Magnus

Lachlan woke up a few times in the night, usually just long enough to drain the glass of water I kept ready for him. Once he had to go to the bathroom but refused to let me help, so I watched as he took shuffling steps around the perimeter of the room and down the hall, keeping one hand on the wall to steady himself until he made it to his destination. He made it halfway back on his own before he admitted defeat and let me carry him back to bed.

I hated knowing he was so ill because of me. This transformation... this was just so we could be together. It was humbling and I wanted to think of something I could do for him, some gesture that showed just how much this meant to me. For now, all I could do was be there for him, and I wouldn't even be able to do that for much longer.

I was exhausted from staying up all night, but I hadn't been able to convince myself to sleep. I had wanted to make sure I was ready whenever Lachlan needed me and anyway, it was comforting to watch the rise and fall of his chest and know that he was still okay.

I crept out of bed, hating the weight of responsibilities that dragged me from my mate at a time like this. Lachlan rolled onto the space I had been inhabiting and frowned. I felt his forehead one last time, trying to gauge whether he was cooler than yesterday. I thought he was, but maybe that was wishful thinking. I was going to buy a thermometer on my way back here later.

I made it a few steps away from the bed when Lachlan groaned a little. I turned back around and saw him blinking up at me. Then I saw the exact moment he realized I was leaving. His eyes widened and his whole expression crumpled.

I rushed back to the bed and flung myself down next to him, wrapping him up in my arms and pulling him against me. Lachlan's nose pressed against my throat and he clung to me. "Stay," he said.

I kissed his head and didn't respond. He was still waking up, I thought. If I gave him a minute, he would either fall back asleep or he would realize that I had to go. Wasn't that why he had started this whole process without me, knowing that him being human meant I would keep having to leave?

I took in a deep pull of his scent while I could. I still felt the strain of our time apart and now I was leaving again. At least it was just for the day. I should be back by evening, and maybe he would be feeling better by then.

I waited another minute before peeling Lachlan's arms off me and carefully easing out of the bed. Lachlan didn't stir. The blankets were only halfway up his chest, so I pulled them higher. He wasn't shivering as much today, but I didn't want to chance him getting cold, especially now that he wouldn't have my body heat to warm him.

The door to the spare bedroom was shut and I thought I was going to have to risk waking Luin by knocking, but then I realized his scent was coming from down the hall. I found him in the kitchen, eating an orange at the table. His eyes stared down at the orange segment he held as deft fingers peeled off strings of white pulp. Those eyes were filled with such despair that I froze as my chest ached in empathy.

Where Luin had been almost glowing yesterday, his skin was dull and pale today. The skin under his eyes was a deep purple and the lines that bracketed his mouth weren't from habitual smiling, but from repeatedly wearing expressions just like this. Solemn and hopeless, almost grimacing except that his expression was a bit too vacant for that.

The orange segment was clean, but instead of eating it, Luin just stared at the bit of fruit in his hand like if he just looked hard enough it would solve his problems. I must have made some small sound because his eyes snapped to mine and he instantly drew himself upright. An easy friendly smile spread on lips that now looked like they had never felt sorrow and between one blink and the next, the purple under his eyes and his pallor vanished.

He wasn't fooling me, though. I had seen haunting depths of despair within Lachlan's mysterious friend.

What could you say to someone who carried such pain? I struggled to find something, anything to let him know I understood, but all my ideas sounded trite in my mind.

"Magnus!" Luin said cheerily. "I didn't realize you were awake. How's Lachlan doing?"

A little warmth flared in my chest for this man, the one who asked about my mate's wellbeing when his own was clearly a concern. "He's doing better, I think. How are you?"

Luin said, "I'm doing well, thanks." I watched him silently. He didn't know me. He had no reason to share the truth with me, and that was okay. But... it really did feel wrong to leave him alone like this.

I studied the plate he had been peeling his orange on and realized he had cleaned five orange sections but probably hadn't eaten any, based on how much was left unpeeled. I couldn't leave him here, wallowing and unable to eat.

I got myself a glass of juice and poured a bowl of cereal, then sat across from Luin. I shot off a quick text to Roy to let him know I would be a little later than we'd planned, then focused on Luin.

"Thank you for helping Lachlan like this. There's a lot I have to take care of in my pack today, but I couldn't have left him without someone here," I said.

Luin's smile widened and a deep dimple flashed on his right cheek – a real smile this time. "I'm honored he asked me. I... I don't have many friends. Lachlan's been good to me."

