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“You’re the hunter.”
The man winked.
“You’re an idiot,” Seventeen pronounced.
The hunter snorted. “Unkind thing to say to the man tasked with your rescue.”
Oh, and didn’t that burn?
The hunter examined the web Seventeen was currently stuck to.
He wanted to say that he didn’t need the other man’s help, but Seventeen wasn’t a stupid man. He had already made peace with the fact he was done for before the hunter arrived.
A moth tangled in a spider's web. No amount of struggling would save him.
“I don’t need someone dying for me,” Seventeen finally said. He wasn’t stupid, and he wasn’t altruistic. It was that he hated debt. The man dying uselessly was a debt too big for him to go into the afterlife with. The spider queen was more than any one man could take, and the two of them wouldn’t be enough. He was half paralyzed still from her venom and hadn’t slept.
“Take my knife, tell them you found me dead, and go. I won’t hold it against you,” Seventeen said stoically.
The hunter looked up at him in surprise, momentarily distracted from the webs.
“That’s kind of you.”
“Then you’ll—”
“Foolish though, I’m here already, may as well bring you with me.” There was a teasing in his tone that annoyed Seventeen magnified by the fact these would be his final moments in this world.
“Touch the web and she’ll come,” Seventeen said moodily. “You can’t take her by yourself.”
“Hm,” the hunter made a patronising sound, knowing his business. He gazed up at the large web that trailed up and up and up toward the cavern ceiling. That he found Seventeen had been a miracle in the first place. At least if the hunter got out Seventeen’s brothers might get closure.
“You might be right,” the hunter admitted. “She’s a dangerous one. You said you had a knife?”
“In my boot,” Seventeen answered. He felt a mixture of bitterness and relief. He didn’t want to become spider food, but he didn’t want his end to be a mystery either.
The hunter took the knife out from Seventeen’s boot.
“Thanks,” the hunter nodded and studied it. “Drat.”
“What?” Seventeen asked, insulted.
“I was hoping it would be higher quality, you’re Jango Fett’s aren’t you?”
Seventeen’s attitude to the hunter completely soured. “He fucked my mother and gave me the name Seventeen. That’s the only thing he ever gave me. Sorry, you can’t sell the metal for a few extra coins.”
“Ah, my apologies,” the hunter said awkwardly. “Still, this should do.” He hopped down from the rocks he had climbed to get to Seventeen towards his lantern and rummaged around for a while just out of Seventeen’s view.
“What are you doing?” Seventeen asked.
“Hm?”
“Why are you still here?”
“Oh, did you think I was going to leave?”
“You should,” Seventeen said between gritted teeth. If for no other reason than to let Seventeen’s last moments be peaceful.
The hunter climbed back up onto the rocks. “I promise, it’s going to be fine.”
Seventeen met the hunter’s gaze in the dim light. It was firm and sincere. A kind of look rarely seen. Someone you are drawn to follow down the darkest path.
“You really are an idiot,” he said, but despite himself he felt reassured.
Until of course, the man started cutting at the web, yanking on the threads holding him. A screech echoed above them.
“Hello, darling,” the hunter grinned upward.
The giant spider queen was bone white with large dripping fangs. She skittered down the web and followed the hunter as he rolled backward down the rocks. Seventeen dropped down on his belly, he still wasn’t able to move more than a squirm, his entire body feeling numb, pins and needles crawling up his legs and arms and back. He forced himself forward and saw what Kenobi had been up to the past quarter of an hour. Shiny black powder glinted on the cave floor designed in the hunter’s own web. As soon as the spider made her way into the middle the hunter struck Seventeen’s knife against stone. A spark was caught immediately igniting powder. The hunter scrambled back and Seventeen covered his head as flame exploded upwards. The spider continued to shriek, sounding eerily human. The noise cut off abruptly.
Seventeen crawled forward again and saw the Hunter pulling his sword out of the still-burning spider’s head.
