Excerpt: Magical Midlife Alliance

Chapter 1 – Jessie

“Rise and shine, miss.” Mr. Tom set my coffee on the nightstand. “It’s time to get schooled by a very pushy garhette.”

Garhette was the term they used for female gargoyles who didn’t shift. He could only mean Patty, Ulric’s mom. She’d promised to help me go through the connection requests that the gargoyle cairn leaders had sent. I was the new kid on the block and the only living female gargoyle that could shift and do magic. They were curious.

Hopefully that curiosity would turn into a desire to form an alliance. To help Kingsley, we needed numbers. The basajaunak had turned us down, and so now the gargoyles were our only hope.

Mr. Tom laid a white T-shirt across the bed over my midsection.

I wiped the sleep out of my eyes and checked the clock on the nightstand. Ten a.m. About normal for my wake-up time.

“Is she ready to get to the connection requests?” I asked, sitting up.

“Yes. She’s moved them all to the largest sitting room in the back of the house and organized them yet again. She has also tramped through the town and heard any and all gossip she possibly could. Very nosey, that woman. She’s in everyone’s business all the time.”

“That’s what makes her great at networking. It’s why she’s here.”

He sniffed, not able to argue with that.

Patty had been on a one-woman mission to learn every inch of the territory. In just a few days of being here she seemed to be intimate friends with a great many residents, both magical and not, and knew by name absolutely everyone who frequented Austin’s bar. Even crazier, I’d heard that she’d somehow organized a dinner at Broken Sue’s house that she would be hosting. The woman was a manipulative powerhouse, but you wouldn’t know it with all her pleasant smiles and seemingly innocuous chitchat.

“Here we go.” He patted the white T-shirt, which could only be Austin’s. “This one isn’t fresh, but it should still suffice. Austin Steele needs to come back and spend some time here so I can grab more of his discarded laundry.”

I should really tell Mr. Tom to stop stealing Austin’s clothes, but I loved being wrapped up in his smell. People said the yearning for each other usually waned after the first week of mating, but that hadn’t happened in our case. If anything, it kept getting stronger. Hence the stolen, dirty clothes of my mate that I wore in the mornings, especially after a night when he hadn’t made it over. Unfortunately, last night was one of them.

“He’s been busy,” I said as I reached for the shirt. “I wish there was something more I could do to help.”

“We can help right now, miss. Here we go.” Mr. Tom picked up my coffee mug and held it out to me. “Let’s get some coffee in us, and then we will be ready for the day.”

A knock sounded at the door as I checked in with Austin through our links. He seemed distracted, frustrated, annoyed, and determined. Also fatigued. Very fatigued.

I quickly got to work healing him as Mr. Tom crossed to the door. Before he got there, it swung open and Ulric poked his head in. His blue and pink hair caught the light, newly dyed and very bright.

“Oh good, you’re up.” He pushed the door open a little farther as Mr. Tom stopped in front of him, blocking his way.

“She is not up, as you can plainly see. She is awake,” Mr. Tom said in a snooty tone. “She understands that your mother is ready to get started, thank you very much. She will take her breakfast as usual and be down when she is able. The mistress of Ivy House is not to be rushed. It’s time you learned this.”

I frowned at Mr. Tom. He was literally just rushing me.

“It’s fine.” I slipped the shirt on before pushing the covers away and swinging my feet over the edge of the mattress. I held my hand out for the coffee mug Mr. Tom still held. “I’m good. I was just up late last night looking over the spell books Sebastian wants me to learn.”

“A good use of your time.” Mr. Tom turned with a stiff back and delivered my coffee. Instead of leaving to grab my breakfast, though, he stood off to the side and glared at Ulric.

Ulric barely suppressed a grin as he stepped a little farther into the room. The grin pulled into a smile as he gave me a sweeping bow. “Good morning, miss. I trust you slept well?”

