by Macy Blake
Silence was his only answer. Every set of eyes had turned to him.
Pip could feel the blush building on his cheeks. “Um, hi.”
None of them spoke. Pip wasn’t great with silence.
“Sorry, I didn’t have anyone to talk to for a long time, so I just got used to talking to him like he was human. You know?”
“Are you okay? Have you been injured?”
The big hunky guy with dark hair had really great eyes. Kinda swirly gold and brown. Pip couldn’t help but smile at him. “I’m fine. Just a bit stir crazy and a tiny bit overwhelmed. But I’m okay.”
“Good.”
Big Guy touched his hair and basically petted him.
“That’s the noise,” the one with gold eyes said.
“What was your name? I forgot already,” Pip said.
Gold eyes just looked at him.
Sawyer stepped forward. “Sorry, Pip. It’s been a crazy day. My name is Sawyer. These are my mates and guardians. Dakota.” Sawyer pointed to the big guy with gold eyes. Pip still held out hope that he was really Dakota’s mate. The guy could have been on the cover of a romance novel, even if he was slightly annoying. The sex was always better in his romance novels when the hero was a little annoyed at first, so Pip wasn’t going to give up on him yet.
“And this is Loch.”
Blue haired guy with the sword. Blue hair, water, lake, Loch. Got it. “Nice to meet you both,” Pip said.
“And this is Andvari.”
Blond Sword Guy nodded his head in a really elegant bow-like thing that was super respectful. He had his hair pulled back and tied in a knot on the back of his head. It shouldn’t be so damn sexy, but it showed his long neck and—
“This is Eduard.”
“Oh, you’re the eagle thing!” Pip said. He recognized the eyes. Eagle eyes. And kinda reddish hair. He was totally hot, too, even if he wasn’t giant and muscly like some of the others. He was sexy in a sleek and sophisticated way.
“Griffin,” Eduard said. “Not eagle thing.”
Griffin. Totally sexy and exotic, too. “Even better.”
Eduard smiled, and Pip forgot how to breathe for a second.
“This is Henry,” Sawyer continued.
The other young guy. Pip liked him. He was nice. Pip always could read people well. Henry had really kind eyes. And they were pretty, too. He was surrounded by pretty men. Life was good. “Hi,” Pip said.
“And Saeward.”
Pip nearly swallowed his tongue once more. Seven feet of pure perfection. He could ride those shoulders and…ride… This was the horse guy. Had to be.
“Hi.” So what if his voice was a little breathy? Next to hunky-hunk Dakota, and hunky-hunk Loch, this guy was totally a hunky-hunk of hunkiness.
“See?” Dakota said. “He did it again. I think he’s injured.”
Pip accidentally elbowed Dakota in the balls.
Sawyer had to cover his mouth for a second to keep from laughing.
“Sorry. My elbow slipped. It does that sometimes.”
“It happens,” Sawyer said as he tried and failed to stop laughing. “And finally, this is Draco.”
Pip just wanted to curl up under Draco’s arm and settle there forever. He probably would have done it, too, if Tony hadn’t chosen that moment to dart toward the house in a run.
“Tony!” But the tiger only had eyes for the man who’d walked out of the house. “Oh crap.”
“Cecil, look out!”
But it was too late. Tony tackled the guy and had him pinned a second later.
Everyone took off running toward the house.
Two really nice-looking ladies came out of the backdoor next. One of them had a broom. The other a rolling pin.
Broom lady swatted at Tony, and he snarled at her. She bopped him on the nose. “Behave yourself!”
Tony whined and hid his face in the poor guy’s neck whom he was currently crushing.
“Byakko,” Crushed Guy gasped. “My friend.”
“Byakko,” Sawyer said softly.
Tony turned to look at him then abandoned his place on top of the one guy and darted toward Sawyer. He stopped in front of Sawyer, and they locked eyes on each other. It was really intense. Pip didn’t quite understand what was happening, but it was something big.
Magic began to build again. It pulled at Pip, urging him closer.
