“At least she never denied you,” Liam said brokenly.
“No. But I denied her, remember?” Aleks said bitterly and Liam winced.
“Listen, I don’t know what’s going on with the little guy, but he looked scared as hell when he shifted
back to human. You don’t look that scared when you can shift into a fucking saber-toothed tiger without
some major trauma somewhere in your past,” Aleks said, taking a deep breath. Then he stopped and his
eyes went wide.
“He’s a he. I mean he’s a guy. He’s your mate. Oh my God you’re gay!” Aleks exclaimed. Liam slapped
himself on the forehead.
“You are just sick!” a woman on the sidewalk hissed at them.
“Fuck off you close-minded bitch, we don’t choose our mates, they are chosen for us,” Aleks growled
at her. Her mouth worked like a fish’s before she went running down the street calling for Ma Arkadion.
Aleks looked at Liam, his face scarlet.
“Look man, I don’t care who your mate is. I just want you to be happy,” he said in a gruff voice. Liam
wiped his eyes from laughing too hard and shook his head.
“Doesn’t look like that is going to happen anytime soon.” When Liam looked up at him there was a new
depth of sadness that wasn’t there this morning. Aleks opened his mouth to reassure his friend when he
heard something that chilled him to the bone.
“Aleksander Aaron Arkadion! What in the hell is wrong with you! Why are you dragging that mangled
corpse through town? You traumatized an entire first-grade class on a field trip to the town center,” Ma said,
striding up to them pointing down to the body that Aleks still had a hold of.
He looked down at the ankle he was holding.
“Fuck my life.” Aleks looked behind his ma at the trail of blood heading back to the ice cream parlor.
Liam laughed, his arms wrapped around his waist holding his sides. Aleks had a feeling that Liam was
laughing to keep from crying.
Chapter 17
“You know what this means Ashby?” Rebecca said, wiggling around behind the counter as Ma walked
into the diner muttering about dense sons. Ethan, Gina and Cecelia were giggling at Aleks’s gaffe from a
table by the door.
“What does what mean?” Ashby asked, picking apart a muffin.
“It means that you can go be with Gabriel. The threat was from his crazy-ass stalker, not the drug ring.
Speaking of crazy stalkers.” Rebecca rummaged around in different containers before holding up her gun
triumphantly. Connor paled as she tucked it into her purse. She returned to her table as Caleb and Bran eyed
her warily. She resumed eating her steak.
“Oh my God, you’re right. I can go back!” he said, grinning from ear to ear.
“Hate to lose you little buddy,” Mojo said from a side table where he was having breakfast with a much
smaller man who kept looking around nervously. Ashby identified one of his shirts and smiled.
“I’ll figure out a way to get you your sundaes. Is this Peyton?” Ashby asked, smiling at the twitchy man.
Mojo nodded.
“Yup, this is Peyton Miller, my new employee at the bar. Say hello to everyone Peyton. It’s OK,
everyone here is real nice.” Mojo waved to everyone who smiled warmly and waved back to the small man.
Slowly a shy smile appeared as he gave a small wave before ducking his head.
“He is so cute!!” Rebecca gushed. Peyton looked up blushing and looked back down again.
Ashby was about to comment when the door swung open and three strange men walked in.
Immediately the shifters in the diner went on alert. Ma stepped out from behind the counter.
“Can we help you gentlemen?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest. Normally Ma was very
welcoming to everyone, but there was something off about these three. Ashby shuddered. He wanted to get
as far away from them as possible. The man in front looked around the diner and gave an oily smile. His
eyes went from Peyton to Kate then back to Ma.
“I’m looking for Bran McGregor,” the seedy-looking leader said. Kate stood and began to growl loudly.
Bran and Caleb stood in front of their mate.
“I’m Bran McGregor,” Bran said, frowning at the rough-looking man.
“I challenge you to become Alpha of the Arkadian wolf pack,” he said and Ashby gasped.
“You can’t do that,” Rebecca said calmly between bites of steak.
“It’s a dominance challenge, no one can interfere. I’m simply reclaiming what is mine. My brother
promised me a piece of that bitch there,” he said, pointing to Kate.
“Once I’m Alpha, she’ll be my bitch. I’ll also be taking that twink off your hands. He belongs to my