The frown popped and fizzled as Liam tugged me against him, muttering. “How did you get into this state?”
I didn’t answer, too absorbed with getting lost in the deep blue of his eyes. The depths beckoned, calling to the most secret parts of me.
“You have pretty eyes,” I sighed.
“And you are very drunk,” he stated. His face looked torn between being amused by that fact and upset.
I raised one hand and squished those features together.
A song started playing and Caroline appeared over my shoulder. “It’s our song.”
I bounced in place. “We should dance!”
“You’re not dancing,” Brax told Caroline.
“Watch me. You’re not the boss of me,” she said, lifting her chin stubbornly.
“Hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but I am,” Brax said in a sardonic voice.
Caroline got a stubborn look on her face as she shook her head emphatically. “Nope. The bookstore’s shopkeeper is my boss. You’re just a bully with fur.”
Brax’s expression turned scandalized at Caroline’s denial. I chortled, unable to contain my amusement at the sight of Caroline giving the alpha hell.
She stalked off before he could stop her, heading for the dance floor.
Brax’s furious eyes came to rest on me. “I blame you for corrupting my wolf.”
I snorted. “That happened way before you came into the picture.”
Brax didn’t respond, stalking off without another word.
“I’ve never seen the alpha look so out of sorts,” Nathan drawled next to us. “If you’re not careful, he may decide to keep you two separated in the future.”
“He can try,” I said, twisting out of Liam’s arms. The action upset my precarious balance, sending me staggering into the bar. I draped myself over it, resting my hot cheek on its cool surface.
“I think I need water,” I groaned. That was still a thing, wasn’t it? I vaguely recalled it being necessary from the nights of drunken revelry back when I was still human.
As if by magic, a glass of water appeared next to my head. I lifted my face off the bar and gave the bartender a hazy smile.
This man was a stranger. Dahlia was at the other end of the bar taking care of customers.
“Thanks,” I told him, grabbing the water and trying to wrap my lips around the straw. It kept evading me, taking several attempts to capture.
Liam gently tugged me away from the bar. “That’s not what you need.”
“How did you even find me?” I asked, my path slightly meandering.
I was drunk. So very, very drunk.
I didn’t even remember the last time I was this drunk. I was definitely going to regret this tomorrow night. Meh. That was tomorrow Aileen’s problem. Tonight’s Aileen was going to embrace the madness and suck all the fun out of the night that she could.
“Nathan couldn’t have followed me.” A thought occurred to me and I jerked out of his grip. I held my arm up between us, outrage on my face. “Are you using your microchip again?”
A while back, Liam had lain his mark on me—unasked for, by the way. An oak tree that was slowly filling in with leaves, roots beginning to appear at the bottom, tangible evidence of the link between us.
I knew he could use it to track me, but I thought it was difficult and something he did rarely.
“You assume I’m here for you,” he said, bending a censorious look on me that turned devilish. “This is just a happy coincidence.”