“Can you move much?” he called from below.
Seventeen stared down at him mutely before shaking his head.
“Alright, I’ll help you, we just need to move quickly, the smoke will fill the chamber soon and a spider would be the least of our problems.”
–
He sat at the camp trying hard to stifle any sound as his muscles cramped, finally waking from the venom. The hunter sat across from him, watching him as a brace of rabbits cooked. Despite feeling starved, the smell of meat didn’t agree with him making his stomach roll. All he wanted to do was collapse in a ball and hope he felt better come morning.
“You could have said you had a plan,” Seventeen said stiltedly, trying to distract himself. He would not cry in front of a stranger.
“It wasn’t a particularly good plan,” the hunter shrugged. “Fire works on most things, but not all of them, and I didn’t have a control of the burning. I might have taken out the cave, and the two of us if we were unlucky. There was no choice though, I didn’t have time for research or stalking with you about to be her next meal.”
“There was another choice.”
“You can be as proud as you like, I don’t mind,” the hunter shrugged carelessly. “It was dangerous to save you, but that’s my work. I was never going to leave you, brave as it was for you to ask me to.”
“You’re a professional,” Seventeen hissed, it was more from pain, but it must be making him sound taciturn. “Your reputation doesn’t make you sound reckless. You could have waited for her to eat me–”
“I wasn’t going to do that,” the hunter cut him off.
“No one I know that likes me enough has enough money to pay you,” Seventeen said. “And all the spider parts are burned.”
“I don’t know what we’re arguing about,” the hunter said in exasperation. “You sound like you wanted me to actually leave you.”
Seventeen rubbed his legs angrily. Shit.
The hunter hummed when Seventeen didn’t reply.
“You’re Kenobi, right?”
“Obi-Wan Kenobi,” Kenobi nodded. “And you’re Seventeen F–”
“He gave me my first name, not my last. Just Seventeen Guardsman is fine.”
“Of course,” Kenobi nodded. “Your brother was the one that asked I look for you.”
“Cody,” Seventeen said sharply, squeezing his hands into fists trying to keep his voice even. “What did he offer? I’ll pay it.”
“No need, I owed him a favour.”
“You know Cody?”
“Mhm.”
“What did you owe him?”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“It does to me. What did you owe him?”
“My… I have a friend who…” Kenobi hesitated a little more guarded now, his easy manner tense.
“The pet witch,” Seventeen guessed. It was how he knew Kenobi’s name, otherwise, he wouldn’t take much interest in the hunter. Seventeen’s purview was the town, not what lurked outside it. That was Kenobi’s business.
Kenobi’s lips pursed, but he nodded. “My friend,” Kenobi corrected. “He is not allowed near the town. I asked Cody to let him leave freely.”
“Hm. Bold.” And interesting. He shouldn’t have done that. Cody was a rule abider, usually, he didn’t let things slide.
“Certainly. It made him bold enough to ask me to hunt for a spider queen with no preparation.”
Seventeen was annoyed at his younger brother, but he felt more relaxed understanding Kenobi’s angle.
He was protecting the witch. It wasn’t out of the goodness of his heart.
They fell into an easy silence which left Seventeen to the pain of his muscle spasms.
Kenobi glanced at him, sighed, and then pulled a pouch out of his belt.
“What are you doing?”
“This will help, hold out your hands.”
Seventeen stared at him grimly.
“If it makes you feel any better we need to cross three days worth of forest. I need you to be able to walk, this benefits me as much as it does you,” Kenobi wheedled.
“You’re being patronising.”
“You’re acting like a grumpy toddler. Hold out your hands.”
Seventeen did as he was bid. A cream was dumped into his hands uncomfortably cool to the touch.
“Rub that on your limbs.”
Seventeen started with his left arm to test it wouldn’t make things worse. It went from cold to almost uncomfortably hot before settling and soothing his aching muscles.
“Huh,” he grunted in approval.
