful finally releasing inside of him after all these years. Gratitude filled that ragged hole, and a shiver ran through him. He nodded quietly, his emotions nearly overflowing.

“You’ve lost your grip on hiding your emotions, brother,” Kingsley said, shaking his head with a grin. “It’s making me a little uncomfortable.”

“Your timing, as always, is perfect. I was just realizing on the ride back that I don’t fit in with this pack. I haven’t for a long time. I’m too wild for this place. Too volatile. I make people nervous. It’s…

a shock to hear you say all this. I wasn’t expecting it.”

“You’ve always made the people here nervous. Always. This is Mimi’s pack, after all, and she’s mostly levelheaded. Mom too. I’m like them. This is the way it always should’ve ended up, I think. I hold down the fort here, and you rise to create some crazy freaking situation with all manner of strange creatures. Strong creatures, obviously. Incredibly competent creatures. But…they take some getting used to. And what is the deal with that big gargoyle, anyway? None of the others have absolutely massive monster forms. He’s as big as a basajaun.”

“I honestly don’t know. Jess doesn’t want to pry.”

“Huh. Creatures and plant life. That senile vampire’s flowers caught two more of those enemy

doglike things, one of them in the middle of town. It was running after a mom and her teen, so they ducked into the grove of flowers. Planting them was good thinking. The flowers handled it. I had to hear the story twice to believe it.”

“Those dog-things are chasing people now?”

“That one did.”

“The flowers didn’t capture any mages?”

Kingsley’s eyes turned sharp. “No. We should’ve had an attack by now. Even a mild one. Even a couple of mages showing up to scout. Something. Let’s go see the others. We need to talk business.”

“Yeah, we have some news of an ambush we handled that you’ll want to hear.”

Mimi and the kids sat on the bench as Jess leaned against the island.

“I told Aurora and Mac that they should come visit the house you designed,” Mimi said to Austin.

“At least there a body can sit at the island instead of in a strange spectator seat.”

“Here, Kingsley.” Jess reached into the fridge to grab his beer.

“Something’s up,” Kingsley told them. “I have a bad feeling. The pattern the mages have followed for the last several months has changed. I heard about your people going into town.” His gaze bored into Jessie.

“You gave me leave to govern them. They went into town, assessed the threat, and decided it was best to continue to ignore them. My people didn’t disturb anyone or reveal themselves in any way.

They made a mockery of themselves and left.”

“You had three groups.”

“Yes. I heard the other two groups also made mockeries of themselves as soon as they were told not to engage. Gerard got so drunk he flew into a building on his way out of town—he’s fine—and Ulric hit on the wrong girl and her girlfriend thumped him a good one. Not a single mage was touched. That’s not the reason for a change-up.”

“The garhettes, then,” Kingsley guessed.

Jess hesitated, glancing at Austin. “Possibly. This could just be their reaction to our catching one of their invisible mages. Or maybe they were banking on things going differently at the weapons deal today.”

“How’d that go?” he asked.

Her eyes lit up. “Excellent. They do not perform well in small spaces with large shifting creatures. They’d set up an ambush, and we ensured no one left. Right?” She looked at Austin again.

“No one got out of there, no. Nor will they. Our people are asking some questions of our own as we speak. We should hear from them soon.”

Kingsley’s gaze dug into Austin now.

“It’s not in your territory, Kingsley, nor affiliated with your pack,” Austin said. “You need to let us handle the mages.”

“You’d stoop to their level?” Kingsley growled.

“Sorry about eavesdropping, but your conversation reminded me of something,” Jess said, her voice firm and forceful. “You guys were just talking about those shifters challenging Austin and me.