“What do you need, Ulric?” I stood and took a sip of the coffee as I made my way across the room. I looked out the windows at the beautiful day. Green grass stretched across the backyard and a doll with a billy club trudged its length. “Why…”

Another doll, down the way, stomped through Edgar’s flowers with a machete. Yet another, deeper in the trees, held a large knife in one hand and tapped the end against its other hand.

“What’s going on with the dolls?” I asked, immediately feeling around for the others. For this reason, and this reason alone, I was grateful I could detect them through my connection to the house. Some were in their room, but most were wandering the grounds.

“Oh, that.” Mr. Tom headed into my closet. “It seems the garhette only spooked the gnomes. She didn’t entirely chase them away. They are currently in the woods, hidden from detection by Ivy House, and an elaborately violent game of hide-and-seek is underway.”

I grimaced and backed away from the window. “Who is playing this game? Just the dolls and the gnomes?”

“It’s hard to say. So far it seems anyone who ventures too far into the woods is playing the game. That is, if Edgar’s shouts and screams are any indication. The dolls are on the case, but the gnomes are proving wily. There is a war brewing, I think.”

“Why is Ivy House hiding the location of the gnomes?” Ulric asked, edging closer to the window and looking out.

“It is anyone’s guess,” Mr. Tom said, bringing out a pair of jeans and a black, flowy blouse. “It’s best to just ride these things out. Ulric, make your point and leave the miss to wake up. She has to deal with your mother all day. She needs to prepare.”

“She’s not that bad,” Ulric muttered. “I just wanted to say, Jessie, that if my mom gets to be too much, or she is a little too pushy, or if she won’t listen to you, just let me know. I’ll try to run interference. She might not shift, but she has a lot of the more…robust gargoyle characteristics.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“It means she is incredibly stubborn and hard to manage,” Mr. Tom said. “She thinks she knows everything and attempts to assume control of that which is none of her business.”

It was like he’d forgotten that he, too, was a gargoyle and shared a lot of those traits…

“Got it,” I said, finishing my first cup of coffee. “I think I can handle it. Mr. Tom, can you grab me another cup of coffee? I’m going to jump in the shower.”

 

A half-hour later, I was dressed, fed, and ready to wade through the connection requests. Part of me was excited to see what the cairns had sent! Most had sent their invitations with gifts, and I’d been assured I could keep everything without guilt because this was how things were done in the gargoyle world.

The other part of me knew what was on the line. This wasn’t fun and games. I’d need to choose whom to invite wisely and be quick about it. Time was ticking.

“Here we are.” Mr. Tom led me to the door of the largest sitting room, opened it up, and stepped aside with a flourish. “Good luck, miss. We’re all counting on you.”

“Thanks,” I muttered, stepping through.

My eyes widened at the sight that awaited me in the room.

Boxes. Boxes everywhere! Some with bows, some wrapped, some just a plain color, like white or pink. A few baskets sat among the boxes, and a couple of trunks. It was like the most elaborate Christmas morning setup I’d ever seen.

A sound like heh escaped my lips as I took one more step forward, scanning the bounty. Patty had definitely organized everything. There seemed to be sections, all the packages grouped together in clusters around the room. Within the sections, each package was given its own space so that nothing was crowded.

No wonder she’d set this up in the big room.

Sebastian and Nessa sat on one of the couches, each looking up with bright, excited eyes. They obviously wanted to see what was in all of the packages. Jasper and Nathanial stood at the back of the room, waiting patiently to be of some use. Niamh sat in a chair at the side, sipping out of a teacup. It was anyone’s guess if that cup contained tea or whiskey. Patty loitered on the outskirts of one of the smaller clusters, her manicured finger out, muttering to herself.

“What about the rest of our crew?” I asked, noticing the absence of Cyra, Hollace, and Edgar. Through the Ivy House link, I could feel them in the distance, what felt like a town away or more.

“They went on a seed-buying expedition with Edgar,” Mr. Tom said. “There is some sort of flower show on the horizon that he’s very excited for.”

It was then I felt the front door open and registered the footsteps that had entered Ivy House’s property.

Austin.

Butterflies fluttered through my belly, and I instantly stopped and turned toward the door.

