“Discreetly.”
For whatever reason, I didn’t fully trust my aunt. Through the mild application of physical threats, I made Casey promise not to tell Aunt Laurel or Uncle Pete what had happened. While I trusted my cousin implicitly, I couldn’t shake the feeling that his parents would try to stop me from working with Jaxson or that they’d keep me on lockdown until the threat had passed.
But I needed to figure out what was going on, and Jaxson Laurent seemed hell-bent on doing the same.
That night, I barely slept, and when I did, my dreams were filled with nightmares.
I woke exhausted, with a dark cloud hanging over my heart. Demons and werewolves were hunting me, and I’d just maced the one person who seemed the most invested in keeping me safe.
Not mace. Wolfsbane. I had no idea what exactly that was, but while it had burned my skin and eyes, it had practically incapacitated the other wolves. When I closed my eyes, I could see Sam staring back at me, filled with hate.
I put my hands over my face as I flopped back in bed. I had to make amends. The problem was, I’d never been particularly good at apologies or acting contrite. It was practically a foreign language.
At breakfast, I asked Casey how best to apologize to a werewolf, and he grinned. “Bring it a dead rabbit. Nice and rotten.”
Thanks, Captain Helpful.
With little to be gained from my cousin, I kept to myself for the rest of the morning and had a cab drop me off at Eclipse at ten a.m.
A muscle-bound bouncer leaned against the wall of the restaurant, scrolling on his smartphone. He had a wolfy look about him, hot and menacing. Most of the werewolves I’d met in Magic Side were unbelievably good looking. There must have been some kind of sexy wolf gene in this pack.
The man slipped his phone into his pocket and stopped me with a meaty hand. “Hold up. Are you carrying?”
“Carrying what?”
He loomed over me. “Wolfsbane. I heard what you did at the Full Moon Fair. I can’t have you bringing that in here.”
“Nope, fresh out.”
He growled and sniffed. Could he have smelled it if I’d had some on me?
“I was attacked by a demon and a bunch of werewolves,” I snapped as I stepped back.
“Don’t pull that excuse. You sprayed the alpha and the people trying to protect you. Don’t ever try that shit when I’m around, or you’ll regret it.”
I pushed past him. “Well, everybody had fangs and claws out and was growling. How was I supposed to tell the difference?”
I stepped into the bar and immediately regretted my words. Four shifters sent me death glares, stopping me right in my tracks. I’d hoped the place would be empty that morning.
So much for putting off apologies.
The look of betrayal in Sam’s eyes cut particularly deep. Three days ago, she’d taken care of me when I was drunk and adrift in a world I didn’t understand. In return, I’d wolfsbaned her while she was trying to save my ass.
I straightened my spine and walked over to the bar. She turned her back to me and began stocking the liquor shelf.
I deserved that. And more.
I couldn’t believe that this was the same place I’d gone out for dinner with Jaxson. That night, it had been rich, lively, and teeming with excitement and music and magic. Now, in the light of day, I could see the cracks and taste the bitterness in the air.
Placing a hand on the bar top, I murmured, “Look, I’m sorry you got caught in the crossfire yesterday, Sam. I didn’t know what was in the canister, and I was really scared and fairly certain I was about to die.”
She slowly turned with a deadpan look, then braced her arms against the bar. “Do you have any idea how badly that shit hurts? You should have listened to me. I told you to submit. Why don’t you listen to anything anyone says?”
Her tone was cold and dismissive, and my temper flared. I lowered my voice so it was a knife-edge whisper. “When you first met me three days ago, I didn’t know any of this existed. Since then, I’ve been attacked by more werewolves than I can count and nearly choked to death by a demon that looked like it walked straight out of a Tim Burton film. Excuse me if I wasn’t ready to listen at that moment when Jaxson was about to rip my throat out. I’d just watched him snap another man’s spine in front of me.”
“He wasn’t going to rip your throat out.”
“Yeah, well, after being nearly shredded to pieces, I wasn’t about to take any chances. Do you get my drift?” I emphasized those last words and glared at the other shifters around the room.