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“Hell no.”
The door shut loudly behind them. “Oh?”
“Come on, man. There’s no way in hell I’d want her working here. Too many unmated males. I’d get fired for punching patrons.”
Hemi snorted. “The protective stuff is strong?”
“Yeah. I mean she’s everything to me. If she got hurt, I’d never forgive myself.”
“That’s cool.” Hemi stepped behind the counter and rested his hands on the worn surface. “Tell you what. You ever want her to come in for a visit, you sit her right up at the counter and I’ll keep an eye on her until you’re free.”
“Yeah?”
“Absolutely. I already keep an eye on Demi when she comes in with her girlfriends, and China when she’s working. You do that kind of shit for family and I think we should do it for pride members, too. Especially mates.” Demi was Hemi’s twin sister, and they were the only black-furred lions in the pride. China was his cousin, and also a waitress.
Barron was touched. “Thanks, I appreciate it. She mentioned coming in for a drink with Ree.”
“I don’t think Duke would let Ree come here.”
“What do you mean?”
He leaned forward a little, his voice dropping low. “I heard that there’s a bit of bitching about the mating law changes.”
Barron thought back to the night Byron had announced Duke and Ree’s mating. The two were slated to take over the pride as the alpha pair in about three weeks. “I didn’t hear anything myself, but my grandpa did. He’s not sure who it was.”
“Of course no one spoke up when Byron was talking. There were too many in support of the changes to speak up publicly. I don’t know who’s leading the chatter behind the scenes, but someone is pissed. I have my guesses, but I’d just be adding fuel to the gossip fire. I figure you should know, since your mate is human.” Hemi gave Barron a long look. “If I had a human mate, I’d sure want to know if someone had a problem with changing who can be a member of the pride.”
Barron nodded, his thoughts in turmoil. “Thanks for the heads-up.”
“No problem.”
Barron made his way to the front door, where Diesel was already checking IDs and letting people in. It was Monday, so the bar wasn’t busy yet. Mondays, like most weekdays, were just a steady influx of patrons, not the huge numbers that showed up on Fridays and Saturdays. He took up his post at the door.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey, how was your long weekend?”
“Great. Did you have time off at all?”
“Just Saturday because of the pride meeting and hunt. Some of us told Titus we’d come back after the meeting and not hunt, but he said everyone should celebrate Duke finding his heart-match and us narrowly avoiding war. We all also got paid for the night.”
“Nice.”
Conversation stopped for a few moments as patrons walked up. Barron scented them discreetly before letting them in.
Keeping his voice low, he asked, “You heard anything about someone being pissed the mating laws are changing?”
Diesel’s brows winged up. He looked around for a moment and then said in a low voice, “I didn’t hear anything myself, but my mom did.”
“When?”
“She went to pick up my meds from Doc since she was out running errands. When she dropped them off, she said she overheard Lenn Sr. and his mate talking about how two humans were ruining everything.”
Barron frowned. Lenn Sr. was the father of Lenn, the second-ranked male and a close friend of Duke’s. Lenn Sr.’s wife Raquel was the office assistant for Doc, the pride healer. “I didn’t peg either of them for not liking humans.”
“I guess you don’t know people until they’re faced with that kind of thing. They’re both old-school, so my mom wasn’t surprised, and I guess I’m not either. It doesn’t matter, though, right? I mean Byron’s the law and he’s changing the mating laws and allowing humans to join the pride. Duke and Ree will take over in less than a month and there’s no way in hell that Duke is going to change the laws once they favor his heart-match.”
“Good point.”