He proceeded to rub it all over himself while Kenobi stared at the fire.
“Benefits of knowing a witch,” Kenobi said at the last swipe of Seventeen’s hand.
Seventeen glared at him knowing he withheld that little fact on purpose.
Kenobi managed to look polite and smug all at once which was just as infuriating, but Seventeen was no longer in agony so he supposed he could let Kenobi preen a bit.
“You’re a bit of a peacock, aren’t you?” Seventeen grumbled.
“And you enjoy being top dog. The Alpha,” Kenobi chuckled. “Yes, that’s what you remind me of.”
***
They woke up with the dawn. Seventeen was sore, but no sorer than a rough day of training. If it weren’t for the cream he would probably have trouble walking still. It would be handy for long days in armour. He didn’t bring it up and didn’t ask for more.
They ate dried berries and jerky Kenobi had on hand. It went down easier than the rabbit from the night before. A few gulps of good water and he felt like he had a rough night in the pub rather than a horrifying two days in a spider queen’s web.
Kenobi doused their fire and gathered his supplies, packing them neatly. In the light of day Seventeen got a better sense of him. He wasn’t physically imposing but looked strong. His hair was a little long and his beard just shy of unkempt.
“Been out here long?” Seventeen asked.
“I had only gotten back from a two-week-long hunt when your brother made his request. I didn’t have time to tidy up, why? Is the smell bad?”
Seventeen had spent the best part of two days on a spiderweb in a cave filled with the husks of large beasts. He had no idea if Kenobi smelled foul over his own rankness.
“Is that what that is?” he asked anyway.
“I could find a spring to wash up in if I offend your senses so much. There should be one nearby.”
“I’d rather go home now, thanks.”
“Well then, North we go, Alpha.” Kenobi gestured.
Seventeen glared, but he didn’t comment on the fun new nickname. He fell in step and they started their journey in silence. Seventeen wasn’t by nature a curious man. Some would say the lack of it would hinder him in his profession, but Seventeen found that a guard that asked no questions was exactly what the upper-crust in town liked best. Watch the fancy object that needs guarding, and pay no mind to anyone without coin in their pocket, unless of course, they were trying to steal the coin away or damage the property.
He had always been honest with himself, overly honest. The job was easy for him and so he did it. That it wasn’t fair didn’t particularly bother him. Life hadn’t been fair with him or those he cared for. He wasn’t empathetic to others with similar strife.
He was a bastard, both in the literal sense and the metaphorical, and he wasn’t particularly nice. He followed the rules because that was what kept him and his brothers fed. He broke the rules when the money was good and the crime was easy to cover. Corrupt when he needed to be, loyal when he needed to be. If he hadn’t been a guard he might have been a bandit, it was a similar career path.
All that to say, no one would really risk their life for him, even his brothers would have more sense than that. A lost cause is a lost cause. They could all support themselves fine now, save Boba who had more money and property than sense.
Cody though was sentimental. Enough to trade in a somewhat big favour. It spoke highly of Kenobi that Cody would ask. He wouldn’t ask someone who wasn’t competent at their work.
And Kenobi was competent, despite the half-hazard plan with the spider queen. He moved easily through pig trails and hunter paths. He knew the way. He didn’t pause to find his bearings, just moved unceasingly forward. He didn’t even pull a compass.
Beast hunters were rare this far North, but the connection with the witch had perked his interest enough to memorise the beast hunter’s name.
“What is it with you and the witch?” Seventeen asked. It was less out of curiosity and more to get a better picture of who it was he was travelling with.
“We’re friends,” the hunter answered simply, easily. No hedging or hemming, or thinking of a polite euphemism. Kenobi continued, “He might not be allowed in the town, but there’s no rule that says I can’t be friends with him, is there, Guardsman?”
“Makes you suspicious,” Seventeen said bluntly.
“I suppose there is that,” Kenobi shrugged. “For what it’s worth, he’s not hurting anyone.”
