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Boone shrugged. “Who the fuck knows what scientists are cooking up now in labs.”
“What do you mean code?” Eleanor said.
“Shifters don’t fight other shifters with guns,” Grayson said. “It’s considered weak, or a dishonour, to use a human’s weapon against another shifter. We fight each other as we’re meant to.”
Confusion crossed Eleanor’s face. “But… Daisy told me that a shifter shot Cooper in the shoulder and Chase in the stomach.”
Cooper cleared his throat. “She was a female shifter.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Eleanor said.
“The code is primarily a male shifter thing,” Grayson said.
“Are you kidding me?” Eleanor said. “Wes almost died because of some fucked-up honour code between asshole macho shifters? That lion was the size of a fucking dinosaur! He’s obviously on something like Boone said. It was already an unfair fight the minute the guy shifted. One of you should have just fucking shot him!”
She trembled in her seat, her mug of tea forgotten, hot tears flowing down her cheeks. “Wes almost died. Do you get that? He was five fucking seconds from dying, and you’re talking about some stupid honour code!”
She burst into sobs. Wes pulled her chair over to him and lifted her out of it, ignoring the throb of pain in his bitten shoulder. He held her on his lap, relief rushing through him when she flung her arms around him and clung tight, burying her face in his neck as she cried.
“Shh, Butterfly, it’s all right,” he murmured before purring to her. The others waited patiently as he purred to his mate and rubbed her back. After only a few minutes, her crying tapered off into the occasional watery sniff.
Cooper handed Wes the box of tissues from the counter, and Wes gave Eleanor a couple. She wiped her face and blew her nose before saying, “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize,” Grayson said. “You’ve had a terrible morning.”
“That’s the fucking understatement of the year,” Boone said.
“What do we do now?” Eleanor said.
“You and Wes come back to my place,” Cooper said.
“No,” Wes and Eleanor said in unison.
Cooper scowled at them. “Yes. Gray and Ryan’s place is too small, and Boone has Nan at his house. You’re staying with me until -”
“I won’t put you and Daisy in danger,” Eleanor said. “It’s bad enough that I almost got Wes killed. In fact, I’m leaving here and staying in a motel.”
“Oh, no fucking way is that happening,” Wes said. His lion pushed forward, and Wes let him take control.
“No,” his lion growled at Eleanor. “You stay by my side, my mate.”
“Wes,” Coop said, “control.”
“Holy shit,” Boone said. “How long has it been since we’ve heard Wes’s lion talk? I kind of figured he’d gone mute.”
Wes pushed his lion back, taking a deep breath as his arm tightened around Eleanor’s slender waist. “You’re not staying in a motel, Eleanor.”
“Wes, I…”
“No,” he said. “We are not arguing about this. The answer is no. Full fucking stop.”
She took a deep breath, and he could smell her frustration, but under that, there was relief. She was terrified, and he hated that his mate was afraid, hated that he had failed at protecting her.
He swallowed down his self-loathing as Cooper leaned against the counter next to Grayson. “Fine, you don’t want to stay at my place, then we post two men outside the house in case this asshole decides to come back.”
“It’ll take him a while to heal from the broken arm and the wounds we gave him,” Wes said.
“I’m not taking any chances,” Cooper said. “Leaving you and Eleanor alone without protection is not an option.”
