~

 

The three alphas were all sitting together around one of the back tables in the bar. They were locked in deep conversation that, to an outsider, looked to be a little heated at times.

Justice, Landon, and Dexter were apparently debating the pros and cons of allowing the new guy, Liam, to stay on the mountain after his trial period, and Connor was acting as a mediator to the event. Not that the vampire was a good influence on the proceedings, especially with his need to get as many jibes in where he could for his own gratification.

Agatha sat at the bar and eyed the progress. She’d decided to leave the confines of the castle for the night.

It was a case of get out or go stir crazy and accidentally killed something out of pure boredom. The place might have had more rooms than she’d managed to discover yet in her meanderings, but the place still had walls, big thick ones, and she’d found them closing in around her. Not in an Indiana Jones way, more in mentally climbing them way…

From where she sat at the bar; it looked like the kind of interesting debate that almost made her wish that she had supernatural shifter hearing so that she could eavesdrop on everything that was being said, pick up every word, even the ones that they issued in hushed tones, as well as the louder blunt exchanges that you didn’t need super-hearing for.

Dexter had pushed up to his feet numerous times already, as if he was about to stalk off out of the bar, but he’d been talked back down by the vampire, and he’d finally taken to sit there as if he had a rod of steel embedded in his spine and was chewing on an imaginary wasp…

She guessed that things didn’t look so rosy for the new guy that was looking to make the mountain his home.

Agatha, on the other hand, was seeing life from the other end of the problem. She needed to leave the mountain and find herself a permanent home, because after helping Dexter’s pack to kill the alpha Zane, there was no way in hell that she could go back to hers.

Connor and Vicky had allowed her to stay at their Castle, and she had a whole wing of the place to herself to explore, but it wasn’t hers, and it wasn’t really a home. Not the kind of home that she’d always longed for – a little cottage or a cabin somewhere would do her just fine – far enough away from mischief makers, vampires, and shifters would be even better.

She didn’t feel comfortable being anywhere near Lily. Jacob’s mate had tried to offer a rather uncomfortable hand of friendship out to her, probably at Vicky’s request, and yet, she’d had a hand in hunting the woman for Zane, and that crazy alpha bear had almost killed her.

All she wanted was to be left alone.

No more helping shifters.

No more living with a vampire … just some peace, and to wallow in nature as every good witch should.

Not that she was a good witch – she didn’t see herself that way. There was good and bad in everybody, and she’d let her emotions and her loyalties cloud her better judgement for a while where Zane was concerned.

She’d like to think of that as ancient history, but being on the mountain where she’d had a hand in Zane’s death didn’t exactly afford her the opportunity to leave it all behind in the past.

“That’s not…!” Dexter pushed up to his feet once more, and Agatha flicked a look in his direction.

His big hands were fisted at his sides, and everyone else at the table went a little more rigid, a little more alert and ready for the man to explode … or something…

“Sit down, Dexter, you’re not going to storm out and we all know it. You want this resolved and so do we,” Justice pointed out to his brother.

The alpha leant back in his chair and looked to the outside world as if he was as cool as a cucumber, and yet Agatha could see the tension that he held within his body.

She was used to living with shifters and their explosive, fiery temperaments. It might have been bears and not wolves, and bears were a little more unpredictable, but still, when the fur flew – she knew better than anyone to duck.

“I can’t see what possible problem you have with Liam,” Dexter grumbled in place of a growl. There were enough humans within the confines of the bar to make that natural sound impossible to let loose.

“He has a roving eye…” Landon offered back, and the alpha bear’s deep tones rumbled all the way to where Agatha was sitting.

She revelled in that sound, missed it…

“Not for mates,” Dexter shot back, “and which one of us didn’t get our fair share of…”

“He’s constantly chasing tail…” Justice offered back.

“Define … tail.” Connor smirked.

“Not that kind…” Justice sneered.

“Just checking,” Connor offered back.

“Well, he’s not been bringing them home – not unless he’s been sneaking them out again real stealthy like,” Dexter grumbled back.

“He’s butted heads and fists with a few of my clan,” Landon pointed out.

“Which of us haven’t?” Dexter shot back. “Look, I’ll have a word with him and get him to stay away from the clan…”

“Could you get him to change his personality while you’re at it?” Connor asked. “The man’s fine around the ladies, but as soon as he sees a male his fur’s right there under his skin.”

“He has … dominance issues…” Dexter admitted.

The man was an alpha, pure and simple, and the beast inside the man knew it. Liam was trying to get a handle on that – rein himself and his beast in, and a pack of alpha wolves might not have been the perfect place for him to do it, or it could have been the making of the man.

Either way – Dexter wanted the guy to have the chance to find out.

“He runs around peeing up trees a lot…?” Connor asked with his usual glib expression, and Landon chuckled a deep, gravelly sound that reminded Agatha of home…

“Yeah, and he’s going to be a houseguest at your castle for a week or two…” Dexter grumbled back.

“I have a dungeon,” Connor assured him.

“Look, just give the guy a chance to settle, to fit in here,” Dexter growled just a little, and with a flick of her eyes towards the table, Agatha could see that the other two alphas prickled just a little more.

“Fine, one more week.” Landon shrugged his broad shoulders in acceptance of Dexter’s words.

“Someone’s going soft in their advancing years,” Connor teased, and Landon prickled a little more.

“Don’t make me reach down your throat and turn you inside out, Connor…” Landon warned him.

The alpha sat forward in his chair and eyed the vampire. It looked to Agatha like it was a case of which supernatural being was going to be the first to blink…