Chapter 46
RAINE
“Well, what did he say?” Wren asks.
“I haven’t said anything yet. Shh, Wren.” I swallow hard. “Evander?” I push the phone to my ear.
“Stay there, Raine.”
“Ah, okay. But how do you know where we are?”
“Where are you?”
I glance at Wren. “Where are we?”
“Mary’s English Pub.” She pushes her phone across the bar top to me. I read off the address.
“Right, stay there,” Evander growls.
“He sounds mad.” Wren smiles, her shoulders going up to her ears.
“You think? I don’t hear mad; I hear relieved. That’s weird, right?”
“Maybe not. I could only overhear him a little,” Wren says. “Po-tay-to, po-tah-to.”
It was Wren’s idea that I call him after we couldn’t get a rideshare or taxi to pick up our fare.
We’re not far from the inn, but it’s dark and we’ve had a few hard ciders.
Walking the wrong way into the river doesn’t sound like a good idea.
A few men have offered to drive us or walk us back to the inn.
Okay, a few men have offered to walk Wren back.
And I happened to be associated with her.
“Will you be wanting any more?” Mary, the owner, asks.
“No thanks. We’re heading out.”
“Oh, give me ten minutes and I’ll take you back to your inn,” she says.
“Ah, well. We have a friend coming to pick us up.”
Mary’s eyes go wide. We’ve chatted for a while, and she’s the sister-in-law of the woman who gave me her card earlier this week.
Lana, the real estate broker. After she pried it out of me that I was working at Cloud Rift, she suggested I get an apartment.
“Now, who’s coming to get you? One of the owners of the castle? ”
“We can wait outside.” I grip my empty glass.
“No, I don’t let ladies wait outside my pub alone. They can come in,” Mary says.
“Who can come in, Mary?” a man three stools down asks.
“The Lord of the castle,” Mary answers.
“A dragon, coming in here?” The man’s voice cracks.
“That’s what I said.” Mary wipes her hands on her apron.
“Well, look at that, won’t ya? Getting on ten. I should be getting home to the Mrs.” The man tosses a bill on the counter and flees.
“Should you now, Jan? Make sure you give her a call before you tumble into something.” Mary cocks her head at him and takes his money off the bar.
Jan’s not the only one beating a hasty retreat.
After five minutes of the cash register clanging and whirling like a fan, Wren and I are sitting there alone at the bar with Mary.
In the corner are two larger men. I’m thinking they’re shifters, from the size of them and how everyone has left them to themselves all night.
“Mary, I’m so sorry. We’ve cost you a lot of money.” Opening my wallet, I see Kieren’s credit card staring at me, but I bypass it and hand over mine to close out our tab.
“It’s fine. I’m not worried about the dragons. But I wasn’t born here. The locals, they’ve been raised with stories to scare them from heading up the hill and wandering onto the dragon’s land.”
“I see. They don’t eat children,” I say.
“Just American women.” Wren laughs under her breath.
Mary’s eyes go wide. I elbow my sister. “She’s joking. Joking.”
Wren smacks my leg. I haven’t told her anything, but she’s guessed a good portion.
She’s signed her own NDA. Not that she read it.
Wren’s decided that means she can play guessing games.
And my face? My face when I’ve been drinking, it tells no lies.
She has no idea about me being a candidate or them being from another realm.
But she knows I had sex with Roark. I’m not telling her anything else.
I’m not. She signed her own NDA, but Leo mentioned that doesn’t mean I can share things with her.
The door thuds open. “Guess our ride is here,” I say.
The two men in the corner stand. At the same time, the three women from this morning rush in with another tall man.
“Nope, not my ride.” I sit back down.
“Miss Fischer.” The blonde quicksteps over to me. “Are you okay?”
Wren takes my arm. “Of course she’s okay.”
“She could be talking about you,” I retort.
“You know she isn’t,” Wren says.
I share a look with my sister. “Yes, I’m fine. My sister’s fine. We’re all fine.” I push my shoulders back and wobble just slightly. I’m not drunk, but I’m far from sober.
“We’ll take you back to the inn,” the blonde crossword-puzzle-doer says.
“Over my dead body,” Mary says. “The dragons are coming down off the mountain, and if she’s not here––”
The man in the corner of the room steps closer to Wren and me.
He’s not regular tall; he’s stare-at-me tall.
Like as tall as Roark tall. Which I suppose is also incredibly yummy tall.
Oh, I’m definitely not sober. No way should I be driving.
But then I wouldn’t get behind the wheel of a car even if I hadn’t had anything to drink. I hold back a laugh.
The group of what have to be security guards—my security guards—glare at the men.
Mary points at the door. “Oh, cheese and crackers, lads! If you want to knock heads, take it outside before my schnitzel gets more twisted! Out . . . out, I say . . . Take your shifter selves outside before I go all Scottish play on your behinds. The whole lot of you—go. I finally got my pool table fixed after last year’s brawl over which Kunyon team was better, Italy or France.
Damn shifter rugby-sport. I can’t understand any of it, bashing into each other the way they do. ”
Neither side moves.
“Out!” She points again.
The two males from the corner thud across the room.
One’s a good six inches taller than the other.
So tall that when he crosses under the center support beam of the pub, he has to duck.
The floor shakes. There’s something about them that reminds me of the guys.
Wider shoulders, taller, just bigger all around.
They both have hair so dark in the dim light of the pub it’s almost blue.
They’re wearing black T-shirts with khakis, as if they’re ready to go on safari.
And they’re both wearing similar colognes with a smoky, woody scent. Like a really good campfire.
The taller of the two looks down at the crossword woman. He inhales deeply. “Wolf, you should keep better track of your charges. You never know when a bigger, badder wolf could snatch them up.” His dark eyes turn back to me and then to Wren. They move out the door.
Wren’s fingers grip my arm. “Whoa,” she whispers. Whoa in a “how hot was that and please come blow down my house” way. Not scared.
Honestly, I’ve never heard her say whoa over a man before. Wren never has an issue finding a date. The other girls laugh when she only gets two phone numbers per flight.
“You good?” I whisper to her.
“Yeah, but is it wrong that I want to rub myself over big, dark, and scary?” Wren asks in what I’m sure she thinks is a whisper but is anything but.
Crossword blonde laughs. “Let’s get you ladies back to your hotel.
I’ll make sure the gentleman knows where they are.
” She crosses the bar to us. At the same time, there’s a loud crash outside the bar, a roar, and then a car alarm sounds.
The other two security guards race out the front door.
There’s another thundering crash out front.
The blonde puts her hand on her ear. “I’ll take them out the rear. ”
“No, you won’t,” I say. “I don’t want Mary to have any trouble.”
“If Mary wants to live, she should come with us. Is there a back way?” the blonde asks.
“Yes,” Mary says and leads us out the way we came in all those hours ago.