Seventeen didn’t really know if that was true or not, and didn’t really care either way. As long as the witch in the woods didn’t sneak into town on his watch, what did it really matter to him? He had a strong sense of right and wrong, despite not paying much attention to it. The witch in the woods being banished in all likelihood could probably be chalked up to a pissed-off rich man somewhere. That was usually the case.
Still, he wondered why Cody let him off. What Cody had initially planned to ask the hunter for in return. Cody was a guard as well, but his approach was different than his elder brother’s. Cody was sly. He didn’t let corruption touch him, but he did get a lot of favours owed. He also could slap on a polite smile, and he was fairly popular with the other lads in the barracks. Cody was a strategist, so ensnaring the hunter was a play of some sort. How early on had he noticed the witch’s activities? How long had he waited for the hunter to see him notice?
Seventeen took in the view of the hunter’s strong back, his copper hair reflecting sunlight. Handsome. Cody didn’t dabble much. He liked men and kept that very low-key, but Seventeen knew Cody when his brother was young enough to be indiscreet so he knew that secret.
He didn’t know much of it now, Cody was good at hiding things and keeping his private life private. He might have a dedicated lover for all that Seventeen knew.
Still, something about Kenobi made Seventeen think that he was the sort Cody might like. Competent, brave, a talker.
Seventeen didn’t usually enjoy talkers, but Kenobi didn’t do it to fill the silence, when he spoke he had interesting things to say. Points of navigation, or plants he would pull by the root and throw in a bag. A dry wit that was sometimes on the sharper side of mean, and yet soft enough you didn’t feel offended by it.
But then if Cody liked the guy so much would he throw him at a spider queen? Maybe not. Maybe he had wanted something hunted. Some monster bit to be traded for more favours.
“Stop.”
Seventeen stopped and raised an eyebrow in question.
“Can you climb? Climb this tree.”
His expression soured, the hunter was unmoved.
“Go, now,” Kenobi ordered, and Seventeen moved up despite wanting to make sarcastic comments. There was something certain in those too-blue eyes that made him keep his mouth shut.
Kenobi didn’t follow him up the tree. Instead, he drew his sword.
That was interesting too. Hunters, animal hunters, favoured bows. Kenobi did have a short bow on his back, but Seventeen had yet to see him use it. He preferred the sword. It looked like an expensive item, higher class than what was handed out at the barracks. He wondered if it was pure silver. In the hilt was a blue sapphire that had to be worth something. It wasn’t a fancy decoration though. It was a tool. Well used and well cared for. The spider’s blood had been cleaned off the night before.
From his vantage point, Seventeen could see what was happening clearly and cursed. It wasn’t just one animal, it was a pack. Long-fanged vornskr.
Seventeen hesitated. He weighed in his mind the likelihood the two of them could take the pack against how hard it would be to get himself back to town without knowing where he was and what direction he needed to go while the beasts chewed the hunter's bones.
Then there was a horrible shrieking. The vornskrs spooked and all of them turned tail and ran off in the opposite direction.
“You can come down now,” Kenobi said mildly.
“What was that?” Seventeen looked around trying to spot what sounded like a large predator.
“Me,” Kenobi waved his hand. He cupped his mouth and the shrieking noise happened again. It made Seventeen’s skin crawl.
Seventeen climbed back down.
“A krayt roar will scare anything off,” the hunter explained. “Even a baby one.”
“Baby one?”
“Oh yes, I can’t go deep enough for an adult, but a baby is terrible news in and of itself since that often means the mother is nearby.”
“We don’t get Krayts here.” At least he certainly hoped they didn’t. He had heard stories of what they could do out in the desert.
“These types of vornskrs migrate. They’ve heard that sound in the deserts and know to stay far away, they aren’t going to chance it, even in the dense woods.”
“Useful, does it work on everything?”
