Dakota took a deep breath. “Of course I’m not leaving you. I’m leaving him. I’m sorry you had to see that.”
She saw the younger cubs glance at each other with relief. “She’s not leaving us,” Mary said out loud, as if to reassure herself.
“We’d be okay either way,” John said stubbornly. Then he glanced at Dakota. “But I’m glad she’s not,” he added.
“Are you crying?” Sailor asked Dakota. “Did he make you cry?”
“It’s not his fault. Sometimes grownups argue. He’s still a good person.” Dakota quickly wiped at the tears on her cheeks.
“Silver knife to the femoral artery is pretty fatal, even for an Alpha Prime,” Sarah mused. At the look on Dakota’s face, she added hastily, “So I’ve heard.”
“Jeez, child. Remind me not to make you mad.”
“You’d know if you made me mad. So far you’ve only succeeded in mildly annoying me a whole bunch of times.”
“So where are we going, if you’re not staying with him?” Sarah asked.
Dakota frowned. “There’s only one other place that I can think of where we’d be safe. We could stay with the bears. I think Anthea would take us in.”
“Are you sure about that?” Sarah mused. “I can never tell if she wants to kill us or not.”
Dakota heaved a sigh. “Only one way to find out.”
Chapter Sixteen
Dakota walked up to the bar at the Watering Hole, her heart aching and her stomach tying itself in knots. She looked around at the crowd of happy, drunken shifters, laughing and flirting and shooting pool and having a gay old time, and then she walked over to the bar where Macy was working and plopped down in one of the few empty seats.
Macy had a fresh claiming mark on the right side of her neck, still red, but healing. David was with her behind the bar, and he had a matching claiming mark. He waved cheerfully at Dakota, grinning wide enough to split his face open.
Dakota tried to smile back at him, but she had a feeling that all she’d come up with was a hideous grimace. She gave up and pulled out her wallet. “Give me a double,” she said to Macy. “No, give me a triple.”
Macy raised an eyebrow. “A double or triple what?”
“Er…a double…” Dakota hadn’t thought that far ahead. “Cosmopolitan?”
Macy snorted out a laugh. “What kind of frou-frou pack did you come from? You start out with ‘give me a double’, which sounds all badass, and then you puss out and say cosmopolitan. Real wolves don’t drink cosmos. Also, you strike me as a lightweight, and I don’t want you puking on my floor. Here, let’s start with a single shot of tequila and take it from there.”
She quickly poured Dakota a shot. Dakota picked it up and waited.
Macy looked at her with a puzzled expression. “You’re not actually waiting for a lime and salt, are you, like you’re in some fancy New York bar? Tell me you’re not.”
“Of course not,” Dakota said. She totally had been. But since obviously none was coming, she held up the shot glass and said, “To the newly mated couple. Congrats!” She slammed back the drink.
“Thanks. The lucky SOB actually made an honest fox out of me.” Macy winked at David as he rushed past them, and he blew her a kiss.
“May your cubs be healthy and fierce.”
“And you had to go and ruin it.” Macy crossed her eyes at her. “We’re in our honeymoon period, where we’re screwing like bunnies. Hard to do when you’re taking care of a bunch of brats. You can have all the cubs, thanks.”
Then she glanced at a bunch of shifters at the end of the bar, who were banging their beer mugs on the bartop.
“Keep your fur on!” she yelled at them. “And if you break those glasses, I’ll bite your asses!” She hurried over, served them their beer, and trotted back.
“So what’s going on with Miles? Word is, he took out the whole Clearwater Pack today, and that should put the fear of dog into anyone else who wants to start trouble. So why the long face and sudden desire to kill your liver?”
“We’re done,” Dakota said, and blinked very hard so she wouldn’t cry right there in the bar. “I don’t want to talk about why.”
Macy set another shot of tequila in front of her. “Good. I don’t want to hear about why. I’m not the touchy-feely type. So does this mean you moved out and dumped all the little hairballs?”
