"I might be. What are your qualifications?" he responded in English.

"I thought you spoke gnome," the creature said with accusing eyes.

"I do," Jaynell said, "but my four roommates don't.

If you're going to work for me, they need to be able to communicate with you."

Before the young gnome could speak, a teenage girl gnome popped up beside him. She was wearing a hot pink dress and had spangles in her hair.

"Good afternoon, master. I would like to be your 49 *

house gnome."

"Buzz off, Calla. I was here first," the leather clad gnome said with a scowl.

"But I'm sure he'd rather have someone who knows how to be a house gnome, Thorn." Calla blinked her eyes at Jaynell. "I was trained by my mother who has been a house gnome for four hundred years."

Another flash brought a gray-haired matron who gave Jay a sweet smile.

Jay looked at his lover. "Do you need any gnomes at the were house?"

"Werekin can't keep gnomes," the matron said in her sweet, grandmotherly voice. "They are magic but can't channel it."

Jaynell shrugged. "I can maintain the magic for him."

All three gnomes stared at him.

"What?"

"How far can you support a gnome?" the matron asked, her voice now more stern than sweet.

Jaynell shrugged. "The farthest I've ever tried was for my grandmother and it was only for a month. She died so I released her gnome to find a new home."

"What do you mean support a gnome?" Thomas asked.

50.

"Gnomes usually live with their owners because they need to be close to their owner's power. Most homes absorb the magic of the people who live there, helping keep the gnome grounded to its owner. I can create a power base and let it feed off my magic without the gnome living with me but only through a limited distance."

"How far away was your grandmother?" Thorn asked. His metallic grey eyes were lit with interest.

Jay thought back to the location of his grandmother's house. "Maybe twenty miles."

There was a collective gasp, and Jay started to get a really bad feeling.

"That would mean I could apprentice at that garage in town," Thorn said.

Thomas frowned. "I thought you wanted to be a house gnome."

Thorn lowered his head. "It's the only job human masters are willing to give a gnome and mechanics can't support a gnome. There aren't any wizard mechanics," he said with a smirk.

"Tell you what, Thorn," Jay said, looking the youth over in a new light. "If you find a place to give you a job in a garage, I'll support you taking it, but you have to work on the pack house cars for free." Jay didn't have a car, but he knew the gnome would feel indebted if he didn't offer a 51 *

trade of services. It was their way.

Thorn's smile was as beautiful as it was unexpected.

"You've got yourself a deal." The gnome held out his arm.

Jay wrapped his long fingers around the young gnome's wrist. "You are bound to me. I accept your service and accept your care."

Light flashed beneath Jay's fingers as Thorn burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" demanded Calla.

"It tickles."

The matron looked at Jay with surprise. "When I was bound, it burned like fire."

"The bond can feel the intent of the bearer. Did your master wish you ill?"

The matron's face darkened. "He was an evil man who I was happy to leave."

Jay felt a jolt of shock. For a gnome to want to be free, the man must have been evil indeed. Gnomes spent a great part of their lives searching for their master and killing any other gnome that dared to try and take their position. Territorial wars were common and often bloody.

"I'm sure my roommates and I would be honored to have such experienced gnomes to care for our quarters."

Jay carefully repeated the binding words for each gnome. "Please tell the others I can only support about 52 *

fifteen gnomes, and I don't need any more in my rooms. If someone wants to try something different, I'd be happy to sponsor additional training."

The matron, whose name turned out to be Tulip, gave him a sweet smile. "I knew you were the one Rose prophesized about."

"Who's Rose?" Jay asked, not sure he really wanted to know.

"Our foreseer. She said one day a man would come and free the gnomes."

"I'm not freeing you," Jay argued. "I'm just finding you new occupations. You are still bound to me."

"But the freedom to choose our destiny is the greatest freedom of all," Tulip said. "We don't mind being bound to a master. We like belonging to someone. My last master was an unfortunate exception. To be able to choose our duty, that is real freedom."

The three gnomes vanished, and Thomas shook his head. "There's never a dull moment around you, is there?"

Jay shrugged. "Not one that I can find. I wouldn't mind experiencing boredom for a moment or two just to lighten up the string of catastrophes."

