Levi (14 page)

There was a moment of silence then, “You’re smarter than I thought,” Oscar said. “But Grandma Marybeth would skin me, and since you didn’t maim my brother or abandon him again, I might reconsider the whole taxidermy thing.”

Lyndon still wasn’t sure Oscar had ever been joking about the taxidermy to begin with. He was inclined to believe Oscar hadn’t been, so he’d take whatever he could get in the way of a peace offering. He heard Oscar’s thudding footsteps and got out of the bed. His clothes from yesterday were all he had that his stalker hadn’t marked so he started to pick his jeans up only to be stopped when Levi handed him a bundle of clothes.

“Here, I have sweats and a shirt. Socks and underwear are in the top drawer.” Levi pulled a ratty-looking green shirt on over his head then arched a brow at Lyndon. “I better get in the kitchen before Oscar does try to cook. Last time he caught my stove top on fire.”

Lyndon arched an eyebrow right back. “Wait! You can’t leave now without explaining how Oscar set your stove on fire!”

“Let me just say, while my brother is brilliant, he didn’t know you should smother a grease fire instead of dumping water on it.” Then Levi was out the door and, from the sound of it, running towards the kitchen.

Lyndon would have chuckled over Oscar’s mistake if he hadn’t done the same thing himself. Of course, he’d been an eleven-year-old kid trying to fix dinner in the hopes of getting his mom to eat.

“Don’t go there.” Those were memories Lyndon didn’t want to get lost in right now. He walked to the dresser and found the rest of the clothing he needed.

After he finished using the toilet, Lyndon started to turn on the sink when he heard a knock on the front door. He recognised the voices of Henry and Cheryl, Levi and Oscar’s parents, but the other two male voices weren’t familiar. Lyndon couldn’t quite make out what was being said, but there was something about the low tones that made his skin itch. He grabbed the toothpaste and, unable to find an extra toothbrush, used Levi’s to get rid of his funky morning breath. Lyndon dressed quickly, glad the sweats and shirt were only a little snug. Levi wasn’t much smaller than him at all.

Lyndon splashed his face a couple of times and gave the shower a wistful look before trying to de-fluff his hair. At least it wasn’t all over the place like it used to be when he’d lived in Dallas. The humidity had never failed to make his hair frizzy to the extreme. There just weren’t enough styling products in the world to combat Texas humidity.

Satisfied he looked as presentable as possible, Lyndon sucked in a deep breath and told himself to man up. He couldn’t help but feel a little intimidated by Levi’s family. Not that he thought they were going to run him off—he hoped they wouldn’t—but he hadn’t had a lot of experience interacting with family. There’d only been his mother, and she’d been lost in her own world much of the time those last few years. Then he’d met his dad—

Stop stalling.

Laughter rang out from the kitchen as Lyndon stepped into the hall. He hesitated, uncomfortable for a moment and not wanting to intrude. It shouldn’t have surprised him at all that Levi appeared in the kitchen doorway almost immediately. The soft smile the man wore matched the soft glow in his green eyes. Lyndon stopped worrying about how and if he would fit in when Levi held out his hand.

“It’ll be fine,” Levi said so quietly Lyndon had to strain to hear, but he bet Levi’s family heard with those sharp senses they retained in human form. “Come meet the rest of the crew. Well, not all the rest of them, but my two other brothers. I imagine you’ll be meeting Jenny and Mark soon enough.”

It was nice, Levi’s hand in his. Lyndon had never been big on public displays of affection, but they weren’t in public and even if they had been, he’d have wanted the intimacy of the simple touch.

“Took you long enough,” Oscar said, grabbing a slice of bacon off a platter on the table.

Henry lightly tapped the back of Oscar’s head as he smiled at Lyndon. “Ignore him, and be glad we brought breakfast over. Levi can cook, but he doesn’t have my recipe for buttermilk biscuits.”

