I smelled it earlier.Mads flicked his bushy tail and rested little black thieving paws on the edge of the table, little nails clicking anxiously.
I can’t smell shit, but I feel one of those binding collars nearby. The magic on them is familiar.Leon twittered and hopped atop Izohr’s head, refraining from scratching about, as if picking for lice. Marquis thought a silent prayer of thanks.
When the doors opened, the first of a few humans shrugged in, all rolling luggage cases with padlocked zippers. All shifty-eyed and nervous. And at the side of one was a wolf, black as night itself, eyes a piercing blue. Its ears pinned and body sulked lower to the ground.
“Who is that?” Izohr glanced at the wolf and pinned a human with a fierce stare, fingers choking up on a chain choke leash.
“M-my familiar.” He glanced about nervously.
Izohr swore under his breath, and Marquis reached over to rest a hand on his shoulder.
“Apologies for the reaction. Are you aware that wolf is a person?” Marquis nodded at the cowering creature. Omega. Shifter. Not a mage. Wolves would go mad over the capture, and they’d have signed their own death certificates if they knew.
The human paled and glanced from the wolf to Marquis.
“Wolf, what is your name?” Marquis stared the wolf down as he let loose a hoarse bark, all sound gone but breath and a choked sound.
Haze.And before you ask, I do not have pack affiliations. I am branded.The wolf turned its head away, the collar shifting as scarred, furless flesh peeked from beneath. A wolf that had his mate mark rent from him by the teeth of another. Betrayal, infidelity, few things earned that.
The human glanced from his wolf to Marquis a few times, growing more alarmed as his wolf made gestures with his head. His reaction said it all; the human hadn’t even thought the creature capable of communication.
I got this!Sheila barked and startled the incoming humans, her voice piping up clear above everyone else’s. She fought her collar off with her paws and darted over, nosing the loose thing over the wolf’s head with eager gestures.
The wolf sniffed at her and flinched, its face a twist of curiosity, disgust and pity.Thank you, halfblood child.
Sheila barked, no words communicating through the bond at first as she had to focus to make them heard.N-no. P-problem.She returned to Izohr’s side as the human released the wolf’s leash and startled.
Haze leaned down, picked up the leash and offered it back to the human with a sigh of obligation. The human didn’t take it, though, not until Haze whined and Marquis gestured for him to do so.
“Disobeying his contract is painful. Do what he needs until we can discuss your relinquishing of him.” Marquis squeezed Izohr’s shoulder as he growled low in his throat, threatening to bring out a wolf more dominant than most pack alphas.
“Don’t mind me! Apologies for being late. My girlfriend needed some assistance,” Nelson traipsed in, happily referring to Meredith as his partner. The male was smitten beyond belief, and Marquis found the match to be fitting.
“Come, Nelson.” Marquis waved him in and Nelson took a spot on the other side of Marquis, a position of negotiations and power that had the other humans surprised, eyes wide.
Midnite stretched and languidly rubbed against Rexford’s chest, purring slightly as he meowed, a force of habit from his days long held in cat form.
“First of all, the wolf. Where did you get them?” Marquis turned his gaze to the still-frozen human, clutching the leash like a lifeline.
“B-baron owed me money. G-gave her to me.” The human tensed as the wolf, Haze, pinned his ears and shrank a little.
“First of all, your wolf is male. Familiars always have a female form.” Marquis gestured from their familiars and, as if catching a cue, Midnite shifted in Rexford’s lap, preening in a display as he settled in. “And they are mages.”
“S-so Haze is a mage?” The human, a middling male with mousy brown hair and narrow shoulders, stared at the creature.
“Haze is a shifter. Not a familiar. In essence, a werewolf by your own vernacular.” Marquis sighed and gave the wolf an apologetic glance. “Some shifters can be mages, but in general, they’re magical creatures incapable of harnessing magic.”
Sheila tugged and helped Haze into the collar, fidgeting a bit. As Haze spoke again, a soft and masculine voice purred above the din of mindspeak that familiars and shifters could only share with mages. “I am an omega wolf. I am not a familiar. I have no inherent magic to aid you.”
The human dropped the leash again and stumbled back. “You can talk!”
“I can walk and do taxes, too. You just seem to think I enjoy eating canned puppy chow and shitting in the street.” The wolf curled its upper lip.
“Why not figure out a way to use the commode?” One of the humans spoke out of turn and silenced.
“Because it was one of my few joys watching this peon pick it up with a little bag.” Haze huffed and picked up the leash once more, offering it to the mage—likely a compulsion of his collar’s charm.
The human blanched in disgust. “Baron settled me with this creature for the sixty thousand he owed me.”
