Some men could seal their fates just by opening their mouths, and then there were men who could do the same just with a look.

Both types were currently right in front of Archer Davis. Well, not specifically in front of him. Rather, they were in front of the dais Archer stood on behind the Mistress of the City, with his hands clasped loosely behind his back. Both men looked at the mistress with matching expressions of anger and incredulity.

“This is an outrage!”

“The Mistress of the City must be beyond reproach.”

Archer sighed, tried not to roll his eyes, and reminded himself this wasn’t his circus and these most definitely weren’t his monkeys. If they were… The new presence within him turned and bared its teeth. It would enjoy disciplining the two werewolves shouting at Archer’s woman.

His woman. A small smile crossed his lips as pride and warmth filled his chest. Reena Leroy, Mistress of the City, and the alpha wolf of the entire city…was his. She’d chosen him as her midwinter offering, tamed him with her body when he was dangerously close to succumbing to conversion madness, and shared his bed each night. They weren’t officially mated, but with one foot in the human world, he hadn’t asked. They were happy as they were. And the sex…The sex was incredible. What idiot would mess with a winning formula like that?

“The Council of Alphas—”

“The council what?” The man’s whine was cut off midway as Reena’s voice cracked like a whip. “The council now decides who shares my bed, does it?” Her voice was deadly calm again, one slender leg crossed delicately over the other, and her fingers against her chin. It was her thinking pose when the court was in open session, but only an idiot would think she wasn’t paying attention. Reena always paid attention, she was dangerous as hell that way.

“No… My lady, we didn’t mean it that way,” Kellan, alpha of the Sutton pack, stammered in objection. His gaze flicked to Archer, who gave him a poker face. It was a bit awkward to have them there when they were objecting to his presence in Reena’s bed. Him…a bitten wolf who had yet to change all the way, when there were perfectly good born wolves who were itching to occupy the position. It was no secret that Kellan was desperate to be there.

Sorry, bud… If the lady wanted you, she’da picked you. Archer kept his face impassive, even though he wanted to leap off the dais and rip this guy’s face from his skull. But this was Reena’s call, and he promised her that he’d obey her every word until they reached the bedroom door. Then he was in charge.

She hadn’t said anything about not throwing her over his shoulder and carrying her there though…

“Then, pray tell, what way did you mean, Kellan?” Reena asked, sitting back in her chair, scarlet painted nails against the padded arms. “Because it very much sounded like the council wanted a say in who I fuck. While I might be open-minded, I’m a one-man woman, and believe me,” she sat forward, “Archer is more than man and wolf enough for this lady.”

Oh yeah, baby. Archer’s male pride swelled to astronomical proportions and he managed not to sneer at Kellan. Just. The alpha’s set expression radiated anger and frustration, the look he shot Archer one of pure hatred.

He couldn’t blame the guy. Until Archer had turned up and swept Reena off her feet, Kellan had been considered the ‘it boy’ of the lycan court. The eligible bachelor all the wolfy mama’s were desperate to snag for their daughters, he’d apparently cast himself as the mistress’s consort if the way he spoke to Reena was any indication.

Despite his flinch at Reena’s crude language, Kellan recovered quickly. Ignoring the hulking figure of Archer, he concentrated on the curvy little woman in front of him. “We’re concerned about you, my lady. As you know, the position of Overlord is a very responsible one. A significant other could try to influence the overlord in whatever way they can.”

“Really?” A drawl in her voice, Reena’s expression was unreadable. “Concerned I’m too mentally weak to know when I am being played? That after fifteen years of service to this city because I now have a man in my bed, I am incapable of independent thought?”

A lanky wolf to the left of Kellan smirked and folded his arms, as though settling in to enjoy the show. Interesting. He evidently knew Reena, to pick up her mood from just her voice. Jealousy clawed Archer’s gut as he studied the other man. A grayhound of a man, he looked half-starved yet packed with muscle.

“No, no, my lady. We don’t think you incapable at all!” Kellan’s voice rose all squeaky now his planned “get the little woman to listen to reason” speech was fucking up six ways to Sunday. He looked around for support, but even the guy next to him took a step back, leaving him on his own.

“Then, perhaps, with all this ‘concern,’ you think you would do a better job as Overlord?” She rose from her seat, stalking down the three steps to bring her to the same level, her eyes fixed on her quarry. She was a small woman with curves in all the right places that would make any red-blooded man sit up and take notice. At the moment, for all her petite size, she radiated danger. Lethality. A charge built in the room, the tension of a wolf pulling power for a shift.

“Perhaps you would like to challenge me for the title, hmmm, Kellan? You want to meet me wolf to wolf?”

Kellan actually did pale this time, the color leeching from his skin and his eyes fully human blue. For a born wolf, that meant one of two things: he was as powerful as Reena and could conceal his wolf totally, or he was so shit-scared, the creature hid itself so far down they’d need mining equipment to find it. Given that he was facing the most dangerous she-wolf in the city, Archer settled on shit-scared.

“No! Please, my lady…I meant no offense.”

Kellan dropped to his knees in front of Reena, a plea on his lips and his head tilted to the side. A show of submission. Archer’s lips curl back from his teeth, noting with surprise a similar look of disdain on the face of the thin guy he’d noted earlier. Their gazes met for a second, and a look of understanding crossed between them. They both thought Kellan was pathetic, playing games behind Reena’s back, but unwilling to back up his words with actions.

Reena cupped her ear as though she was having trouble hearing. “What was that, Kellan? You don’t want to challenge me? You are content that I am mistress and more than capable of making my own decisions regardless who shares my bed?”

