5

5

“I could be wrong, but I think she might have a thing for you, Bodie,” said Jalen with a little smirk. “Didn’t she used to have a crush on you that she tried so hard to hide?”

“Huh?” asked Liam.

Bodie quickly reminded him of the past connection to Claire before answering Jalen. “She was just a kid.” He was feeling his hackles rise, but he didn’t want to argue with his cousins.

“Her scars, man.” Liam winced and shook his head.

Before Bodie could stop himself, he was halfway out of his seat. “If you say anything like that to her—”

Liam leaned back, putting up his hands. If he’d been shifted, he probably would’ve taken on a submissive pose, but that was good enough. “Relax, Bodie. I was just commenting on how awful they are. She’s still beautiful.”

“Stay the hell away from her,” said Bodie with a thick growl he couldn’t stop. For a moment, he was perilously close to letting out his wolf.

Liam and Jalen exchanged glances, and they both sat quietly until Bodie had regained control and sat down. “After everything she’s been through, she doesn’t need to deal with you two as well.”

Jalen seemed like he was going to laugh, but he smothered it with a cough instead. “Nobody’s after her, cuz, so you can ease it down a notch. Rein in the Alpha before you shift in front of everyone.”

Bodie knew he was right, and he took several deep breaths to regain control.

“So, I guess that crush is reciprocated these days?” Liam was grinning at him, obviously having no trouble poking the Alpha.

“It’s not a crush. I’m just concerned about her.” Even to his own ears, he sounded grumpy and growly, and his wolf was still pacing in his mind. He had to calm down.

“You might stand a chance with her these days.” Jalen’s eyes widened as Bodie started to get up again. “I just meant that she’s older and so are you. It has nothing to do with scars or anything else.” When Bodie had calmed down and sat down completely again, Jalen shook his head. “You have it bad, man.”

“Terminal even. Better not mention this to Uncle Duke, or he’ll take you to task for getting involved with a human.” Liam looked troubled.

“That’s my business,” said Bodie.

“You’ll get no argument from us,” said Liam quickly.

“Yeah, we really don’t care what you do and with whom as long as it’s not pack business. I just wonder why the heck we’re in this joint though?” Jalen looked around, taking a moment to eye a tableful of young ladies and nodding his head in appreciation. One of them met his gaze and giggled, but then her friend leaned over to say something to her. Whatever it was—probably enlightening her they might be shifters —it caused the girl’s expression to cool, and she turned away quickly.

“This isn’t the friendliest place,” said Liam.

“Agreed, but here I am. You’re the one who called me, Jalen, so what do you want?”

Bodie was struggling to appear more relaxed, and his wolf was calming down now. He watched Jalen dig into his pocket and pull out something with what looked like disgust. He passed the paper to Bodie, who took it and read it for a moment, his gaze darkening and his wolf threatening to come to the surface again. “Where did you find this garbage?” It was a flier filled with warnings for the shifters to stay away from humans. Whoever had designed it had invited them to remove themselves from the population by putting a stake through the hearts.

“These were scattered along Main Street in Northstar this afternoon. Liam and I think we got most of them picked up before anybody really had a chance to see them and get alarmed, but after we turned them in to Dillon, he promised to tell Duke and suggested we come find you.”

He nodded at Jalen’s explanation, balling up the flier. It sounded like there were plenty for evidence, so he had no need to keep the loathsome thing. “I don’t understand people like that.”

“Neither do I,” said Liam. “Obviously, they’re pretty stupid anyway. They’re telling us to kill ourselves in a way you use to kill vampires.” He snorted and shook his head. “They obviously have more balls than brains if they were willing to distribute these in daylight in the middle of a shifter town.”

“I think you’re giving them too much credit,” said Jalen. He looked at Bodie. “We followed the path of them, and they seemed to have blown out of a big open box left in an alleyway. Who knows when they left the box, for that matter? They might have expected it to be windier last night, but we had quite a late summer breeze this morning.”

“Obviously, they’re dumb as a post if they let hate dictate everything about their life anyway, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t a risk. What did Dillon think?”

“He and Juno are going to keep an extra eye out for things, and of course, if they catch the fool distributing these, they’ll let the pack handle it.”

Liam frowned. “Maybe we’d better turn them over to humans.”

Jalen growled. “If they’re threatening our pack, it’s pack business.”

“I’m just saying it might escalate the situation if there is tension between shifters and humans who know about us.”

Bodie shook his head. “There’s always going to be tension between our groups. Honestly, I don’t think the Shifter Council is going the right path with slowly trying to phase us into integration with human society. They could spend two hundred years doing it, and I just don’t think it’s going to work the way they plan.”

“Fortunately, that’s above my pay grade,” said Liam with a small smile. His gaze turned back to the kitchen, and he asked, “Who’s that?”

Bodie was already feeling tense, and his wolf growled in his mind, but he was soon assuaged when he realized it was just another worker coming in to relieve Claire, who was currently taking off her apron. He estimated it to be about time for her to be getting off for the night, so he flagged down the waitress who had been tending to him for most of the afternoon and evening, paying the bill and giving her twenty-five percent as a tip.

Hey eyes widened slightly at that, and she smiled. “I hope you’re planning to become a regular.” She tucked the money into the pouch around her waist. “A lot of people around here are just chintzy.”

“Or maybe struggling,” said Jalen with a hint of sympathy. “Everybody’s having a rough time these days.”

The server nodded, but she didn’t seem particularly sympathetic. “Still doesn’t mean you shouldn’t tip your server. I have to pay my bills too, honey.” She winked at Jalen, though there didn’t seem anything personal about the interaction, and left the table.

“Are you finally ready to leave this dump?” asked Liam, incurring a glare from the owner, who was nearby. Even though he was just human, Saul had a menacing air about him, and it was enough to make Liam smile and nod in his direction in a pleasant fashion. “Not that that I don’t love the sauce, Saul.”

Saul grumbled something at him and jerked his head toward the door. It seemed to be an invitation to leave, but Bodie didn’t think it was a permanent banning.

“What are we doing here?” asked Liam as he followed Bodie and Jalen out of the bar and around back a few minutes later. “This really isn’t your kind of place, Bodie. I don’t know when the last time was I’ve seen you inside a bar for more than an hour, let alone a whole day.”

“I’m here because I need to look after Claire.” As briefly as possible, trying to keep his wolf’s anger in check, he recounted the scene he’d interrupted last night. “I don’t know if they’ll be coming back, and I want to look out for her.”

“I understand that, but do you plan to hang out here every night until she gets off work?” Liam shook his head, clearly bewildered at the idea.

“I will if it’s necessary.” Bodie’s tone left no room for argument.