“My goodness, you’re easily rattled,” Broken Sue replied in a low, aggressive tone, humor still weaving through his voice. “You must be nervous about the power staring you down. You’d hate to make a mistake and challenge someone your one true alpha couldn’t handle.”
A tense beat passed before Austin put his hand in front of Broken Sue to calm things down. The conflicted emotions through the bonds said he had kinda wanted to turn Broken Sue loose. If they’d been anywhere else but his brother’s bar and/or territory, he surely would’ve.
“My mate received a challenge to her claim on me,” he finally said, and then briefly went over the steps leading up to the altercation. If I’d felt any guilt before, I wouldn’t have after the explanation.
Based on shifter code, I’d had a right to kill them. Not doing so was an act of mercy.
“The challengers rolled the dice,” he concluded. “They lost.”
“I bear witness,” Oliver said, his arms crossed over his chest. “There could be no doubt of their mutual claim. Those girls didn’t come over until Ironheart went to the loo. It’s as he says. They even brought in a healer to patch the girls up. That’s sportsmanship.”
“I’m doing it slowly,” Indigo called from the front door. “Really slowly. I’m leaving the pain, too.
They really did deserve it. Jessie and Austin are very cute together. Who would want to come between that?”
“She’s going to fit right in with us,” Ulric murmured. “If we’d had any doubt.”
“You were taunting, then, huh?” Wanda said, not backing down. “You were taunting the girls so you could cause a problem, just like this big bruiser is trying to taunt me into a challenge? That how you guys played it?”
“Jesus, Wanda, give it a rest,” someone said in annoyance. “It’s not Austin Steele’s fault. Let it go.”
“Austin Steele?” Wanda said, but a strange twang in my middle grabbed my focus.
I turned quickly and shut my eyes, recognizing the feeling as one of the connections. Broken Sue bumped into my side and Phil’s hand covered a shoulder, but my attention was fixed inward.
The twang turned into a vibration, and I felt cautiousness radiate from the connection.
I shoved against a hairy side to get more space, opening my eyes but not seeing anything. The vibration continued, a sense of stealth wiggling into it. The gargoyle was working his way closer to whatever had grabbed his attention in the southeastern part of the territory. There was a cover there, trees in addition to the usual river and brush.
“Alpha,” Austin said, drawing my attention.
Kingsley entered the front door of the bar, immediately taking in the scene. His gaze stalled on the drinks at the end of the bar, and then everyone gathered around me. Closer still and he saw the blood
where the large rodent shifter had lain. Either Indigo had moved her, or she’d moved herself.
“A claim challenge?” he asked as the vibration in my middle increased in frequency.
I breathed faster, adrenaline starting to pick up.
“Shoot, where’s my phone?” I tapped the coat pockets as though it would magically appear there.
Then looked along the ground. It would’ve been in my back pocket or…
I spied it on the edge of the bar, belatedly remembering that I’d set it down before heading off to the bathroom. I always worried about dropping it into the toilet.
“Yes. Two women,” Austin said. “She handled them both. I didn’t touch either of the women. She managed her control incredibly well, better than you or I would have.”
“Yes, I saw her control the other night.” Kingsley looked around the bar as I grabbed my phone, my hands shaking. “Witnesses? Oliver?”
“Yes, Tristan,” I whispered into the phone after tapping his name. “I’m getting a strong caution and stealth feeling from the southeast border. Could be something. Could be nothing.”
“What’d you say?”
I opened my mouth to repeat myself, only to realize that hadn’t come from the phone. Austin had turned, exposing me to Kingsley, both of the men looking at me with mirroring hostile stares. I wasn’t totally sure which one had asked.
“Do I check it out?” Tristan asked through the phone.
“Yes. Fly high out there. Mind the moonshine. You’re hard to see but not impossible. Keep your phone in your hand. Do not engage. Report back with what you find.”
Austin stepped closer. “Jess, what’s going on?”