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Max sat on his porch next to Ian with one of the town’s nurses looking over his wounds. The newly minted friends watched as the paramedics finished up their work from checking over Ian and the other people Max had patched up in the early hours of the morning. Several people had already been moved to intensive care to handle the extreme injuries they had suffered. Shotgun wounds, burns and early onset signs of PTSD were some of the few injuries Max noticed. “You need to rest, besides from the lacerations and clear signs of severe sprains, you definitely have a concussion like your friend here.” Ian chuckled as he held a chunk of snow to his head before hissing from the pain of his cracked ribs.

“Not my first and won't be my last. You guys just about done?” Max tossed a thumb over his shoulder toward his home. “I would like to start putting my life back together.”

The nurse rolled her eyes as she looked down at the human in her care. The mouse he had met previously just rolled her eyes at both his resilience and stubbornness. “You clearly won’t listen to me so go right ahead.” She began to pack up the medical supplies before shaking her head. “Only one casualty, out of everything that has to be the strangest thing out of today. Even with the cops not showing.”

“You can thank the Gray family for that, I don't think this will be the last time they try something stupid. I'll have to nip this in the bud sooner rather than later.” Max rolled his sore shoulders and massaged his burning thighs. “Sorry again about the early morning call. I would have waited, but some of these guys were in pretty rough shape.”

The nurse waved her hand in the air to brush aside his apology. “They were the ones stupid enough to try this in the first place for a dumb ego driven asshole. I’m just happy you didn’t let any of them bleed out in your yard.” The nurse looked up as she put the final packages of gause and disinfectant away. “Good work with the tourniquets by the way, not a lot of people remember to put the time on them.”

“Spend enough time training on something and it becomes second nature, I’m more upset that there even had to be a death. Even more so that I’m not the one bearing that burden.” Max’s jaw clenched as his head fell toward the snow, Ians hand coming to rest on his shoulder to try and comfort him. “No offense Ian, but out of all of us I would have preferred if it was you that had to if not me.”

Ian simply nodded, letting the trio stay in the uncomfortable silence before the nurse turned on her heels and left. “For what it's worth man, I'm sorry it wasn’t me either.”

Eli had suffered the least amount of injuries and was currently resting from last night’s events. She had woken up screaming Max’s name a few times after the paramedics first arrived and took the now unrecognizable body from his home. He comforted her, but he was afraid that the nightmares would never truly go away, her suddenly having to pull the trigger twice in one night. The fact she took someone’s life. That will stick with her for the rest of her days.

She woke up with a start as the front door closed harshly, nearly bumping her head on the low hanging ceiling above the lofted bed. “M-max?” Her voice was hoarse and raspy as she pushed air past her sore vocal chords. The pillow beneath her stained with fresh tears from her most recent nightmare. “Is that you?”

His head popped up above the edge of the raised platform before he climbed up next to her. All the while speaking in a hushed tone. “Yeah it’s me, I'm here.” As he gripped her hand tightly in his, she lunged at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his form. “Woah I'm not going anywhere! I'm right here.” Her breaths were shaky as she kept her face buried in the crook of his shoulder, speaking to the nightmare she just woke from. “Same nightmare huh?” She nodded, afraid her voice would betray her and draw out tears she was holding back.

“I'm not going anywhere.” They simply spent a few moments together as she calmed down in his arms. Her breathing steadied as she took in his warmth, his steady breath helping her heart slow to more of a natural level before she pulled back.

“How did you handle this?” Her voice was unsteady, as if her mental stability was walking across a tightrope and was constantly losing its balance. She was searching for something even Max didn’t have. “You seem so calm after what happened. I just… I just need a direction to move past this. Please, tell me how to handle this.”

Max thought for a moment as her ruby eyes held their gaze to his, trying to glean anything from his light blue hued irises. “You’re doing better than me, I was inconsolable for over a week after my first engagement. I was hit myself, so I was stuck in a hospital bed left to wallow in the torment you’re going through.” A heavy sigh left his lips as flashes of that memory played out in his mind. The darkness that crept in telling him that he shouldn’t be there. That it should have been him to die and not one of his squad mates. “Took years for me to even get comfortable with really opening up about it. So from where I'm sitting, you’re doing far better than I did.”

