“A whole week, huh?” I chewed on that for a spell. “How many of your pups are we talking about here?”
“All of them.”
Enid and her mates had a half-dozen pups, all of them wonderful and wild in their own way.
“And what do I get outta this?” I asked.
“I won’t bug you about your questionable taste in men for the next six moons.”
“It’s not my fault none of these cads want to settle down,” I lamented.
She laughed and held out her hand so we could shake on it. Having to confess my weakness to Enid might improve my willpower.
“Hiero,” she admonished a moment later. “You can’t even look away from him for the duration of this conversation. I feel bad taking advantage.”
I doubted she felt bad about it at all, more like smug.
“I’m just making sure no one bothers him. Folks around here like to get handsy.” I’d noticed a few patrons letting their hands linger a little too long on his bare shoulder or the small of his back. If I caught someone touching his wings…
“You’re playing with fire, little brother. What do you always tell us about having our significant others at the bar?” she said.
“It’s a headache nobody wants.”
“Exactly. Ahem,” Enid said and nodded to a waiting customer.
I took their order, and while mixing their drink, I thought about the cocktail I might prepare for Skylar at the end of the night. He liked clear spirits with herbal infusions and fruit spritzes. He had a sweet tooth too, and nabbed cherries when he thought no one was looking. But beyond garnishes, he hadn’t stolen anything from the bar. In fact, he was a hard worker with a good memory for drink orders, and I hadn’t had anyone complain about him yet. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he was nice to look at. A lot could be forgiven with looks and charms such as his.
It was nearing closing time when I noticed Skylar hadn’t visited the bar lately. I scanned the room and saw him trying to make his way through the dance floor with a tray of empty glasses. The bar was less crowded than before, but the patrons were well past tipsy and bordering on sloppy. It seemed the ogre brothers had detained him. Skylar was trying graciously to refuse their advances, but they weren’t getting it through their thick skulls.
I circled the bar and made my way over in five seconds flat. “Is there a problem here?” I growled.
“No problem,” Skylar said, pushing one of them aside to join me where I stood.
“Skylar, go help Frito,” I said tersely.
He shot me a worried glance but obeyed while I looked the ogres up and down. “The fae is an employee now, not a patron.”
“Still as slutty as ever,” the one-tusked brother said with an obnoxious guffaw.
I gripped his arm roughly. “You will treat him with respect, or you will find another watering hole to frequent.”
“Or I’ll fuck him if I feel like it,” the ogre boasted. “I heard the fae are flexible down there. He can probably take us both at once, eh brother?”
My grip on the ogre tightened as I attempted to quell the gathering mist of red. My horns pointed downward, poised to skewer the bastard’s rib cage. His brother interceded, carefully unshackling my fingers from the offender’s mossy green bicep.
“Now, now, bull, no need to charge. Just tell us he’s your bitch, and we’ll keep our hands off him.”
“Your hands, maybe,” the other one said.
“He’s not anyone’s anything, but you will respect him as you would your own mother,” I snapped.
“Ma didn’t have an ass like that,” the one-tusked ogre practically shouted, then said with a lascivious grin, “Have you bedded him yet? I’d bet his hole is tighter than the fae queen’s girdle. I’d pay good money to see that puppy whine. Might even let him come if he begged for it hard enough.”
The ogre’s fantasies hit a little too close to home, making me feel like an absolute brute myself. Had I taken advantage of Skylar’s precarious situation?
“I think it’s time for you boys to go home,” I said. I grabbed them both by their upper arms and steered them to the door so Frito could take it from there. “Have a good night, gentlemen, and remember, you lay hands on my staff, I’ll break your fingers.”
“Cucked already,” one of them muttered as they stumbled off into the night. The rest of the patrons filed out soon after and then it was just Skylar and me cleaning up. I’d told him before that he didn’t have to stay for closing, but truthfully, I liked having him around, and I didn’t want him to walk home alone. He was still a stranger in town. Messing with me meant calling down the entire Wolfsbane Clan, and until I could offer him the same protection–as a friend, of course–I wanted to keep him close.
