Page 38 of Not Your Ex's Hexes
“Thankfully the one and only.” Bax folded his tattooed arms across his chest as he glared across the bowling alley.
“Why the hell would Linc invite the shifter who nearly imploded his and Vi’s entire future?”
“He wouldn’t.”
“What’s got you two looking broodier than usual?” Olive followed the direction of their attention. “Oh, crapsticks. This isn’t good. We need to get that pussycat away from Rose, and then keep Vi away from the pussycat or the fireworks that happen will make the city’s New Year’s display look like a handheld sparkler.”
Bax waited for more, and when it didn’t come, he asked, “Do you have a plan for all of that, angel?”
“I’ll find Vi and divert her for as long as I can. One of you do the same with Linc, and the other should get Pepé Le Pee-Yew out of here. Pronto.”
Olive hustled away in search of her sister.
With a faint nod, Bax deferred to Damian. “Which detail do you want? Linc diversion or taking out the garbage?”
“I got the garbage… and Rose.” His feet moved before her name had even left his lips.
Halfway across the room, Rose’s gaze caught his. A nearly imperceptible head shake warned him away, but that wasn’t happening. Tension—and the heightened weight of Magic—thickened the air the closer he got. The hair on his arms damn near stood straight up by the time he reached her side.
“You’re missing all the fun, babe.” Damian pushed a smile onto his face as his arm reflexively hooked around her waist.
The bastard across from them glanced at the gesture.
Even if Damian didn’t already know the shifter was scum, he would’ve guessed it with a single glance. One good skill he’d learned from his Hunting background was his ability to spot evil in a lineup from a mile away, and this guy radiated it like a damn sun of immorality. He just hid it behind an expensive suit and a vat of nausea-inducing cologne.
“Making new friends, Rosie?” The tiger shifter slid his oil-like grin back to Rose. “Glad to see it. I had heard you’d become a bit of a recluse, and I have to admit, I was concerned.”
“Pretty sure she doesn’t need your concern,” Damian heard his voice counter.
Valentin Bisset transferred his attention back to him. The shifter’s inner beast pushed against Damian’s own in a hunt for submission. Too bad for him that Damian’s demon was a hell of a lot more Alpha than a furry cat and had no qualms about showing it.
Damian held the former Alpha’s gaze and let that inner wall he kept between himself and his demon slide down just low enough to let his eyes flash amber in warning. And then in the ultimate fuck-you, he upped the ante with an unconcerned chin lift.
Bisset’s jaw clenched despite his playing it cool. “I don’t think I caught your name.”
“Because I didn’t give it.” Damian didn’t budge. “But I will give you some unsolicited advice.Leave. Now.”
“I’m not certain I like your tone.”
“And I am certain I don’t care.”
Bisset feigned shocked offense. “That attitude doesn’t match the Maxwell family hospitality with which I’m familiar… especially toward a global Supernatural leader.”
“Well, there you go… I’m not a Maxwell. In my family, we showed hospitality by sliding a scythe through your abdomen instead of up your groin.”
And that wasn’t much of an exaggeration. While Rose’s family threw dinner parties, his threw punches. The Maxwells helped create laws, and when Damian and his family weren’t breaking them themselves, they enforced them, sometimes with bloodshed and brutality.
Their families… their upbringings… were day and night.
And yet…
Rose snorted on a laugh before she stifled it, barely. “What do you lead again, Valentin? Because it’s not the European Pack.”
The shifter’s eyes flashed gold, indicating his tiger was close to the surface, and Rose’s Magic reacted instantly, the electrical pulse raising the hairs on the back of Damian’s neck. Anyone within six feet of their threesome turned their heads toward them, no doubt sensing the rising hostility.
Protective instincts shifted Damian closer to Rose in case Bisset did something stupid, like shift.
Instead, a cold, emotionless smile slithered on the bastard’s face. “Jae may be temporarily warming my Alpha seat, but your separation from the Prima-ship isn’t as short term. And then Tandi tells me you’ve been struggling to hold a job? Chin up, Rosie. This is New York. There’s never a shortage of people looking to hire witches with your… skill set.”
