Chapter Fourteen
Sarah squirted a table with some cleaner before wiping it with her rag. This was a task she could handle without any complicated questions or fear. Nice, low-key, didn’t require a lot of thought. No freaky biker werewolves showing up to issue cryptic threats.
Fortunately, it’d been a week since they’d run into the True Sons, and there’d been no other signs of them. As weird as it was to think about later, she’d had a great time watching the fireworks after the other werewolf took off. It was like for that twenty minutes, he didn’t even exist.
Maybe she wouldn’t have felt that way without Caleb there, but Sarah was already getting used to her new normal of living and working with werewolves. For all their amazing abilities, in the end, they were just men, each with their own personalities and quirks.
She let out a quiet chuckle and moved to a new table. Was that the human way? To adjust to even the most outlandish of things with ease?
Before the fateful night she’d come to Devil’s Den, she would have said there was no such thing as magic, and now she lived in a world where a dragon king ruled Maricopa County.
Maybe it wasn’t any more ridiculous than a world where people used something like the internet to send memes and argue politics.
What she appreciated most about Caleb was his straight-forward nature. She’d gotten so used to the professors and graduate students at the university, all of who spent so much time putting on airs and signaling just to prove how intelligent they were. Caleb said what he meant and felt. It was refreshing.
Of course, that didn’t change the fact that his pack was being targeted by a group of werewolf criminals.
Sarah sighed. There was nothing she could do really about the True Sons, so she did her best to only worry about what she could actually fix, things like doing her current job well.
Caleb had several of the pack out searching the area, but without some clue as to where to start, the whole thing seemed hopeless. Werewolves had a good sense of smell, but that didn’t mean they could pick out other werewolves miles away in the middle of a city.
From what he’d told her, this kind of Hide and Seek was unusual for his kind. Wolves liked to loudly announce their territory and make their borders clear. That did fill her with a little unease as it suggested the True Sons, or at least their leader, wasn’t the dumb thug they might have thought.
He knew just when to poke at Caleb and when to hide. She couldn’t imagine this going on forever though, and she couldn’t help but wonder if the True Sons were waiting for the right moment to ambush Caleb’s pack.
Sarah walked over to the next table to clean. Frustration more than fear clung to her. Caleb would protect her. She knew that, not just in her head, but her heart.
No, her real problem was that her relationship with Caleb felt in limbo. It’d be hard to really plan for the future until the hanging threat of the True Sons had been handled one way or another.
All her life, she’d felt uneasy and didn’t feel like she was where she needed to be. It helped motivate her to leave her job and go back to school. Now, she’d found where she was supposed to be.
Not so much the job, she didn’t care that much either way, but the people, especially Caleb. Even the mere thought of leaving him stung her heart.
Once everything settled down, she could go back to her studies. She scrubbed hard at a stubborn stain. Maybe there was some sort of job she could do to help out the werewolves, or at least the pack. It’d take her time to learn more about the culture, just as it would with any subculture, but she was sure she could be helpful. From what Caleb had said, it didn’t seem like they’d done the best to apply modern organizational and research techniques to helping their people.
Who knew what the future would bring? All she knew is they just needed the True Sons to back off.
The door creaked open behind her. Sarah sighed. She’d forgotten to lock it earlier. There was nothing worse than drunks coming in after closing time and thinking they could flirt their way to another beer.
Her back still to the door, Sarah said, “I’m sorry. We’re closed. You’ll need to leave.”
“Nah, I don’t think so,” a rough voice said.
Sarah turned and was just about to give the man a piece of her mind when she saw who had entered.
Bald. Check. Beard. Check. Leather jacket with two axes over a skull. Check.
Sarah managed not to groan. Talk about speaking of the Devil.
The True Son inhaled deeply then gave her a sick grin. “Remember me, sweet thing? Hope you enjoyed the fireworks.”
“Go to hell,” Sarah said. “This is Caleb’s territory.” Her heart already thundered, but she didn’t want to give the bastard the satisfaction of seeing her scared. He only hoped he couldn’t smell it on her.
“Hell?” The True Son grinned. “Been there. Got the t-shirt with Satan’s autograph. You scared, sweet thing?”
“Annoyed mostly. I have things to do. So leave.”
The True Son took a few steps forward, but Sarah didn’t move, other than her hands shaking slightly.
“Why you still with these pussy wolves?” the bald man said. “When you could be with real wolves?” He inhaled deeply. “Oh, yeah, you smell so good.”
Sarah desperately tried to think of something to say to get the man to leave. “If they’re so weak, then why did your leader run the first time he met Caleb?”