“As you said, Krayts don’t live in this area. It works if the creature knows what it's hearing, or isn’t feeling particularly brave about an unknown beast. Shall we continue, Alpha?”
Seventeen nodded climbing down. Despite his annoyances with the hunter he couldn’t help but appreciate his resourcefulness.
They kept a steady pace until dusk hit. Kenobi had him set up a camp while he hunted for dinner.
His stomach growled, After all the walking and subsisting off dried berries his stomach was finally ready for something heartier.
Kenobi came back with a large ugly looking bird. This time he took out a small cooking pot and stuck it out over the fire.
“I was too tired for anything fancy yesterday, but you must be feeling the stretch we’ve walked.” he started plucking the feathers.
“I’m fine,” Seventeen said. It wasn’t entirely a lie. He could keep going. He had trained himself to be tough.
Kenobi quietly laughed to himself as he butchered the bird.
“What?”
“Oh, no, it’s silly.”
“I could use a laugh,” Seventeen said, deadpan.
That made Kenobi laugh again. He already had a sense of Seventeen’s personality. It wasn’t like Seventeen tried to be charming.
“I’m sure you could,” Kenobi said. “How many years has it been since the last one? No, I was only thinking about the storybooks I used to read Anakin. The knight saving the princess from the evil monster.”
Seventeen tilted his head. “I hope you’re not comparing our situation to storybooks.”
“Well, I’m no knight, and you’re not exactly a princess. Quite the opposite in fact.” Seventeen sensed an appreciation in the hunter’s words. Kenobi continued: “But there are some similarities to our circumstances. I’m glad I don’t have to carry you while beating off beasts while getting you to safety, I don’t think my back could take it.”
“Heh.” Seventeen startled both of them with the answering snort. He cleared his throat. “How long have you been hunting?”
“Since I was a boy. I grew up an orphan cared for by the church. I apprenticed young, thirteen to a man named Qui-Gon Jinn.”
The name rang a bell.
“He was well known,” Kenobi continued, noticing his recognition. “A beast slayer. No one knew why he took his retirement in our town as a simple hunter, but he did.”
“Do you know?”
“Yes,” Kenobi said, but didn’t elaborate on the reason. “He raised me to hunt, and he raised me to slay beasts. He said I had the knack for knowing when it’s necessary. He had a good reputation. I’ve benefited from it somewhat. I’m often commissioned for hunting dangerous beasts in the area. I’m sure our darling spider queen would have been on my list at some point if not for the urgency this time. How exactly did she get you? Cody didn’t say.”
Seventeen didn’t want to talk about it.
“Oh come on now,” Kenobi said, throwing some root vegetables into the pot.
“There was a report of a stolen horse. I went out to look, not even five metres outside the wall,” Seventeen said grumpily. “I heard the neighs and looked up. There was the horse in the tree and the spider perched up above me. Had her fangs in me before I could even shout.”
“The horse is fine,” Kenobi said.
Seventeen frowned. “As if I would care about that.”
“I came upon Cody and his men bringing it down. It was an odd enough sight that I asked about it. That’s how I got roped in,” Kenobi explained.
“So you already knew.”
“I didn’t know your part of it,” Kenobi shrugged. “You shouldn’t be embarrassed about it, that she got so close speaks to her getting bolder.”
“Why didn’t she take the horse anyway? Isn’t that more meat?”
“If it was about meat then she wouldn’t be a beast, she would be an animal,” Kenobi said. “The things I hunt aren’t compelled by animal instinct. Something makes them go after humans. Something they can only get by killing us.”
“Dark magic.”
“That’s what some people say,” Kenobi shrugged, dropping herbs in the stew. It was starting to smell good.
“What do you say?”
“They’re evil,” he told him with certainty. “They want our fear and suffering. I think that’s what they feed off of.”
Sounded right. Maybe that’s why she kept him for so long. Wanted him to be hopeless and afraid when she finally sunk her fangs in for the final time.
