Page 36 of Triumph of the Wolf (Magnetic Magic #6)
The end of the week brought an unseasonably warm sunny day, one that made me think of spring.
As I finished repairs to the siding on one of the buildings and headed for the leasing office, I looked around, spotting all the perennials that would bloom and thinking wistfully of how much I enjoyed that time of year at Sylvan Serenity.
A few tenants using one of the barbecue grills on the grounds waved to me, the smoky smells of charcoal-cooked hamburgers and kebabs drifting to my nose.
My two ghost hunters were with the group, none of their paranormal-sensing equipment in view.
I supposed they wouldn’t employ it during the middle of the day, but I hoped its absence meant that they’d retired from that hobby.
These past few nights, I hadn’t noticed them lurking in the parking lot.
Maybe their encounter with irate business owners with tire irons had convinced them it wasn’t the healthiest of pastimes.
Before I reached the leasing office, a car pulling into one of the staff spots made me pause and raise my eyebrows, waiting to see if the person turned around and left.
If not, I would have to shoo him or her off with acerbic comments.
Duncan was supposed to come by later, and I’d left that spot open for him, no longer threatening to tow him for loitering in my parking lot.
We’d been through a lot, and I wanted him here.
My hand strayed to my abdomen. It had only been a couple of days since the showdown with Abrams—and my night in the cave with Duncan—so it was too soon for pregnancy tests and doctor visits, but thanks to the magic that I could sense within our kind, I knew.
Barring complications, I would once again become a mother.
And Duncan would become a father. Hopefully, his resolution with Lykos would make him more comfortable with the idea that he could handle that.
I had no doubt that he could. Besides, what kid wouldn’t love learning to magnet fish and pull rusty treasures from the bottoms of lakes?
When the driver turned off the car and got out, I lowered my hand in surprise. It was Cameron.
Immediately, I peered through the windshield toward the passenger seat, expecting Chad to be with him. That wasn’t the Toyota my ex-husband had been driving around earlier in the week, but maybe they’d switched rental cars.
Cameron hesitated, then lifted his hand in a tentative greeting.
I returned it in kind and headed over, unsure whether to be wary or hopeful.
When last we’d met… he’d seen me turn into a wolf and attack his father.
And Duncan, as a great and powerful bipedfuris, had scared him and taken the wolf-lidded case that Chad had tried to get Cameron to run off with.
That couldn’t have left Cameron feeling warmly inclined toward wolves. Or… toward me.
Even so, something about his expression and the fact that he was here alone made me hopeful.
“Hi, Mom.” Cameron lingered near the car as I approached.
I stopped a few paces back, as if he were a skittish wild animal that I didn’t want to scare away. “Hi.”
“Is the, uh, scary one around?” Cameron peered at the myriad cars in the lot. Looking for Duncan’s Roadtrek?
“Is that Duncan? Or me in my other… incarnation?” I touched my chest.
“The shaggy beast that was eight feet tall and slavering as he leaped into my path and snatched your purse from me.”
“I just call him Duncan.”
“ Killer would be more apt.”
“I can see if he’s up for that, but he picked Duncan for his name, so I think he’s partial to it.”
More partial than he’d been to Abrams’s choice of Drakon —dragon—anyway.
Cameron considered me. “You weren’t un scary, but I guess I was more ready for that after what Aussie said. At first, I didn’t believe any of that story, but then I talked to Dad, and I guess… well, he’d always known, it sounded like.”
“Yes.”
“He said Aussie and I probably don’t have any cool powers or anything though.” Cameron looked sad about that, and I thought of Ivan, who’d possibly been driven to acquire his fortune out of a desire for artifacts that could grant him the power that his little sister had, however temporarily.
“Sorry. Being a werewolf comes with a lot of downsides too. You’re better off being normal, I suppose.” I didn’t know if he would agree, so I shrugged. “I always wanted that for you. Normalcy.”
Cameron shrugged back. “Anyway, that’s not what I came about.
I wanted to let you know that Dad took off after, you know.
” He waved vaguely in the direction of Monroe.
“He said he’s not messing with you ever again or taking any job offers in Seattle, and the hell with werewolves too. He’s going to leave the country again.”
The words filled me with glee—would it be inappropriate to dance around, rejoicing?—but I didn’t know how Cameron felt, so I attempted to keep my face neutral.
“It’s for the best,” I said. “The artifact he wanted had a greater use.”
Even now, I didn’t know exactly what that use was, but I’d heard from Emilio that it could be seen glowing at night on that cliff overlooking the pack’s properties.
