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Bears didn’t travel in packs, they didn’t need to. They were incredibly loyal, though, especially to family.

I got back to work.

Half an hour later, standing at the bar, someone bumped my elbow.

The wolf must have gotten bored with scowling at me from across the room, and she’d decided to make sure I hadn’t missed the fact she loathed me as well.

“Hey, witch, why do you keep ignoring me?” she said, and for the amount of beer she’d had, sounded surprisingly coherent. I was impressed.

“I assumed that’s the way you wanted it,” I said, not in the mood to play games with this female, even if she could snap me in half if she wanted to.

“Why would you think that? Oh…” She chuckled. “The resting bitch face? It’s not personal. It’s just the way I look.”

I didn’t believe that for a second. “Did you want something?”

“A ‘thank you, Asher,’ would be cool.” She leaned against the bar and motioned to the hound behind it to fill up her glass.

So that was her name. I turned and leaned on the bar as well and looked up at her. Asher was tall. Not as tall as most of the guys, but a hell of a lot taller than me. She was also utterly gorgeous. Rich brown hair and golden eyes. Her brown skin was flawless, and her lips were full and wide. “Okay…what am I thanking you for?”

She tilted her head to the side. “You’re still breathing, and you have me to thank for that.”

I stilled. “What do you mean?”

She reached out and took a piece of my hair between her fingers. “Draven’s been waiting for the right time to strike. He’d planned to take you out. No, you’re not her, Selene, but he didn’t know that. He would have torn you apart first and asked questions later if I hadn’t told him to stand down.”

He had planned to kill me. A lump formed in my gut. Are you truly surprised? “Then thank you. Being torn apart doesn’t sound much fun.”

She smiled and it was genuine. “No worries, I’m glad I said something. Despite your shitty family, you seem all right for a witch. You’ll remember that, right? How I saved your ass?”

This whole conversation was confusing as hell. “Uh…sure.”

“Sweet.” The bear bellowed at her to “get her ass back over here” from across the bar, and she turned and flipped him off, then winked at me. “Don’t want to seem too interested.”

“Shoving your tongue down his throat probably wasn’t the best way to go, then,” I said.

She stared at me for several seconds, then tossed her head back and laughed. When she got herself together, she gave me a friendly punch on the shoulder, which freaking hurt, and turned to leave.

“You can do better than the bear, you know,” I said for reasons unknown. But a female like Asher? No one should be bellowing at her across a bar, they should be worshipping her.

“Oh, I know. But Buck fucks like a champ.” She chuckled. “I’m not going to mate with the guy, I just want use of his giant dick for the night,” she said and winked.

I laughed as well, nervously. Asher was kind of unpredictable, but yeah, surprisingly, I liked her as well. “In that case, I won’t hold you up.”

She walked away, still laughing, and I got back to work.

The rest of the night passed without drama. Asher left with her bear, and the bar slowly cleared out.

“I’ll walk you to your car,” Relic said when we were done closing up.

“Thanks.” One of the hounds always walked me to my car after work, Warrick’s orders. But these guys would have done it without their alpha telling them to.

I unlocked my car and tossed my bag onto the passenger seat.

“How’s everything going?” he asked.

“Oh, you know, pretty shitty.”

He nodded. “Yeah, you got a lot going on. You need me to kick someone’s ass or you just need some backup, remember I’m here, no strings.”