The man, a newer guy I’d seen patrolling the streets in jeans and a white shirt, pulled his hands away and stepped back, getting out of her way. The others followed suit, letting her fall.

“Oh my God, what the hell?” the woman demanded, fighting with her long, wavy blonde hair as she tried to look around.

“He’s taken,” Isabelle said, looking down on her.

“You bitch,” the woman yelled, pushing to her knees, but Isabelle was already walking away, her message delivered.

The newer guy looked down at the woman, his face impassive. “If you’re smart, you’ll never look at him again, not even when he’s talking to you. Best to take the warning.”

“Oh my God, Brittany, what happened?” Two other women descended, having heard their friend’s cries, and pushed through the crowd to get to her. “Who did this to you?”

“Hold my earrings. I’ll deal with this,” said one of them, a girl with short red hair and big hoop earrings.

“That big bitch that just walked out.” The first woman let her friends haul her to her feet, all of them swaying like new sailors on a boat in stormy seas. “Forget her. It’s not worth it.” Isabelle might have been the one who’d shoved her—and I knew exactly how that felt—but the woman had clearly sensed something from me, even if she didn’t understand it. She speared me with a glance, hatred burning deep in her red-rimmed eyes. “Whore.”

She spun and let her friends help her away, but they weren’t agitated enough to leave the bar—they just headed back to their seats. The loud guys I’d heard earlier were probably waiting for them.

“Those Dicks down there are going to take offense for their friend,” Niamh murmured, then took a sip of her drink. “They’ll probably start a row.”

“Nah.” Austin had hardly moved, watching me with hunger plain in his eyes. “They aren’t friends; they’re just trying to get laid. They’re cowards. If they don’t convince the girls to leave, I’ll have someone escort them out before things…escalate.”

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’?”

Her smile was grim. “That’s the only way I can describe it without sounding like a jealous teen. Jealousy stems from a lack of trust, but I trust you implicitly. A beautiful woman could crawl into your lap, and I would trust that you—” She stopped, hands balled up in fists, teeth gritted. “I’d lose my ever-loving mind, is what I would do. ” She breathed deeply. “What’s worse, I’d enjoy it. I would enjoy ripping her off you and beating her to a senseless, bloody pulp. I wouldn’t even feel guilty. I’d feel vindicated.” She shrugged him off and started walking again, heading to the parking lot out back. “I hate that I feel that way. It’s not right. That sort of possessiveness is abusive behavior.”

“Everything you’ve learned in a lifetime as a Jane is warring with your primal knowledge of yourself as a female gargoyle. It’ll take time to get used to it.”

She shook her head but didn’t say anything, clearly at war with her emotions.

“I’m tired,” she finally said as they reached his dirty Jeep with mud sprayed up the side. “My guard is slipping.”

“Your guard against what?”

“Reality? I don’t know. Just let me say things and pretend they make sense.”

He laughed and opened the door for her. “Ten-four.”

“It would’ve been disastrous if I’d attacked that Jane,” she murmured as he got in and started the Jeep. “She wasn’t my equal, and she wouldn’t have healed like a magical person. It would have been like a man hitting a woman.”

“I would like to see what happened if a man hit you.”

“Yeah, right. You’d lose your mind.”

“Not if he hit you, no. Only if he pinched your bottom.” He grinned at her, feeling a rush of adrenaline. In the past, he would have shut it down forcefully, worrying where it might lead, but this time he didn’t.

Austin had always worried he’d lose himself to his beast. That he’d become like his abusive, no-good father. They had the same animal form, after all, and he’d feared he’d fail in the same ways. But giving in to his feelings for Jess had actually made him stronger. And now, watching her wrestle with her own fear and uncertainty, he felt closer to her than ever. Because he’d been there. And seeing her in the thick of the same struggle actually made him less judgmental of his own floundering.

They were meant for each other; he truly believed that. She made him a better man, and he was uniquely qualified to help her cope with the violence of her creature. He’d lived with that darkness all his life.

“What do you want for dinner?” he asked, driving up the narrow mountain road to his home overlooking the valley.

“Anything. I’m easy.”

“That’s what she said.”

“Who?” She frowned at him, then her expression cleared and she gave him a dopey grin. “Ha-ha.” She rolled her eyes, then shook her head. “I’m slow tonight.”

“You’re too wound up.”