The other guardians reacted as well. They formed a circle around Sawyer and Tony. Sawyer leaned his forehead against Tony’s. It was kind of sweet, actually. Like they’d been apart for a long time. Maybe they had been. Maybe Tony was really Sawyer’s pet or something and he’d been taken just like Pip was? Not that having a tiger for a pet was particularly a good idea. But there was definitely something between them.
Pip wouldn’t have been surprised if big surging music began to play. He felt like he was in the big finale of an epic film at the moment. The magic began to ease and Sawyer looked up at the guy by the door with tears in his eyes. “Cecil.”
“This changes things,” Cecil said.
The lady with the rolling pin spoke next. “Is the tiger the new guardian? Because that’s really cool.”
Sawyer and Cecil shared another look. “No, Viv. The tiger isn’t my guardian.”
Sawyer turned to Pip with a smile. “Do you have a mark? Like a tattoo, but it’s been on you for a while.”
“How did you know?” Pip asked.
“Can we see it?” Henry asked.
Pip took a step backward. “Um. No.”
Henry frowned. “Why not?”
“It’s… um… well… see…”
“It must be somewhere naughty,” the lady with the broom said. “We’ll see it soon enough. No one can keep their clothes on for long around here.”
“Justine!” Sawyer said. He was laughing though, and she shrugged.
“I speak the truth and you know it. And if that tiger sheds all over my nice clean floors, I’ll… well, I’ll clean it up. But try to ask it not to shed, okay?”
“He doesn’t shed,” Pip said.
“That’s good. Oh honey, you’re such a cute little thing, aren’t you? Don’t worry. Our boys here will take really good care of you. Draco, you better be gentle with him, you hear me? Use extra oil. You go all cave man on him before he’s—”
“Justine!” Sawyer said again.
She mimed zipping her lips.
“She has a point,” rolling pin lady added. “Pretty sure Saeward isn’t going to fit.”
“Viv!”
Rolling pin lady shrugged. “I’m going to finish baking. I thought the big battle was going to take longer and now I’m in the middle of two pies and a batch of cupcakes.”
“Cupcakes?” Pip asked hopefully.
“Cutiepie, you can have whatever you want. You just ask Auntie Viv okay?”
“Auntie Viv?” Draco asked.
“Shut it, big guy. I’m trying not to scare him, unlike some people.”
Pip didn’t want to tell her that he didn’t really scare all that easily. Startle, yes. But that wasn’t something he could control.
“Could I maybe borrow your phone so I can call my family? I’ve been gone a while and—”
The one with the broom began to coo at him and before Pip knew what was happening he was in the kitchen on a bar stool with a giant sandwich and a milkshake on the counter in front of him. He also had a phone in his hand, which was shaking slightly as he tried to dial his mom’s number.
“It’s okay,” Sawyer said. “You’re safe now.”
Sawyer pretty much hadn’t left his side. Pip liked him. He was really nice. And cute. But mostly nice. Pip sighed and looked up into Sawyer’s pretty brown eyes.
“My mom’s going to lose her mind.”
“Probably so, but you better go ahead and not make her wait another minute.”
Pip dialed the number and wasn’t all that surprised when his mom answered with a snarl. She didn’t recognize the number so she was ready to chew
out a telemarketer. It was one of her favorite hobbies. “Hey, Momma.”
“Pipsqueak? Is that you?”
“It’s me.”
His mom screamed, and then he heard a thud. His mom had fainted.
Pip looked at Sawyer and sighed. “I probably should have called my brother first.”
Sawyer
Sawyer had never been more thankful to have friends in high places. He put in a call to Solomon, the alpha of the hellhounds, while Pip called his brother, Ezra. In another of those small world coincidences, Ezra and Solomon already knew each other. Ezra had helped the hellhounds when their bar had been attacked by aswangs. Pip’s brother had been assisting the hellhounds since then, serving as one of the additional champions they’d called in due to all the massive changes happening in the world. Ezra and Solomon retrieved Pip’s mom and brought her through a portal to see her son. Apparently, Pip had been missing for months, and they’d all feared the worst.
