“Let us continue here, we don’t want to be MC anyway. We just want to live our lives in peace, but you and yours will always be welcome in this bar if need be,” Rex said.
“I don’t know, it sounds like we’re doing a lot of fucking work for you, Rex,” the first voice, Silas I assumed, growled in a husky tone. “And I can smell the scent of a second omega lingering here. I have an incredibly sensitive sniffer you see.”
“That omega is none of your business,” Rex growled. “She isn’t a part of any bargaining.”
“Really, well, then why don’t we ask her ourselves? She’s on the other side of the door after all.”
I froze, exchanging a shocked look with Bat.
“Little omega, why don’t you come out and greet the Sons of Silence,” Silas purred and it crawled down my spine. The noise made me shiver, but not in a good way.
I steeled myself, forcing my limbs not to shake with the exhaustion that was so clearly still deep inside of them, and opened the door to the bar.
Strange men dressed in leathers filled the bar. They looked similar to the men that I’d seen from the Titans in Rex’s vision, but there were different symbols stitched into the leather and they gave off a different feeling than the other MC had. More respectful, if anything.
“Ah, there she is. What a pretty thing you are.” Silas was a hulking figure perched on a stool at the bar. He smiled at me, though the emotion didn’t seem to reach his dark eyes.
Rex and the rest of the pack were standing behind the bar and the look he gave me as Bat and I stepped into the space was a mixture of relief and irritation.
I recognized Silas from the snapshot visions that Rex had shown me during the fire scrying. He was one of the men who had come to our aid in the future and it seemed that Rex was trying to change that future by bringing him in earlier.
“Don’t be shy, tell us your name,” he crooned and I squeezed Bat’s arm tightly for support.
“June,” I told him, forcing as much confidence into my voice as I could muster. “And you’re Silas.”
The man chuckled. “What a smart thing you are, June, what would you say to coming to live with my boys and me. We’d spoil you absolutely rotten and you wouldn’t have to worry about the scary Titans coming after you.”
Rex and the rest of the pack shifted uncomfortably and I watched Doc put a hand on Podcast’s shoulder and shake his head as if to tell him not to do anything.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I’d prefer to stay here, with my pack, if you don’t mind. I’ve grown rather fond of them,” I said, hoping I was giving the right answer.
Silas stared at me for a moment, his dark, emotionless gaze pinning me where I stood, before he tilted his head back and started to laugh. The other strange men followed and soon the entire bar was filled with laughter. “I’m going to call you Fearless June from now on, most grown ass men would have said yes to that offer, you know,” he informed me, slapping the top of the bar loudly with the flat of his palm.
His laugh sobered quickly as his fingers drummed on the counter. “So, Fearless June, why should I help these alphas when there is so very little in it for me?”
He was testing me. The question hung in the air and I could almost hear thetick-tick-tickof the clock above the bar as if it was timing my response.
I looked at the man in front of me, observing him with what I hoped was a critical eye. He sat on the stool confidently, like he was a conquering king surveying his kingdom. Silas didn’t seem like the type of man who would covet anything, not an omega and certainly not some territory. No, if anything he seemed bored by the whole thing.
“Because it will be interesting?” I finally offered quietly. “It may not be fortuitous to help us, but it will be something new to break up the monotony of your daily life?”
Silas frowned. “And what makes you think I’m bored, Fearless June?”
I nibbled on my lower lip, afraid that I’d made the wrong choice. But even if I had, it was too late now and I needed to keep forging on. “Because you wouldn’t have even entertained Rex’s call if you weren’t. Why would a man, a king in his own right, drop everything and come to bargain with a bar owner if he wasn’t bored?”
I watched over Silas’s shoulder as Rex’s jaw worked and his shoulders stiffened. He was clearly preparing himself for the worst, and so was I. I reached deep inside of myself for my magic, only to find it dim and weak. There was no possible way for me to use it right now as it was.
But it seemed I wouldn’t need to use my fire magic because the corners of Silas’s lips turned up. “Very good, pet. Your assumption is spot on.”
The tension in my chest unclenched and I forced myself not to collapse against Bat with relief.
“Besides, I am tired of Orpheus and the way he runs things. He’s sent bad drugs up through my territory more than once, it’s about time I put him into his place. His father and I had an understanding, but it seems Orpheus has chosen to be a tyrant king and I have reached the end of my rope with him.” Silas reached for the glass of amber liquid that was sitting on the bar and knocked it back.
“We’ll help you, Rex, but it means that this bar will be a safe haven for my kind from here on out. If we need to use this space for meetings or other things, we will.”
Rex nodded once, his jaw still clenched. “The house is off limits.”
Silas’s eyebrows rose as he turned to look fully at the other alpha. “That’s ballsy of you, kid.”
