Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 113319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 567(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 567(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
If they were gargoyles, she’d have buried her face into his back to muffle her laughter. Instead, she had to settle for leaning harder into him, swaying, showing with her body how hilarious she found his joke. How welcome. Because no, he’d never have walked away first. He’d mastered his fear; she knew that. All the same, it was really nice of him to let her off the hook. It made the things he’d said earlier, when he hadn’t, much more poignant.
“Right so.” Niamh peeled some money off a wad that had been in her pocket and laid it on the bar. She paused then, staring at the creature. “Do ye want an invitation or what? Get on wit’ya. Ye’re makin’ everyone nervous, not to mention ya schtink. Clean yerself up, like.”
“You have to hand it to her—she plays a really good game,” Aurora whispered. She and Sue were still locked together, watching the scene from a distance. “Please don’t ever tell anyone I needed an emotional support beta through all of this. I’m supposed to be the tough, fearless, budding alpha.”
“I won’t tell anyone you hid behind me if you don’t tell anyone I made absolutely no move to back Niamh up. I’m pretty sure this is a breach of my duties, but I don’t really care. That creature is getting worse by the minute, and I don’t know why, and it is starting to really creep me out.”
She couldn’t help it. The situation was so surreal, so scary, so weird, that she buried her face into the crease of his back muscles and laughed.
“What have I gotten myself into?” she asked, pushing her forehead into his muscles and feeling them tighten. “I wanted a challenge and room to grow, but this… Mages, okay. Basajaunak, glad they are on our side. But this?”
“Working with a basajaun instead of veering away from one was a surprise to me,” Sue said, stepping a little more toward the wall. She followed his progress easily, not needing to pull her face away from his back. This was highly unprofessional and un-shifter-like, but she didn’t at all care, and thankfully he wasn’t insisting on following protocol. “The mages were not pleasant for me to work with, given…”
He didn’t finish, knowing he didn’t have to. Everyone in the pack knew about his history with mages.
“The puca would drive a man to insanity.” His arm tightened around her again. “The gargoyles were also an adjustment. Hell, Jessie’s whole team requires constant adjustment. At this point I’d thought I’d seen it all. After getting familiar with her team and figuring out how not to kill the puca, I really thought I’d seen it all.”
“At least you were eased in.”
“True. But…” His shoulder bumped the wall. Defeat. “Why is that thing so scary?”
She laughed into his back again, shaking her head. “If I weren’t so good at reading body language, I’d think you were trying to humor me.”
“Which is why I’m being candid. You’re one of the few shifters I can’t hide things from. Your father is an incredible alpha. The best I’ve ever seen, Alpha Steele included. He has a temperament that lends well to leadership. A temperament Alpha Steele had to find in Jessie.”
She flattened her hands against his slabs of muscle, soaking in their warmth. Thank God they were in the trenches and this didn’t count as impropriety, because she was stepping over the line. He was a kind soul for letting her, for being her driftwood out at sea.
“Thank you for saying that,” she said softly.
“Do you miss your family?”
“Yes and no. We’re a very close group, but I crave a little freedom.”
His arm came away, leaving her grasping at him for a brief moment before she regained her composure. He half turned to her, his dark eyes serious.
“You don’t have to go out alone to find freedom when you’re with this group. Your father is an incredible alpha for a pack of shifters, but Jessie and her gargoyles, her team, have inspired something no pack has cultivated. Alpha Steele is rolling with it in a way no other alpha shifter would. Niamh wasn’t lying—you can go out with almost anyone and find the freedom you seek. Dress how you want, act how you want—within reason—and dance all night. We work hard and we play hard. We take care of each other, we’re a team, and we don’t sweat the details. And if you get challenged for letting loose?”
His eyes sparkled with the answer to his question. Dominate.
Hands at her sides now, composure finally sinking in, she inclined her head. Heard/thank you.
TWENTY
Aurora
“What are yis at?” Niamh stopped beside them, her hands on her hips. “Ye better have change, because that barman took off, and all I have are twenties.” She huffed, looking out toward the bar. “That clown of a revenant has made it impossible for me to come back to this bar again. There are many things I can bear, but being eighty-sixed from a bar when it wasn’t my fault is not one of those things.”