Kenobi handed Seventeen a bowl of ugly bird stew and they ate in silence. Seventeen quietly savoured the broth and the warmth against his hands and on his lips against the cold of the forest. One more night and they would be back in town and he could put this behind him. He would owe Cody one, but that stung less than having to owe a stranger.
He shivered. It was damper tonight. Colder. The hunter had blankets and a thick cloak, but Seventeen had little but the rags that used to be his uniform. He took off his armour. He hated doing it, but knew the metal would suck away his heat.
The hunter watched him, assessing. Then Kenobi shifted closer, pushing his side against Seventeen’s.
Seventeen glanced at him, but didn’t protest. Anyone else he would have swatted away, even his brothers.
He didn’t swat him away, even as Kenobi pulled his own blankets over Seventeen, pressing against him. A warm firm body against the cold.
He shouldn’t feel so comfortable waking up on the forest floor sharing a blanket with a man he barely knew. It had been a long time since he felt so comfortable and warm. Usually the aches and pains of a previous day’s training or rough night would urge him up.
The cream still doing its work.
Or the pleasantly warm body wrapped around him.
They hadn’t done more than cuddle, which was embarrassing in retrospect. At least if they had fucked he would have an excuse of animal desire, but Seventeen had never been driven by sex enough to allow himself to be put in a vulnerable position.
But Kenobi still owed Cody until Seventeen was delivered. Or perhaps because Kenobi had already seen him at his most vulnerable. Maybe that’s what made it easier. Taking comfort he had so rarely allowed himself to take.
He tried not to dwell on how he enjoyed it. Held without sex and fear of judgement.
He felt the hunter wake up, curled as he was in Seventeen’s arms, both of them facing one another, Kenobi’s hair tickling his neck.
He expected the hunter to ruin it by talking, but he didn’t. He spoke, but it didn’t ruin anything.
“We have time, Alpha. We can wait until the sun is a little higher.”
Rather than the usual twinge of annoyance at the nickname Seventeen felt a strange wave of affection hearing it. It did suit him. He was a nasty bastard who protected his pack and what was his with a viciousness rarely seen in normal people.
He grunted in response and pulled the hunter closer.
Cody’s face was pale and drawn. He was standing at attention in the gatehouse. It wasn’t his shift. He must have forced a shiny off their rotation. Had he done it the last three days? Idiot.
Seventeen huffed.
He felt the hunter’s smile, but Kenobi didn’t comment on his stupid little brother worrying after him. He should have been making funeral arrangements.
The thought tickled him and Seventeen started laughing. The whole adventure was ridiculous. A horse in a tree. A spider queen. A hunter with certainty in his eyes. And after all of it Seventeen Guardsmen— Alpha Seventeen was alive.
Ridiculous.
He laughed and the sound drew Cody’s attention. If he was more awake he would have spotted them far sooner.
Seventeen was too busy laughing to approach further, so Cody was running out to meet them.
“Seventeen!” he called like he had done when he was half the size he was now.
“He’s—is he alright?” He asked Kenobi.
“It’s not unusual. Relief to being home,” Kenobi said with a simple shrug.
Cody had stopped short of him. Seventeen could sense the younger man’s desire to hug him. He sighed. He supposed he deserved one. He awkwardly held his arms open and his younger brother didn’t hesitate.
“I thought you were dead.”
“Would have been,” Seventeen admitted. “Thanks for getting someone that knows their business.”
Cody gave a tight nod and let him go, taking a step back, knowing his elder brother’s preferences. His eyes went to the hunter now and his nose wrinkled, the smell of the two of them breaking through his adrenaline.
Seventeen watched him carefully and yes, there were definitely some eyes in Kenobi’s direction.
But Kenobi’s returning look was only serious. Not unfriendly, but not open like it had been in the forest.
“We’re square?”
Cody blinked once, his face drawing to a more serious countenance and he nodded. “Yes… more than square. You have my deepest thanks. No one else could have saved him.”