She fainted again when she saw him for herself. Luckily, she fell conveniently into Solomon’s arms. Pip’s brother, on the other hand, pulled Pip into the kind of hug Sawyer knew well. It was the same kind Nick gave him when he had a lot of emotions tangled up and didn’t have the words to use them. And speaking of Nick…
Sawyer grabbed his phone and sent his brother a text. They needed to plan. Even though Sawyer had every intention of finding his guide, he really hadn’t thought his brother would be stupid enough to have his final guardian and guide both together. But his tiger had been there, and Sawyer had felt the connection between them almost from the beginning. This amazingly beautiful creature was connected to him and the powers he was beginning to feel once more. He’d been terrified of the giant white tiger at the very beginning, and he wasn’t afraid to admit it. Getting tackled by a dangerous animal would do that to a guy. But Byakko had been waiting for him for a long time, and Sawyer knew he’d found one more piece to the puzzle.
The problem was he’d cut his brother off at the knees, and it was going to piss Palinouros off royally. They’d taken the kids from him so he couldn’t use them to up his power anymore. And now Sawyer had taken his ace in the hole, both his final guardian and his guide. With the amount of resources his brother had protecting the two of them, he’d probably not been worried at all. Between the magic and the guards, now all destroyed because of Sawyer and his mates, his brother would want revenge. They needed to brace for attack.
Nick and Jedrek arrived about the time Pip’s mom began recovering from her faint. Nick carried a little girl with wings in his arms. Robin rarely left his brother’s side anymore, and Sawyer had a sneaking suspicion they’d added a new member to their family.
“She wouldn’t let me go,” Nick said gruffly instead of saying hello like a normal person.
“Like I care,” Sawyer said.
“Yeah, well, she’s asleep so tell your mates not to yell or anything.”
Jedrek elbowed Nick in the side. “Ignore him. She’s fine. What’s going on?”
Nick hadn’t noticed the giant white tiger in the corner of the room.
Jedrek had.
“That’s my guide. Long story.”
“Why’s Ezra here?” Jedrek asked, accepting Sawyer’s word easily. He’d be a great brother-in-law. Sawyer couldn’t wait to get to know him better.
“His brother is one of my guardians.”
“Pip?” Jedrek said, clearly stunned. “Oh wow. That’s… huh. We’ve been trying to find him. Honestly, we didn’t think he was… well, yeah. Pip. I really wouldn’t have thought… Pip.”
“What?” Sawyer asked. He really didn’t like Jedrek’s tone.
“I mean, Ezra, I can see. I just… Pip?”
Sawyer glared at him, and Jedrek backed down. Not that Sawyer blamed him for wondering. On the surface, Pip didn’t seem like a guardian at all. He seemed more like the type who needed a guardian. But there was something about him, that spark of excitement Sawyer had felt when he met his other mates. They all filled a place in his heart in their own ways. He hoped Pip— and Dakota for that matter— would do the same.
“Holy shitballs, is that a tiger?” Nick yelled.
Robin began to whimper in his arms, and Jedrek gave Nick a glare Sawyer wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of. Nick returned it, but he also began to sway gently back and forth while… purring. Sawyer didn’t even know lions could purr. Did lions purr? Or was that just another Nick thing? Either way, it worked and Robin settled again with her thumb in her mouth.
Cecil came in with a tray of drinks. He took one look at Robin and melted into a puddle. The moment Viv and Justine laid eyes on her it would all be over. Especially with the dozens of cupcakes Viv had already stress-baked. The entire house smelled like a bakery. Not that Sawyer minded.
Loch appeared at Sawyer’s elbow with a frown on his face. “You okay?”
Instead of answering, Loch nodded toward Robin. “What is wrong with her?”
Jedrek responded. “Her wings won’t go down. We think they’re hurting her back. The weight is too much, you know? But there aren’t exactly answers for this type of thing. We’re doing the best we can, but not even Doc Vaughn knows what to do for some of the kids. Being around Nick helps her.”
Loch glanced at Sawyer again. “Perhaps Puteri could help. She is… there isn’t enough for her here,” Loch said. “And she’d fight to keep the young ones safe. If the young ones need her care, she should go.”
