It was a short drive to the diner, and I found a spot to park on the side street. The instant I got out of the car, I inhaled the scent of frying meat patties, bacon…French fries. Maybe I’d do breakfast another day because I was for sure going to give those burgers a try. Anticipating the juicy goodness, I walked past an alley behind the restaurant and then stopped. Loud voices rang out, three males demanding money from a fourth who cowered near the dumpster.
I made it a policy never to step into the middle of drama, particularly when the one being bullied was calling the others his brothers. Family drama. I hesitated only a few seconds before raised voices turned to raised fists.
Oh hell no. Pivoting away from the sidewalk, I started down the alley. No trio of gorillas was going to lay one finger on my mate. On. My. What?
Mate,my wolf snarled.Let me out.
I’ve got this,I told him.For now.They were big, they were three, and my wolf could make mincemeat of them. But first, I was going to try something a little less bloody.
“Hey!” I marched right into their midst, placing my body between them and my mate who huddled in the corner. “What is wrong with you three? Go away and leave this man alone.”
The tallest of the three answered. “He’s our brother and he has what’s ours. If he tells us where the rest of it is, we’ll only beat him a little bit.”
Rage such as I’d never experienced flooded my bloodstream, alpha power surging up, and my wolf beating to get out at thesame time. I let him in just enough to shift my eyes to wolf and freak out the bullies.
They staggered back, all three of them, but not for long. Whispering among themselves, they must have come up with a plan because they started back toward me, fists raised again. But not with the force they’d had before.If my eyes scared you, wait until you see my claws.
My wolf pushed a growl up and out my throat, and the goons stumbled, but they were a determined trio; I had to give them that. Unfortunately for them, if they continued to feel that way, no undertaker was going to be able to sort out all the bits of them to sort into coffins. My alpha power was reaching for my wolf, and in about another two seconds, it would all be over.
“What the unholy…” The back door had opened, and in it stood a man wearing a white T-shirt and jeans with an apron tied around his waist. “Temple, where are you?”
“H-here, Gary.” The fourth brother, my omega, my mate—something we were going to have to talk about later—unfolded from his hunched posture.
“What are you doing still out here? You’ve got an order up, customers waiting.”
“Sorry.” He darted past the older man in the doorway, ducking under his arm holding the door open. Then he was gone.
“Mister, if you’re looking for the entrance, it’s on the other street.” The man, apparently my mate’s boss, stepped back and let the door close. When I turned around, the trio was gone. My wolf was still wild, but some meat would calm him, as well as knowing our mate was safe. Definitely burgers for lunch. This was not over, not by a long shot, but I needed more information to make it so.
Chapter Six
Temple
I went from slamming my eyes shut, knowing that things were about to get really ugly and bloody, to opening them and finding my brothers gone. It was just me and a man I didn’t know, standing there as my boss opened the door and called me back to work.
My eyes darted back and forth as I tried to piece together what had just happened. And then I did the only thing I could think of. I darted straight inside, mumbling an apology to Gary along the way.
Gary was a great boss and more like a father to me than my actual fathers had been. That didn’t mean he didn’t have high expectations for me. Hanging out back while tickets were building up wouldn’t be acceptable on a good day. And pairing that with screaming he had to have caught at least part of…it was best I get inside and back to work.
As I washed my hands, I felt bad about whatever the man had witnessed that made him feel the need to help. He wasn’t from here, and getting dragged into family drama was never a good introduction to a town. I shivered, envisioning what might have happened if my brothers had lost it on him. Even in their human forms, they were stronger than most. Three against one? He wouldn’t stand a chance.
The lunch crowd had arrived, and Gary hadn’t been kidding about the tickets piling up. I grabbed them all and set them in a line. After scanning what all was needed, I threw burgers on the grill, fries in one basket, chicken in another, and toasted the buns. At least it was mostly sandwiches and chicken tenders. Those were pretty easy to keep going all at once, even if they weren’t the quickest cook time we had.
This wasn’t the kind of place people expected to be in and out of quickly, but many were on a lunch break. They didn’t deserve to have me take forever, either.
My hand was still trembling as I flipped the burgers. It was bad enough when they were holding my money, but then they said “the rest of it,” my stomach dropped. I knew they weren’t going to give up with just the handful of cash. And chances were, they had gotten it all, which meant when they found out their gravy train wasn’t still in the station, they were going to be mad all over again.
I’d thought I’d done a better job hiding the money. Given how long it took them to find it, I hadn’t done the worst job, but I’d been counting on it. Now, I not only had to begin again, but I needed to be extra careful and probably split my tip money in half for them so they didn’t get too suspicious. Why did my life have to suck this bad?
My only hope now was that they’d drink themselves to sleep before I got home. With the unexpected cash, they’d have bought booze or, better yet, driven to a casino to try and win even more. Booze was the better option. They never came out ahead at the casinos, and I’d always pay the price for that, making the couple of days reprieve not worth it.
I looked up to see if there were any new tickets, and I caught him out of the corner of my eye. Him being the guy who was outside when my brothers were being their asshole selves. He was sitting at the counter, looking in the order window.
He’d helped me out there. I knew that much, but I’d been so out of it, I wasn’t sure exactly what he’d done. Maybe just another person being there had scared my brothers, but that didn’t sound like them. They were the type to welcome confrontation, not hide from it.
He looked up at me and gave a little nod.
How freaking embarrassing. He saw me nearly pissing my pants in the alley, and now, he was sitting there in my place of work watching me. Or maybe he wasn’t watching me, but I happened to catch his glance.
