“I wasn’t either until I met Rosalie,” Hudson said. “But you’ve been acting off since you helped Willow with her ghost mission a few days ago. Did you try to dry hump the witch again in front of the boss’s mate or something?”
Briggs growled under his breath. “I didn’t touch Cece, and if I’d known that’s who Willow was trying to talk to, I would never have gone with her that night. The witch has put some kind of spell on me, and I just need to avoid her until it wears off.”
“I don’t think that’s how it works, bud, but you can try," Hudson said.
He sipped at his drink again, and Briggs hoped like hell that time apart had dulled Hudson’s ability to read him like a fucking book. They’d been good friends in high school and remained close even when Hudson worked construction in Canada. They hadn’t drifted apart until Hudson moved to the city, and he had cut off contact with everyone from Wellington except for his parents. And even that had been limited to phone calls and texts.
Not that Briggs could blame him. He would have done the same thing if a crazy ass grizzly shifter had been trying to kill him.
He sipped at his coffee and checked his phone again. He’d straight-up lied to Hudson about the little witch, and he felt like a piece of shit for lying to his friend. But admitting that his bear was obsessed with a woman he barely knew felt strange and a little embarrassing.
His lie about still being in love with Lucille had come easily enough. Up until the moment he’d met Cece, he had still been in love with his ex-fiancée. But the little witch had driven every thought of Lucille straight out of his head, and now, instead of nights dreaming about a life with Lucille, those dreams were filled with images of thick, dark forests and lush grassy meadows and one curvy, golden-haired witch wearing next to nothing and moaning his name.
His cock went half-hard just thinking about it, and he cursed inwardly. It was a spell and nothing more, and just because his bear was too fucking obsessed to realize it was magic didn’t mean Briggs had to fall in line with his bear’s absolutely insane belief that Cece was their mate.
Hudson stood, and Briggs grabbed his coffee. He and Hudson headed toward the door, both of them ignoring the looks they got from the other shifters and humans in the coffee shop. They were both over seven feet tall and thick with muscle. Being stared at by others whenever he wasn’t in Wellington felt as natural as breathing at this point. Still, annoyance at being stared at like an animal in a cage poked at him.
He ducked through the doorway and followed Hudson down the street in the brisk cold. Hudson took one look at him and said, “You gotta get used to the staring. It happens a fuck of a lot more here than it did in Wellington.”
“Because the population of Wellington is almost entirely polar bear shifters,” Briggs said.
Hudson laughed. “Good point. Still, if you’re going to live here, you can’t let the attention get to you.”
“Yeah, I know,” Briggs said. “I’ll adjust.”
The coffee shop was only a few doors down from the office, and less than five minutes later, they were standing in the foyer of the Burke, King, and Frost Security office.
“Morning!” Willow smiled cheerfully at them from her spot behind the reception desk.
“Morning, Willow,” Hudson said.
The door opened, and Garth, a muscular bull shifter with dark hair and a pierced septum, walked into the office. He was followed by a lean blond cheetah shifter named Fenton.
“Swear to God, Fenton,” Garth said.
“Fuck.” Fenton shook his head. “Wildebeest shifters are crazy.”
“Hell, yeah, they are,” Garth said before winking at him. “But totally worth it.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Fenton said as the door opened and Bishop King, a grizzly shifter and one of the three owners of the firm, walked through the door.
“Hey, boss,” Garth said.
“Morning.” Bishop clapped Garth on the back before heading into his office.
Mal was next through the door, and he placed one of the two paper cups he carried on Willow’s desk.
Willow smiled at him. “Thank you, honey.”
“You’re welcome, my mate.”
Kat, a jaguar shifter and the third owner of the firm, stepped out of the boardroom. “Can we get the meeting started? I have a client meeting in half an hour.”
Mal nodded, and Briggs followed the others into the boardroom. They sat around the table as Bishop closed the door and sat beside Ronin, a phoenix shifter with a smart mouth and Kat’s mate.
“Big guy,” Ronin said, holding out his fist.
Bishop bumped it. “You watch last night’s episode?”