The True Son growled, and Sarah winced. The other pack members had already proven they had no problem roughing her up a little, but the one thing she had learned while living with Caleb was that wolves respected a little backbone.
She gulped, wondering if that was unique to Caleb and she’d just made a huge mistake. It wasn’t all that long ago that two True Sons had shot her window after all.
Even though Caleb had it replaced the next day, that didn’t do anything to erase the memory. Most of the time she didn’t think about it. Around Devil’s Den and Caleb she felt safe. At least when she wasn’t alone in a room with a biker werewolf.
The biker took another step forward, and this time Sarah stepped back, trembling slightly. If she knew the enemy were only human, that’d be one thing, but she’d already seen the power of werewolves.
“You need real wolves,” he said. “Real wolves who would do what it takes to get a wolf out of you. That’s all you bitches are good for in the end.”
Sarah shuddered, though more out of revulsion than fear. Lecturing a werewolf biker about feminism probably wouldn’t do much good.
“Get out of here, or you’ll regret it,” Sarah said.
Her gaze drifted to a knife on the bar. Caleb had been using it to chop lemons, and it wasn’t silver, but it’d be better than anything. From what she’d had seen, even if werewolves regenerated, they still felt pain. She wasn’t about to let herself be kidnapped.
The other man frowned, but it seemed like he was looking at something past her.
“You heard the woman,” Caleb said from behind her, his voice low and full of menace. “Get out of here, or you will regret it, you bastard.”
Relief flooded Sarah, and she stopped shaking. She’d been so focused on the man in front of her that she’d forgotten that Caleb wasn’t far from her the entire time. He’d just been checking inventory in the storeroom. She offered the True Son a forced smile and hurried to Caleb.
The biker let out a low growl. “You ain’t big shit, Caleb Drake.”
Caleb shrugged. “I’m big enough shit here, asshole.”
“You think you’re untouchable? You think we won’t move on your pack?” He shook his head. “Jake don’t like how you hurt our guys. He’s gonna get a little payback soon.”
“He doesn’t like how I hurt your guys?” Caleb snorted. “I don’t like how your guys shot at my woman.”
Sarah spared him a glance, her heart warming, despite the situation, over Caleb calling her his woman.
“If Jake was any sort of alpha,” Caleb continued. “he’d hurt those guys more than I did. They could have killed a Blooded. They deserve to die for that alone, and I didn’t even kill them.”
“You think you’re tough? You think you can take on the True Sons?”
Caleb chuckled and shook his head. “I don’t think that.”
Sarah gasped, surprised that he would show weakness in front of the enemy werewolf.
“Yeah, I didn’t think so,” the True Son said with a sneer. “Now Jake has a messa—”
Caleb laughed. The True Son’s face scrunched up, and Sarah shot him a quizzical look.
“What’s so fucking funny?” the biker said.
“You don’t get it.”
“Get what?”
“I don’t think that I’m tougher than the true sons. I know I’m tougher.” A feral grin appeared on Caleb’s face. “I’ve proven it. And I didn’t kill your guys even though they really, really had it coming, so you all should stop bitching like little girls.”
The two men locked gazes, both letting out low growls.
Sarah stood slightly behind Caleb wondering when they’d shift. The one thing she’d learned about werewolf fights is that they seemed to be over quickly.
“If you want to do this,” Caleb said, “then let’s do this.” He narrowed his eyes. “But I’m tired of this shit, and it’s late. I’m starting to think the best way to handle your pack is just to kill one of you every time one of you ugly sons of bitches shows your face.”
The True Son snorted and backed up. He pointed at Caleb. “Don’t think is over, because this ain’t over.”
“No, but it soon will be. You take that message back to Jake. We’re coming for him, and when we do, I’m not gonna be as nice as I have been.”
The other man kicked a chair over and stomped over to the door.
It wasn’t until he was out the door that Sarah let out the breath she’d been holding. No bloodshed after all. Just because she’d come to expect it didn’t mean she’d gotten used to it.
Caleb gave her a hug. “It’s okay, I got you.”
“I really thought he was going to try and fight you.”
“Nah. Wasn’t worried about that. He needed to put on a show, but challenging an alpha yourself is hard, even an alpha from another pack.” He squeezed her shoulder.
“What if he comes back?”
“He’s not going to. The True Sons are just trying to work our nerves. This was just the start, but I don’t expect anything for a day or two.”
“What do we do?”
“We let the pack know, and we get ready.” Caleb kissed her on the forehead. “Let’s finish locking up and head upstairs.”