She stayed silent as her arms and tail wrapped around him just a little tighter. She was needing time to process the last few hours and it seemed like sleep wasn’t a huge help. Either that or to get her mind off those events. “Is there…anything we can do? I think I need some time out of the house.”

Max nodded as he thought at the same time. “Most of the things that needed to be done are already complete. Traps disarmed, casualties helped, and I collected my gear as well. Soreness didn’t help anything but-” He was cut off by his cell phone ringing, a standard tune that he didn't bother to change. “Ware? Didn’t expect you to be giving me a call.”

“Guy here is asking for you.” The clunky sound of the bar landline being passed over to someone else came over the ear piece.

“Do you know who this is?” A gruff voice came over the small electronic into Max’s head. If he didn’t know better he would have assumed it was Trevor but he had been replaying that manchild’s voice in his head ever since then. “I’ll assume by your silence that you don’t, name’s Dustin Gray. Owner of the Gray family ranch.”

Max’s teeth grit against the soreness of the muscles in his jaw. The earlier beat down plaguing his upper body with the sprint through the snow wearing on his legs. “To what do I owe the threat of being called from my friend’s work?”

“Hey now I was just certain this was the only way that you’d listen to me.” there was a sound of rustling as he sat down on one of the stools next to the bar. Max wasn’t worried about his friend, he knew that behind the counter he had his well worn 1911 cocked and held level and steady behind the counter. “Your friend is staring daggers at me. All I’m here to do is ask for a cease fire.”

“If that's what you want then we will discuss it in person. No offense but I prefer to stare my opponent in the eye. Italian restaurant on main street.” Max brought his attention back to Eli. Should she be there? Logic dictated that she should stay at the house, safe from any fallout that could occur due to this impromptu meeting. His mind was made up. “Come alone and don't test me. I've had enough of people testing my ass today.”

Max hung up without waiting for a reply and looked down to Eli still wrapping herself around his form. She looked worried and confused, eyes full of uncertainty. “Are you leaving?” Max cradled her face, gently reassuring her that nothing bad would happen to her without words.

“I need to. They threatened Noah and by extent my family. I need to send a message, Tell them to back off plainly and ensure that the conflict ends here.” A light kiss met her lips passing his warmth and love to her even through his split lips. “I'll be safe, what happened last night was because he caught me off guard. They won't get any more cheap shots in.”

Her eyes fell, thinking back to the beating Max took in her defense. The constant punches that fell after their eyes met. A question came to the forefront of her mind that she needed to ask. “Why did he catch you off guard? Why was he able to do that in the first place?”

Max sighed as he knew this question was going to come up. He clenched his teeth as he forced the answer from his throat. “I was afraid.” Her concern quickly morphed into confusion on her scaled features. “Every fiber of my being feared for you, feared that the woman I've fallen for would be taken from me. That split second where I saw that you were alright I relaxed when I shouldn’t have. That guy hit pretty hard by the way.”

Eli nodded, understanding his answer but still hating that she fully understood what had happened. Then something stuck out to her that solidified her confusion. “Wait…you love me?”

“Well…yeah?” Max raised an eyebrow before he noticed what he said truly implied. His cheeks flushed red as he looked away embarrassed at his truthful slip of the tongue. “Uh, well yeah… I mean I do love you. Didn’t know it was a big secret.”

Eli laughed for the first time since the recent incident. It was light but it came from the heart as her warm ruby red eyes met his. “You’re cute when you get embarrassed.” She leaned forward and kissed him passionately, for the first time she opened her heart to someone that cared for her as much as she cared for them. “Well you big goof, I love you too.”

They spent a few more moments together before Ian came back in and Max filled him in on what was happening. The phone call from his father wasn’t a surprise to him, but the fact that it came from Noah’s bar was. “The fact he’s willing to come to the bargaining table is strange all together. He’s probably pissed that he lost Jacob but more pissed that this happened in the first place. Stay on your toes though, no telling on what he might try.” He tapped his chin as he thought and mulled over the situation. “Stay armed too.”

