His lip curled in derision. His scorn wasn’t even at taking up with a human associated with the werewolves. That was bad enough. Hell, his youngest brother had gone further and mated a werewolf. No, it was because Jason was completely whipped. It was one thing to shack up with a woman. His practiced eye looked her over, and she was one hell of a woman, but mating? Mating made you weak. Mating made you stupid. He’d seen it over and over again the last few months as each of his brothers fell. Definitely not for him.

Calling on his experience as the family’s security expert, he schooled his expression into one of disinterest and got out of the car. The north Florida humidity hit him like a blow. Dolphin territory. Even in early winter it was warm and balmy. How could anyone live here? The leopard clan claimed everything west of the Mississippi, and he’d be glad to get back to his own land and more specifically home, to the family’s resort, Refuge, in the Arizona desert. At least they had seasons.

Scanning the area as he walked, he strode through the yard. Scrub and small trees. There was nothing appealing in it and its proximity to the wolves just made it worse. The Gulf Coast may belong to the dolphins, but almost everything east of the Mississippi was wolf land. Jason had escaped here after Celeste’s alleged death and other than finding her alive hadn’t had much luck with the place. This was the area where Jason had a fought a werewolf and a hurricane. The need to take action also ruffled his fur.

As he approached, the couple moved. Jason came to meet him at the porch’s edge while Celeste remained seated on the hammock. She watched him warily, suspicion and unease clear on her face. Nico tried to force some of the predator that lived in him farther below the surface. He needed answers from the woman. Scaring her silly was unlikely to get them.

“Brother.” Jason stood with his feet braced apart and his arms crossed over his chest. “What brings you here?”

It was like that, was it? Could be he had the cool reception coming. He hadn’t been very diplomatic the last time they spoke, but his focus was single-minded. He cocked an eyebrow.

“You know why I’m here.”

He and his brother both looked at Celeste. She shifted under the double scrutiny, and Nico was shocked to see her expression and body language change. Gone was the timid mouse, replaced by someone harder, someone bolder. A she-wolf readying to protect her own. He wondered why that image popped into his mind. Her family may be wolves, descendants of King Lycoan and his one hundred sons granted the ability to shift into wolves by Zeus, but she was human. That must be it.

She stood, and he approached, forcing his features to relax, hoping his smile wasn’t a grimace. When he’d first met her over a year ago, she would have shrunk back from his advance regardless. Now she stood her ground, eyes stony. Jason joined her, and she took his hand. Nico noticed it was shaking a little. Not as brave as she pretended to be, but there was no smell of fear from her, no sign of retreat. He had to admire her backbone.

“Celeste. It’s good to see you well.”

She nodded. Curtly. Once. “Thank you.”

He sighed. This was going to be more difficult that he’d anticipated. He turned to his brother, forcing his voice to be free of censure. “I had to come. Dad wouldn’t have given up on any of us.”

Instantly, he knew it was the wrong thing to say. Jason stiffened, his eyes growing glacial and a low growl welling in his throat. Nico’s statement hadn’t only accused his brother of giving their father up for dead but also his mate. He was relieved when Celeste slid her hand up the inside of Jason’s arm and calmed the beast lurking inside him. She turned cold, angry eyes on him.

“I do have one thing that may help you.” She held up a hand to hold off the questions rushing through his mind. “Inside.”

He followed them to a small kitchen and sat at the table she pointed out. Jason sat across from him and glowered. Nico was on thin ice here in the warm southern winter. Celeste poured three cups of coffee and placed a bowl of sugar on the center of the table. When she would have taken her own seat, Jason pulled her into his lap. She sat there easily, and Nico ignored the twist in his gut. He didn’t want that. The easy companionship. The warm willing woman who would always be his responsibility.

He stirred sugar into his cup and waited for her to speak. The silence stretched, and when he looked up again she had a faraway look on her face. He cleared his throat, and she jerked. Jason’s arms tightened around her waist, and he glared at Nico. Celeste rubbed circles on his arm and whispered in his ear. He relaxed, but only marginally. Nico almost sighed again. He didn’t like this armed truce that had developed between him and his brothers. Celeste twisted and looked him in the eye.

“I don’t remember anything. That hasn’t changed. No amount of badgering me is going to change that either.”

It was irritation not awkwardness that made him want to fidget. There was no way being dressed down by this human slip of a woman embarrassed him. He forced himself to sit still. He needed her information too badly to go cat on her right now. She was the sole—and surprise—survivor of the plane crash that had taken his father’s life. But if the human had lived in secrecy, why not the wereleopard leader?

“I don’t remember,” she emphasized again. Did he imagine the apology in her voice? “But my dad finally told me that it was the birds who found me. The plane…went down in their territory. It was a Messenger—Ajax Petros—who found me and notified my family.”

He shut his eyes and took a deep breath. The birds who made up the Messenger Corps were reputed to all be trained fighters and they zealously protected the neutrality of the group. This Messenger though, this Ajax Petros, kept popping up, kept feeding his family pieces of information. Now it appeared she had another connection to them, a more tangible connection. He was the only Leonidas brother not to meet her yet, and he was damned curious. He’d been on his way to see her when he’d decided to visit Jason first. Now he was glad he did—it provided the perfect excuse to enter bird territory.

It was a start. It was something to go on. He knew the crash was on bird land, of course, but other than a video they’d sent only after he badgered them into it, he knew almost nothing about it. Now he had a name to go by at least.

“Thank you, Celeste,” he said gently. Looking at the tense lines around her eyes, he had an idea how much it cost her to try to remember that time. He stayed only long enough to be polite. Determined to find answers. Determined to find the truth.