The red ceramic bowl Henry took out of the oven was full of steaming hot biscuits, and the scent wafting off them was drool-worthy. Lyndon’s mouth watered as Henry set the biscuits on the table. Cheryl came in through the back door followed by two stoic-looking young men. Cheryl seemed…worried? Lyndon must not have been the only one who thought so because Henry and Oscar descended on her.

“What’s wrong?” Henry asked, glancing from Cheryl to each of the men behind him.

Cheryl peered past Henry at Lyndon, and Lyndon didn’t need any extra senses to tell him what she was going to say next. It still hit him like a punch to the diaphragm.

“There’s cougar tracks outside, among other…evidence…of another cat being here.”

Lyndon said the first thing that came to his mind, even if it was what he wanted least—for himself, anyway. “I should leave.” He wanted Levi and his family safe.

“Fuck that,” Levi snapped, locking an arm around Lyndon’s waist.

“What he said,” Oscar muttered, glaring at the back door as if he could visually exterminate Lyndon’s stalker.

“Watch your mouth, Levi Allen! And you, Lyndon, you’re not going anywhere.” Henry turned to face Lyndon fully “You know you’re welcome here, wanted, even. Don’t you think you’ve found something worth fighting for? Some
one
?”

Lyndon looked at him, at the rest of the family who were watching him intently in return. Levi’s gaze drew his and Lyndon nodded. “More than just someone.” He swallowed around a tight knot of emotion threatening to clog his throat. “There’s a whole family here worth fighting for.” Maybe they weren’t his family, not yet, but Lyndon wanted them to be. He wanted to be a part of this group of people who loved and protected each other.

Levi’s smile was so sweet it made Lyndon’s heart quiver as warmth spread to his fingertips. “Then let’s sit down and figure out a plan to end this shit.”

“Language, Levi,” Cheryl scolded. He got popped just like Oscar had earlier.

“Ow,” Levi grumbled as he rubbed his head.

“And we will have a nice, enjoyable family breakfast before we start dealing with anything else. would have joined us but she’d already made plans with Betta.”

“Betta’s Cheryl’s sister,” Henry explained, “and Marybeth’s youngest daughter. She lives in Colorado Springs.”

Lyndon nodded and decided he might just have to draw out a family tree. He knew Marybeth and her deceased husband Vincent had several kids and keeping track of
their
kids and so on was going to be a challenge.

Cheryl turned and gestured towards the table. “Drake, Orion, help your mother get the rest of the food on the table.”

The two men behind Henry scuttled to the stove and began carrying plates loaded with pancakes and sausage as well as a big bowl of creamy white gravy.

“Drake’s the one who looks the most like me,” Levi said as he nudged Lyndon towards the table. “Obviously Orion resembles us too, though.”

“Hey.” Orion waved at Lyndon.

Drake just tipped his chin then started rearranging the platters to some pattern only he could comprehend.

Lyndon thought the description of both brothers apt. Drake could have been Levi’s twin if Levi had been a couple of inches shorter and his hair a shade lighter and streaked with burgundy chunks. Orion had hair that wasn’t black, but it was so dark a brown it probably appeared so in weaker lighting. He also had harsher features, as if he’d got an extra dose of testosterone in the womb or something. As far as appearances went, he looked like the toughest of the brothers.

Henry started handing out orders as he brought honey, butter and jam to the table. “Levi, Lyndon, can you get the silverware and plates? And Oscar, get the glasses. Your mom will get the milk and OJ.”

“Almost got us seated,” Levi said, obviously thinking he was safe from another swat since his mother’s hands were full.

“She’s gonna sit that stuff down in just a second,” Lyndon warned.

Henry and Drake laughed while Oscar and Orion nodded.

“Yes, you know she will just wait to get you when you’re not expecting it,” Henry pointed out. “You’re going to be sitting there, minding your own business, and this petite blonde angel is going to sneak up and smack you into next week.”

“Angel my butt,” Cheryl snorted, “but the rest of it was pretty accurate.”

