Rowan is still processing that Grayson has just given him the go-ahead to be even more of a little shit when his last words sink in. “What?! In time for what?”
The door to the private room opens, and Finn enters with Jay and Gideon close behind. While Finn has a scent patch on, the others do not, and theyarrive in what smells like a forest fire set alight by a bolt of lightning. Whoever they’d sent from the magic school had pissed them off, and he still doesn’t know why or how he has ended up as if it hadn’t happened.
Grayson’s on his feet in an instant, uncharacteristically wringing his hands like a Victorian maiden, his own burned basil-patchouli incense on fire. “Well?”
Jay clenches his jaw before growling, “Pompous sons-of-bitches.”
Finn moves out of the line of fire and circles the bed to run a hand over Rowan’s head, and then lifts the edge of the blanket to look at Rowan’s cock. With a nod, he falls into the chair beside the bed, yanking his surgical cap off his head and closing his eyes. What time is it anyway? Did he miss the flight to Cleveland?Shit.
“They were happy to help with our ‘unfortunate’ situation, but would prefer Grayson stay at the Guild under supervision as soon as possible,” Gideon mutters snidely before taking the other chair Grayson had vacated. He hauls Grayson back into his lap and presses his nose into the back of his t-shirt. “Hey, Ro. Feeling a bit lighter?” There’s an imperceptible chuckle from behind Grayson’s back, but his bright brown eyes twinkle with mischief from behind Grayson’s arm.
“Fucking assholes,” Finn growls. “They don’t know who they’re dealing with.”
“I can’t stay at the Guild. What about Nix? The babies? The BBS? I won’t do it.” Tiny sparks of fire flare around Grayson’s fingertips at the thought.
“Gideon and Jay covered all of that and more, and I thought I was going to have to clean up that guy’s pee off the hallway floor by the time they were done with them,” Finn says with a weary sigh.
Jay bares his still-partially-descended fangs. “You are my mate. Mine. You’re not spending one minute locked behind the walls of that school while I’m still living.”
“And then they’ll have to come through me,” Rowan growls. The mere idea that they could keep Grayson from them is ludicrous. “Why were they here in the first place?”
Jay stands from his position leaning against the wall near the door, andgives him a small smile. “Well, they put you under, remember? And they couldn’t get the cement off.”
“But I’m okay now?” Rowan resists lifting the edge of the blanket to check on his dick one more time. Barely.
Finn nods. “You’re as good as new. But they’d decided to try that sandblaster, and there was talk about you taking some permanent damage.”
“Holy shit,” Rowan whispers. “I could have died.”
“Well, you’d have wanted to, I’m sure. We’d had you under for a few hours, and your body was burning through the anesthetic at a high rate. I think the Wolf was really fighting it.”
“Get to the parts where someone saved my dick, please.”
“Grayson arrived with Nix, and he suggested his Earth Master could maybe take the mixture down to their base elements magically. They had to call in a Water Master, too, given the ingredients.”
“And the only Water Master at the Nashville Guild is the headmaster,” Grayson shivers, dislike for the officious man evident in Grayson’s pinched look. “He does not like me at all.”
“You are very likable, Pretty, but he is a power-hungry megalomaniac, and he thinks you are gunning for his job.” Jay’s grin fades, only to be replaced by a frown.
Rowan flinches at the thought that there could be another Withers lusting for Grayson’s power.
“He can see you have more power in your little finger than he has after decades of practice.” Gideon squeezes Grayson’s shoulder comfortingly. “You won’t spend one more minute there than necessary—over my dead body.”
“No one is dying. Fuck. I hate hospitals,” Jay groans.
“Right now, I can’t blame you,” Finn agrees.
“Wait, so you called in the magical guns to get the cement off as…what, a personal favor?” That seems unlikely, given how difficult they’d been as of late.
Grayson clenches his jaw and shakes his head.
There’s a crushing sense of doom, and Rowan looks fromface to face around the room. “What?” It dawns on him then. Grayson has traded something for their help. “What did you do?”
“Nothing I wasn’t prepared to do anyway, Ro.” Grayson stands up from Gideon’s lap, only to come sit on the side of the bed. “I had to agree to spend somemoretime there training. It’s okay. I would have had to do it anyway, right?”
That didn’t sound like all of it, and the Wolf finally wakes up enough to growl his suspicions. “Just the training?”
“Rowan, it’s complicated,” Jay tries to soothe.
