“You dare—” I started, and the tension all around us ramped up even further. But then Naomi touched my elbow. I would have loved nothing more than to rip her brother limb from limb and show him that his time of bullying and terrorizing the wonderful woman beside me was over. But I also recognizedthat this was her battle, and she was asking me to stand down. I would gladly do so in order to watch her back.
“Hello, Maverick,” she said, her voice so calm that she sounded nearly ethereal. “I do wish you had come here with different intentions, but that’s too much to expect of you. However, I can’t help but notice that Mason and Reggie aren’t here with you. I don’t suppose that’s because they know you’re being moronic about this, is it?”
Maverick started to puff out his chest, his mouth opening, but Naomi placed a hand on his cheek. It was a gentle touch, but he hadn’t been expecting it, because I watched as for the second time, she shut him down completely—and this time she wasn’t even beating him with a purse.
“The thing is, big brother, Iamlike the rest of these people. You and our family have made sure of that. Every single person you see here, for whatever reason, has been told that they’re not enough. That they’re lesser for something completely out of their hands. Been ostracized, sometimes even exiled, and left utterly alone.
“How many times did you guys joke at our family dinners that I would be a crazy old dog lady? How many times did you try to set me up with one of your friends who, frankly, were quite trash, and then tell me beggars couldn’t be choosers when I broke it off?
“How many times did you leave me behind on runs? Not invite me to events? Join in on people making fun of me rather than standing up for me? You’ve given me a lifetime of wounds I’ve had to heal from. And even though I have found love and a community now, I will wear those scars forever.”
Although Naomi had shared many stories with me, and I knew that her life had not been easy, it broke my heart all over again to hear her spell it out, point by point, to one of her maintormentors. But the real power in it was that she didn’t sound angry. She didn’t sound upset.
No, she soundedhealed.
“So, if you want to pretend you care about me, or even if there is an infinitesimal flicker of actual love for me within you, you’ll understand that this is not the place for you unless you want to come in with open arms. All of us heredeservefriendship and connection, perhaps even love.
“And if you make us have to fight for it,we will.”
We absolutely would.
I hadn’t really been in a battle since Ibrahim and I had cleared out a malevolent enclave of sorcerers who were working with theAhnenerbeacross the ocean to lock out all the local native magical folk from their connection to theirOrenda,but I was more than ready to call upon that side of me if I had to.
“And I have to warn you,” Iko added, voice still more earth and petrichor than spoken word. “I can’t tell if it’s a limb I’m ripping off, or a skull.”
Maverick’s face remained remarkably still considering the situation, and he looked around slowly before his gaze returned to his sister. The other wolves—I assumed they were wolves—behind him appeared less and less certain by the second. It was amazing how quickly most abusers and bullies crumbled when met with an equal playing field.
“Fuck this,” he said eventually, and although it wasn’t the first time I’d watched him slink off with his tail between his legs, it was just as satisfying. His compatriots followed suit, the crowd shrinking down to a lone six.
“Are you kidding me?” Celestia snapped, looking extremely ruffled. “I thought you shifters were supposed to be so big and bad, and you’re being scared off by a bunch ofnobodies!”
Nobodies, huh?
It seemed it was my time to step in.
“Celestia, this really is coming across as a situation where the lady doth protest too much.”
Her head whipped back to me, and the look she gave me was pure poison. Too bad it was a type I was immune to, because to me, she looked like a petulant child. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“You throw out all these insults—losers, freaks, nobodies—but you’re the one who’s here because you were desperate for our attention.”
“That’s not?—”
“I wasn’t done,” I said firmly, and to my great satisfaction, Celestia looked quite chagrined. Good. “You see, I get that when you’re used to being placated and coddled, something not being centered around you feels like a bit of a slap in the face.
“But the truth is, there’s a whole world of amazing and fantastic people who exist, and you are not one of them. You’re boring. You’re trite. You’re a stereotype that’s old hat by now, and frankly, I’m embarrassed it took me so long to see it.
“And unlike the rest of us, who are outsiders because of things we didn’t have a choice in, you’re this pathetic for reasons that are entirely within your control. Youchooseto be petty, to be false to my face and use me for my connections while speaking ill behind my back. Youchoseto have the personality that robs you of having any sort of meaningful connection.
“Really, I would feel bad for you, if you weren’t such a bitch.”
“Mypersonality is shit?” she shrieked, and one of the vampires behind her snickered, earning a glare from her. Naturally, her boy toy stepped forward, squaring his shoulders like he could possibly intimidate me.
“You’d best watch your tongue,abomination.”
“Or what?” I asked dully, wrapping my arm around Naomi’s waist when she growled. “You think you can do something about it?”
I stared the man down, his red eyes meeting my lavender ones, and he visibly shrank. “That’s what I thought.”
