Dutch gave him a black look. “This is a private conversation. I think you need to move.”
“Thinking isn’t knowing,” Tak pointed out. “Either youthinkyou know something, or you know. I remember you. You’re the one who wasn’t looking where he was going.”
My eyes narrowed. “Tak, what are you doing here?”
Wheeler Cole—another of Mel’s uncles—suddenly strode up behind Tak and clapped him on the shoulders. “Isthiswho you’ve been going on about for the past two hours?” he said, briefly flicking a glance at me.
I blanched. Not just at the realization that Tak was still in town and at the very bar I’d come to, but that he’d buddied up with someone I knew. Worst of all, they were talking about me! Had Tak told him all about my taking an unfamiliar wolf into my home? Men revealed secrets when intoxicated.
Wheeler grabbed Tak’s braid and jerked him out of the chair. “Come on, sweetheart. We need to go for a little walk.” Tak was bigger, but you didn’t want to mess with Wheeler. If the tattoos all up and down his arms didn’t give it away, then his surly attitude did.
Dutch curled his lip and watched them head over to the bar. “So this is where you like to socialize? Maybe we should go somewhere more private. I don’t like crowds.”
I pretended to listen, but I could hear Wheeler and Tak arguing. Fights in Breed establishments could get you blacklisted, but they were fairly commonplace in Shifter bars. Certain animals were territorial, packs clashed, and Shifters had chips on their shoulders when it came to how the community treated them.
When I glanced back at the bar, Wheeler had Tak in a chokehold, and Tak was holding the pointy tip of a blade to Wheeler’s groin.
I launched to my feet. “I’ll be right back.”
Dutch didn’t have time to answer. I was already at the bar.
“What are you doing?” I hissed. “The two of you are behaving like children.”
They both looked up at me, Tak’s face a shade of purple and Wheeler grimacing from the pinch of the blade.
“Christ!” Wheeler let go and jumped back a foot.
Tak stood up straight, and his pocketknife closed with a click. “Do that again, and I’ll make your woman a new set of earrings out of your testicles.”
Wheeler grabbed a random guy’s beer and guzzled it. “Put that on my tab and order him another,” he said to the bartender while rubbing his crotch.
Tak placed his hand on my back and led me toward the jukebox. Hopefully Wheeler would leave us alone, but he could be as stubborn as a mule.
“You don’t have a pack to watch over you,” he said, admonishing me with a glance. “Why are you out alone with another Shifter?”
“Why do you care?”
Dumb question. Tak was an alpha, and that meant he was nosy by nature.
Tak rested his arm on the jukebox. “Do you know what his intentions are? Because if you don’t, I can fill you in.”
“He runs a shop in the area. It’s business.”
“It didn’t look like business to me when he was kissing your fingers.”
Hands clenched in fists at my side, I gave him an indignant look.
“You’re right,” he said, a sudden bend in his voice. “I have no business in your life. But I care about what happens to you.”
“You also asked me out. How would that have been any different?”
He straightened up and squared his shoulders. “Because I wouldn’t have brought you to a bar—even if it was your idea. My intentions were honorable.”
“What makes you think his aren’t? You don’t even know Dutch. He’s a nice man.”
Tak’s energy prickled against my skin.
Few things were more seductive than the way an alpha could claim a woman with a single word. Their voice resonates in the most primal area of our brains, compelling us to submit whenever they pushed that power into their voices.
