~

 

“Why is there a nun sitting at the bar?” Mick said, and Ryan shot a look over his brother’s left shoulder and raised his eyebrows in surprise.

He hadn’t seen her come in, but boy, did he see her now.

There she was; the prettiest damn nun that he’d ever seen in his life, dressed in a black sack like thing, as she perched on a stool, and nursed a bottle of beer while chatting to the omega behind the bar.

It seemed like such a waste of a perfectly good woman.

Ryan’s beast growled within him.

Seriously? A nun? He berated his wolf.

If the beast wanted to get all protective over the woman, then fine, but there were things that he wouldn’t mind doing to that nun if she wasn’t made the way that she was – all saintly like, and definitely off limits from the kinds of things that came to mind.

Ryan caught that thought, and it made him want to headbutt the nearest wall.

She’s a nun.

Off limits!

Behave your damn self.

“I have no idea, but it’s not a party until God appears, right?” Jason chuckled as he walked towards his brothers, and Ryan shot a dark look at the beta. “What? We can’t joke about the big man upstairs?”

”Jason,” Ryan grumbled on a deep sigh.

“Clive? The man thinks he’s God,” Jason said quickly with a frown. He’d come to the conversation late and had obviously misunderstood his brother. “I thought vampires were the butt of everyone’s jokes.”

“Wrong big man,” Mick said, nodding his head to where Vanessa was sitting.

Jason tossed a look back over his shoulder, doing a double take when he noted Vanessa, and his eyes widened in surprise.

“Why is there a nun in a vampire bar?” He scowled at the woman.

“That’s what I was…” Mick shook his head in defeat.

His brother was a muppet in his book. The man never listened unless lives were on the line, and then he was focused, but apart from that, he was sure that he lived in LaLa land.

It wasn’t his fault; rumor was that Ryan had dropped him on his head a few times when he was a pup. “Never mind.” Mick dismissed the idea of explaining it to him.

“Did you invite her?” Jason asked as he leaned in towards the alpha like he was conspiring, and Ryan shot him a look that made Jason pull his head back on his neck. “Hit a raw nerve?”

“Of course I didn’t invite a damn nun!” Ryan shot back.

“Don’t say the D word in the same sentence as the word nun. It’s probably a sin or something. Most things are,” Jason offered back.

Mick grunted as he rolled his eyes away from the alpha towards his slightly insane brother.

“You believe in God now?” Mick challenged the man.

“I believe there is no harm in hedging my bets,” Jason tossed back with a smug smile. “If there’s a risk of being struck down by an omnipotent being, then who am I to say he doesn’t exist, or be stupid enough to miff him off?”

Ryan was more interested in squinting at the nun than he was in his brother’s antics. Mick frowned.

“Omnipotent? When did you get the word of the day toilet roll?” Mick snorted a chuckle before turning his attention back to the alpha. “Something wrong with your eyes, brother?”

“I’m just trying to look at her without the whole penguin suit get up,” Ryan said, almost absently, as he squinted harder and just tried to concentrate on her face.

She was attractive; he’d give her that, but there was something else about her that spoke to him.

“You want me to get rid of her?” Mick asked.

He didn’t like the idea of telling a nun to leave, but he also didn’t think that she could have been that good of a damn nun if she was in a vampire bar.

Mick had to reason that the woman obviously didn’t know the company that she was keeping. Otherwise, there would probably have been screaming – some wailing – and a lot of that body cross things that they did – while she was running for the hills.

Ryan growled outwardly that time. His brother had hit a raw nerve.

The thought of the big beta manhandling a nun from a bar seemed like a good reason to kill the man where he stood, and yet, he knew that Mick wasn’t about to lay his hands on any female that wasn’t a danger to them.

But was a Nun a danger to his pack? She didn’t look like a danger to anyone, but looks could be deceptive.

“It was just a question,” Mick grumbled.

He’d made the offer, and he’d stick by it, it was his job to do the alpha’s bidding. But, in truth, he was thankful that the alpha had rejected it.

Maybe, just maybe, Jason was right. If there was a God, and it was hers, well, he’d rather not be blinked out of existence.

“You don’t just get rid of a nun,” Ryan growled back as if the man had just snatched up his dinner plate and hoovered up his food.

“Yeah, that’s like kicking Bambi when he’s down,” Jason offered, and both men made a slow turn of their heads to stare at him as if he’d just grown another head.

“Bambi?” Mick growled.

“Well, sure, you know – like in the scene where his mother dies, and he’s all like…”

“Stop talking,” Mick growled back in disbelief.

Ryan had to wonder which planet his younger brother was living on sometimes. He certainly didn’t want to visit it anytime soon.

He also knew that his natural instinct to protect women was something that was deeply ingrained in him, and a nun was probably as innocent as a woman could get. But still, he felt a mixture of emotions going on inside of him.

“I don’t think this is the place for her,” Jason shook his head as he folded his arms and raised a hand to his chin in thoughtful contemplation, scratching his fingernails through a day-old growth of stubble, and eyeing her like she was a specimen in a petri dish.

“Ya think?” Ryan tossed back in disbelief.

“Maybe we should call her a cab, or something?” Mick shrugged, and Ryan considered it.

The alpha had wondered if he should take her home to the church. Then he wondered if nuns actually lived at the church.

“Are nuns allowed to drink alcohol?” Jason asked.

“Priests do,” Mick reasoned.

“But she’s a nun, aren’t they like lower in the pecking order than a priest?” Jason tossed back. “Like an Omega of the God squad or something?”

“Why are you asking me?” Mick growled.

“Well, he’s not going to know,” Jason tossed up a hand towards the alpha.

“And I am?” Mick turned his upper body towards the man and pierced him with a steely glare.

“N…o,” Jason shrugged.

“There you go then,” Mick tossed back with a shake of his head and a sigh on his lips.

“I’m gonna see if she needs help,” Ryan said absently, and to no one in particular, as he sidestepped his brothers and started towards the end of the bar where the woman was sitting.

“What kind of help are we talking?” Jason asked, but Ryan ignored him as he zeroed in on the nun.

“Stupid question,” Mick grumbled.

“According to you, every question is ask is stupid.”

“There you go then. Doesn’t that tell you something?”

Ryan ignored his brothers yapping. His focus was solely on the woman at the bar. His wolf was antsy, and he didn’t like it.

Then she flicked her eyes towards him, and when her gaze met his; the look almost knocked him on his backside.

Ryan hit the internal brakes and stopped dead in his tracks in the middle of the room – and that was when the vampire swooped in towards her, and Ryan’s wolf went crazy within him.