“That’s… why didn’t I think of that?” Sawyer asked. “Her magic is fierce.”
“What’re you talkin’ about?” Nick said. “What’s going on?”
“I’ll tell you later.”
Before Nick could argue, Pearl bounded into the room and brushed up against Nick’s legs. He squatted down, still carefully balancing Robin, and greeted her. She’d missed him as much as Sawyer had.
“We should get a dog,” Nick said to Jedrek.
Jedrek groaned. “Like thirty-six kids isn’t enough on our plate?”
Nick shrugged. “Speaking of, Eduard, we ordered a bunch of shit for the kids. I put it on the card.”
“Not a problem,” Eduard replied.
“I didn’t let them go crazy or anything, but they needed stuff, you know?”
“Nick,” Sawyer said softly, drawing his brother’s attention.
“Yeah?”
“Go crazy. Get them anything and everything. Uncle Sawyer’s going to spoil them rotten.”
“Uncle Sawyer,” Nick said with a grin.
Sawyer grinned back. “Uncle Sawyer is loaded, remember?”
The brothers shared a grin and some of Sawyer’s remaining tension lifted.
“You smell funny,” Nick said. Trust his brother to end the sweet moment between them.
“You smell funnier.”
Nick laughed and had to shush Robin again. “What happened?”
“Found out some stuff. God of Metal, at your service.”
“Metal?”
“Yep.”
“Ravens and metal? That doesn’t make sense.”
“That’s what I said.”
“Course, they are really into shiny things.”
“I thought that was crows,” Sawyer said.
“Like I know. Still, makes sense. Plus, you’ve always had a weird thing for black birds.”
“I have?” Sawyer asked.
“Yeah. When you were little anyway. You’d caw at them like you were— hey, maybe you were talking to them.”
“Maybe,” Sawyer said. “I don’t remember.”
“Is that what you wanted to tell me? Because I’m thinking the giant tiger is big news, too.”
“That’s my guide. He’s the only way I can get to the god realm.”
“Did you go?”
“No. Not yet. I don’t have my powers yet. Not sure what’ll happen if I try to go like this.”
“Huh. But you have all of your guardians now. Shouldn’t you be all whole or whatever?”
�
��Yeah. But I don’t feel any different. At least not yet. That’s Pip over there getting crushed by his mom. He’s the new one. Palinourous had him locked up with Byakko.”
“That’s the tiger’s name? Lame. I’d have called him Tony. Get it? Tony the tiger. He’s grr-reat.”
Sawyer couldn’t help but laugh. “Pip named him Tony, too.”
“Glad you’re smiling,” Nick said. “But you didn’t call me here for news.”
“He’s gonna be mad,” Sawyer said. “I’m worried he’s going to come after you and the kids.”
Nick glanced at his mate before turning back to Sawyer. “That’s what I’d do if I was him. We’re your weak spot.”
“My pack will protect us,” Jedrek swore. “I will request the other champions stay with us to provide added security. Zaire will reinforce the wards with the coven. We will do everything we can to keep the children safe.”
“I know,” Sawyer said.
He glanced around the room at his mates and guardians. Pearl had abandoned Nick and gone to sniff at Byakko. The tiger looked bored by the entire thing, even though he made sure to keep Sawyer in his line of sight at all times. Sawyer made sure Pearl was safe, then turned his attention back to the room. Pip was still being smothered by his mom. Sawyer had never actually seen anyone give a hug like that, especially while sobbing about her baby boy. It was intense. And looked really uncomfortable. Pip’s brother kept trying to help him, but their mom wasn’t having any of his nonsense.
Eventually, Sawyer would need to explain to Pip exactly what was going on. He didn’t seem to understand what being a guardian meant. And he definitely hadn’t picked up on the fact that they were all mates. Thinking back on Dakota’s face when Pip had leapt into his arms and started kissing him, Sawyer bit back a smile. It had been nice to see a chip in Dakota’s armor, no matter how small it had been.
“We need to get back,” Nick said. “I want to get everyone prepared.”
“Be safe, Nick. And if something happens—”
“You’ll be my first call. I’m not having a show down with a god without my brother by my side.”