Sui Generis – 58

 

"Bull! If all you wanted was adulation, you'd be on stage, or in the movies. No." Mag looked thoughtfully at Lew. "That's all a front. Underneath, you're afraid no one will like you, which is stupid. You're a good man. You just have to quit hiding it."

"You sure you're not studying psychology? Not that you're right about me but damn, it sure sounded good. I'm not what you think, Mag. Everything I do, I do for me."

"Then why did you agree to go after Alanna?"

"Like I said…"

Mag snorted. "You weren't doing it alone. You were part of a team. Any one of them could have been the one to find her and take her out."

"Not the way we had it planned. I was the one…"

"Plans can go wrong," Mag broke in, looking pointedly at Lew's arm. "Plans did go wrong. Besides, from what Brand told me, you asked for backup. Specifically Randulf. So this wasn't a glory mission for you and I seriously doubt any of them are, no matter what you say. You're just like the others; you want to help keep us—humans—safe from rogues. That's what good, decent people do and that includes you."

"Are you finished?" Lew asked tightly.

"No. I won't be finished until I make you see you have to talk to Randulf and tell him how you really feel about him. Not the line of BS I'm sure you've given him, but the truth."

"Which would be?"

"You care about him, a lot, on a very personal level."

Lew dropped his gaze, staring down at the floor. "He won't believe it. Not after all we went through the first time around."

"Convince him. Hell, that shouldn't be too hard actually since werewolves can tell when someone lying, if they want to."

Looking at Mag again, Lew almost smiled. "There is that."

"So you're going to talk to him?"

There was a long pause then Lew said, "Maybe."

"Definitely," Mag replied, taking out his phone.

"What are you doing, as if I didn't know? You promised me you wouldn't."

"That was then; this is now." Mag turned his back on Lew then punched in the number he needed. After a brief conversation, he hung up and put in a second number. When his call was answered all he said was, "I need your… help, if you're up for it." A moment later he said "Here, at my house. I'll show you." Then he closed his phone.

"I swear," Lew growled.

Mag just shrugged, got up, and when he got to the door of the study he said, "You had better not try to run."

"As if I have a chance to," Lew muttered when Randulf appeared in the middle of the room.

Grinning, Mag left, closing the door behind him.