like mortal enemies.”
Winter snorted. “More like we really didn’t know each other existed until recently. Apparently there’s a long history of wars and violence I’m still learning about, but we’ve largely kept away from each other. Beltran has always been different. His power is to speak to and understand animals. It created a unique bond between him and the wolves.”
Well, there was way more to that story than he was giving away, but if Fox met River and Wyatt, then he was sure the witch would get all the details from the people actually involved in all the drama.
“How many brothers do you have?”
“Three. All older.”
Fox winced. “That had to be a pain in the ass growing up.”
Winter nodded. “Very overprotective brothers.”
“Yeah, I got that impression. Should I be worried?”
Keeping his eyes on the road, Winter reached across and placed his hand on Fox’s shoulder, squeezing. He couldn’t stop himself. Or rather, he was tired of fighting this damn urge to protect the man. But something about the idea of anyone hurting Fox made his fangs ache and burn. “You’ll be fine. We need more answers.”
“It’s not like I’d blame your brothers. They’re just trying to protect themselves and the people they love. And this whole prophecy is so damn vague. It’s obvious that if it is me, it’s not because of my magic. But what if it’s something I do, not meaning to hurt anyone, but it still destroys your family?”
“Then we figure it out,” Winter said more sharply than he meant to. He gritted his teeth for a second, waiting until he was sure he could speak a little more evenly. He put his hand back on the steering wheel to keep from balling it into a fist out of frustration. “We can sit here and list all the reasons why it’s smart for me to pull over and kill you now—”
“Let’s not,” Fox muttered.
“Or we focus on getting to a safe location so we can start researching all this prophecy nonsense. We find a way to keep my family safe and you alive.”
“But if killing me is the only way to keep your family safe…” Fox whispered.
Winter couldn’t say anything to that. He would kill the man. He didn’t want to. Just the idea of it was making his stomach churn and his palms sweat.
“We’ll figure this out.” It was all Winter could think to say.
“Thanks,” Fox murmured. “Brothers might be annoying, but it must have been nice growing up with built-in playmates. Were you always close?”
“Yes. We all tend to be relatively inseparable. Always in each other’s business. Kind of surprising after all these years.”
Then again, maybe it wasn’t. For the longest time, they’d relied on each other to watch over their mother. After close to two centuries of performing that duty, Winter was sure that not one of them thought they could suddenly stop checking in on each other. It was an ingrained part of who they were now.
“I take it you’re an only child,” Winter said, happy to talk about anything other than why they were in the car together in the first place.
Fox nodded. “Yeah, just me and my mom growing up. She worked a lot and I learned to be independent from an early age, but I liked it. We looked out for each other. With the cancer, it happened kind of fast, but she made sure I was prepared as well as I could be. You know, so I wasn’t grieving her and trying to figure out how to rent an apartment at the same time.”
“She sounds amazing.”
Fox hummed softly to himself, relaxing in his chair. “She was. Loved to laugh and play little jokes.”
“I know you said she didn’t have a chance to teach you any magic, but did you ever see her perform any?”
“Yeah, for as long as I can remember. Little stuff. She wasn’t like some crazy powerful witch. She knew simple magic. Pretty stuff. She loved making her magic do the housework, like washing dishes and dusting. We had the first automated vacuum cleaner ever.” He paused and smiled for a second before turning serious. “But even if she couldn’t teach me magic, she made sure I knew about that world. She told me everything she knew about witches, vampires, and shifters. She wanted to make sure I could identify them and steer clear. I think she was afraid I’d be alone and wanted me to be as protected as possible.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“Sounds like you’ve been careful,