by Bru Baker
Ray was leaning against the wall, shoving his phone back into his pocket when they made it back up. Dammit.
“It was so nice of you to come,” Danny said. He held his hand out, and Ray gave Max an incredulous look before taking it. “Please let me know how much I owe you for the door.”
Ray shrugged it off. “Don’t worry about it. A guy owed me a favor.”
Max opened the toolbox he’d brought over and started in on the hinges. Hopefully the door would fit. It had a solid wood core, so if it didn’t, he and Ray could trim it down.
“You look really at home with that in your hands,” Danny said, crouching down beside him.
Max’s instincts preened, and he slapped the reaction down. He wasn’t going to take advantage of the guy’s gratitude.
“Our dad’s a contractor,” Ray answered. “We’ve been doing this shit since we were old enough to hold a screwdriver.”
“Really? Wow. So you guys worked when you were kids?”
What the hell kind of Pack did Danny come from that he didn’t get put to work as a kid? Max knew werewolves were different, since they didn’t come into any of their powers until they were nineteen, but they still had a hierarchical Pack structure. Being a cub meant being the lowest rung on the ladder—he’d spent his childhood fetching things for older cousins and doing chores for his aunties and uncles. It was how things were done.
“Yeah, Pop brought us to job sites when he could.”
Max snorted. “Go ahead and pretend you didn’t grow up like a spoiled princess because you were the youngest, Ray-Ray.”
“Fuck you, old man,” Ray muttered, dropping the screws from the hinge he was working on so they fell in Max’s hair.
Max looked over at Danny, whose gaze was darting between the two of them. Right. He hadn’t had any siblings growing up. It probably looked like Max and Ray hated each other.
“If you think this is bad, you should see a family dinner,” he said, grinning when Danny’s eyes widened. “You’d think the guys would be the worst, but my sisters will draw actual blood if you piss them off.”
“Ma’s even scarier,” Ray said. “Remember that time Phil and Theo broke the dining room table wrestling while they were shifted?”
Max shuddered at the memory. “What he neglects to mention is it was Thanksgiving, the table was full of food, and Ma has a strict no shifting in the house policy.”
Danny whistled. “Bet they got grounded for life.”
Ray started laughing so hard he had to stop what he was doing, and Max let out a few belly laughs himself. “It was three years ago. They didn’t get grounded, but it might have been easier if they had. Their wives were not amused, especially when Ma said she wasn’t going to host Thanksgiving anymore. We’ve been trading it around ever since.”
“It’s Max’s turn this year. We all can’t wait to see what kind of takeout he orders,” Ray said with a snicker.
“Like I could afford enough takeout to feed the Pack,” Max scoffed. “You guys eat like pigs.”
“Gonna find yourself a nice man who can cook in the next four months?”
Danny shot him a hooded look that went straight to Max’s groin. Max wondered if Danny knew how to cook.
“Maybe I’m going to take classes,” Max said, winking at Danny. He flushed and looked away, which was interesting. “Maybe I’m a strong, independent shifter who doesn’t need a man.”
Ray laughed. “Okay, Beyoncé. Just give me a heads-up if you’re cooking. I’ll take the next day off at the station so I can deal with the food poisoning.”
The last hinge hit the floor with a thunk, and Ray and Max stepped back to survey the opening.
“Frame’s intact,” Ray said, running a hand around it. “As long as the hinge placement matches up we’re home free.”
Max groaned and rubbed his palm against his face.
“He jinxed us,” he explained when Danny raised an eyebrow at him.
“Shut up, I did not.” Ray slapped Max across the back of the head. “Get over here and help me line up the door.”
Ray hadn’t jinxed them after all, and the two of them made short work of getting the new door installed. He left Ray to refit the old doorknob and add the shiny new dead bolt he’d brought over with the door, because even though he could be a bonehead sometimes, his brother was pretty damn thoughtful.
“Let’s finish sweeping up all the debris now that the door is in,” Max said, ignoring the raised eyebrow his brother gave him when he cupped Danny’s elbow to lead him inside. He ignored the kissy faces Ray made, kicking him hard when he passed him.