She leaned down. Kellan flinched, aware Reena might look human and harmless at the moment, but she could shift and have her teeth in his throat within half a second. “Because you know something, Kellan. When I have a man in my bed, the last thing I want from him is talk.”

She put a finger on his forehead and pushed. He fell backward, sprawling over the polished wooden floor. Her lip curled back in disgust. “Just get out of my sight. Come back when you have something sensible to say that doesn’t involve your hissy fit about who I choose to screw.”

She turned away as Kellan scuttled backward, his cheeks flaming red. Not paying him any attention, her gaze instead sought Archer’s, and when they connected, he felt the shiver all the way to his soul.

Taking the steps in a measured tread, he approached her, bowing his head in deference to her rank. He didn’t want to bow and scrape like the rest. Instead he wanted to carry her off and kiss her senseless. But he’d promised to obey her out of the bedroom and he was a man who kept his word.

“Well, wasn’t he just a special little snowflake triple-dipped in spoilt brat and angst?” A deep voice broke in and Archer turned to find the man he’d noticed earlier stood next to them. Correction, wolf. With a bright amber ring in his eyes, he was wolf-born for sure, and the whisper of power over the exposed skin of Archer’s forearms suggested he was more powerful than most.

“Travis! When did you get back?” With a cry of delight, Reena wrapped her arms around him in a bear hug. Archer clenched his fists to stop himself from punching the guy as he hugged her, pleasure and emotion written all over his face.

“Travis Mayweather.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement.

After surviving his conversion madness, he’d made it his business to know the major players in the city. He didn’t do politics, but he was ex-military, so he did do intel on knowing his enemy. Or rather, Reena’s enemy, so he had her back.

But Travis Mayweather wasn’t an enemy. He was a friend. More than a friend. According to rumor, he was Reena’s best friend from childhood, the friend she’d killed her own father for…and the man who’d shared her bed every midwinter choosing before this one.

Before Archer had taken his place.

---

Reena stepped back from Travis and cut a glance at Archer. Both men she knew, one better than herself, and the other intimately, although you could argue she knew both intimately but in entirely different ways.

Travis, she could see, practically brimmed with happiness, and she didn’t blame him. He’d finally found the love of his life, Jennison, and the fact the man loved him in return obviously still amazed her lifelong friend. She looked around and spied the hulking alpha at the back of the room, eyes on his mate and no one else. She recognized the look: heat mixed with possessiveness. It was the way Archer looked at her.

Well, when he wasn’t glaring at Travis as if he’d like to tear his spine out through his stomach. He was practically growling. She reached out a hand to the middle of his broad chest. Her touch and the electricity that always arched between them caught his attention and he looked at her.

“I am.” Travis eyed Archer levelly, his gaze direct. Reena smiled in approval. It had taken a long time for Travis to come out of his shell after the abuse he’d suffered at the hands of her father. A natural beta, he struggled with confrontation.

Usually.

Right now though, he squared up to Archer like a born alpha, even though the other guy had at least fifty more pounds and a hell of a lot more experience fighting. Probably. Yeah…make that definitely. Archer had been a soldier; his human combat experience would outweigh anything Travis…who had never fought even as a wolf…had to offer.

“You’re Archer Davis, former soldier, former human, and Reena’s paramour.”

Oh. For. Fuck’s. Sake.

Reena closed her eyes for a fraction of a second. Just like Travis to finally find an alpha streak and lay it all out like he’d slapped his dick on the counter for a pissing contest. Then she frowned, cutting a glance to Archer.

“Your name is Davis? Not Griffin?”

He gave the smallest of nods, his gaze still fixed on Travis. The kind of gaze that suggested should they ever meet in a dark alley, one of the guys wouldn’t fair so well.

“Hey,” she slapped his arm. “Eyes on me. Answer the question.”

He transferred his attention, and just for a moment, she thought she saw a glimmer of red in his eyes. Before she could say for sure, though, it disappeared as flecks of amber pushed through the human color.

“Yeah. My mom married into the Griffin pack when I was a kid. We both started as plain ol’ human.”

There was nothing plain about Archer, but she kept that to herself. How had she not known he wasn’t a Griffin? She, who prided herself on knowing everything about all those around her, had somehow let something about the guy in her bed pass her by. But then, they didn’t tend to do much talking once past the bedroom doors. Archer was a demanding lover and now he had the stamina of a wolf…Dayum. Heat hit her broadside at the memory, and she quickly transferred attention to Travis. Who watched her with a smirk.

“Travis.” She poked him in the chest, which earned a growl from Archer and his arm slid around her waist. “Stop teasing him. You…” she turned to Archer, “stop letting him wind you up. He does that. Travis is like my brother. He’s also mated, very, very mated.”

“That, he is. Extremely mated.” Jennison chose that moment to introduce himself, stepping behind Travis and wrapping his arms around the smaller man’s waist. He was a tall, muscled brute of a man. Reena suspected he had some werebear in him, but she wouldn’t be as impolite as to mention it. All she cared about was the guy made her best friend happy.

“Hey,” he reached around Travis and held out a hand to Archer. “I’m Jenn. Pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

Something flickered in Archer’s eyes, but then he smiled and took the offered hand, shaking it firmly. “Likewise.”

Reena breathed a sigh of relief as the tension drained from Archer’s body. A relief that lasted all of a second before Travis opened his mouth again.

“I might be mated, but we’ve been friends since we were both pups,” he said, his expression hard as he looked at Archer. His eyes were full amber, his wolf just under the skin. “And if you ever hurt her, then watch your back. I’ll be coming for you.”

Reena closed her eyes again. Moon save her from idiot men.