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Dawn raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”
“Like she’s completely fine with the fact that Ava is a witch, even though it was our bloodline that had made her father try to keep us apart. But then she’s all weird about how we still follow Selene, and last night she tried to equate it to following along blindly with the pack.”
“Hm.”
“What does that mean?” he asked impatiently.
Setting down her margarita, Dawn leaned forward and crossed her arms on the bar. “Ava’s magic is something she inherited. It’s a part of her, and there’s nothing anyone can do to make it go away. Same thing with her wolf. Selene, though, that’s more of a choice.”
“So what, you’re siding with her now?” Max picked up the rag again but then dropped it. There wasn’t a damn thing left to clean.
“No, I’m just making an observation.” Those hazel eyes, the same ones their mother had, followed his every move.
“Then maybe you should go observe Sarah for a little while and figure out why she’s being like this. Even if you’re right about Selene, why is Sarah so adamantly against it? She tried to equate it to her own pack and Edward. I don’t get it.” He’d turned it over a dozen times in his mind, hardly able to sleep at all after their last fight, and he hadn’t come to any conclusions.
Dawn, however, was nodding. “I think that makes sense, actually.”
“Are you shitting me?”
“Not in the least. Max, it was the traditions of Sarah’s pack that kept the two of you from being together. They might, in general, be a more modern pack, but I’ll bet she sees Edward’s hate for witches as being the same thing as our love for Selene. It all boils down to doing what’s expected of you simply because you’re part of a pack. In her case, she probably feels like she has to go against the grain just so she has some control over her life,” Dawn mused.
“I don’t know about that.” She had a bit of a point, but he wasn’t really interested in it right now. “I think it’s just because she’s so damn stubborn, just like she’s always been.”
“Kind of like someone else I know.” His sister smiled at him. “I guess you could say it takes one to know one.”
Max let a breath out through his nose. “You’re not helping. And you’re not there when Sarah completely flips out over something that shouldn’t be a big deal.”
“To you,” Dawn returned quickly. “She’s been through a lot, Max.”
“So have I.” He grabbed the rag once again and slapped it down onto the bar. It didn’t do much of anything to alleviate the sheer irritation that burned inside him. “I might have had my freedom technically, but I had to raise a son on my own when I thought my mate had been killed. It’s not like I’ve been skipping through the grass all these years.”
“Exactly, my dear brother.” Dawn reached across the bar and grabbed his hand. “Did you ever think that perhaps the two of you are both so stubborn because youneededto be that way? You would’ve had an impossible time raising Hunter if you weren’t so strong and determined. Sarah has to have those same qualities, or she would’ve given up a long time ago and never come back to you. I think you just need to look at it from a different perspective.”
“There she is.” The drunk came wobbling back over. One eyelid was sagging, and he bounced in place as he spoke to Dawn. “I just can’t stop looking at you. I know there’s something between us. You feel it, too, don’t you?”
“Oh, not the same way you’re about to,” Dawn murmured. She swirled her finger in a downward spiral over the bar.
“Mmhmm.” Clearly not picking up on her tone of voice or any other clues she’d given him, the man sidled closer. “You’re a sweet thing, aren’t you?”
Dawn grinned. “Not really.”
“You’ve been lookin’ at me all night.” His head lolled from side to side. “What do you do, baby?”
“I’m a nurse.”
Max couldn’t figure out why she was even bothering to talk to him. “Dawn, let me just throw this guy out.”
“First, as a medical professional, I need to let him know that drinking so much can have a serious impact on his digestive system,” she replied with a slow smile. “It doesn’t always come on right away, but it happens.”
The drunk’s eyes widened, and his shoulders stiffened. “I gotta go now.”
“I know. Bye.” She laughed as she watched him run to the bathroom, trying to rip his pants off before he even got through the door.
Max put it all together. “You did that to him, didn’t you?”
She rolled a shoulder. “Drinking too much really can cause diarrhea. I can’t really be blamed if I helped things along a little.”
He’d been so angry and frustrated all day, but he couldn’t help but laugh. “Rex should hire you as a bouncer.”
