right where I’d left him, his eyes burning with love and arousal and his hands reaching for me immediately.
“Or next time, you could just tell them you are mated…” I wrapped my arms around his neck and closed my eyes as he squeezed me.
“I did. Twice. I didn’t push them away because…I wanted to see the show.”
I pulled the back of his neck, bringing his lips closer. “I was supposed to witness a show.
Kingsley is going to think I’m an absolute menace. At least I didn’t hurt his bar. Or kill anyone.”
Harried knocking sounded at the side door.
“It’s Ulric with Indigo,” someone called, and I released the magic from the bar.
The doors flew open. Ulric fought to get through the crowd, dragging Indigo with him. She looked around wide-eyed before pushing her glasses up onto her nose.
“They won’t bleed out,” I said as Broken Sue struggled through the panicked crowd.
“Oh.” Indigo paused, looking between the two shifters still in animal form. “Yeah, it looks like they’ll live. Should I not bother to heal them? I’d hate for them not to learn their lesson, whatever the lesson might’ve been.”
“Astute,” Ulric said, nodding at her.
“Go ahead and help them if they want it,” I said. “The challenge is over.”
“You guys want these beers, or…” The bartender, Oliver, leaned on the other side of the bar amid the drinks he’d gotten so far.
“Are…we allowed to stay after having a bar fight?” I asked hesitantly.
“They were at fault, not you,” he said, pushing the Coors forward. “You didn’t mess up anything in the bar. Except for the floor, but blood comes right up. This isn’t the first time we’ve had a challenge over a mate. This was a lot more entertaining, though, I’ll say that. Unique. Still, I coulda done without the painful magic.”
“Sorry about that,” I said. “It served a purpose.”
“Yeah, no doubt. No doubt.” He flared his eyebrows and blew out a breath. “Now I see why an alpha of his caliber is messing around with a creature like you. Makes sense.”
“Careful how you speak about her,” Austin growled, and a shiver of pleasure ran through me.
Oliver put up his hands. “No offense meant. You want a fresh one?” He pushed Austin’s bourbon forward. “The ice is a little melted.”
Austin took the coat from Broken Sue and draped it around my shoulders before pulling it closed at the front. He started to answer Oliver, but a commotion at the front and side doors had him looking up. His body immediately tensed, and power gushed out of him before he moved me behind him.
Hard-eyed shifters I didn’t know entered, their bodies stacked with muscle. I recognized them as part of the pack’s defenses, the peacekeepers of the town. There was no telling how many people from this bar had called them, all trapped and desperate to get out.
Broken Sue leisurely walked to the other side of Austin, stepping back even with me. Jasper and Ulric helped box me in, but were then moved aside by Phil, who clearly wanted in on the action no matter what the action was.
“Austin.” A woman with her hair pulled back in a tight bun led the team from the side door.
“Can’t say I’m surprised to see you in the middle of a bar fight over a girl. Looks like you’re falling into old habits, huh?”
Our shifters pushed forward from the back wall.
“He has no blame in this,” one of them said, “and if you had any sense or trust in this pack, you’d know it.”
“Well, looky here,” the woman said. “Alpha Kingsley dropped you off at his baby brother’s new territory in the middle of a Dick town. You chose to stay, yet you still had the balls to show up here?
We all knew you had no pride, you didn’t have to try so hard to prove it.”
“We showed up here to save your ass, Wanda,” another of ours, Cody, said, with the ringlets and cute dimples.
Wanda gave Broken Sue a once-over before her gaze flickered to Phil. She resumed looking at Austin. “The one true alpha is on the way. I assume he’s going to bail you out like usual. Family, and all that.”
“The one true alpha?” Broken Sue said with power radiating around him and humor in his tone.
“What is this, Lord of the Rings? One alpha to rule them all? No other alphas can exist in your world.
Just the one, and he is god.”
“In this territory, yes, you bet your ass he is,” Wanda said, stepping closer.