That made me smile, too. Lachlan liked to act like I was some paragon while he took no credit for himself, but he was such a good guy. "That sounds like him. I truly hope we can be friends, too."

Luin had been watching his hands as he fiddled with an orange segment, but they flashed to mine and I watched as he first realized that I meant it, then processed it. First he froze, then he thawed. "I think we can be."

We shared a look of warmth and I took another bite of cereal. "Glad that's settled."

Luin raised the orange segment to his mouth and slowly, deliberately, bit into it. I hid my smile behind another bite of cereal.

Maybe he would have eaten it eventually, but surely some company helped.

--

I left after we were both done eating – and after giving Luin my phone number. I truly did hope we could be friends, and he needed to be able to reach me if something changed in Lachlan's condition.

I wound up driving onto pack lands just when I was supposed to be arriving in the office, but I still took a detour home to have a quick shower, brush my teeth, and change into fresh clothes. I was still trying to make a good impression on Jason, after all, and I was starting to smell a bit.

The trouble? I ran into Jason before I had a chance to clean up and get ready for the day. See, when I stepped into the living room, it was to find what was possibly the most disturbing sight of my life.

My couch – my lovely, cozy, safe couch – was occupied. I saw a stream of Jason's long dark hair hanging off the edge, a tangle of limbs, and a flash of my sister's bare butt before she shrieked and tossed a pillow at me.

"Get out!" she yelled.

I did not need told twice. I carefully turned before opening eyes that had slammed shut in horror, then ran for the stairs. Naturally, I tripped on the way and went down in my own tangle of limbs – eliciting a groan of frustration from Mel (that had better be frustration and not something else!) – but managed to scramble up the stairs in what might be record time.

I shut myself in my bedroom and leaned back against the door, heaving and looking frantically around me in a futile effort to get rid of the image that had burned itself into my mind.

My sister, intimate on my couch... with my lawyer.

Nope, that was not a sight I was going to cleanse out of my mind without some serious help. Could they do brain exorcisms to get rid of memories? Because that's what I needed.

I thought I...

No, scratch that. I definitely saw his junk. Just for a second.

Oh, hell.

How could Mel put me in this position? Sure, I hadn't come home last night, but she had to know I would be back sometime. How had they even met? Jason should be in a guest suite of the pack house, not banging my sister on my couch.

The couch that I was going to douse in bleach later. Was that how you cleaned furniture? No, that would ruin the fabric.

Then again, the fabric was already ruined. I might as well get it clean.

And hadn't she been the one to freak out over the idea of Felix and Everett having sex in public parts of Felix's house back when they were a new couple? Mel wasn't usually a hypocrite – she was too straightforward for that, and though she tended to judge people harshly she had always held herself to the same standards.

The door rattled against my back as Mel pounded on it. "Magnus! We need to talk," she called through the door.

"I don't think we do," I muttered.

Of course, she heard me. Werewolf hearing isn't always a blessing. "I know..." – Mel audibly swallowed before continuing – "I know this wasn't a great way for you to find out, Magnus, but Jason's my mate."

I let out a heavy breath, though whether it was a sigh of relief or resignation, I wasn't sure. I liked Jason, I really did... but I had been kind of hoping he would disappear after my hearing so I would stand a better chance of erasing this horror from my mind.

I must have gone too long without responding, because Mel sounded uncertain when she said, "Magnus?"

I drew in a deep breath, hoping it would steady me, but instead it shook me further when I realized Mel's scent was different. They must have marked each other already, because she smelled like him – and not in the superficial way she would just from being intimate. He was embedded in her scent now.

This was really happening. Mel and Jason were mated and I was going to have to come out of hiding eventually.

"It's okay," she said softly. "We can talk more later, when you've had time to process."

She sounded so sad that it finally broke through my self-pity and horror. I turned around and opened the door to find Mel looking more uncertain than I'd ever seen before. She was wearing a shirt that was obviously Jason's. It hung down to her knees and I chose to pretend that there were shorts underneath it.

Despite her questionable clothing choices, I pulled her against me in a tight hug. "It's okay, Mel," I said.

She nuzzled her cheek against my shoulder and hugged me back just as tightly. "Thanks. And... sorry. Really."

I pulled away and stepped back into my room, bracing a hand on the door. "Me too. You didn't even get to finish!"

