Leap of the Lion (The Wild Hunt Legacy #4)(46)

Emma nodded. “He and Ben and Alec have saved more lives than anyone can count.”

“I worry about him, my grumpy, domineering brother.” Bonnie waved her glass. “Sometimes he barks out orders as if he’s decades older than me instead of maybe two minutes.”

Darcy grinned. What a perfect description.

“But even when he was waist-high, he was bossy and over-protective.” Bonnie shook her head. “When our littermate Edwyn died, I was living here in Cold Creek with Aunt Sandy. Since she and her mates were out of town, I just took off without telling anyone and traveled as a wolf back to Pine Knoll.”

“That’s a fucking long way,” Vicki commented.

“Stupid teenager, right?” Bonnie’s grin faded. “Showing up there was a mistake. Mother acted as if I owed her for moving away. She wanted me to fix her hair and give her money and clean the house—as if she was the child instead of me, and she got hysterical if I left her for even a minute. I didn’t know what to do.”

“Did your Aunt Sandy come and get you?” Emma asked.

“She was still gone. Owen rescued me. Mother and I were in a restaurant where she was weeping about Edwyn dying. Owen came in, and Holy Herne, she had this violent meltdown and started throwing dishes at him.”

Emma’s eyes widened. “In a restaurant?”

“Mm-hmm. Thank the Gods, Gawain arrived. Even as a teen, that boy could calm an earthquake if needed. As she was crying all over him, I ran after Owen and begged him to help me.”

Darcy knew the answer before Emma asked, “Did he?”

Bonnie laughed, although her eyes were damp. “This is Owen. Of course he did. He was all of sixteen and still, just took charge. He escorted me all the way back here…bossing me around and coaching me on my hunting skills. At Sandy’s, he told me to finish growing up and disappeared.”

Vicki frowned. “Disappeared?”

“I didn’t see him again for…maybe fifteen years?” Bonnie smiled. “He left Pine Knoll, apprenticed somewhere else, and later wandered from territory to territory. I think he checked on me a few times, but when he showed up a decade ago, Calum spotted him. Owen was a cahir by then, and the Cosantir snatched him up for the North Cascades Territory.”

Vicki smirked. “My mate is quick that way.”

“He really is.” Bonnie grinned back. “Anyway, once Owen was here, we became closer. It’s so fun to watch my cubs turn him into a gooey-sweet mess.”

Darcy snorted at the thought—and was dying to see Owen with his nephews.

Bonnie swirled her wine and frowned. “It worries me that he never talks about our childhood. Ever.”

“Maybe he will someday. When more time has passed,” Emma said.

Eyes narrowed, Darcy counted years on her fingers. “He’s—you’re—in your forties?”

“Mmmhmm. Low forties.”

Well, no wonder he and Gawain often treated her as if she were a cub. Darcy let out a small sigh. She didn’t feel much like a cub when she looked at Gawain…or Owen. Although she wasn’t sure what her body was saying, it felt an awful lot like wanting to do male-female things.

And…she was hoping she’d found some friends here. She glowered at the others. “Am I the youngest, then? Are you all decades older?”

“You worry too much, cubling.” Emma sounded as if she was at least fifty.

Darcy slumped back in her chair.

Laughing, Emma tossed a napkin at her. “I’m at least…oh, a couple of years older.”

“You—you are evil,” Darcy sputtered.

“Bards. They can play a person easier than they do their harps,” Bonnie said.

Grinning, Vicki drank some of her water before offering, “I have a few years on you—not many—and Alec and Calum are older than Owen.”

“Older?”

Vicki wrinkled her nose. “Imagine my shock, especially since I was raised human. Where are their pot-bellies and bald pates?”

Emma and Bonnie were snickering—because Alec and Calum were lean and muscular and drop-dead gorgeous.

“You know, I forgot that healthy Daonain look about the same from late twenties to about a hundred. But still,” Darcy grumbled, “my mentors have twenty years more experience than me. They’ll never take me seriously.”

Thank the Mother, she had never hinted she might want them to be more than mentors. If she did. She didn’t. Really, did she?

Right. Just keep lying to yourself, you turkey-brained tinker. Every time Gawain or Owen spoke to her, her insides whirled and curled like a salamander in a roaring fire.

“Ah-hah, so you want my brothers to take you seriously.” Bonnie had a slight smile on her face.

Oh my Goddess, she was lusting after Bonnie’s littermates. Her entire face turned hot with her flush.

“I totally approve,” Bonnie said firmly.

Darcy’s mouth dropped open. “You what?”

All three females grinned at Darcy.

Giving up, she slumped into her chair, took a big sip of wine—and grinned back.

Had she ever felt so at home with anyone? They’d accepted her, advised her, and they liked her; she could tell.

And she liked them. At the lodge, Bree’d mentioned Emma’s trials as a cub and adult. Vicki had been a soldier and spy—not easy professions for anyone. Bonnie’d come from a background of abuse. None had waltzed through life to arrive here, yet all three were strong and balanced. And they could still laugh.