He came through it a moment later, his steps hurried until he saw me. Then he slowed, his cobalt gaze lingering on mine before sweeping down my front. I’d changed into real clothes, thankfully, and wasn’t still wearing his old T-shirt. Not that he would have minded.

“Hey, baby,” he said, not glancing around or acknowledging anyone else in the room. This was his way of showing the world that I was the most important thing to him, and anyone else had better be prepared to wait until he was done greeting me.

The sentiment made me swoon every time.

“Hey,” I said with what I knew was a dopey grin. “We’re about to start going through the connection requests. Do you have time to hang out for a while?”

He ran his thumb along my bottom lip. “Always.”

Shivers coated my skin, and my eyes fluttered as he leaned down to kiss me, his lips grazing mine until they pressed more firmly. I opened my mouth to him, rewarded by his intoxicating taste and a thrill of electricity.

“I missed you,” he whispered when we came up for air. “I plan on staying tonight.”

“Will you be going home to freshen up a bit first?” Mr. Tom asked from beside the door. “Or maybe you’d like to shower quickly right now, put on some house sweats, and meet us back here. I doubt we’ll be very far along with the way Mrs. Sunauk chatters on.”

“Manners, Mr. Tom,” I chastised him, slipping my hand into Austin’s.

Austin’s brow furrowed as he attempted to process what Mr. Tom had said.

“Come on, the show is about to begin.” I tugged him along.

“Is he saying I stink?” Austin asked as he allowed me to pull him to the couch. He bent his head, clearly trying to get a whiff of himself. “I haven’t done much fighting or sweating today. I should be good.”

I laughed as we sat down. “Never mind him. You smell good. Spicy and masculine.”

“No gorilla trailing along behind you, huh?” Nessa mock-pouted. “And here I wore my good ponytail holder.”

Sebastian spat out a laugh. “That’s as much as you try anymore, huh?”

“Like you can talk, rocking your sweatpants.”

“These are sports sweats. They count as pants.”

“I don’t think you’re going to thaw that gorilla,” Ulric said as he opened his laptop and sat down on the couch behind his mom. “He’s got a lot of baggage that he seems to want to hang on to.”

“He can hang on to his baggage,” Nessa responded, “just as long as he drops his pants.”

Ulric laughed delightedly. “A-men, sister. Happy hunting.”

“Mr. Steele.” Mr. Tom half bowed to Austin. “Might I offer you something to eat or drink? A sandwich, perhaps?”

“Yeah, that would be great,” Austin said, leaning back and getting comfortable.

“Can I have a sandwich, too?” Jasper called after him.

Ulric raised his hand. “I can always eat.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” Patty grumbled before clapping to get everyone’s attention. “Every gargoyle leader put his best foot forward and now awaits Jessie’s judgment on whether or not his cairn will get an audience. Shall we begin?”

“I’m about to pee myself, I’m so excited,” Nessa said, leaning forward on the couch.

Patty bustled to the far right corner. “Okay, now, Jessie. A few things—”

“Oh my God, she is great at dangling the bait.” Nessa puffed out a breath, still leaning forward in anticipation.

“Ulric has a spreadsheet open.” Patty gestured to where her son sat. “On that spreadsheet I have listed all the cairns, those who sent gifts and those who did not. I will stop myself here and mention that those who did not send anything, in this instance, likely didn’t think they had anything to offer. Almost anyone of relevance did send a gift. So we are in very good shape going into this. Let’s have a round of applause for a great start…”

Patty clapped animatedly. Nessa joined in, shoving Sebastian with her elbow to make him clap too. Jasper and Ulric looked around in confusion with their hands poised.

“I have the cairns and their statuses pre-entered.” Patty nodded at the laptop. “Ulric will enter what you’ve received today. A summary, Ulric. We just need to refresh our memories later on.”

“I’m very good at vague thank-you cards,” I said, feeling the anticipation burn through me.

