Chapter 37 Alaric
Alaric
The bartender glared at me when I slammed my glass down on the counter. From his surly demeanor, he wasn’t a fan of mages. But that was okay because I wasn’t a fan of shifters. Especially not shifters who sneered every time I ordered a drink.
Was my money not good enough?
Apparently not.
Well, tough fucking shit. There was fuck-all else to do in this shithole of a settlement other than drink myself into a stupor.
I’d planned to leave the island as soon as the others disappeared, but by the time I reached the harbor, the boat had departed. When I returned to the inn, the bartender explained the boat had gone back to the mainland, so I was stuck here unless I felt like a long swim.
Thankfully he had a room available, so at least I had a bed.
Given the shit weather raging outside, that was a blessing.
My conscience prickled at the thought of the witch fighting her way through a blizzard. Then I reminded myself we hated each other, so I didn’t care what happened to her.
“Another glass of elkwine.” I waited for the bartender to reach for the bottle I knew he had stashed below, but he carried on glaring at me. “Is there a problem?” He sniffed as I slapped a few notes down.
“We don’t need your blood money, mage.”
My brain wasn’t exactly firing on all cylinders after drinking two glasses of elkwine already, and if I squinted hard I saw two bartenders not one, but I could think of no reason why he needed to be such an asshole.
And what the fuck did he mean by blood money?
I looked around the place. Two hulking males wearing fur coats sat huddled in a corner nursing drinks and whispering to each other while an even bigger guy with a large wolf at his feet hogged the fire. The two other males who’d been here when I arrived had long since gone.
If this was how busy the inn got on a Saturday evening, fuck me, it must be dead mid-week.
“Look, I just want a fucking drink, yeah?” I pushed my cash across the bar. My head hurt, and if I stopped drinking now, I’d sober up.
Being sober wasn’t appealing.
Sober me would have to face my shit, and I hated facing anything.
My phone rang, which surprised me given I thought I’d switched it off.
“What?”
“Where the fuck are you, Alaric?”
“I told you the last time we spoke, I’m on vacation.” From my father’s angry growl, he didn’t appreciate my belligerent tone. “Exploring shit.”
“You sound drunk. Have you been drinking? If I see photos of you falling out of bars in the morning papers, I’m cutting off your allowance.”
I snorted. Was that the best threat he could come up with?
“Fine. Whatever. Do your worst, Father. I have females to fuck.” He’d made my life a misery and done his damnedest to kill my mother. I was at a loss to think of what else he could do that would hurt me more.
A small voice reminded me he hadn’t yet discovered I had found my soul-bonded mate, and once he knew about the witch, he’d use her to force me to do his bidding.
“Be back by New Year’s Eve, Alaric, or face the consequences.” With that ominous warning, he ended the call.
I stared at my phone for several minutes, wondering how on earth I was going to get off this island. It was an impossible task, even for someone as powerful as me. And unlike the damn incubus, I wasn’t goddess-blessed with teleportation magic.
By the time I looked up, I realized the two males wearing thick fur coats had stood. Both stared at me with fists clenched. I glanced over my shoulder in case some grumpy local had wandered in and attracted their attention, but no. I was the problem.
“Yes?” The people in this shithole had clearly skipped tourist appreciation training day.
The larger of the two fur coats growled. “We don’t like mages.”
“Any particular reason or are you equal-opportunity assholes?”
The other fur coat growled. I had a feeling these two were shifters. Big shifters if the width of their shoulders were any indication. Hopefully not polar bear shifters, as those fuckers were dangerous.
“Mages treat us like cattle,” the smaller one said. “They’ve been plundering the islands for years, stealing our females and killing anyone who stands in their way. We’ve had enough!”
What the actual…?
The male with the wolf huffed loudly and shifted on his chair.
It creaked under his weight, but he didn’t seem too concerned.
With the light hitting his face, he was a lot younger than I’d assumed, despite the thick beard and long white hair.
Maybe mid-thirties or so. He was also way bigger than he first appeared. Much bigger than the two fur coats.
Fuck, I was in serious trouble if this kicked off. Oh well. A fight would break up my boring evening.
“Leave the mage alone,” the bearded guy grumbled, nudging the wolf with his boot. It stretched and yawned, revealing a set of wickedly sharp teeth. “He’s just a kid.”
“He’s a mage,” the first fur coat growled. “I vote we end him now. Nobody will miss the little shit.”
I drew on my magic, preparing to fight back. Wielding lightning indoors wasn’t ideal, but neither was dying at the hands of a rabid seal shifter. If these fuckers thought they were going to take me down, they were stupider than they looked.
“Rufus, if you break anything, you’re fucking paying for it!” The bartender swept the few empty glasses dumped on his bar into a bucket and disappeared out back. I heard a door slam and then silence.
