He sighed but let it go. “As you were told from your contact, we will not add chaos to this town. You behave and we’ll be fine. We’re not off to a great start, so keep it together. These omegas deserve peace.”
“It’s not just omegas here, though, is it?” I pointed out, cocking my head as I looked at Leon.
“No,” he confirmed. “The betas are under my protection the same as the omegas.”
With that, the sheriff tipped his head at us, looked at Leon pointedly as if telling him he was a call away, and walked across the road. He leaned against another building, tipping his hat down to shield the sun and watching us, giving us privacy while still making it known that we were on thin ice.
“Well, what a pleasant greeting,” I mused.
“What the hell did you expect? The red carpet?” Leon shot back. “A congratulations for doing the right fucking thing?”
I moved into his space, taking a deep breath. He glared and stepped back while I laughed again.
“I swear to all that’s holy, Ronan, what the fuck?” Luca said, glaring at me.
Luca was my best friend, my right hand, and yet here he was questioning my motives. Perhaps I was a little less controlled than I thought.
“What, dear friend? Have you never seen flirting before?”
If looks could kill, Leon would have slayed me where I stood.
“If that’s flirting, then there’s no fucking way I’m letting you near my omega.”
“You keep saying your omega, your mate,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “I still have yet to see a bite mark.”
It was the second time I pointed it out, and this time he looked no less angry about my words. He took it personally.
“It’s because they haven’t been together long,” a woman said.
She was one of the women from earlier and had just walked back out of the bar.
“Why don’t you boys come in and have a drink instead of causing a scene on my beautiful city streets?” she added with a wink toward Leon. “His delivery may be a little hostile, but that’s one of my best friends your alpha friend took off with. You were warned and I’ll be damned if I let some aggressive alphas comeinto our city. If she said a single word of protest you’d all be thrown out.”
“A drink sounds lovely,” Luca said, glaring at both of us.
I knew that Nik would lose his mind the moment he found her, I just hadn’t expected it to hit so hard. He was almost fully in a rut by the time they ran away.
We followed the woman with dark hair into the bar. The others had gone a different way.
She walked behind the bar like she owned the place. Then again, I didn’t know any of them well enough to know whether she did or not. All I knew was our omega and her friends had set up this town.
The omega poured a double shot before sliding it over to Leon. He slammed it back, and she refilled it again, ignoring us for the moment.
I guess it made sense. He belonged here, we didn’t.
At least, not yet.
Though, I wasn’t sure how this would even work. We hadn’t thought into the logistics, but I was and forever would be, a Crow. I was next in line to take over. I couldn’t simply leave my birthright and suddenly become domestic.
Aries wasn’t going to settle in with the fucking Crows, and leaving Nikolai behind with Aries meant we’d be a fractured pack.
There was no winning here.
Not to mention, Leon complicated things.
“Thanks, Briar,” the beta said as he drank down the second.
“I’ll take one of those double shots,” I said, nodding at the bottle still in her hands.
