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“Gio! You’re supposed to be in the house!” Calder shouted suddenly.
“We’re not leaving you three alone. You need help!” he snapped. “Baer has called in some animals.”
Calder growled in frustration but relented quickly as a pestilent nearly sneaked past his wall of water. “Keep watch for anyone who gets through. Beat them back toward the water and I’ll snatch them up. Send some people to watch Lucien too.”
Gio nearly grinned at getting the chance to fight with his men. He glanced over at Wiley, who nodded. “I’ll stay here with Calder and split your family between the yards. You go check on Lucien. Tell him more help is coming.”
“Got it!” Gio darted off, the handle of the rolling pin clenched tightly in his fist. As he reached the edge of the house, a man popped out of the shadow, talon-tipped fingers nearly clawing off his face. Gio dodged the swipe and swung the rolling pin at the pestilent’s head. A sickening thud and crunch could be heard across the yard and the man went down.
His heart pounded hard in his chest, but Gio refused to think about what he’d just done. The man was going to kill him, kill his family and his lovers. Fuck that.
Spinning on the balls of his feet, Gio raced to the front yard, where Lucien was controlling the chaos there. Fewer pestilents were attacking from the front, and there were several blackened and smoldering bodies lying about along with lots of burnt grass.
“Gio—” Lucien started to argue, but Gio didn’t give him the chance.
“My family is helping. Animals are coming to fight. Calder is safe.”
Lucien huffed, but Gio also noticed that he stopped the fireballs spinning around him and left an opening big enough to Gio to move through safely. He jogged inside the circle and was immediately pulled against Lucien’s sweaty side before the fire surged about them. “You, Calder, and I are going to have a very long talk later about the definition of safe.”
“Only if we can have that talk in bed while naked.”
Lucien made a noise in his throat. “As if there is any other way of having that conversation.”
“Thank you for protecting my family.” Gio leaned his head on Lucien’s chest.
“Your family is amazing and deserves to be protected. And even if they weren’t, we’d still protect them. You love them,” Lucien said sweetly, which was made more amazing because he also fricasséed three pestilents at the same time.
Gio reluctantly slipped away from Lucien and went to work beating back a couple more who were trying to sneak up on the Fire Weaver from the side. Marcello joined them a short time later, waving around a Tiki torch like a spear and shouting in broken Italian. Everything about the fight had a very surreal feel to it, and Gio suspected he’d be having nightmares later with very similar scenes.
With the help of a few quick and deadly wolves, the last of the pestilents were taken out, allowing them to move to the backyard, where the rest of his family was helping to clear out the last of the pestilent horde.
Calder let the wall of water fall, soaking the ground. Lucien relit the remains of the bonfire with a wave of his hand, casting the garish scene in a cheery glow. The Water Weaver shuffled over on wobbly legs and fell into Gio’s and Lucien’s welcoming arms.
“You’re both okay?” Calder murmured, pressing a kiss to Lucien’s chest and Gio’s jaw.
“We’re good. Are you?” Lucien demanded.
“Tired but good.” He started to rest his head, but it suddenly popped up again. “Where’s Baer? Is he okay?”
“He’s fine. He’s coming,” Wiley said confidently.
“Oh, my! What’s that?” Gio’s mother asked. They all looked to where she pointed at something large strolling through the darkness. At the edge of the firelight, the shaggy mane of a lion could be made out.
“I thought he’d shifted into a panther,” Calder muttered.
“He did, but he needed to be something with bigger teeth and claws when the pestilents started outnumbering him,” Wiley replied, clearly in mental contact with his mate.
“You have a lion?” his mother inquired.
“It’s not really a lion. It’s magic, Ma. That’s Baer, Wiley’s husband.”
His mother stared at him for a moment and then nodded before turning her attention to Wiley. “Would it be okay if I pet him? I’ve always wanted to pet a lion.”
Wiley cackled and nodded. “Sure. He doesn’t mind.”
Gio opened his mouth to point out yet again that it wasn’t a real lion, but a man in lion form.
Lucien squeezed his shoulder and pressed a kiss to his temple. “Let it go. He looks like a lion, sounds like a lion, and feels like a lion. It’s probably going to be the closest she ever gets without losing her life.”
That was a good point. Plus, something just swelled in his heart as he watched the enormous lion circling his mother, rubbing against her like an overgrown house cat. His mother giggled when Baer flopped down at her feet and stretched his long limbs. His meddling, iron-willed mother turned into a puddle of goo before his eyes, baby-talking the lion in the most embarrassing fashion.
