Winter's Dawn (34 page)

Sleeping outside was fine with Max, with the small exception that it required him curling up with Adam in wolf form, rather than with Susie in his human one. That aside, Max decided that it was educational to live outdoors at a time other than the running. It made him thoughtful about his ongoing problem with the wild werewolves and he spent a lot of time on the phone with Serena discussing new ideas.

Max even wondered if all his presidents and leaders should leave their posh estates and spend three weeks outdoors. It would probably make them a lot more compassionate and driven towards the cause. Serena liked the idea, but it was probably more out of vindictiveness towards the presidents she didn’t like rather than an actual desire to live wild for any amount of time. However, she would do it and do it well. Arctic wolves were hardier than others, of that, Max was certain. When she said they had thicker fur, she meant it more than literally. All arctic wolves, even female ones, were tough to the core of their being.

“Adam needs to bathe,” Susie said as she walked into his office. “I will not take him to school tomorrow if he doesn’t.”

Max laughed. “I suggested going to the ocean, but he hates the cold. I’d never get him into water of that temperature.”

“Maxwell, get him clean. Let him go to John’s place if he must.”

“We’re roughing it.” Max frowned at her. “This is a social experiment. Do wild werewolves have places to bathe during the winter months? And he doesn’t smell that bad to me. If he did, I’d throw him in the ocean personally. I’m the one sleeping with him.”

“It’s not smelling bad. His scent is acceptable,” Susie grimaced as though it was only barely acceptable. “But he needs to shave. Three days outdoors and that wolf is looking ragged. So are you, Maxwell. Please shave and comb your hair.”

“We are wild male wolves and we don’t shave. We hunt for our own food and we live off the land.”

“You are living in a tent in the backyard of a Boston townhome. You drive to find places to hunt and you drink whiskey that costs fifty dollars a bottle.” Susie laughed incredulously. “That is not roughing it. You can include bathing in this experiment because you don’t smell too sweet either. Baths for both of you is essential.”

“Lots of females think I smell real sweet,” he told her, grinning. “I reek of testosterone and pheromones. Did you think it was my good looks that drew them to me?”

“John thinks you are both insane,” Susie said dryly. “Seriously, he thinks you’ve lost your mind.”

“Ask me if I care what John thinks?” Max looked down at his work and frowned for a moment. “I really should do my work outdoors, shouldn’t I? I believe coming in here to work is cheating. Adam is doing his work outdoors and having his assistant deal with his calls. I could do the same and just get a daily update of all the issues like I’ve been gathering for Adam.”

“You
have
lost your mind.” Susie shook her head. “Fine, work outside. Do it to your heart’s content, but if I have to drag Adam to school he is going to look presentable.”

“I
will
have to take phone calls. I can’t avoid it completely.” Max rubbed at the back of his neck, thinking it over more deeply. “But, I could arrange for them to be for a three or four hour period midday. Yes, I’ll do that. The rest of the day I’ll work outdoors.”

“Maxwell!”

“Huh?” He looked up from his desk to frown at Susie. “Oh, yes, I’ll make sure he shaves.”

Susie shook her head and walked out of the office. Max gathered his things and called Carl to tell him his new plan. Unlike Susie, Carl thought it was an inspired idea to live outdoors. It would help him better understand what obstacles wild werewolves faced. But Susie had a point; a townhome in Boston was not the ideal place to conduct the experiment.

“Okay, I’ve been thinking.” Max crawled into the tent with a large box of work in his hands. “When we get back to the palace we’re going to do this again.”

“No, Maxwell.” Adam lay on his stomach reading over intelligence reports on rogue werewolves. “If you think I am going to camp outdoors midwinter when I have a perfectly good palace to sleep in you’re mistaken.”

“Then we’ll wait until spring.” Max winced over the idea. “After I shed my winter coat. Before then and I’d faint from the heat. But you’re right. To be fair, I should do it in a climate I’m uncomfortable in.”