“I can’t believe it took you guys like twenty minutes to fix the door.”
Max laughed. “We’ve got a lot of experience. Our parents are big believers in natural consequences. In a house full of shifter kids, that means fixing a lot of doors. One of the main reasons I went to work with Pop was to make enough money to replace the things I broke around the house.”
Danny’s smile lit up his face, which only highlighted the tired circles under his eyes. This guy needed about a week of sleep and someone to feed him. Max really wanted to be that someone, and it kind of freaked him out.
“I never had to deal with that. I can’t imagine growing up with the ability to go wolf and the super strength and senses.”
Max handed him the dustpan and started sweeping up the splintered wood and flakes of paint.
“Eh, we don’t think much of it. It’s just the way it is, you know? Most shifters are homeschooled until their control is solid, and some are homeschooled all the way through. In my Pack, we’re homeschooled until high school. My sisters hated that. Girls usually have control way earlier than boys.”
Danny scrunched up his face. “That must have been awful. Being homeschooled, I mean. Being stuck at home with my parents 24/7 would have been a nightmare.”
Max was surprised by the vehemence behind Danny’s words. It made him itch to find out more about Danny’s childhood.
“It wasn’t terrible. Besides, the parents in the Pack shared responsibilities, so it was more like having a weird multiage classroom. It wasn’t always Ma.”
It had been pretty great, actually. He remembered weekend campouts in the woods north of the city, full of laughter and running and the occasional botany lesson to make it educational.
“The happiest day of my life was when I left for boarding school when I was eleven,” Danny said. “I was in private school before that. My parents were hardly ever home. I was raised by nannies until I was six, and then they deemed me old enough to stay with only the housekeeper. I never had a real sense of family until Sloane started spending summers with us.”
That sounded terrible. And unnatural for a family of werewolves. Most Alphas worth their salt wouldn’t allow a child to suffer like that.
“Is your family local?”
“Manhattan. My mother nearly fainted when I told her I was moving out here. I started the foundation with money I inherited from my grandmother, and my father strenuously objected. I see them at holidays and our monthly Pack events.”
That would put them in Alpha Connoll’s territory, which didn’t make any sense. He was an upstanding guy and a great Alpha. Max had nothing but respect for the operation Alpha Connoll ran, and he couldn’t imagine him standing for a wolfling being treated so coldly.
Then again, he had upward of 250 Weres in his pack. Maybe he just hadn’t noticed.
Max swept a pile of debris into Danny’s dustpan. He had a hard time believing someone like Danny could have flown under the radar—he wore his heart on his sleeve. Max had known him a couple of hours, and even he could see how much the guy was hurting and how lonely he was. Surely an Alpha would pick up on that immediately.
He sniffed discreetly, frowning when he couldn’t smell anyone on Danny but himself. That meant he’d gone too long without scent marking or some sort of contact. There should have been strong scents surrounding him that Max’s casual touches couldn’t have
erased so easily.
“Do you run with your Pack at the full moon, Danny?” he asked softly.
Danny frowned. “Of course I do.”
The last moon had been a week ago. Danny should be thick with the scent of his Pack, but he didn’t carry a single one of their scents.
“I had to miss the run last month because it was the only time a potential donor could meet, but I went for the Pack meal in the morning,” Danny said defensively when Max didn’t respond.
Hell. This guy was starving in more ways than one. He needed regular contact with his Pack as much as he needed food, and it didn’t look like he was getting enough of either.
The sound of someone thundering up the stairs made both their heads snap up, but Max stood down when Danny’s face opened up. He followed Danny out into the hall, staying behind as a blonde whirlwind tackled Danny.
“I got here as soon as I could. How are you? Do you need anything? What can I do to help? Do you need to come back to the house tonight?”
Danny laughed and untangled himself. “Take a breath, Sloane. I’m fine. Upset about the loss, but fine. Come meet the guys who are fixing my door.”
