Valen, though, wasn’t alone.
He’d brought someone else back from his journeys with him.
The other man was probably a few years older than Valen, maybe even older than me. He was tall and the burly kind of strong with a full blond beard and a shitton of tattoos as well. He kept both sides of his head shaved, but had long blond hair down the center that almost gave him a Viking look. He had a prominent brow which made his eyes fall a bit in shadow, but they seemed to be light. Probably blue.
“Well, look who finally decided to drag his ass back where he belongs,” Fallon called, walking over and giving his cousin a one-armed hug.
The rest of the cousins followed suit, leaving me, Cary, Brooks, and the guys from the Shady Valley chapter standing back a bit awkwardly.
Dezi, though, Dezi walked right up to this man he’d never met, never even seen in his life, and gave him one of those one-armed hugs as well.
“What? We’re family now,” Dezi said at our raised brows.
“Let me guess,” Valen said, his voice deeper than it had once been. “Dezi.”
“See? My reputation precedes me,” Dezi claimed. “Now who is this? I don’t think I’m forgetting a grumpy-faced cousin.”
“Grumpy-faced?” the guy asked in a sound that was more of a growl than a voice.
“No shit. Check that out. He’s got a grumpy voice too,” Dezi declared with a smile as he moved away.
“Guys, this is Voss. Voss, this is everyone. I’d introduce you, but there are several faces here that even I don’t recognize. We’ll have to get to know them together.”
“Together?” Fallon asked.
“Right. Yeah. You’re in charge now,” Valen said, nodding toward his cousin. “Got in a tight spot down in Louisiana a couple months back. Voss here kept the fuckers from slitting my throat,” he said, gesturing toward the scar on his neck. “In return, he asked me to bring him back here so he can prospect. So here he is. Prospecting,” Valen said to Fallon in a voice that said it was a done deal.
And, really, when someone saved the life of one of ours, payment was given, no matter how strange it might have seemed.
“Alright, Voss,” Fallon said. “We have a couple prospects right now. That’s Cary and Dezi over there. You will be bunking with them,” he added, and I watched as Voss gave Cary a cursory glance before landing on Dezi. Something told me that the two of them weren’t going to be fast friends. “Brooks is going to be in charge of you,” he added, waving toward Brooks who was leaning in the doorway to the kitchen.
“Boss,” Voss said, nodding toward Brooks.
“Nave is also going to be prospecting soon,” Fallon said.
“It took him this long?” Valen asked.
“Took you this long too,” Fallon said with a shrug. “You go see your family yet?”
“No. I rolled into town in this direction, so I figured I would drop in here first.”
“Your Ma is gonna be pissed when she hears.”
“Sounds weird, but I’m kind of looking forward to it. Been a long time since my mother yelled at me.”
“Did you guys bring anything?” Malc asked.
“We each have packs. We’ve been living out of those for the last few months. Well, me, years. Gonna need to hit the store in the near future to get some life shit.”
“Dezi loves hitting the store to pick up life shit,” Brooks said, smirking at Dezi who slapped a hand to his heart like he’d been shot.
“So, what’s been going on around here? The fuck is that brace for?” Valen asked, pointing toward me.
“Broken back,” Fallon supplied. “We had a drop a bit back. Got ambushed. Rowe was chasing one of the fucks up on a roof. He got shot and fell off.”
“Fuck, man,” Valen winced. “You in that for life?”
“Hope not,” I said, shrugging. “Been going to therapy.”
“And the hippie-love-goddess has been giving him creams and teas. Don’t get your hopes up, there’s no Satan’s Lettuce in the tea. I checked.”
“You drank my tea?” I asked, snorting.
“Hey, if you were getting the goods, I wanted some too.”
“Hippie-love-goddess has to mean Bills. She sent me a screenshot of my fucking birth chart for my last birthday. Whatever that means. How is she?”
“She’s got a stalker,” Fallon supplied.
“Busy town,” Voss grumbled or growled or whatever noise you could call his voice.
“Yeah. And it never stops. So we are all taking shifts over at her place since her stubborn ass is hellbent on keeping her normal schedule, and we are trying to work on the bastards who ambushed us. And… who the hell is that now?” Fallon asked when he looked out a window to see someone else approaching.
But before we could take any guesses, the door was bursting open.
And there was Jason Mallick.
Or Jase, as everyone called him in town.