The practice closed early on Saturdays, and Kenneth was taking the emergency shift, which meant that she was officially off for the weekend. A prospect that might have delighted her any other time, but considering the target on her back, and the fact that she had no real place of her own, she actually might have preferred working, if only for the distraction it provided her. 

It wasn't until she stepped outside the practice that she wondered how she was supposed to make her way back to Lakesides, remembering that Ian had driven her. He'd promised to watch the practice, but he'd said nothing of picking her up. To her relief, he was waiting outside his truck in the parking lot. 

She smiled, stepping toward him. Then Tania froze, her eyes rounding as they caught sight of the guys on the other side of the lot, watching her. She recognized at least five of them; they'd hung out at her dad's in the past. There were other men, and a couple of women, too, all intently staring at her. Shit. The Wyverns hadn't been joking. She hadn't believed they'd lied to her but somewhere at the back of her mind, she'd wondered if they were exaggerating the situation, until now. But she was really being watched. The only reason why the dozen people glaring at her were staying away was the presence of the six-foot-tall muscular shifter sipping a takeout coffee, ignoring them. 

Tania rushed to his side. 

"Have you seen them—" 

"Yep." 

"Are we worried?" she asked him. 

He smirked. "About a few regulars? No, we're not worried, Tania." 

He exuded so much confidence that, just with those few words, her shoulders relaxed.

Suddenly, she blurted out, "What are you? I mean, what do you shift into? Wait, is it rude to ask?"

Ian opened the passenger door for her and buckled her in like she was a two-year-old, unable to do so herself. For some reason, she let him.

"Curious, aren't we?"

"Wouldn't you be?" she challenged.

He laughed on his way to the driver’s seat and replied once he had closed his own door. "I'm a tiger, like Coveney, Jas, and Rye. Well, not like Rye. He's more of a freak, really."

"A freak?" she repeated.

"Rye shifts into a sabertooth tiger. He's the son of the king of feline shifters; their line goes pretty far back to the very first families of shifters. So yeah, he's a bit of a freak. Large, strong."

"What about Ace?" she asked, because if someone had asked her which Wyvern alpha was the scariest, she would definitely have named the female.

Ian turned to her, one brow lifted. "Definitely curious. You're sure there isn't a bit of cat in you?"

She apologized. "Let me know if I'm crossing a line. It's just that your life is so different from mine. It's fascinating."

He got the car out of the clinic's parking lot, passing right in front of the anti-shifters and flipping them the bird through the window.

Tania couldn't help herself from giggling. Their expressions, ranging from shock to horror and fear, were hilarious. When they'd passed them, Ian resumed their conversation. "Ace is more of a freak than Rye in her own way. She's part animal—actual animal, not just the shifter kind. Long story, but the extra injection of beast makes her a lot stronger and faster than any of us. She used to be a bounty hunter a few years ago. Killed every single one of her targets."

Tania didn't doubt it.

"Remind me to not lecture her again?" she asked.

The truck got jerky as Ian pulled on the gearshift without meaning to. "You lectured her?"

"Kinda? I just said something about her letting Niamh drink."

To her relief, Ian seemed amused more than anything else.

"She probably flipped. Don't sweat it, though. You're alive and unscratched. It means she didn't mind." He winked at her playfully, and she told herself that the unease in her chest was just a delayed reaction to the truck's swerving a minute ago. "Ace doesn't mind communication. She and Rye are true alphas. They welcome our input, and all of their decisions are made to protect the pride as a whole. Whatever you said to her, she thought about it, and only dismissed it if she had reason to believe it didn't apply to Niamh. For the record, it takes about twenty units of alcohol for a full-grown shifter to get drunk. Anything under five is negligible. Niamh is...something else. We're trying to determine her limits in various ways. How fast she can run, how long she can use her magic for, how far her power goes; and yes, how much alcohol affects her is one of these things. She needs to understand what she is a lot faster than humans."

Tania felt even worse about the disagreement, now that he'd explained it.

"Fair enough. I'm bound to say a bunch of stupid things, I guess. My mom's husband has satisfied some of my curiosity, but he doesn't live in a pack, and I'm not sure he knows much about witches and other sups, in any case."

"Your mom's husband is a shifter?"

Ian was flabbergasted.

"Yep, so are my half-brothers. Foxes."

He groaned. "I can't stand foxes. Cunning little shits."

She had to laugh goodheartedly. "You have no idea. I babysat them a few times, when I was on vacation from college. They relish the tears of mere mortals."

They'd already reached Lakesides. Tania was disappointed that he'd led them back to the empty lake house rather than the lively pride house.

"I figured you'd want to feed Princess, maybe bring her with you when we head to the main house?" he asked. "Then we do have to go. Rye has called a meeting."