“Oh my no, Jessie. No, no.” Patty shook her head, her blond curls dancing. “No, dear. There will be no thank-you cards. You will either send a delicate rejection letter—I can craft that, if you’d like—or an invitation to meet. If you decide to issue an invitation, you will provide three dates—only three, mind. They will need to make one of those dates work.”

“But what if I want to meet them and they don’t have the space on their schedule?”

Patty stared at me for a long beat. “Dear, you are the only living female gargoyle in existence. The only one who has existed for some time. The gargoyle world at large was starting to think shifting females were a myth, that they’d gone extinct and would never come back. All these gargoyles”—she gestured around the room at the packages—“are desperate to meet you. They might not want to be led by you just yet, since that’s another ball of wax, but if you turn out to be the genuine article within the community, their status will increase merely because you’ve given them an invitation. They will move heaven and earth to get here. Providing three dates is generous.”

“Elaborate on them not wanting to be led by her,” Austin said.

“Well, to put it simply, she’ll need to prove herself. They’ll want to know she can lead, and that she can protect both her people and theirs.”

“Even if she proves herself,” Nathanial said, “large cairn leaders are used to giving orders, not taking them. It will take a lot for that to change. I think for now we want to make a good impression, prove our territory is more than capable, and try to attract a host of guardians. That’ll help us with the battle in Kingsley’s territory, and we can work on our overall status in due time.”

“Yes, fantastic point, Nathanial.” Patty beamed. “But let’s keep our status in mind, yes? We want to show well so that our status rises in the gargoyle community. The large cairn leaders will help with that. A lot to think about. Baby steps. Step one…here, Jessie, open the first gift.”

 

Chapter 2

Jessie

“Oh, wait.” Patty held up a hand, stopping Jasper from picking up the package she’d indicated. “Let me just quickly go over how everything is organized.”

“She did it again!” Nessa slapped her thighs, laughing. “Are we ever going to be able to open anything?”

Patty laughed also, clearly enjoying Nessa’s lightheartedness. “We can open while I explain,” she relented, motioning to Jasper and Nathanial. “Grab a few boxes from just over here, boys.”

“Finally,” Nessa said, her eyes hungry.

“This is the collection of gifts from some lower-status and rather poor cairns,” Patty said, watching Jasper lift a medium-sized, pale pink box.

“Is there space on that spreadsheet that lists cairn size?” Austin asked. “Battle power, strongest members, things like that? We’ll need location, as well. They might not get invited for a visit, but if we are traveling for other reasons, we can always stop in to meet them.”

“I have a very rough estimate,” Patty responded, “but unfortunately, a lot of that information is kept private. Cairns tend to keep their poker hands close to the chest, as it were.”

“They must keep that information somewhere, though, right?” Nessa asked. “Surely large cairns keep records of their people. Even just payroll.”

“Well, I know ours has a very robust network, yes,” Patty said slowly. “But it has a lot of cybersecurity, and none of those in the know are at all prone to gossip. I have tried until I’m blue in the face. But I do have a lot of anecdotal information—”

“Nessa, here…grab…” Sebastian held his hand out toward Ulric and opened and closed his fingers.

“Words, Sebastian,” I said. “Use your words.”

Nathanial knelt beside me with a smallish white box wrapped in a pink bow, leaving Jasper to wait for a moment.

“Miss,” he said softly, a smile lightly curling his lips. “This is just the beginning. I can’t wait to witness your continued climb to greatness.”

“That’s a little much,” I murmured, but couldn’t help my grin as I took the box. I felt like royalty.

“I got it.” Nessa hopped up, grabbing the laptop out of Ulric’s lap. “I’ll just take over here, if you don’t mind.”

She bounded back to Sebastian, sitting and holding the computer out a little so they could both see.

“Here, Ulric,” Niamh called. “Go get me Mr. Tom’s laptop, would ya? It’s the cleanest in the house. He doesn’t seem to know porn exists. Nessa, slap that spreadsheet onto Google Drive so we can all access it.”

“Uh…yup, okay.” Ulric bounced up and jogged from the room.

Patty looked around at everyone with raised eyebrows.

