“Right behind you,” I said, and brushed my fingertips against his.
He pushed open the door and paused in the doorway until all heads had turned to him and the music was turned down.
There were a lot of heads—forty or fifty shifters, including some of Connor’s uncles and his dad, Gabriel Keene, the Apex of the North American Central Pack. He was tall and broad-shouldered, with dark blond hair, tan skin, and golden eyes. And the magic that dripped from him was undeniably unfriendly.
Fortunately, I found two allies in the crowd.
Alexei Breckenridge was Connor’s best friend and a generally quiet shifter with a giant crush on Lulu. He was tall and broad-shouldered, with pale skin, hazel eyes, and dark blond hair that was short and carefully styled. “Stoic” seemed to fit him best, except when it came to food and his apparently never-ending hunger.
Beside him stood Daniel Liu, a Packmate and notorious flirt.He met my gaze, gave me a wink, then pushed his straight, dark shoulder-length hair behind his ears. He’d acted as my security while vampires had been stalking me and wasn’t easily perturbed. He had light brown skin, dark eyes, and cheekbones models would weep for.
There was at least one obvious enemy—a shifter named Miranda with a giant grudge against vampires and particular hatred of me. We’d arranged a temporary truce, or so I believed, since I had some dirt she didn’t want revealed. Her expression was grim but not, I thought, directed at me.
Monster waited quietly by, taking in the magic and the tension.
“Connor,” his dad said, and the crowd parted to let us walk through. I felt Alexei and Dan move through the crowd to take positions at our backs and appreciated the sentiment.
The focus of attention was a trio who stood in the middle of the room. The man in front had suntanned skin, cropped dark hair, and a face that was ruggedly handsome. The “rugged” coming from a scar on his square jaw and a previously broken nose. He wore jeans over scarred cowboy boots, a gray T-shirt with a darker graphic, and a well-worn leather jacket.
“I guess we can finally get started,” he said flatly. “I’m Cade Drummond,” he said, then gestured to a woman and man standing behind him. “This is Breonna; this is Joe.”
Breonna was little shorter than me, with suntanned skin and dark hair pulled into a ponytail. She wore leggings and a cropped tank, showing off her trim and muscled figure. Joe was tall and thin, with a sharp, narrow face, pale skin, and shaggy blond hair.
“We’re here from Memphis,” Cade said, and I heard the slight Southern twang in his voice. “And we’re sick of the Keene family fucking up the North American Central Pack.”
SEVEN
The bar wasn’t huge, and tightly packed as it was, the peppery shifter magic nearly filled up the remainder of the room, as if pushing out the air. I had to remind myself to breathe through it.
Gabriel crossed his arms, and his expression portrayed boredom. “Do we really need the drama? You have issues with Pack decisions, you know how to reach me.”
“And what good would it do?” Cade asked, casting his gaze over the crowd. It was easy enough to guess he hadn’t come here for a dialogue.
“We’ve become too involved in the human world, the vampire world, the fairy world,” he continued. “All the worlds except ours. Where’s the focus on Aurora? On strengthening the Pack? On building our ranks?”
Aurora, Alaska, was the spiritual home of North American shifters. This wasn’t the first time Pack members had raised concerns about the shifters’ involvement in the world—either too much of it or not enough. But I hadn’t previously witnessed someone actually saying it to Gabriel’s face.
Cade’s eyes searched, settled on me. “Hell, there’s a vampire in the room right now.”
“There is,” I said. “Would you like to see my fangs?”
There were amused snickers in the crowd. Maybe I’d managedover the last few months to actually make a few more shifter friends.
Cade rolled his eyes, turned his gaze back to the crowd. I’d been dismissed.
“Aw,” I said quietly, knowing my audience. “That hurts my feelings.”
But the low chuckles made me feel better.
“You think the other Packs would stand for his? Would put up with it? Not justmixingwith vampires”—there was enough disgust in his voice to make clear he meant something more physical than mere “mixing”—“but bowing to them. Who the hell do they think they are?”
“Well, they think they’re immortals,” Gabriel said. “So I guess that gives them one up on us.”
It wasn’t often that shifters complimented vampires in situations like this, and his gaze narrowed as he waited for Cade’s reaction. Testing, I thought. Wondering how deeply the hatred ran. Or whether it was a show for the crowd.
“Tainted,” Cade said, throwing a look of loathing in my direction.
I gave him a wink.