Shit. Shit. Shit.
“Um, I’m not from around here… just passing through.”
“Just passing through but you have a job and the bouncers knew your name? That implies some level of permanence.” He studies my face with an uncomfortable intensity, as if trying to see through me.
“I, uh…”
He walks forward until he’s right in front of me. “Who did you speak with when you requested permission to stay in this territory?”
I swallow. “No one?”
“Where—”
The door crashes open and I spin around.Shit.I slide partway in front of Remy as two men storm into the room. They’re not the guys from earlier, but they are shifters and they’re both larger than Remy and me put together.
Remy lets out an exasperated sigh from behind me. “I’mfine.”
“Fine?” yells one of the new arrivals, an absolutely stunning Black man, as he stalks toward Remy, all but shoving me out of the way to get there. “You ditched us and went out on your own in another Alpha’s territory. What do you think Julien is going to say about this?”
“Julien doesn’t need to know,” says Remy, smiling and reaching forward to rest a hand on the chest of the man now looming over him. “Nothing happened, Dante.”
“The hell it didn’t,” says Dante, his nostrils flaring with anger. He leans away from Remy’s touch, then fishes something out of his pocket and holds it up: a cell phone with a smashed screen. “If nothing happened, then what was this doing in the alleyway behind the club?”
“Okay, so, maybe I got in a little trouble, but it all turned out okay.” Remy lets out a nervous chuckle as he shoots me a look I can’t interpret. “My new friend here looked out for me.”
Dante whirls around, focusing on me for the first time. “Who the fuck are you?”
“This,” says Remy, moving toward me, then linking his arm through mine, “is Keir.”
“That your blood, kid?” asks the second guy, speaking up for the first time. It takes me a second to realize he means the blood all over my hand from when I skewered Greg with my claws.
“No,” I reply, moving my hand behind my back and attempting to pull away from Remy. “So, um, glad I could help. I’ve gotta be going. Work and all…”
Remy doesn’t budge, and neither does his arm. “Keir is a waiter at Heaven & Hell. He followed me when Jake and his cronies dragged me outside.”
“Dragged… you… outside…?” says Dante, each word forced through clenched teeth.
“Well, maybe notdragged…” says Remy.
Dante narrows his eyes at me and quirks a brow. “What happened?”
I hold my hands up and wave them in front of my chest. “Look, I don’t—”
“What. Happened.” A growl rumbles up from Dante’s throat.
Remy huffs. “They drugged me, took me outside, and tried to shove me in a car.”
“They had a car waiting?” asks the second as-yet-unnamed guy. He shares a look with Dante. “This was planned.”
Dante nods. Both of the larger men turn their attention to me, suspicion clear on their faces.
“It’s awfully convenient you were there tonight,” says Dante. “Maybe you were in on it?”
“In on it?” I choke out, taking a step backward.
“Not possible,” says Remy, waving his hand through the air. “Keir had no idea what he was walking into when he stepped outside. Plus, those guys thought he was human until he partially shifted and half-disemboweled one of them.”
Two sets of wide eyes swing to me and my stomach drops. This is not good. Showing off that particular ability—exclusive to alphas and, apparently, omegas—was a dumb idea. These guys will never mistake me for an alpha.
