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Isaac cleared his throat. “We’re here, but Antonio isn’t coming out.”
Lucian mentally rolled his eyes. Nothing like having blunt honesty tossed around like a hand grenade.
Dahlia was an older female, with midnight black hair peppered with silver. Her face was wrinkled with age, but Lucian didn’t think the wrinkles were from smiling too often. She looked furious, her mouth puckered into a sneer and her eyes glittering with anger.
“You’ll release my son. Immediately.” Her voice had a high, scratchy quality that made Lucian want to cringe.
Lucian said, “Antonio killed an innocent. You can’t expect us to set him free simply because you asked us. He has to stand trial.”
She lifted her chin. “We have our own laws.”
He arched a brow. “Do they include killing humans who turn one of you down for a date? Because that’s what witnesses say happened, and that means he’s about as stable as a three-legged coffee table. It’s not the first time he’s harmed someone, and unless he’s put away, it won’t be the last.”
She tilted her head and stared, her pale gaze sliding over him as if she were memorizing his face. Then a soft smile lit her features, entirely at odds with her aggressive stance.
“Very well. You were warned.”
With those final words, she turned and walked away, head held high. The ravens followed like puppy dogs, not glancing back.
“Wow, that was…fucking weird,” Simon said.
Lucian stared at the ravens until they got into large, black SUVs and drove off. A shiver raced over his spine, and a feeling of dread settled in his gut. He was very certain that they hadn’t seen the last of the ravens.
* * *
Mia had been humiliated by the events of the previous night at Mal’s house. She’d skipped dinner. Although Mal and Nila had protested, she hadn’t wanted to sit at the dinner table with her brother and his family, surrounded in the happily-ever-after they’d secured for themselves.
Not when her whole world felt like it had fallen down around her shoulders.
She’d gone straight home from Mal’s and called her parents on the way, asking if the invitation to join them at the casino was still open. They’d happily purchased a plane ticket for her to Reno and changed their hotel room to a two-bedroom suite. Which had led her to this point in the evening…staring at her partially filled suitcase.
There was something very broken-record about the whole thing. She just wanted to get the hell out of Wilde Creek and go somewhere she didn’t have to think about Lucian – or anything – for a while. She needed time off to get her head on straight. Maybe she’d get lucky, and her wolf would attach itself to someone new. Someone better than a tattooed asshole who wasn’t willing to even talk to her.
Deciding that she needed to get some fresh air, she swiftly finished packing and then changed into a pair of jeans and a burgundy tank, which she topped with a cropped jean jacket. Leaving her bag just inside the door, she walked down the front steps and out to her car. The air was cool, and her wolf stirred, glad to be out of the house. Mia knew that sitting around all day moping wasn’t good for anyone. She sat down behind the wheel and turned the engine on, then stared out the windshield. She hadn’t thought any further than leaving the house, so she didn’t know where to go.
After deliberating for a few moments, she decided to just drive for a while. Putting the windows down to let in the fresh air, she backed out of her driveway and headed into town. Wilde Creek was a small town, with a mixture of humans and wolves. There were pack-run businesses, like the credit union and the construction company, but humans were welcome as long as they didn’t cause trouble. In general, the humans did their own thing and the pack did theirs, and they all lived together peacefully. There were shifters who didn’t think that the two groups should mix, and there were surely humans who felt the same way, but for the most part everyone got along.
She passed Luna’s, a restaurant run by a mated couple, and considered stopping for a piece of their amazing seven-layer chocolate cake. Then she saw Poke’s, the town’s only bar, run by Acksel’s brother-in-law, Luke. She hadn’t ever gone to a bar alone; actually, she hadn’t gone to a bar at all since Acksel and Brynn had mated. She’d lost her bar-buddy.
She made a U-turn at the light and pulled into the bar’s parking lot, turning off the engine and getting out before she changed her mind. She wasn’t going to just drive around all night; grabbing a drink at the bar was just the distraction she needed, and who knew what the night would bring.
* * *
Dario Marques watched from the passenger seat of his cousin’s van as the car they’d been tailing made a U-turn in the street and parked in the bar’s lot. the woman driving got out, looked around, and then walked into the bar. As the door swung open he could hear loud country music, and he made a face.
Damn, he hated country music.
“She’s pretty,” his cousin Moris said, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel.
“Wouldn’t matter anyway,” he reminded him.
Dario had strict instructions from his mother. He’d been tasked with finding weaknesses in the hunters who had snatched his brother, so the nest could exploit those weaknesses and force them to release Antonio. It had taken some digging, but they’d been able to figure out the identities of the four males who’d taken his brother. Three of them were basically untouchable; the only thing they had in their lives of any value was their own skin, which meant the nest had no means of leverage. But the fourth – nowhewas an interesting male.
It appeared at first that Lucian Devoe was a male with no attachments. Ravens, though, had ways of finding out information. Ways which included a team of computer experts who did nothing but scour the internet for information. And found it they had. Not only did Lucian have a few family members, he had a business partner in a security firm who had a mate and a pup, plus one on the way. But that male wasn’t the way to get to Lucian.
They’d had teams of ravens following the four males, undetected, from the moment they’d discovered who they were. Dario had followed Lucian, eavesdropping on a conversation he had with this very female. She thought Lucian was her mate, which meant – at least to Dario – that she actuallywas. She-wolves didn’t throw the word ‘mate’ around lightly. Lucian had been cold, but Dario had seen the truth in his eyes when he walked away from the heartbroken little female.
Lucian had a weakness, and her name was Mia Slattery.