Kenobi nodded, not with immodesty, but with the knowledge of his own worth. He looked a little less tense that the witch would be left alone, but his easy smile didn’t reappear.
Seventeen wasn’t sure how to feel about it. Whether he should encourage it or if what he had in the woods with the hunter, whatever it was, should just be left to one night of warmth and nothing more.
He settled on the truth of it. “He’s an idiot,” he told Cody, which made the hunter sputter a little at the proclamation. “He would have done it for free.”
As much as Seventeen had clung onto the debt between Kenobi and Cody he was finally honest with himself about it. Kenobi was an altruist. It’s probably why he protected the witch and it was why he went after Seventeen.
Cody looked surprised. Not only at the statement. He was good at reading people. He could see Seventeen’s softness towards the Hunter.
Irritating.
“I couldn’t ask anyone to go to a Spider Queen’s den for nothing.” At least he learned something from Seventeen.
Cody gazed at the hunter. “I understand if you might hold it against me, for what I dangled in front of you so flagrantly, but I was desperate, and there is little I would not do for my family.”
“Coming to know Alpha that isn’t so surprising.” Kenobi finally relaxed his stance, letting a little of his smile show. “Now I’ve not seen civilisation in weeks and your brother smells like a spider’s dinner, I think it best we all retire for the day, don’t you think?”
Cody gave the hunter a sincere bow. Seventeen offered a half hearted wave and tried not to think of what he might have gained or lost as he watched the hunter go. He would have to wait and see how brave he felt after a bath.
“Alpha?”
“Hm?”
“He called you Alpha,” Cody said once Kenobi was well out of earshot.
“He did,” Seventeen nodded, ignoring all of Cody’s scrutinies. He headed toward Boba’s, the brat would have to put up with them for the day, there was no way he would get the spider goo off in the guard barracks.
“You’ve just always been so opposed to nicknames,” Cody pressed, still trying to feel him out.
The name Seventeen was the only thing that Jango Fett had ever given him. He wasn’t fond of it, but it had been his.
But… he liked the name his hunter gave him better. Why hold on to a crappy gift anyway?
“Don’t you think it suits me?” Alpha asked turning Cody’s questions on him.
Cody didn’t know what to say to that.
Tiredness was pressing into his bones as they walked through the town. A few people watched him pass with shocked expressions.
He had been written off. Hopefully Cody protected his things before the other guards or their other brothers stole it all.
“I’m partial to him,” Alpha said, because he decided being straightforward would be less of an agitation in the long run.
Cody missed half a step before continuing his firm stride. He was silent, considering Alpha’s words.
“You’re not partial to anyone,” Cody finally said.
“Mmh.” Alpha hummed in agreement.
“I thought he might be partial to the witch.”
“Might be.” It didn’t matter to Alpha as long as he didn’t get turned into a toad in the near future. “He used the word friend though, when the subject came up.”
That had his brother’s attention. As usual, he was silent where his own heart was concerned.
Alpha didn’t really want to hear it anyway, but he wanted things clear.
“I may be partial to him as well,” Cody said. It was the first time Alpha considered that his brother wasn’t a very straightforward person. Reliable and competent, yes, and not a liar either. Just not forthright with his own opinion. He kept it close to his chest.
Maybe he felt strongly about it. Enough to say it outloud.
Alpha just nodded his head. There was nothing more to say about it.
The Hunter should be someone to stay away from. For both of them. Kenobi would disrupt them. Not their relationship, but their cores. He had already rattled something deep in Alpha, enough that he had stopped thinking of himself in terms of the name his father gave him. He even affected Cody. Cody who never said out loud what he wanted without a deal to cinch it.
Alpha decided it didn’t matter. Kenobi was a candle’s flame and Alpha was the stupid moth chasing warmth. If Cody was drawn in too then they were both idiots.
Must run in the family.
He sighed in annoyance at himself. Why in the void was he smiling?
Idiot.