Magical Midlife Meeting (Leveling Up #5)(26)

“Oh, I’m decorating it?”

“Yeah. You’re good at that stuff. Surprise!”

He slid his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close. “You’ll see it again, I promise.”

With a last look at my crew and the shifters waiting for my cue, I ducked into the limo.

“Since Brochan will be going with us, I figure I might tell you about his history,” Austin said once we were both inside, the door closed behind us. It would just be the two of us in this limo. Mr. Tom had decided that was more prudent, his reasoning made clear when he tried to force condoms into my handbag and muttered about wings and just making do with what I had.

“It’s not like you to make a hasty decision,” I said as the limo got underway. A time check said we were only five minutes behind schedule.

“It isn’t. And if it weren’t for something the basajaun said, I wouldn’t have.”

“What did he say?”

Austin hit a button above him, and the divider between us and the driver rose.

“He said that it is wise to harness the power of revenge, as long as it is used for good.”

I slipped my hand into Austin’s, frowning. “I always thought revenge was problematic. That it ends up eating a person from the inside out so that when they finally get it, they’re basically just a shell of a person.”

“Brochan’s case is different. He never planned to seek revenge. He was a man defeated. He had a well-established pack with a healthy dose of power, and a mage completely steamrolled them.”

“But if he is a man defeated…”

“He came to the area a month ago, shortly after we sent Kinsella running. A few of my people tipped me off that another alpha had arrived, and I could sense his status as soon as I saw him. It was obvious from the way he held himself. I looked into it, and he used to be alpha of a good-sized pack in Ohio. The pack was prosperous and established, on the land for generations. He took it over from his father, who had taken it over from his mother, and so on.

“They ran into trouble when a fairly powerful mage moved his operation close by, liking the somewhat rural area. As you might guess, the mage didn’t at all respect the territory boundaries or the prior claim on the area. He used Brochan’s land for hunting, gathering supplies, felling trees for wood, and after Brochan started defending his territory, the mage resorted to burning land and trying to push the shifters back.

“A man like Brochan—like me—isn’t the type to be pushed anywhere. He continued to defend his territory, growing increasingly violent. Shifters started disappearing, and some were attacked and left for dead. Any of the mage’s people caught on Brochan’s land were killed. It came to a head, and finally the mage led a full-scale attack.

“He came through at dawn with all his people and a group of mercenaries in tow, not unlike the forces we met with Kinsella. They had magic and they had numbers. The mage killed nearly all of Brochan’s pack, including older people, pregnant women, and children.” A nerve pulsed in Austin’s cheek. Anger roiled through the link. “Brochan’s pregnant mate and two young children were also slain. He almost joined them, and I think he wishes he had. He certainly blames himself for what happened.”

“Oh my God,” I whispered.

“After he healed, he had no choice but to move on—to find a new place for his people. And he did. He shouldered his duty to the last, even though I imagine all he wanted to do was wither away and die. Once he had a new situation established for them, he relinquished his alpha position to someone capable and moved on. He wandered as a nomad for a while, doing his own mercenary work.”

“So he kinda drifted here?”

“He came here after hearing about Kinsella. He told me, just recently, that he’d wanted to see what kind of alpha could withstand an attack from a mage and a host of mercenaries.”

“Kinsella wasn’t the one who killed his family…”

“No. Not Kinsella. Someone else who’s rumored to be going to this meeting.”

I bit my lip, suddenly unsure about all this.

Austin nodded, feeling it through the link, or maybe just reading my face. “I wouldn’t bring him if I thought he was bent on getting revenge. He’s trying to find purpose again. Protecting you—his alpha’s future mate—is giving him that. Being a part of a greater cause is giving him that.”

“Or maybe he sees that you can give him an element of safety. You weren’t defeated by an attacking mage.”

“That shifter doesn’t crave safety for himself; he craves providing it for others. He doesn’t fear death, especially now.”

“So he came here to see about an alpha who didn’t lose everything to an attacking mage, and then just hung around in the bar for a while, or… Because you didn’t have him training with us, and even though Niamh has clearly noticed him, I haven’t seen him around the streets or anything…”

“He did hang around for a while, but he did it by the book. Given that he isn’t an alpha with a territory, he didn’t need to introduce himself or ask for passage. Many people who have been alphas for a while can’t help dominating those around them or comparing status.” Kingsley had been like that on his visit. He certainly couldn’t help it. “Brochan didn’t do any of that. He kept his head down. Then, a couple of weeks ago, when he decided to join my pack, he approached me directly and explained his history. He wanted me to know he’d been an alpha, and also that he’d hung up his desire to reestablish a pack. He would never be an alpha again. He was content to follow someone else’s rule; he just needed to make sure that someone was strong enough to lead him.”