Laughing, Thomas patted Jay's hand. "Do you think your roommates will like the gnomes?"

"Well, they won't have to clean or make their beds 53 *

so I'm guessing they'll be all right with it."

"Good point. Besides, you won't see much of your room so I don't really care how clean they make it."

After finishing lunch, Thomas walked Jay back to his dorm, stopping at the bottom of the entrance steps.

"I've got to get back to work."

Jay looked his lover over with interest, letting his eyes graze all his favorite parts. "What is it you do exactly?"

"I'm my brother's second-in-command. I listen to people who have problems and decide which ones are worthy of his attention and which ones I can handle. I'm the first line of defense for the alpha, like a gatekeeper. I'm also the strongest, so I'm sometimes called to mitigate territorial wars between houses."

"I thought the alpha was always the strongest."

Thomas gave him a strange look. "For someone who knows a lot about different cultures, how is it that you have such a gap about the werekin?"

Jay scanned his memory. "I don't know. It's not like werekin were ignored or skimmed over, but my father didn't have any books about them." Jay frowned. "Now that you mention it, that is strange, isn't it? I mean he had books about everything. My father's collection is considered by 54 *

many to be the most extensive library about the supernatural in the world, but I don't remember a single book about any shape changer."

"That is strange," Thomas agreed, wrapping his arms around Jay. "Maybe he knew something and didn't want to give you preconceptions about the werekin."

A flicker of memory flashed through Jay's mind but vanished just as quick. Something about his father and a visitor but not clear enough for him to understand. Maybe it would come back to him in a dream. Jay often dreamed his memories and broke them down when he regained consciousness.

Jay shrugged. "Maybe he was prejudiced about your kind and I never noticed."

"Did he ever say anything against werekin?"

Thomas asked.

Jay shook his head. "My father never said anything bad about anyone. He was just that kind of person."

"I would've liked meeting him."

"Yeah, you would've." The memory of his father made Jay's eyes water. He manfully blinked them back so his lover wouldn't see. Most men didn't appreciate having a watery boyfriend or at least he assumed. He'd never had a boyfriend before. A quick thought had him snapping his gaze up to his mate.

55.

"What's the longest you've ever had a boyfriend?"

"I've never had a boyfriend," Thomas said with a smile.

"Never?"

Thomas shook his head. "Werekin don't have boyfriends or girlfriends. We just have sex."

"I'm just a sex toy for you?" Jay shouted, drawing the eyes of more than one amused onlooker.

Laughter shook Thomas' large frame. "No. You're my mate."

Jay's panic receded. He was surprised at the amount of pain the thought of being Thomas' casual fuck had sent through him. "So you lied. I am your first boyfriend."

The big were stroked Jay's head with one massive hand. "You humans over complicate things. Werekin have it easy. Once we hit puberty, we fuck everything we can find and then we find our mate and settle down."

Panic returned.

"I'm not ready to settle down."

Thomas' smile was sweet but didn't calm Jay down a bit.

"I'm not asking you to settle down. I'm just asking you to save lives and not let another guy touch you sexually."

"How does that save lives?" Jay asked, though he 56 *

thought he already knew.

The sweet smile vanished, and in its place were a pair of impressive canines. "Because then I would have to kill him," he said in a gravelly voice two octaves deeper than his natural speaking tone.

Jay stroked Thomas' wide chest. "Calm down, wolf boy. I get the idea."

Thomas wrapped Jay's hand in his, completely engulfing the entire thing. "Good," he said in his usual voice. "Although I'm ready to get a place of our own and settle down, I understand if you want more time to go out and have fun. Just include me if you're going any place where there might be men drinking. I don't want you to get into any situations you can't handle."

It was Jay's turn to laugh. "In case you haven't figured it out, I can pretty much take care of myself."

Thomas tilted his head like a dog listening to a sound pitched out of human range. "Just because you can take care of yourself doesn't mean you should have to, and besides, it's easier to explain away a rabid dog than a man who zaps someone with magic."

"True."

The pair exchanged kisses before Jay left to go up to his dorm.

He had barely made it to the floor his room was on 57 *

when a door slammed open and Kevin and the three D's came barreling out. All four of them were in various stages of undress.