Magical Midlife Meeting (Leveling Up 5)

I stared after the three women, expecting to feel bad for my outburst. Or embarrassed. Or even fearful. A swell of possessiveness had taken over my better judgment, and I’d almost used magic to strike down a Jane. And although I wasn’t even sure what spell would have zipped out at her, I sensed that it would have been a bad one. Maybe bad enough that I wouldn’t have been able to heal her.

But I didn’t feel either of those things.

I stared after them for a moment longer, that pinkish-purple light still shimmering around me, and Austin’s heartbeat felt just a little more powerful in my chest. His presence comforted and soothed me, helping me back down.

“I’m going crazy, that’s what this is,” I said softly, bracing a hand on the back of my seat. “This magic, or the bond, or my gargoyle is making me go crazy.”

“Edgar is crazy,” Niamh said. “That fool Mr. Tom is crazy, naming weapons based on their ‘personality.’ The basajaun might just be nuts, as well. The ruling is out on him. Ye aren’t crazy, though. Ye’re owning yer space, that’s all. That trollop pushed into yer space, trying to get a rise out of you, and if Austin’s people weren’t here to keep the bar in one piece, ye would’ve pushed her right back out. That’s within reason. Sure she started it! How is that yer fault?”

I shook my head and finished my wine.

“Your reaction is expected for a shifter,” Austin said, putting his empty glass on the bar. He set his hand on the small of my back. “It was definitely within reason for an alpha sliding toward the mating bond.”

“I’m not a shifter.”

Austin looked down at me, his cobalt eyes taking on a sheen from the sparkly light still shedding from my skin. “No, you are not. And not a single shifter in the world would hold that against you.” He bent down and kissed me softly. “Let’s go get some dinner. You’ll need sustenance for what I’m going to do to you later.”

I smiled at him. “I’m going to hold you to that promise.”

Five

Austin couldn’t help but smile back. Jess wasn’t his mate yet, so it was slightly unorthodox for an alpha to be so openly affectionate in public, but he felt like a little kid at Christmas. Jess had just given her beast the wheel, and his people had needed to step in to calm things down. They knew the score: Austin would have been powerless to stop her.

Mating bonds were tricky. When a shifter saw that his future mate was defending his claim on her, there wasn’t a hope in hell that he’d intervene. Even if his own bar came tumbling down around them.

“I’d never break a promise to you,” he said, running the pad of his thumb down the front of her throat.

Her eyes fluttered and she shivered, a shadow crossing her eyes. “I think I understand a little more of what it means to let someone trace down the jugular like that,” she said, but didn’t pull away.

“Oh yeah?”

“There was a moment today,” she said, “when the shifters got me down, and I had a blast of terror that they’d go for my throat. It felt like death was coming.”

He noticed Kace, his beta, threading through the crowd. When he neared, Kace clasped his hands behind his back and turned his eyes downward. He wanted Austin’s attention but knew better than to interrupt. Wise. Even a small intrusion wouldn’t sit well just now. It was why he needed to get her out of here. Get them both out of here.

This thing with Elliot Graves couldn’t have come at a worse time.

“Excuse me,” he said to Jess, then looked at Kace. “Yes?”

“Sir, the Janes are getting all riled up. The Dicks they’re with clearly don’t want to get involved, but it could get…ugly.”

“Get the Janes out of here. The Dicks will surely follow.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I did that,” Jess murmured, glancing down the bar. “I made them feel that way.”

Austin walked toward the door, sweeping her along with him. They exited the bar into the early evening, the light dwindling.

“Other way around, actually,” Austin said. “That Jane got you all riled up. On purpose, I believe. I didn’t use to know much about women, but I’ve learned a lot from an insightful and amazing woman I met last fall. A woman who shamed me into realizing I was a selfish jackass—”

“I’m pretty sure that wasn’t what I was saying…”

“—but I’m no expert. Still, I doubt she would’ve been so vocal about her desire for me if you weren’t sitting right there.”

Jess stiffened and sucked in a breath. She squeezed her eyes closed, and her steps faltered. “Please don’t talk about other women desiring you. I am…not well.”

“What are you, in a Jane Austen movie? You are ‘not well’?”