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Rasmus crossed his arms as he contemplated my offer. “What about after you buy the house your daughter found? Do I get a room there as well? From her description, it sounds like you’re going to have multiple empty bedrooms at your new place.”

I laughed and shook my head. “First off, Fiona’s a dreamer and buying a bigger house is only a dream for now. Take the garage or not. I don’t care either way. It’s the only room I have for ya.”

His answer was quick. “I’ll take the garage. My belongings are in a locker at the office. I don’t have much.”

I drank my tea and wished I could have said no to him. If I was Ben’s wife, though, I wouldn’t want a stranger reeking of guardian power living at my house. I wouldn’t put it past Ben to have been using Rasmus to avoid getting yelled at for giving up his retirement plans.

Rasmus wasn’t putting moves on me or reminding me where we’d left off. If he stayed here, I could keep an eye on him and he’d be around if Orlin returned. And since he was going to be here, I would use him to help Conn and me.

“Don’t bother calling for a ride to headquarters. I’ll take ya there since I need to return the trainer contract to Ben. If Conn and I are going to hunt down demon wolves, we might as well get paid to do it.”

“I’ll be happy to help you find them.”

“Good, because we’re starting yer training with this job. I hope ya can run fast. I saw ya throw a couple of good punches at the troll. Ya could have avoided fighting him if ya had been clever instead. Yer flying needs improving but I’ll be no help to ya with that. Maybe we can find someone who knows about flying. Never say never when the Shadow Breakers are involved.”

“I’m a fast learner, Aran. You’ll see.”

My snort was soft, but still audible. “When ya do this kind of work for a living, ya need to be a fast learner just to keep from dying.”

Rasmus opened his mouth but never got to deny my claims.

“So we’re getting paid for finding those women after all?” Conn asked.

“Indirectly,” I said. “We’ll be charging the time against my training contract. Since Ben’s so eager to spend money on us, proving our worth seems a moot point. The Shadow Breakers put our value as high as they can afford to pay anyone they employ. I think we can charge whatever we want in the future.”

Shrugging, Conn smiled. “You know we’ll earn every penny.”

“From what I just learned about Lina Malcolm, I’m sure we will.” I finished my tea in one last swallow and stood. “See? I’m all restored now. After I clean my scrying tools, Rasmus and I will head to the office.”

Conn chuckled. “Are we calling that place ‘the office’ now?”

I smirked over my shoulder as I headed to the backyard. “I’ll probably have different names for it later, but I’m trying to be nice. Help Rasmus put the bed together that I took out of my room, Conn. There’s plenty of space in the garage for the queen bed. He needs something bigger than a twin anyway.”

And just like that, the former guardian was back in my life and back in my house. We were no more than friendly strangers, which I still blamed Orlin for, but having him here would give me ammunition the next time Orlin came calling.

The guardians didn’t respect me.

They tolerated me like ya might tolerate a small, caring child whose heart was in the right place. They placated me with declarations and promises that everything would work out for my good at some point.

As I knelt in the grass to collect my things, I cursed the guardians for being worse than the gods when it came to controlling people’s lives.

ChapterFifteen

Three men handsome enough to turn any woman’s head walked into the coffee shop. They looked around until they saw me, and then walked directly to my table.

If Conn had been present, he would have made four. My familiar had walked down the street to brood in Mulan’s office for a while. Her absence was killing him. The staff at the hair shop considered him her boyfriend so Conn did as he pleased there.

I glanced over at the snide barista who stared open-mouthed at the men coming to sit with me. Turning my smile to them, I waved a hand to the other chairs at the table.

“Thanks for coming to see me. I thought it best to deliver my news to ya in person. Can I get ya some coffee first?”

The barista pulled herself together enough to leave the bar and approach our table. We were her only customers, so it wasn’t like she was too busy to wait on us.

She avoided making eye contact as she took the men’s orders. Since she so thoroughly ignored me, I ended up walking to the counter to pay after the barista rang them up. I asked for a coffee refill when she served the others.

When I came back to the table, we settled in to visit. Isaiah made introductions, but I got head nods instead of hellos from the two men with him. Once werewolf pleasantries were out of the way, Isaiah flashed me a masculine smile that weakened my knees a bit. Conn was right that I found the alpha werewolf attractive, but I wouldn’t let my body’s needs distract me from the conversation.

I already knew Isaiah wasn’t an answer to any problem I had.