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“Everyone knows about the fight at the golf course. Garth told everyone, and he didn’t leave. He called in reinforcements.”
The man didn’t exactly answer his question, but he was visibly shaking. Eliana helped him sit and brought him some water and toast to chew on.
The two alphas and the woman between them stood in the back, hands on their hips. Eliana was the first to speak again.
“We need to call a pack meeting.”
SEVENTEEN
LUCAS
Lucas stood in the kitchen, gazing down at the man he had spoken to the day before. He looked young, terrified, and clearly not alpha material. He recalled that he was the one who was content to be a stay-at-home father. He felt a wash of guilt move through him as he noticed a few bruises on the man’s forearm as Eliana guided him to sit in the staff room.
“Let me know if you need anything else, okay?” Eliana said, touching the man’s back.
The man nodded, his hands slowly beginning to still. Eliana left him there as she returned to the kitchen, where Tao and Lucas stood, scowling and contemplative.
Eliana looked between them, her hair a wavy, beautiful mess from the previous night’s galivanting.
“So Garth must think you’ve left,” she said, motioning to Lucas. “He’s called in reinforcements to take over the island.”
Tao and Lucas nodded at the same time, Eliana’s eyes lingering on Tao.
“We should get the pack together,” she said firmly.
Tao nodded, sliding his phone out of his pocket as he rubbed one tired eye.
“I will send out the message ASAP. Get your mother to clear the restaurant if she can.”
Tao and Eliana moved into action, with Eliana’s hand lightly grazing Lucas’s arm.
“Are you okay?” she whispered.
Lucas’s mind swirled, a carnival array of colors and sensations that were far from being easily smoothed out. He usually thought of himself as a human resources advocate. He had been hired a slew of times to oversee various packs that were struggling to survive and/or to locate a suitable alpha. It had all been easy nine-to-five work for him, summaries that could be laid out in a chart and explained through slideshows.
Everything that had happened since he’d arrived on the damn island of Kauai had flipped that categorization upside down. And it had all begun with the sudden burst of a love that made his chest feel like glittering steel … Eliana was flung into his life from out of nowhere.
“I’m concerned,” he replied, staring off at the kitchen chrome. “Most wolves would flee from embarrassment and shame, especially when so publicly defeated. That means Garth is … different.”
Eliana’s hand dropped away from his arm, and he found himself feeling incredibly empty without it.
“Let’s get the pack together, and we can talk this through,” she said softly.
Lucas agreed. But there was more on his mind than simply Garth … his wolf made sure of it. But he had to cast that aside for the time being.
He asked what he could do to help, and Eliana requested that he clean up the tables once the customers had been hustled out. Not all of them were shifters, and some were shifters from other packs on the island. Bria claimed there was an emergency in the kitchen area, and they had to evacuate immediately.
Huffing and puffing, the customers were guided out by a pleasant and apologetic Tao. He was the perfect form of goodbye for a customer who had been yanked in the middle of eating their pancakes and sausages. Once they had left, Lucas cleaned up, taking the plates to the dishwashers and wiping down the tables. He then set up a similar format as they had the previous night.
“Did anyone say anything to you?” Eliana asked.
Tao cocked an eyebrow. “They’re probably all hung over,” he said, rubbing his own forehead. “Even for shifters, the bastards drank a lot last night.”
Eliana didn’t chuckle. That bothered Lucas.
Bria rushed out the kitchen staff, who weren’t members of the pack. She said she would pay them for a day’s work, which struck Lucas as quite generous. She then waited at the counter, leaning against it with a gritty sigh.
“This Garth man is really making us work for him,” she grunted.
