“I do not desire a cure for my predicament.” Loren pushed it away again.
“I’ll take it.” Sable leaped in before he could stop her, grabbed the glass and drank it down in one go. She gasped and her eyes watered, and then she was coughing and smashing her fists against the bar top.
“Poison,” Bleu muttered and was beside Sable in an instant, one arm around her and the other clearing her black hair from her face as she wheezed. “You dare poison the female.”
“Human?” The jaguar glanced at Olivia, his voice weak. Loren snarled at him for daring to look at his female, grabbed the collar of his white shirt, and dragged him over the bar.
He growled at the male, his face mere centimetres from his and his black claws shredding the male’s shirt.
The jaguar growled back at him, the sound feral and strange, and his fangs lengthened. Fur rippled over his body.
“Water,” the male spat out.
He wanted water? Loren frowned, confused by his request considering his predicament.
“Water!” Olivia called out and one of the female bartenders rushed over to her with a glass. She helped Sable drink the liquid down, Bleu holding her steady in his arms.
Loren released the male shifter.
The jaguar backed off beyond arm’s reach and straightened out his ruined shirt. “You need to leash that temper if you want to stay in this club.”
“Do not look at my female then.” Loren was trying to keep a ‘leash’ on his temper but it was hard when there were so many males in the club and he viewed all of them as a threat.
“Noted.” The jaguar poured another shot of Hellfire and drank it down, following it with a second one.
Sable finally stopped choking but her eyes still watered, her face flushed red.
“You okay?” Olivia said and she nodded and then seemed to realise that Bleu was holding her.
Sable jerked out of his arms and buried her face in her hands. When she emerged, the dark mess her tears had created under her eyes was gone and she made a strange awed-sounding noise. “That was some drink. Can I have another?”
Olivia gave her an unimpressed look. “No.”
Bleu muttered something and returned to Loren. “I couldn’t find a siren.”
The jaguar male shook his head. “You won’t. Not around here. Too many nymphs. Those ladies hate them. The males mess with their mojo. I think they cancel out each other or some crazy shit like it.”
Bleu gave him a disinterested look but Loren could see that his second in command was already trying to figure out the best way to tap the shifter for information. They hadn’t gotten off to a good start but Loren would find a way to smooth over the rough beginning and convince the jaguar to talk more about his club and those who frequented it.
“Bathroom,” Olivia shouted just as the music faded to change songs and everyone nearby looked at her. A blush burned up her cheeks and she grabbed Sable and rushed away from him.
“Interesting female you have there.” The jaguar male stripped off his ruined shirt.
Loren was thankful that the male had waited until Olivia was out of sight before revealing his muscular bare chest. Scars slashed across his golden skin. Claw marks. He had fought a lot in his years. It was impossible for Loren to tell his age from his appearance though. Most shifter species could easily live to over a thousand years old without appearing beyond forty in mortal terms.
“Are all elves as aggressive when it comes to protecting their females?”
Loren nodded. The jaguar didn’t need to know that part of Loren’s aggression was because his bond with Olivia was incomplete. Until he convinced her to seal their bond, finalising it, he would be permanently on edge and convinced that all males were attempting to steal her from him.
He had heard rumours once, when leading a regiment of his army, that it was extremely rare but possible for a female to have two males as her fated ones, and that she could bear an incomplete bond with both until she completed it with one of them, at which point the bond to the other would shatter. He had never seen or heard any solid evidence to prove it was nothing more than the idle talk of marching soldiers trying to wind each other up, but the thought that Olivia might have another potential male in this crowd sent a shiver through him and chilled his blood, and he wanted her back with him.
The jaguar opened two slender brown bottles of something and set them down on the bar top in front of Loren, and then began mixing something in two glasses.
“Name’s Kyter.” He poured several different liquids into the two glasses and then tossed ice in with the mix, and glanced up at Loren. “I take it you came here looking for your brother?”