Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 126030 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126030 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
Tristan stepped closer as Natasha swayed again. He reached out to catch her, but Jasper grabbed her from the other side. The two of them nearly fell into the wall behind him.
“Garhettes almost never have weapons,” Tristan said, grinning as Natasha threw her head back and laughed at something Jasper said. She was so carefree in her amusement. He loved it. “They don’t train to fight. Or didn’t, before Jessie. Natasha would kill them before they knew the danger.”
“Yes. And despite Phil taking away a dozen weapons so far tonight, Nat…” John paused. “Nessa, right?”
“For you, yes.”
John nodded as though that made perfect sense. And to a shifter, it did. Claims with them were sacrosanct.
“Nessa somehow keeps finding or stealing or…” He shrugged. “She seems unarmed until she suddenly has a weapon. Niamh is plying her with drinks.” His disapproval was plain. “Nessa isn’t safe for these garhettes. And while the garhettes are challenging and deserve the outcome, I’ve been repeatedly told that Nessa should not, in fact, kill them. For some reason.”
Tristan grinned at the shifter, and then outright laughed.
“You’re in for a real rough ride, alpha.” He slipped by the man and grabbed a seat from the bar, pulling it back to sit next to John. “I don’t know your story—“
John grabbed the last remaining empty bar chair. A gargoyle saw it moving and turned, ready to fight about it. John stared the gargoyle down.
Though half his age, bulkier, and taller, the gargoyle barely blinked before spinning and finding something else to occupy his focus. He did not want to mess with the crazy-eyed shifter.
That made two of them. Tristan loved to rile up shifters, and enjoyed getting challenged, though it so rarely happened, but John was one man he would mind his manners with. This shifter might just ring his bell. It was a humbling reality.
“I don’t know your story,” Tristan repeated when John had sat down. “I honestly don’t really care. But I know you were trained as an alpha, and I am learning how very buttoned up those are. You are currently stepping into a reality where there are no rules. Not on Jessie’s side of things. With her, you take things as they come, and you adapt. Trust me when I tell you that. On my very first detail as a beta, I was blindsided by a vampire and saved by Austin Steele. I repeatedly froze on the job. I was way beyond my comfort and expertise level. It was a hard reality to face at first. Maybe just a hard reality to face, full stop.”
Tristan laughed, catching Natasha’s attention. Her eyes were hazed with alcohol and face flushed. She was further gone than he’d ever seen her. Phil alone seemed to handle the nights out with Niamh.
“Hey,” she said, drawing all his focus. She reached out for him, and then stumbled, falling into his side.
He grabbed her, helping her stand, and slid a hand along the small of her back. Pulling her close, he breathed in her intoxicating smell and felt her heat soak into his skin.
“Hey,” he murmured, taking in her beauty.
She furrowed her brow and then slapped him across the face. Seeing him smile, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.
Arousal flared through him. Their tongues tangled before he backed off.
“Hi,” he murmured against her lips. “Having fun, little mate?”
He didn’t miss her full body shiver at his words. She liked the term.
She threaded in between his knees, her hands at the back of his neck now, her chest nearly pressed against his. “You set me up,” she said loudly. She’d lost control of her volume. “Since when do you have entire territories trying to get in your pants?”
He ran his hands down her back, stopping just above the swell of her butt. He longed to keep going, to grab her athletic ass and pull her harder into him. He’d be taking advantage of her in the moment, though. She had zero inhibitions right now.
He settled for rubbing back up her sides and again along her back, enjoying the contact. Enjoying her eyes closed in pleasure.
“Since always, little angel,” he answered arrogantly. Her eyes opened, her gaze now traveling his face. “You just never noticed because you had no interest.”
“I still have no interest,” she whispered, though more to herself. She swayed a little closer, as though a magnet, its other half tugging.
“No?”
“No. I have no desire for you at all.” Her energy caressed every bit of him, exposing her lie. “I detest you most of the time.”
“And when you don’t detest me?”
Her resolve broke. “I want you so badly it’s hard to think.” Her lips crashed into his, needy and insistent. She chased his tongue with her own and her body pressed up against his sensuously.
“Okay, angel.” He pulled away before he was lost to the feeling of her. His groin pounded for release. “Let’s take a second.”