Algernon and his men glared at him with utter hatred, and started to bend down and reach for their clothes.
“Nope,” Austin yelled. “You forfeited your clothing when you hit innocent females, you little bitches. Now you’re going to leave, or I swear to God I will stand here and make you change back and forth until you pass out, and then I’ll keep doing it until your hearts burst. You aren’t going to set paw on this property againunlessyou get to claim it. And if you have a problem with that, they’re now under the protection of the Pebble Creek Pack. And me.”
Unless every last one of us gets murdered.
They turned and hurried off, muttering under their breath, and scrambled into their cars, naked. They screeched out of the parking lot, howling threats out of the windows as they sped away.
There was a long moment of stunned silence.
“Thank you,” Laurel said to him, looking shaken. “He has no right to treat people the way he does. Thanks for putting him in his place. Someone had to.”
Then she turned to the assembled crowd. The music had stopped. “What are you waiting for? Let’s party!” she cried.
Niall hurried to turn the music back on. Within a couple of minutes, people were back to dancing and drinking.
“Dance with me?” Austin asked Savannah.
“Oh, I’m terrible at it,” Savannah protested, looking truly alarmed.
“Me too. It’s just an excuse for me to put my arms around you and move slowly around while swaying in time to the music.”
She managed a little smile. “That doesn’t sound too awful.”
Austin circled his arms around her and pulled her close to him. They began moving, ever so slowly, swaying back and forth. She moved in perfect rhythm with him, resting her head on his shoulder, and he slowly stroked her lower back.
The entire world fell away. It was just the two of them, in their own, perfect little universe. She was his, and he was hers, and he could pretend it would be like that forever.
Waking up in bed next to her… Carrying their cubs in his arms…
She smelled heavenly and felt as soft as clouds. He kept playing the memory of their lovemaking back through his head, smiling to himself. She was so relaxed, she was melting into him.
And then she tensed up and stepped back.
He looked around.
Nobody else was dancing anymore. Everybody was staring at them. The wolf and the fox. He’d all but staked a claim on Savannah right there. Practically announced that she was his mate.
As soon as he looked up, though, everybody looked away quickly and became very interested in anything else but him.
He knew how small towns were – gossip was their meat and drink. And he’d already told Savannah that he would be gone for good after tonight, so he was leaving her to deal with this on her own. Here he’d made this big show of publicly courting her right in front of her family, and then he was going to pull a disappearing act.
“Oh God,” Savannah groaned. “Oh crud. I will never, never, never live this down. After I’m dead, they’ll still be talking about it.”
“Welp, maybe I should run along home now,” he said uncomfortably. He desperately didn’t want to leave her, but he also didn’t want to cause any more trouble for her.
“Maybe you should.”
Disappointment stung him at her muttered words. Even though he knew this magical night had to end sometime, he wished it hadn’t had to happen so abruptly.
Savannah flashed a last, wincing look at the crowd, ducked her head, and scampered off into the woods. His last glimpse was of her shifting into fox form and disappearing. The place was riddled with fox holes. Handy, when you wanted to literally disappear into a hole in the ground. He wished he had that ability.
His mood deflated like a balloon leaking helium as he headed towards his truck.
“Wait up!” Laurel hurried up to him as he was about to open the door.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, uneasily.
She had a bright smile pasted on her face. He didn’t trust that smile. “Thanks again for helping out with Algernon earlier.”