A log crackled in the fire, sending a cloud of sparks up the chimney. The fur coats and I stared at each other, the tension in the room growing thick enough to cut with a knife. Then the wolf farted, and I almost retched.
Fuck my life, what was the bearded man feeding his wolf? It stunk.
The two fur coats took advantage of my distraction and shifted into huge white tigers, not seals, but before they could attack, the bearded man shifted into a giant polar bear. He lunged between the tigers and me, and with one giant paw, slammed them into the stone floor.
The polar bear’s roar rattled the rafters as the two tigers lay on their bellies and whimpered under his alpha dominance.
I wanted to laugh at how easily they’d submitted to the polar bear, but decided it was better for shifter-mage relations if I kept my mouth shut.
“Um, thanks,” I muttered once the polar bear shifted back into a gigantic naked male. The dude was big, taller and wider than Maverick. I averted my eyes as he took his foot off the bigger tiger and huffed with annoyance.
“Dammit. I ruined my best pants.”
“I’d offer to lend you some, but I doubt mine would fit.” The tigers shifted back and slunk off into the night, not bothered about their nakedness. I guessed nudity was an occupational hazard for shifters.
“Marlon, fetch me some pants!” the polar bear shifter hollered. A minute later, the bartender reappeared and tossed a pair of ratty old overalls at the bear. He dragged them up his tree-trunk thighs and wrapped the arms around his waist.
“Thanks,” I said. “I appreciate your help.” Even if I didn’t need it, I added silently.
The male shrugged and sat back down by the fire. His wolf had resumed snoring again.
“My bear insisted I help you. No clue why, but I trust his judgment.” He gestured toward the chair opposite his, so I took a seat. It wasn’t like I had anywhere else to be.
“The name’s Thorrin. You?”
“Alaric.”
Thorrin’s eyebrows shot up. “Alaric Vane?”
“Yeah.” There seemed little point in lying.
Shifters were excellent at smelling lies.
I stared at the fire, waiting for the bear to lay into me about my father, the council, and mages in general.
It seemed we weren’t winning any popularity contests up in this neck of the woods.
But instead, he cocked his head to one side and frowned.
“Why are you here?”
“I came with some…um…magicals I know. They went inland, and I stayed.” It was way more complicated than that, but I barely knew this guy. He didn’t deserve my life story. “So tell me, what’s this about mages stealing females and killing other magicals?”
Thorrin’s expression turned murderous. “The mages come and hunt our kind. They use magic and steal away any rare females they find. We don’t know why. They’ve plundered the mineral mines too. Most likely for spellcasting ingredients.”
Shock paralyzed me. I’d always known my father was evil, but what the bear described went beyond anything I’d believed he was capable of.
“We fight back, but there are too few of us, and without the merpeople, we’re at a serious disadvantage against powerful mages.”
“Why won’t they help?”
“Because they say the fight with the mages doesn’t concern them, which is true to an extent. The Emerald City is inaccessible to most species. So as long as they remain safe, they refuse to get involved.”
“Does Kai know?” I blurted. The merprince never had a lot to say, but he didn’t strike me as a male who’d stand by while my father’s mages hurt other magicals. I’d seen him fight when the demons attacked. He held his own.
“The merprince?”
“Yeah. He’s here on the island.”
The bear shifter tilted his head to one side, his eyes distant for a moment. Then he focused on me once again.
“Tell me who else you came with. My bear thinks they’re important to us.”
Did this shifter have some sort of mental magic?
“A bear shifter, an incubus, and a witch.”
My chest ached when I thought about the witch. I could sense her, but the link was too faint to know whether she’d stumbled into danger again. The only thing reassuring me was the tether hadn’t been severed, which meant she was still alive.
“Bear?”
“Yes, a Kodiak bear. Maverick.”
The polar bear shifter exhaled sharply while gripping the arms of his chair. His wolf raised its head and grumbled.
“Interesting.”
“Interesting?” Nothing made sense. It was like a puzzle with half the pieces missing.
“Time to leave, Thorrin,” the bartender called. “I’m going to bed.”
“Come, mage. It’s not safe for you to stay here. There are others in this town who might attack once I’ve gone.”
I scoffed loudly. “Please, I can protect myself just fine.”
“I’m sure you can, mage, but my bear insists you come with us. My home is safer for you.” He half smiled. “And besides, my cousin would never forgive me if I let anything happen to his bond-mate.” Thorrin chuckled at my shocked expression.
“Maverick is not my bond-mate!” I scowled. It was better for the witch if she stayed well away from me.
The shifter slapped my shoulder and stood. But because he was like a fucking mountain, his light slap nearly knocked me into the fireplace. I stumbled, catching myself at the last minute.
“Let’s go share a bottle of elkwine,” the shifter grinned. “You can tell me more about my cousin and his soul-bonded mate.”