Adam turned his head, silently watching as Max settled next to him and started sorting through all his files. He pulled out what he needed, placing a note pad next to him and picking up a pen to make notes.

“What are you doing?”

Max tapped the pen against his lip as he thought it over further. “I’d like my father to be included in this experiment, but he and I can’t both go at the same time. I need him to handle things for me like he is doing now. We’ll go in shifts and it’ll be more than just the three of us. I want all my department executors to go. We’ll do it here and once we are done the presidents and their staffs will do it, going in rotation like we will. They can hardly complain if my staff and I have already done it. I try to lead by example.”

“Are you working out here now?” Adam asked, ignoring the rest as he stared at Max’s box. “We need a bigger tent. I can barely fit my supplies in here and work. With you taking up two thirds of the tent by yourself, not to mention all your paperwork, this will be impossible.”

“Nothing is impossible. We’re adapting,” Max said patiently. “This is what werewolves who live in the wild do, they adapt. We’re staying in this tent.”

“Gods, give me patience,” Adam whispered fervently before he turned back to Max. “Werewolves in the wild
don’t work
. That’s part of the allure. We have no room for both the Prime Executor of Exterminators and Head King of Werewolves to work out of one small tent.”

“We’re adapting, Adam.” Max went back to sorting through his files and pulled out his spring budget. “Go back to your work.”

Adam took a deep breath and then said calmly, “Okay, I have been granted patience. Explain to me further why this is important to you.”

“I really want to solve the problem of wild werewolves,” Max said passionately. “If they want to live in the wild, I can’t stop them, but I need to find ways to prevent them from turning rogue. I need to know what it feels like. I need to have the mentality so I can better find ways to help them cope and avoid hunting humans by accident. One day I want your job to be unnecessary. I would like rogues to be a distant memory.”

“An admirable ambition and it was predicted that your line would bring peace to our people.”

“Yes, and what everyone doesn’t understand is that it doesn’t just fall into my lap,” Max growled, taking some of his frustration out on Adam. “They think because it was predicted I can just sit back and wait for it to happen, but that isn’t how it works. I wish it were. My life would be a lot easier, but it’s not. Now if I am going to serve my people I need to know how it feels to live wild. I will never understand while living in a palace and having others serve me.”

“Then we’ll adapt,” Adam said. “We’ll work out of this tent and in the spring we’ll do it again, only on the palace grounds. No tents, no human comforts whatsoever.”

“Thank you, Adam.” Max smiled in surprise. “Thank you for supporting me on this. I appreciate it.”

“The Gods are wise. They guide you.” Adam’s eyes grew wide in understanding. “You failed to set up an altar in Susan’s house so that you could come to this conclusion. Forgive me for not seeing that sooner. I should never doubt their guidance of you.”

“No, doubt is good.” Max gave him a look, hoping to convey his genuineness. “Always doubt me if you feel it is just. No leader should have blind followers. I have been very blessed by those who surround me and question my judgment. It’s why I keep wolves like you, Serena and my father close. You speak your mind and question me constantly.”

“I doubt you keep your father and I close for the same reasons you keep Serena close.” Adam grinned. “She serves other purposes aside from questioning your judgment.”

Max frowned at the teasing.

“Don’t say that,” he said, hurting over the idea of others assuming she only served a primal purpose for him. “She is more than that, not one to just be used. She is my friend and I care for her. We help each other mutually, as you and Danielle do.”

“Maxwell,” Adam whispered, his tone firm. “Danielle is my mate.”

“Well, so is Serena, sort of, for now.” Max turned away from him, feeling exposed. “She is a something like a mate to me until the queen is ready and she is a dear friend for a lifetime after that.”

Adam frowned, looking horrified. “Do you have feelings for her?”

“That is private. My personal life is not your concern.”

“It is my concern,” Adam snapped. “It is all our concern. Like it or not your personal life affects all of us.”