-

Max was in the Italian restaurant well before noon, paying for a light meal that came and was completed as he waited for his quarrel. He expected a large graying wolf to stomp through the doors and lift him up by the collar much like his son did. Not the shorter human that currently stood in front of him. “Gods, which one of the boys did that to you?”

Max scanned the man in front of him, he was built up as much as Max but would stand only an inch or two shorter than him. He would share the same height of his youngest son if they stood next to each other. Dark hair and green eyes surrounded his sharp features, square like jaw and strong brow. “Ian said it was Jacob. Knew him on a personal level apparently but wasn’t too broken up about what happened. Speaks to Jacob’s character personally.” Max stayed seated as he regarded the man standing in front of him, his pistol pre-drawn and resting in his lap. “I thought that you’d be the anthro but I guess your wife is the wolf huh?”

“May I?” Dustin motioned to the chair across from Max. With a nod, Dustin sat across from the bruised and upset man. “I’ll assume that you’re a man that doesn't want to deal with pleasantries so I'll cut to the chase. My son is out of line. Two of them are in fact, as is apparent from my youngest currently being in the hospital.” A heavy sigh slipped from his lips letting his shoulders slumped. Max raised an eyebrow as this new player joined the fray, clear remorse from the man that was these kid’s father. “I'm here on behalf of my wife to try and come to an amicable and peaceful end.”

Now Max understood why he was here. He was the father yes, but he was truly the messenger for the real head of the household. “So Mrs. Gray is calling the shots?” Destin pursed his lips as he held back his answer. “Do you know the extent of what happened or has everything you heard been filtered through others first?” Destin opened his mouth to speak before he quickly stopped himself. “Then let me explain how this whole situation started.” Max started from the cafe, his run in with Trevor and the following days of individuals stalking both him and his girlfriend. When he met Ian and how he came to trust him. The early morning raid and the altercation with the younger son. The refusal of any kind of a police response. The beating, the assault and the only casualty that night. The pain the woman he cares for is currently feeling. Everything from the past week, finally adding up in the older human’s mind.

“My god… You’re sure it was him? With the claws I mean.” Max sighed and reached down to the bag at his side.

He dropped the heavy metal claws and what was left of the hydraulics on the table between them. “Pretty sure. Construction is pretty sloppy in a few spots, you might need to talk to whoever did the welds.” Turning over the gauntlets there was a clear brand across the back of the glove’s dark brown leather. The shield and massive capital ‘G’ for the Gray family ranch was on clear display to the man’s eyes that simply had his eyes widened in shock. “Construction isn’t half bad though. Whoever came up with the design and built it is a decent engineer. You might need to hire a new welder though. Otherwise, yes, I'm certain it was your son.”

The man’s face fell into his hands as he tried to hold his trembling emotions down. “Is…is he dead? Is my son gone?”

“No.” His shoulders collapsed with the relief that his son was still above ground. “I roughed him up a bit, broke an arm and bruised his pride. Well…maybe more shattered it but that's besides the point. My point is I want this to stop. I want your oldest son to back the fuck up. I want the damages to my house paid for or fixed. I want everything to de-escalate.” The man stayed silent as he waited for more, just what Max was hoping for. “If my girl needs therapy then I want that paid for as well. Think you can handle that?”

His relief washed over into a new level of worry across the canvas of his face. A shaky hand reached for the water to hydrate his suddenly dry throat. The glass was set down on the table letting him cough into his hand before speaking. “I don't know if I can make those calls…my wife…”

“Calls the shots. Hmm, that might be an issue.” They sat in silence before Max came to a decision. “I'm going to write down a list. Take it to her and have her call me at this number. If she refuses to call then you call me. Tell me what she decides and if we can meet in the middle we’ll go from there. If not…Well I’ll figure it out. Won’t be the first time I’ve been in a tough spot.”

A sheet of paper with his requirements was passed across the table to Dustin's hand before he stood and reupholstered his pistol, much to the surprise of the still sitting man. “You were carrying a gun!?”

“Hey my home and loved ones were attacked last night and I nearly got the top of my head blown off by one of your workers. So don’t blame me for being a bit cautious.” He stood and moved towards the front door and paid for his small meals. “Stay in touch, I’ll be waiting.”

