Enforcing Boundaries

Chapter 35

Magnus

"I wanted to talk to you about something," Lachlan said. I caught his grave tone and looked over at him to see if his expression matched it. It only took a glance to realize that Lachlan meant for us to have a proper talk – the serious kind that had no place at such a lovely breakfast.

Of course, I knew better than to say such things, no matter how true they were. If Lachlan wanted to talk, we would talk. Besides, I was way too curious now to put it off until my waffles were gone. Just in case whatever he had to say took away my appetite, I scooped a massive bite into my mouth and waved a hand for Lachlan to continue while I rapidly chewed.

"You know that Luin is a good friend of mine," he started, and I sat up in surprise. I hadn't had any idea what to expect, but it sure wasn't this. I nodded my encouragement and he went on, "He's also been a huge help to us and never asked anything in return."

Finally, I thought I understood Lachlan's obvious nerves. "Has he asked for something now?"

Lachlan's eyes went wide and he shook his head. "No, but I think I know how we can help him."

I took another bite since I was confident now that nothing Lachlan said would upset my appetite. Of course I wanted to help Luin, and Lachlan wouldn't have come up with anything bad.

"What if Luin moved into the pack house?"

I stared at him and I had strange moment where I imagined I must look like a cartoon version of myself, all wide-eyed and dramatic. "What?"

"Luin needs a community. We can offer him one, and you know he could contribute a ton to the pack."

Mel spoke up. "Luin? That's your fae friend?"

I flung a bit of sausage at her from across the table. "C'mon, Mel, you've met Luin loads of times."

Lachlan put his hand on mine and squeezed gently in warning. "Yes, our fae friend," he told Mel. Probably trying to smooth things over.

"Hm," was Mel's only answer.

"What do you think?" Lachlan asked me.

I shrugged. "I can't see why not. Let me make sure Roy's okay with it, but I know we have room in the pack house and I don't think anyone would mind. Do you really think this would help him?"

Lachlan absolutely beamed at me. "It really will."

I turned back to my breakfast feeling so light I was almost giddy. It had already been a great morning, and now I felt even better. Figuring out how to help Luin had been weighing on me, and I trusted Lachlan when he said this would work – so that was one worry off my plate.

After finishing breakfast, Lachlan got up and started collecting dishes. I grabbed his hand to stop him and said, "Let me and Mel handle clean-up. You've done enough."

Lachlan set the plates he held down on the table without any hesitation. "Thanks. I should probably get upstairs. Let me know when you've had a chance to talk to Roy, okay?"

"Sure!"

Lachlan headed upstairs – off to work, probably – and I started picking up plates while Mel grabbed some storage containers for the leftovers. In my family, you always either did the cooking or the cleanup, so we were well-choreographed by now and had the kitchen clean within fifteen minutes.

My phone buzzed and normally I would have ignored it, but Mel was lingering, leaning against the counter and biting her lip thoughtfully as she did when she had something she wanted to say. If I pushed her, she might clam up, so the best play was to linger, too, and wait her out.