I jumped back and slammed the door shut, locking it for good measure, snickering to myself. Better to treat this like a joke than to ever think about it seriously again. And in a way, wasn't my interruption kind of like karma playing out? Mel had a bedroom. With a door. And a lock.

Girl needed to learn how to use them.

When Mel pounded once on the door and the knob rattled, I laughed even harder. "Very mature!" she called.

I heard Mel heading back downstairs and let out another deep breath. I breathed in again, determined to put this behind me on my next exhale. I breathed out and headed for the shower.

--

I crept down the stairs, keeping to shadows and listening hard after every step.

I'm not sure why I pretended I wasn't facing the inevitable. As much as I had hoped that Jason would be gone by the time I was done getting ready, of course he and my sister were downstairs. This wasn't just going to blow over yet. I might have cleared the air with my sister, but it was going to be harder with Jason than with Mel. He was mostly a stranger and was someone I had to rely on in a professional setting.

And I saw more of his naughty bits than I had hers.

So there was that.

Ugh.

"Magnus, just get down here!" Mel called when she decided I was taking too long. I hung my head and went down the last few stairs.

Just as I expected, Mel and Jason were seated at the kitchen table, waiting for me. They were side-by-side and though Mel did a decent job of wearing a neutral expression, Jason's whole face was bright red. The flush spread in blotches down his neck and his hands fiddled anxiously with the mug in front of him.

Mel shot me a stern look that was easy to interpret: be nice. "Hi, Jason," I said.

"Hey, Magnus." He looked down until Mel patted his arm, then visibly forced his eyes up. "Sorry about... before."

"Don't mention it, ever. And... it's okay." I silently reminded myself that forgiveness now didn't mean I was granting permission for it to happen again in the future.

"Thanks."

I felt way too awkward just standing there, so I got a glass of water just to have somewhere else to look and something to do with my hands. Mel cleared her throat. "I was thinking you could show Jason to the offices? I would, but I have to get to work soon and I know you're headed there anyway."

I looked over my shoulder at a clearly uncomfortable Mel. This wasn't like my sister – she never spoke like this, so formally and with a full explanation for her actions. It was instinct to put on a smile and say, "Of course. Don't worry about it."

The smile wasn't enough to reassure her, but I knew what would snap Mel out of this uncertainty.

"Hey, do Felix and Everett know about this yet?"

An instant fire lit in her eyes as she glared at me. "No! And don't you tell them. They're coming over for dinner tonight and I'll tell them then."

"Hey," I protested purely for the sake of being difficult, "why didn't I score an invite? Shouldn't I get to know my new brother-in-law?" I looked to Jason and said, "This is just like Mel; she's always playing favorites."

I could almost see cartoon steam spouting from her ears, but she looked sidelong at Jason and visibly calmed herself. "I figured you'd be with your own mate tonight."

Jason sat up straighter with interest and my heart sank. He didn't know about Lachlan. When we talked on the plane, I had sidestepped any questions he asked about mates and redirected the conversation. I hadn't known that Lachlan was transforming, and this was the exact wrong time for Jason to find out about him. Jason needed to meet Lachlan when he was fully a werewolf and when he had adjusted to the change. If he saw the transformation in progress... if he found out there was anything strange about Lachlan's bloodline...

Jason could tell the Summit.

I spun around since I knew I was incapable of controlling my look of horror. Jason might be family now, but I didn't know him and couldn't trust him to keep such an important secret. Not now, not when he was actively involved in a case that involved my whole pack. If he thought this was pertinent, he would be obliged to report it, right?

Normally, this would be a question for my lawyer. Ironic.

"I didn't know you found your mate," Jason said. "I'll have to make room in my interview schedule. Is there a time that would work best?"

Yup. He was in lawyer mode, not in family mode. He wasn't asking about Lachlan, himself. Jason just wanted to know when he could dig information out of him.

Did Mel know Lachlan was mid-transformation? I hadn't told her, but Felix might have. She was being strangely silent, but I couldn't risk turning around to gauge her expression. "I'll have to check," I said shakily.

I refilled my water and drank half the glass down in one go. When I was done, I thought I was outwardly calm enough to face Jason again. "We should probably get to the office," I said. I carefully watched for any sign of suspicion or concern, but he just nodded and turned to Mel.

I had seen enough of their relationship for one day, so I left them to it and went to wait on the front porch. Meanwhile, my mind raced to find a way out of Jason interviewing Lachlan in the next few days. With the prosecution side arriving three days from now, we would be cutting it close.