Dustin watched the back of the taller man leave through the old wooden door. His eyes fell to the relatively simple list that sat before him as a waiter came up. “Did you want to order or were you with him?”

“Oh my apologies!” The man rose from his chair pocketing the sheet of paper before giving a polite smile to the young human woman. “I was just meeting a friend.”

-

Max rubbed Eli’s shoulders as she slumped in his lap, trying to sink into every inch of him with her exposed scales and absorb his body heat from his naked chest. “The meeting went well?”

Max shrugged as her tongue flicked out to taste the now familiar air. “Yes and no. He wasn’t the head of the Gray family but he’s married to her. Might be a useful ally, but as it stands right now I don’t think he’ll have much sway. If anything, it'll be easier to contact his wife and hopefully end all this.” His fingers kneaded her larger scales across her form, sapping the warmth that licked her form. “Were you okay whilst I was out?”

Eli nodded as she twisted under him to have her well endowed chest press into his. Her thin scaled lips less than an inch from his. “Nothing eventful happened, just felt cold without you.” Her arms wrapped around his neck and tried to pull him down into her embrace, but struggled to bring him down to her level. “Hun? Wait… do you think we’re moving too fast? I-if so we can-”

“Eli, you saved my life. Moving too fast is the least of our concerns.” He leaned down and kissed her gently, letting her wrap her tail around his leg to ensure a more intimate embrace. “No, I just…don't want to push you into anything. I know it’s tough to move past what happened-”

“Max, please just shut the fuck up.” Her crude statement was cemented with her twisting in place to bring her well endowed bra covered chest to meet his. “If I wasn't comfortable with you earlier, I am now. Am I still reeling from last night? Sure but that doesn’t mean I can’t be intimate with you.” Max’s face fell forward and caught her lips with his, truly uniting the two lovers together. “Besides, I think the best thing for us right now is to just take a breather. Maybe even have a little bit of fu-”

Her sly smile was replaced by shock as a loud crash came from the door as the heavily damaged thing fell back into the interior’s floor. Ian stood there with a number of supplies before he set them down just inside and looked up to the half naked couple. “Ah uh…sorry about that. Forgot the door was propped up like that, I’ll leave you two lovebirds to it.”

With that he lifted the door back into place and returned to the shed where he had previously taken one of Max’s spare cots to lay down and rest. Just as Max’s hands began to wrap around her midsection again his burner phone rang, causing him to drop his head back onto the pillows behind him. “If it’s not one thing it's another.” Picking up the device, he checked the number and it was one he didn’t recognize so he answered expecting it to be Dustin. “Weniger speaking.”

“Didn’t know you’d just hand your number over to my pop. Pretty dumb move if I say so.” Trevor’s mocking tone came over the earpiece just loud enough for Eli to hear. Her body froze as Max’s brow furrowed in rage.

“No, a dumb move is sending a bunch of assholes and your younger brother to some guy's house in the middle of the night.” Trevor laughed as Max told Eli silently to cover her ears. She complied, letting Max open up about last night's events. “Tell me, do you know who I had to clean off of my wall? Well…what was left of him anyways.”

“You’re a sick bastard, you know that?” His rage flared as he spat his next words. “He had a wife you know, kids too.”

“Then he shouldn't have done something so stupid and reckless.” Trevor growled over the phone trying to intimidate the man that had fought giants, seen people burn and lose friends in an instant. Max wasn’t scared of this welp or his prattling family. “You clearly don't know who you decided to mess with. I'm not scared of your family, I'm not scared of anyone else you try to hold over me. But out of what little conscience I have towards you I will give you one last warning. Back off. Or I will reduce your pathetic life to ash.”

Max hung up without waiting for his response before tossing the cheap phone across the room and opted to take the few sweet moments he had with his woman. To truly savor her smooth scales and cool body. Those sweet kisses she granted him or those sinfully comfortable hugs with her tail wrapping around his leg. So for the moment Max just relaxed into his bed, Eli wrapping her arms around him tighter before he needed to begin repairs to his home.