He dragged her up, and Max ran his gaze over her, assessing the girl he assumed was Danny’s cousin. She was tall, almost as tall as Danny, and they had the same nose, but that’s where the similarities ended. She was slender but not as thin as Danny, who was gaunt where she was tanned and healthy. She flashed Max a million-watt smile, and his stomach soured as he took in her designer clothes and a haircut that probably set her back a few hundred a month. Family was supposed to help each other out. Why wasn’t she making sure Danny had food and a decent place to live? It looked like she could afford it.
“Max, Ray, this is my cousin Sloane. Sloane, this is Max, the police officer who helped me out today. And Ray is his brother. He brought me a new door.”
Sloane’s eyes widened as she picked up on the scents in the room. “You’ve got people over. You never have people over.”
Danny’s embarrassment tickled at Max’s nose. He tried to tune it out, letting Danny and Sloane have their whispered discussion while he helped Ray test the dead bolt. It slid home just fine, and the lock on the old doorknob still worked. He gave it a jiggle, satisfied when it stuck firmly in place.
He unlocked the door and stepped into the hallway, pretending he couldn’t hear the argument Sloane and Danny were having in the living room.
The smell of his sister Tori’s pork-belly pancit filled the stairwell, and he jabbed Ray in the ribs. That and the smell of adobo chicken drowned out the other scents in the air, but he could hear three heartbeats.
“Who did you call?” he asked Ray, poking a finger into his chest. “I told you I only wanted you.”
“Aww, as touching as that is, did you really think I was going to keep this to myself? You never wig out over guys, and now you’re panicking that some guy you just freaking met, who is a werewolf and can take care of himself, I might add, has a broken door? Bro, I called everyone.”
Fucking hell.
“You told Ma?” Max whispered harshly.
“What? No! Of course not. I don’t have a death wish. I sent out a message on our group chat.”
Max and his siblings were all on the same group chat, which they mostly used to bitch about their parents and razz on each other. There was a separate family chat for arranging parties and who was bringing what for dinner. They were all very careful not to confuse the two after Ray sent a message about a hookup he’d had to the family chat. Ma had been on his case for weeks after that. Max had put his phone on silent when he’d come over, and he was regretting that now.
Tori, Theo, and Theo’s wife, Maricella, marched up the stairs, all carrying big aluminum pans of food. Max ran a hand over his face and groaned at the absolutely gleeful look on Tori’s face.
“You were our best hope for marrying up,” Theo said, looking around. “Guess the Torres clan is destined to stay blue collar.”
Maricella nudged Theo with her hip. “You said if I let you come, you’d behave.”
“Let me come? Woman, you don’t let me do anything. I’m the man of the house, dammit.”
Maricella arched an eyebrow and Theo backed down. “Fine. You’re the man of the house.”
She laughed. “And don’t forget it. Stop teasing your brother so he’ll let us go meet his new boyfriend.”
Max hoped Danny couldn’t hear the conversation over Ray and Tori cackling.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” he whispered. “He’s just a guy who needed help. Why are you even here?”
“Because Phil is on call and couldn’t come, and Eileen has bookmobile duty today so she’s working late,” Tori said. “We’re supposed to gather intel and report back.”
Max hadn’t been lying when he’d told Danny being an only child sounded great. God save him from his meddling siblings.
“Well, you’re here, so you may as well come in and meet him,” he said gruffly. “But he’s not my boyfriend. And he’s been through a lot today, so don’t be assholes.”
Tori grinned. “See, I told you he’d let us in if we brought food.”
That had been the deciding factor. Danny needed some meat on his bones, and if you could count on Max’s family for one thing, it was feeding you till it hurt.
“Don’t overwhelm him, don’t ask too many questions, don’t be nosy,” he said as he opened the door.
Sloane and Danny cut off midargument, both of their mouths dropping open as they took in the small mob at the door.
“You must be Danny,” Tori said in what Max thought of as her teacher voice, the one she used when she was wrangling a classroom full of kindergarteners.
Danny seemed bewildered by the horde in his living room, so Max jumped in.
