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“I’m very glad you did.” Fen kissed his neck.

“Me too. I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s so good.”

“It is.” Fen drew a blanket off the back of the couch and tucked it around them. “Stay with me?”

“Mmmhmm. But if John calls for help…”

“By then we should be able to disengage.”

He hooted. “Well, right now, we’re pretty stuck.”

“I know.” Fen winked. “I like it.” Then he yawned, a jaw-cracking sound.

“Mmm. Nap?”

“Yes.” Fen hugged Rory close, and they both closed their eyes.

He was asleep in moments.

Chapter

Six

Fen followed Rory as he went to deliver wool to the weaver and spinners, food to the elderly pack members, and toys to a family who had just had a new baby and thus had a bunch of jealous older siblings.

Rory was a wonderful giver. So kind. And so driven to help people. He truly missed the dragons that had been his calling, Fen thought.

He wanted to just tuck Rory away with him and love him and let him know he wasn’t alone in a crowd anymore.

But he also wanted Rory to have his place in this pack. So he stayed close, but once they were at the big house, where Rory had joined John in order to make cookies, he found a spot where he could watch and waited for the alphas, Jameson and Keegan.

“Ah, Fen. All healed?” Jameson came to sit across from him, smiling.

“Mostly, yes. I still have a bit of stiffness, but you have fine healers.”

“We do. And Rory comes from healer stock as well.”

He raised an eyebrow. “That stands to reason. He’s very invested in caring for others.”

Jameson’s lips curved in more of a wry grin. “Are you saying we overwork him?”

“I’m not. I’m saying he’s a wolf and my mate, and I have questions.”

Jameson chuckled. “I imagine so. It’s a fine line we’ve had to walk with him.”

Fen blinked. “Explain.”

“Well, Rory smells like pack. But until you came along, he never even came close to presenting as a wolf. You heard him. He fully believes he’s merely human.”

“What about the others? His brothers?” Fen had heard him talk about them. It seemed like an entire pack full of brothers. Surely if one was a wolf, then the others ought to be.

“Like I said, until you, Rory smelled like pack but that was it. We’ve always had a good relationship with the Calhouns.”

Keegan, who had joined them, handing him a cup of coffee, shook his head. “I don’t know what the details are, of course. I mean, it’s possible that their mother stepped out with a wolf once. But over and over and over? It just doesn’t seem to make any sense.”

Fen pondered that. “One has to assume that the bloodline is buried, and then once you activate it, once the mate bond has been made obvious? That is when the wolf comes to the fore.”

“It’s how it worked with the dragons.” Jameson admitted, scratching his chin. “The first…well goodness, all four of the first dragon mates that came believed they were purely human. Only Gareth, who’s Zeke’s dragon mate didn’t. He was raised here in the pack.”