The teasing banter helped lift a little of the stress off Lyndon’s shoulders and he found himself able to relax to an extent and enjoy the meal. Levi’s brothers were something else. Actually, all of Cheryl and Henry’s sons were something else. Levi picked and teased as much if not more than the other three young men. It was amusing to watch and made for one of the most pleasant—or maybe humorous was more apt—meals Lyndon had ever had.

But the meal eventually ended, and the joking camaraderie died down as Cheryl cleared her throat. Lyndon fought the urge to fold his hands in his lap like a scared kid. He wasn’t scared, not for himself anyway. As for Levi and his family, Lyndon would fight to the death to protect them.

“It won’t come to that,” Levi told him, placing his hand on top of Lyndon’s.

Lyndon turned his hand palm up, slipping his fingers between Levi’s while he lost himself his man’s eyes for a second or two.

“Won’t let what come to what?” Drake asked in a voice almost as deep as Levi’s.

Levi saved Lyndon from trying to come up with an explanation. “I was just thinking out loud, never mind me.”

Drake didn’t look entirely convinced. “Is there something going on? I mean, between you two that the family should know about—besides the obvious,” Drake tacked on when Levi started to chuckle. Drake scowled but his sparkling eyes gave away his amusement. “Seriously, Grandma Marybeth doesn’t remember much. We don’t really know a lot about what we are, so if there’s some new development—”

“Can’t you smell their connection?” Orion looked straight at Lyndon, pinning him with a dark, unwavering gaze. “It’s like the established relationships, like Mom and Dad, and they’ve only just hooked up. Is this a cougar thing?”

Lyndon was uncomfortably aware of everyone looking at him now, expecting a confirmation he just couldn’t give. Grady had spent more time teaching Lyndon to be a decent human being than dwelling on their shifter natures. “I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think so,” he admitted. “I mean, my father didn’t seem to give a shit about my mom, and as far as I know he never married.”

Levi squeezed his hand and Lyndon tilted towards him a little, grateful for the comfort Levi offered. “Maybe he just never met the right person. For all we know, he could fall in love tomorrow and maybe not be such a total…jerk.”

Lyndon wished he could believe Levi’s theory, but the truth was, he didn’t think his father was capable of loving anyone other than himself. Then again, maybe it had just been Lyndon and his mother his father had deemed unlovable. Try as he might, Lyndon couldn’t believe the problem was him or his mother, not completely at least. His father had hated him on sight, without knowing him. How could it be something about Lyndon’s personality, then, when his father hadn’t a clue as to the kind of person Lyndon was?

“I just don’t know, but I doubt it. I mean,” Lyndon looked at Cheryl. “Could you imagine hating one of your kids enough to threaten to kill them if they didn’t run far away? Would your territory mean so much you’d murder one of them?”

Cheryl was shaking her head before Lyndon finished. “No, never. In someone who’d do so, there would be more beast than man, don’t you think? But you aren’t like him, controlled by your cougar, otherwise you wouldn’t be sitting here conversing with a bunch of other cats. And you said that guy, Grady, he took you in and helped you out. So I think it’s clear there are cougar shifters who are just as capable as we are of letting the man control the beast. I don’t think your father cared to do so.”

Chapter Seventeen

Levi couldn’t imagine either of his parent’s being anything other than the loving people they’d always been. For that matter, his entire family, cousins, aunts and uncles included, were very close and supportive. Being gay was a non-issue, he and Oscar, as well as their cousins and uncle who were gay, were all treated the same as everyone else. He did wonder if Lyndon’s father hated him because of his sexuality, but he couldn’t comprehend the man doing so.

“Does he know?” Levi asked.

Lyndon frowned and canted his head to the side. “Does he know what?”

“That you’re gay?”

“I don’t think so. I’d only just figured it out myself right before my mother passed away. I hadn’t even done anything—never had a boyfriend or anyone to mess around with when my father showed up. I think he just hates me because I exist.”