“She already knows what we’re thinking, Sabby,” Nessa murmured, pointing at something on the screen. “Very clever, our Irishwoman.”

“Well, it’s no great mystery,” Niamh replied. “Any great fool knows that network security is only as good as the people who set it up. A few taps, and we’ll have all the information we please. Jasper, text that scruffy lad in town with the spiky hair and missing pinky. The ferret. I don’t think there is a system he can’t hack into. We’ll lift up these cairns’ kilts and give their balls a wee tickle.”

“Pay?” Jasper asked, looking down at his phone.

“Ye really ought to recruit that gobshite into yer pack, Austin Steele,” Niamh grumbled. “Then I wouldn’t have to haggle with the bollocks. Tell him I’ll sort him out, Jasper. We might as well set up a fortified network here while we have him, I suppose. We don’t want those cairns to return the favor and pull down our knickers.”

“Lots of metaphors involving private parts in cybersecurity, it seems,” Nessa murmured.

Patty nodded. “Yes, that sounds great. Let’s give our team a round of applause.” Everyone looked around in confusion this time. “Now, Jessie, each cairn name is written on the bottom of the box or package. Go ahead and open it, have a genuine reaction, and then we can check out the name of the cairn.”

“I’m not sure this step is really necessary,” Nathanial said. “She doesn’t know one cairn from the other. She won’t be swayed by names.”

Patty hesitated. “This is true. Well…we might as well tell her anyway. These cairns are mostly well established, though still low status. They haven’t been able to rise in the ranks. If you were a betting woman, you’d bet they’d remain as they are: unworthy of a second glance.”

“Harsh,” Jasper said with a grin as I lifted the lid and peered inside.

“Oh.” Trying not to show my disappointment, I pulled out a chipped beige pot containing a couple of succulents. The rocks and much of the dirt had escaped the pot in transit and ended up at the bottom. “That’s…nice. Edgar will be able to do something with that.”

Nathanial frowned at it. “Like throw it away.”

“Yes, well…” Patty walked over and took the box, checking the label at the bottom. “Ah. Them. I’ve heard that the leader has been through three mates so far. All of them have packed up and left the cairn, seemingly without notice. He has no stability. Definitely not someone to waste our time with.” She handed the box off to Nessa, presumably so she could write down the name. “What’s next?”

Nathanial handed over another box, this one a bit larger. Maybe one foot high and two feet wide. White Styrofoam sat snugly within it.

I worked my fingers in the sides only to have Nathanial put down the box Jasper had just handed him and reach for the one I held.

“Allow me, alpha,” he murmured, taking the box and working out the contents. That done, he handed it back for me to do the final reveal.

“Okay, here we go, Austin Steele.” Mr. Tom bustled in with a large plate piled high with two cheeseburgers with all the fixings and homemade fries. “I felt this might go over a bit better than a sandwich. Also, I ran out of lunchmeat— Good gracious, what is that ghastly thing?”

I held a little metal gargoyle with large, outstretched wings made in purple and blue stained glass.

“This is nice,” I said, turning it to inspect the back. “The body isn’t very detailed, but the wings are pretty. Look! It has little claws. How cute.”

“Pretty? No. Reject that cairn immediately,” Mr. Tom said with distaste. “What a horrid caricature of our great species. Have they no class?”

“It seems Mr. Tom feels strongly about this one, Captain,” Sebastian told Nessa. “I think the alliance potential has been significantly lowered.”

“Yes, indeed,” she responded, typing the gift into the spreadsheet as Patty handed them the box with the name on the bottom. “A mockery of the great gargoyle. Such things cannot be tolerated.”

“Here we go, miss.” Nathanial took the gargoyle and handed me the next box, saying the name for Nessa as he did so.

“Give that statue thing here, Nathanial,” Niamh called with outstretched hands. “I’ll take it. It reminds me of Mr. Tom.”

“How dare you!” Mr. Tom braced his fists on his hips before shaking his head as he left the room.

“We have a lot to get through,” Patty said, taking a seat. “We might want to expedite the process of opening these smaller packages.”