“This is Danny and his cousin, Sloane,” Max said. He turned to Danny. “I’m so sorry, but when they heard what Ray and I were doing tonight, they decided to invite themselves over. This is my sister Tori, my brother Theo, and my sister-in-law, Maricella.”
Sloane turned to Max. “Isn’t this some sort of abuse of power? The last thing Danny needs right now is a parade in his living room.”
Ray held a hand up. “Whoa. Max is just helping, and the rest of us showed up to help too. Back off.”
Danny cringed. “Sloane—”
She whirled on him. “No. You let everyone walk all over you. Remember Christopher? Alex? Kade?”
Max had heard enough. “You should add yourself to that list, Sloane. Curious how you’re so concerned about him, but I didn’t pick up a trace of your scent or anyone else’s in this apartment before now. Some family you are.”
She staggered back like he’d landed an actual blow. “You don’t know anything about my Pack. My Alpha would kick your ass for saying that.”
Max straightened to his full height and crossed his arms. “I have nothing but respect for Alpha Connoll, and I know for a fact he’d kick several asses if he knew how scent-starved a member of his Pack was. How can he be comfortable in a den that carries no scent but his own? How—”
Danny held a hand up and stepped between them. “I chose to move out here. It’s my fault. No one wants to make the trek. I’d see Sloane and my mother more often if I lived closer.”
Max didn’t comment on the lie in his voice. It was well-practiced, but the slight bump in his heartbeat was still there. Max wondered how many times he must have made that speech to be mostly convinced of it himself. He also didn’t comment on the fact Danny hadn’t included his father in that statement.
Sloane glared at Danny. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Come meet me for lunch?”
He nodded, and she stormed out of the room. “And Danny? Expect a call from Aunt Veronica.”
“Fuck. You told her?”
She leveled a glance around the room. “I had to. Come home to Manhattan. You know your mother worries about you, Danny.”
Danny’s jaw tightened, and Max was overwhelmed with the need
to wrap him in his arms and soothe away the anger and hurt. But Danny wasn’t his boyfriend. Hell, he only knew his last name because he’d had to take it for the burglary report. He didn’t have a right to touch him at all, let along hug him.
“We both know she doesn’t worry enough to actually help. Go home, Sloane. I know how much slumming it stresses you out,” Danny said, his voice colder than Max would have thought possible for such a sweet, unassuming guy.
Hurt flashed in her eyes, but she left, slamming the new door behind her. Max and his siblings stayed quiet, watching Danny gather himself.
“I guess that confirms the door works,” Ray muttered.
Theo laughed, and the rest of them joined in after Danny laughed too.
“Family infighting,” Ray said with a grin. “Feels just like home.”
Tori started uncovering trays and poking at the food. “Come eat, Danny. I brought some of our favorite comfort foods.”
Max eyed Danny warily, expecting him to kick everyone out of his apartment. Instead, he broke into a wide, dimpled smile and joined her at the kitchen counter, listening attentively as she ran through what everything was.
“Is he really scent-starved?” Theo asked in a low voice.
Max nodded. Shifters and Weres were weaker when they were separated from their Packs. Going without scent marking for too long could cause loss of appetite, achy joints, headaches, insomnia, and a host of other symptoms.
Maricella slung an arm over Max’s shoulder. “Ma’s going to want to adopt him.”
“She won’t if no one tells her,” he snapped.
Maricella laughed. “Oh, honey. I’ve always loved your optimism.”
Chapter Three
DANNY’S legs twitched under the desk, itching to pace. He usually had his difficult discussions with his parents on the phone, where he was free to walk around the room to let off some steam. But his mother had ambushed him at the office this morning.
It had been a shock that she even knew where the foundation was. She and his father hadn’t come to the grand opening a few years ago, even though they’d been in town. Stanley had come, though. The Cresswells’ driver had been more of a father figure over the years than Danny’s actual father. Stanley wouldn’t have missed the opening for the world. He’d brought his wife with him, and they’d both gushed over how proud they were.