“If I had to choose between her and Susie I would always choose the queen,” Max whispered. “Always. Susie is my heart and soul.”

“But, you care for Serena,” Adam persisted. “You could love her.”

“I could, but I won’t.” Max looked away from Adam. “And I will break her heart someday soon. That thought hurts me almost as profoundly as feeling the pain myself. Three years is a long time to have a companion and not grow to care for them.”

“You should have never pulled her and Katrina so close to you,” Adam whispered. “That was a mistake, Maxwell. You should have pushed them away when you saw it was becoming more than just sex.”

“I should have,” Max agreed. “But, it is done. Ending it now would be pointless. Nature will end if for us soon enough.”

“She loves you,” Adam sighed. “When we all thought she could love no one.”

“Say anything to the queen and I will kill you,” Max growled, his eyes narrowed as he turned to glare at Adam. “Cousin or not.”

“The secret is safe.” Adam shook his head sadly. “It would have been without the threat. I care for Serena. She’s my cousin too. I would not want to see her dead at the queen’s hand.”

“Susie would never kill her for loving someone.” Max was insulted on Susie’s behalf. “Even me.”

“Now, no,” Adam agreed. “But, you forget how your hormones changed you. Taking dominance made you a dangerous wolf. We all know that. Even those closest to you fear you on occasion. I think the same will stand true for the queen when it happens.”

Max didn’t want to think about that, so he picked up his spring budget instead. “Back to work, Adam.”

****

“I have decided if you can’t beat them, join them.”

Max jerked awake at the sound of John’s voice and changed forms immediately. Adam did the same and it left them tangled together in human form. All wolves of the same pack naturally slept together. The same held true for werewolves. Serena and Katrina always slept together. Werewolf siblings remained together, sharing the same space, offering each other warmth at night and companionship during the day until they either ended up mated together or found a mate outside their immediate family.

Adam was not his brother, but he was a close member of his family and Max never thought once about using his body to give Adam warmth when he slept. Nor did Adam. He naturally ended up sleeping curled into him, with Max’s head resting over his neck, his nose buried in Adam’s red fur, and his large body wrapped around Adam’s smaller one protectively. Max was an alpha and he guarded all those he loved and protected them anyway possible. Adam would never sleep cold if Max could offer him warmth.

They had just never woken up like that before. Usually they beat each other up a little as wolves before they actually changed forms. But, this morning with John opening the flap to the tent curiously and without warning, forcing them to change forms before he saw Max and Adam as wolves, left them in an awkward situation. Max couldn’t decide what was worse, John finding two wolves curled together or two humans in the same situation.

John blushed crimson, his eyes growing wide as he looked at them lying there and dropped the flap to the tent immediately. “I didn’t know,” he said quickly. “I’m sorry.”

“Shit.” Max pushed Adam away from him.

“What?” Adam blinked heavily lidded eyes at Max, his face a mask of confusion. It was obvious he was still half asleep. “He never said what he wanted. Where’d he go?”

Max rolled over and sat up. He hadn’t worn a shirt. He didn’t need one, but that made it even more awkward. It didn’t matter that Adam had a long sleeve flannel shirt on. All John had seen was Max sleeping draped over Adam with his face buried in the curve of his neck.

“Put your coat on,” Max growled. “We’ve got to go talk to him.”

“I hate going in there,” Adam complained, his voice slightly slurred as he continued to blink tiredly. “I go to bathe and shave because the queen wishes it, but she has little care of me speaking with her play thing. In fact, she told me to say as little as possible to him.”

“She wishes it now. Trust my words.”

“Fine,” Adam grumbled, rising to his feet slowly. “I’ll meet you in there.”

Max left Adam there struggling with his coat and crawled out of the tent. He walked barefoot and bare-chested through the snow in Susie’s backyard. He stormed up the back steps and into the house. He threw the door against the wall harshly in frustration.