“Oh!” Sebastian held out his hands. “I’ll open some. I never get presents.”

“How dare you!” Nessa mimicked Mr. Tom. “I get you presents twice a year.”

“You’re too lazy to wrap them, though,” he returned as Jasper handed him a couple of boxes.

“And now we know how fussy you are,” Nessa responded, her eyes glued to the box I’d positioned on my lap. This one was smaller than the last, only about a hand length wide and not much taller. “All this time you’ve gushed and swooned, and really you were just wishing for a little wrapping paper.”

“Yes, well…” Sebastian ripped into the paper covering the long and shallow box he held. “The truth eventually finds us all.”

I opened the dull brown shipping box I held and peered inside at a collection of T-shirts.

“Huh.” Sebastian lifted out a knitted sweater with large wooden toggles for buttons. “Who do they actually want an alliance with? Jessie or Edgar?”

“Edgar, obviously,” Nessa said as she entered the newest present.

“Yes, that is…disappointing.” Patty pursed her lips. “And Jessie, what is that? Oh…no.” The first shirt read Reras in large letters with some sort of twisted rope for an insignia. “I’d heard that they’d gone and branded themselves, but I had no idea they’d done such a terrible job at it.”

“Should we have expected better from these cairns?” Sebastian asked, ripping into the next box. A silver bow went flying.

“Not…really,” Patty said, watching him dig through packing paper.

The next I opened held an assortment of bath bombs with the best smells.

Patty gasped, her face closing down in rage. “Strike them off the list,” she yelled at Nessa.

“Oh my God—” Nessa flared her fingers, looking hard at the screen. “I will, I will! Quick, who are they?”

“Oh.” I paused in pulling a face mask out from under the bath bombs. “What’s wrong with these? They’re actually kind of nice.”

“That is a present for a Jane, not a gargoyle,” she said, bracing her fists on her hips. “A gargoyle would never send that to a garhette, let alone a female gargoyle. That cairn is clearly calling you out for your past. What an insult!”

“What’d I miss?” Ulric asked, jogging back in with Mr. Tom’s laptop.

“The Zakun cairn sent her bath bombs.” Patty tsked and shook her head. “They should be invited just so I can give them a piece of my mind. Everyone—and I mean everyone—is going to hear about this. The disrespect! The sheer disrespect in a gift like that… I’m at a loss for words. I simply have nothing to say about this flagrant disrespect.”

“At…a…loss…for…words,” Nessa typed. “Absolutely…invited…here. Can’t…wait…for…fallout.” She smacked the enter key. “While we’re on the subject, though…” Nessa looked up and put out her hand. “Can I have them if you don’t want them? Because I love taking baths. I’ll use them.”

“This face mask is good, too.” I put it to the side before giving an excited little yelp at the fuzzy bathrobe beneath. “I mean…I’ll share, but I am absolutely using this. Why don’t garhettes get bath stuff as presents?”

Before Patty could answer, Sebastian craned his neck as he peered into the next box and said, “May I interest you in chocolate on a stick? It looks like you can dip it in coffee? Or milk, I guess. Or your mouth, maybe? There’s a few pictures here, along with a box of chocolates. Also…what looks like some sort of candy— Oh, peanut brittle. Duh. It’s peanut brittle. Essentially, this is a box of sugar.”

“Yum!” Nessa said, making notes.

“Another distasteful gift.” Patty went to look at the boxes in the next grouping. “This is like a poke in her eye.”

“They may have been attempting to send personalized gifts,” Nathanial said, giving me the last box in that grouping. “She’s a woman and a past Jane. They clearly looked up what that type of person might like and sent that. It seems they were correct. Let’s not apply a slight where one might not have been intended.”

“But let’s find out, one way or another,” Sebastian said, putting his box to the side. “If they did intend to deliver a slight, invite them here so we can watch Austin Steele lose his mind when they disrespect her.”