“And it has a giant shaggy werewolf protector.” Cameron shook his head. “Good reason to leave it alone.”
“I would think so. Where will you go next?”
“Before Dad called, I’d decided to come back to the area. I was going to tell you earlier, but things got a little weird when he got here. I’ve been saving a bit, doing some jobs while on the road, and I enrolled for the spring semester at U-Dub.”
“Oh.” My heart soared. One of my sons was coming home ? “That’s good news.” I struggled for that neutral expression again. If I pounced on him with a hug or an overabundance of exuberance, it might scare him away as surely as a wolf nipping at his heels.
“Yeah. Aussie said he’ll try to get leave this summer, and maybe we can all hang out and do something.” He waved to me.
He wanted to do things with me? Both of my sons did? That urge to pounce returned, but Cameron spoke again before I could think of a cool and collected way to do so.
“I, uh. I wanted to let you know that…” Cameron studied the sidewalk at his feet. “I didn’t realize Dad is such a… Well, he’s kind of a loser, isn’t he?”
“Yes,” I said without hesitation.
Cameron snorted. “When he was bitching about you, I asked him straight-up about the college money. I remember you kind of implied it was his fault, but you didn’t say he stole it.
I hadn’t realized. I mean, he didn’t say as much now, either, but I read between the lines from some other comments he made.
And when he asked me to pay for dinner a couple of times. Like I was the mature adult.”
“Oh, you were. Trust me.”
“Yeah?” Cameron’s eyebrows rose as he seemed surprised and maybe pleased by the pronouncement.
“Yes.” I nodded firmly. “I’m delighted that you’ll be starting school. And I’m proud of you.”
“It’s no big deal.” He shrugged and looked at the sidewalk again.
“It’s a very big deal. I’d like to hug you.”
“Oh, geez.” He looked around, spotting a couple of tenants climbing out of their car. “You’re not going to do it here, are you?”
“Would it be less weird and awkward if I dragged you into the bushes for it?”
“I don’t know. Is that where you go to turn into a wolf?”
“Sometimes. The rhododendrons keep their leaves year-round, so they’re handy.”
Cameron rolled his eyes and hugged me. He stepped back before I could grip him for more than two seconds, but I grinned hugely anyway. After his near silence for the last two years, it was enough. More than I’d expected.
Bolin’s gleaming blue SUV rolled into the lot. After parking, he and Jasmine climbed out with mochas from their favorite coffee shop in hand, whipped cream drizzled with caramel filling the clear dome lids.
Jasmine waved vigorously and headed straight for us.
Cameron took that moment to slink away, probably deeply and emotionally scarred by our public embrace.
But he’d instigated it, so it couldn’t have been that bad.
As the mature mother that I was, I resisted the urge to text him a chain of hug emojis.
Besides, Jasmine’s arrival distracted me.
“Guest what, Aunt Luna?” she blurted.
“You and Bolin have fallen deeply in love and you’re eloping?”
“Of course not. My mom and dad would kill me if I eloped. They’ve already told me I’m getting married at their house when that day comes. They have a big yard and gazebo, so apparently that qualifies it as a wedding venue.”
“A gazebo?” Bolin asked, walking up in time to hear her words.
“Sure. Dad grows his wine-making grapes on it.” Jasmine eyed him. “Where do rich people get married?”
“Uhm, my parents’ neighbors’ daughter and new husband did it in Italy. The whole extended family went for two weeks.”
Jasmine pursed her lips.
“My parents weren’t rich when they got married,” Bolin said. “I think they were wed at a local park. There might even have been a gazebo.”
“Hah, they’re romantic,” Jasmine said.
“Some kind of covered pavilion or something anyway,” Bolin said. “There’s a picture of Mom sitting in Dad’s lap on a swing.”
I blinked at the notion of the always-stern Kashvi Sylvan being moved to swing on Rory’s lap.
“Are you going to tell her the news?” Bolin asked.
“Oh, yes.” Jasmine spun back toward me. “My mom told me something this morning, and I talked to Rosaria, and she confirmed it.”
Bolin lifted a finger.
Jasmine waved him down. “Let me tell her this first. She’ll think it’s more important. Trust me.”
Bolin lowered his arm.
I sensed Duncan and Lykos approaching from the direction of the woods. They’d gone off to magnet-fish that morning, and I imagined them returning with a cluster of rusty twentieth-century tins hooked and hanging on lines like a bouquet of trout.
At some point during the day, Lykos had gotten a haircut and new shoes and clothes. I trusted Duncan hadn’t fished them out of a pond.