“Um…” I pulled out the contents of the last box. “Something like a Brillo pad, a full-strength nail clipper, a…whisker trimmer…” I looked up at Patty with a crinkled nose. “Do female gargoyles usually have beards and hard-to-manage fingernails?”

She tsked again. “I swear, do none of these cairns think? That is an insignificant gift for a male gargoyle.”

“It’s like a Dick getting a tie for his birthday,” Ulric said. “Pretty lame.”

“Wouldn’t that be a slight?” Nessa pointed at the box. “Could they not have looked you up online and seen your whisker-free face and dainty nails? Or is that kit for when you’re in gargoyle form?”

“Here we go.” Mr. Tom walked in with a fresh tray full of sandwiches. “I found some chicken hiding in the back of the fridge. It should suffice. You guys heal quickly, at any rate, in case the chicken has been there too long. I’ll bring some chips and fruit in a moment. Refreshments, anyone? Who is thirsty— No, I am not asking you.” He scowled at Niamh’s raised hand. “Unless you would like water. You need to drink more water.”

“Beer is basically water. I’ll take one of those,” she replied.

“Do you think we can expect anything good?” Nessa asked over their conversation. “Because so far this has been a buzzkill.”

“Let’s hope so,” Patty replied. “Boys, you can pile all the opened things to the side. We’ll distribute them or throw them away later, as needed.”

She waited for everyone’s attention before beaming at the room at large.

The feeling of one familiar and two unfamiliar presences entered the Ivy House woods way on the other side, toward the mountains. The basajaun—Dave—was returning from his home lands and had two visitors in tow. Given their stride length, they were obviously basajaunak.

I glanced at Austin with wide eyes. A tiny smile curved his lush lips as the rest of my crew reacted to the news. Other than Sebastian and Nessa, who didn’t have official places in the crew, they could all feel presences on Ivy House land as well as I could.

“Is that…?” Ulric looked at Jasper. “Dave was only going to bring one basandere to stay with us, right?”

“Did he convince someone else to come along?” Jasper asked.

“It could be one of her parents coming to check things out.” I raised my eyebrows.

“They could just be visiting, yes,” Niamh said, looking down at the laptop Ulric had given her. “Then they might have a wee nibble of Edgar’s tasty flowers, or wander through this new wood, or scare hikers on the mountain. Who knows what they might get up to? And maybe, just maybe, they’ll both decide to stay on awhile.”

Ulric grinned and held up his hand to show his crossed fingers.

“What am I missing?” Patty asked, looking around. “What’s happening?”

“Nothing, Mom, it’s fine.” Ulric wandered in her direction, ready to grab the next set of boxes. “What’s this group?”

She stared at him for a beat, and it was obvious she was debating whether to press the issue.

“I’ll explain later,” he said. “Let’s just get these requests done.”

After another silent beat, she glanced back at me. “This grouping have only marginally higher status than the cairns whose gifts we just opened. But, and here is the huge difference, they are worth much more.”

Confusion bled through the link from Austin as Patty walked around to stand behind a large trunk that reached up past her knee.

“These are from the production cairns.” She spread her arms, looking down at the packages around the trunk. “They specialize in a few products that they sell for profit. It could be woodwork”—she bent to touch the top of the trunk—“or textiles or dairy. Maybe they mine gold. Maybe they make jewelry. What they don’t do, however, is have the ability to protect what they create. They are weak in battle.”

“And that’s why their status is low?” Nessa asked.

“Yes…” Patty tilted her head from side to side. “Kinda. You see, when a production cairn shows that it is stable and profitable, it will look for an alliance with a larger cairn. That cairn will offer them protection in exchange for a cut of their profits. The production cairn will then inherit the status of the larger cairn.”

“And…so…” Nessa leaned forward over the laptop.

“These cairns mostly do not have an affiliation. You see…” Patty puffed out a breath, looking upward to think. “I didn’t realize how hard it would be to explain all of this.”

“Production cairns will only submit their products if they are actively looking for an affiliation,” Nathanial offered.

“Yes, exactly. Thank you, Nathanial.” She gave him a thumbs-up. “Very well put.”

“Can the bigger cairns ally with more than one production cairn?” Austin asked.

“Yes,” Nathanial responded. “They can take on as many alliances as they can handle. The protectors will usually send a host of guardians to the production cairn for protection. But a cairn only has so many guardians to protect itself and others from raids.”

“What kind of raids?” I asked.

“Cairns take goods from each other,” Nathaniel continued. “It’s not like Jane stealing, because there are rules. The more experienced cairns will take something with meaning. A battle item or a relic. The item is almost always kept under maximum protection, so taking it proves that they have a stronger force. It gives them status. A lesser cairn will take anything of value. Lesser still, and it’s anything they can grab.”

“Rules?” Austin asked. “What kind of rules?”

“For it to not count as stealing, which would reduce status, the attacking party must allow the defending cairn time to prepare. That’s one type of raid. The second is to destroy goods.”

“Why?” I blurted.

“They do that to wipe out their competition,” he said. “If they can also destroy the equipment that creates the goods, even better. Gargoyles try to keep their trading within the species, so if you wipe out anyone else who makes your product, you can get a monopoly.”

“Sounds fun,” I said darkly. Because the last thing I wanted was anyone else trying to raid us.

Once Nathanial finished, Patty continued. “So these cairns are either newer, or they aren’t profitable or established enough to have attracted an affiliate cairn. They’re trying their hand with you.”

I leaned back into the couch as Nessa tapped the keys a mile a minute.

“That all makes sense, but…” I hesitated, trying to process everything.

“It’s a lot of information, I know,” Patty said. “I know! I keep forgetting how new you are to all of this.”

“She learns quick,” Niamh said, making her own notes.

“I got it, Jessie, don’t you worry.” Nessa stalled for a moment to give me a thumbs-up. “I’m writing it all down. We’re learning right along with you. We’ll get this, no problem.”

“It’s not that different from the power structure of shifter packs.” Austin rubbed my back.

“When in doubt, open presents.” Patty reached down and grabbed the nearest box. “I do love opening presents. Here we go, Jessie, this is a good one. I can feel it. No whisker trimmers in this one.”

“What sort of protection do the cairns need?” Austin asked as Patty delivered the box and squeezed in beside me.

I opened a few boxes as Nathanial explained some common threats, like bears or encroaching humans. The goods in the boxes were from established production cairns, and none of them were great. I got why no one had picked them up.

“Raids are really the main threat,” he started before Patty cut him off.

“Oh yeah, here we go,” she said in a loud voice, her excitement rising. “I have heard amazing things about the leader of this cairn.” She clearly remembered which cairn it was from despite having hidden the name. The excitement in her eyes dulled as she glanced at Austin. “Well. I guess that doesn’t really matter for you. But Nessa, this might interest you. The leader was a bit wild in his younger years, but he’s smoothed out in all the right ways. I hear he is a real looker with a very big…”

She paused before clearing her throat.

“Fun factory,” Nessa supplied.

I opened the box to find a patterned piece of fabric in soft pink and brown. Pulling it out, I realized it was a cashmere scarf.

“Fun factory, yes.” Patty took the scarf from me as I checked out what was beneath it. “Oh my goodness, it’s so soft. And look at the pattern. Very chic.”

Next was a snow-white sweater in the same material, fantastically soft and exactly my size. I said as much, rubbing it along my cheek.

All typing stopped. Eyes found me. Tumultuous emotion filtered through the bond.

“What?” I asked, pausing.

“It could be a coincidence,” Jasper said slowly. “It’s not like her size is uncommon.”

I pulled out the next sweater, this one a deep blue green with a slightly popped collar. Spreading it out, I realized it wasn’t meant for me.

I handed it off to Austin.

Having finished his burgers, he’d put the plate on the coffee table. Even so, he wiped his hands a second time before reaching for the sweater. A moment later he pulled it over his head and stood—the fit was absolutely perfect, which was not easy with his wide shoulders and trim waist.

“Maybe not a coincidence,” Jasper mumbled.

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