Dana Bell: Cynful

“Or a well-used ball of yarn.” Glory yawned. “Bored now.”

Cyn grabbed the bag of food and practically threw it at Glory. “Eat.”

“Yay!” Glory raced for the back room, squealing like a teenager who’d just gotten the keys to Daddy’s car. “Roast beef, all for me!”

“That’s my beef, you bitch!” Tabby tore free of Alex’s arms and chased after Glory.

“Who are you calling bitch, bitch?”

“You, bitch.”

The two girls began a tug-of-war over the bag, with Alex and Cyn looking on in sheer disbelief. Tabby bared fang and growled at Glory. Glory growled back, snapping her human teeth and making Tabby laugh. Glory actually yapped at Tabby, making the Wolf lose her grip on the sandwich from laughing so hard.

Cyn pinched the bridge of her nose. “ Dios. It’s like watching two Yorkies fighting over a French fry.”

Alex shook his head, chuckling softly as Glory won the battle and raced into the back room, Tabby hot on her heels. “You all right?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” She wished people would stop asking her that. It wasn’t the first time she’d been punched in the face, and she doubted it would be the last. Gary’s idiot sidekick had damaged her ego more than her cheek. She’d been more terrified for Tabby, since Gary was hoping to scare Tabby into leaving with him. If she had… It didn’t bear thinking on. “Dude hit like a girl.”

That feral something that marked him as a shifter peeked out of his gaze, his hazel eyes darkening. “I should have turned him into a pretzel for you.”

She hid her shudder. Alex wasn’t just saying that. The Grizzly could easily have taken the rogue Wolf and turned him into modern art. “Nah. From what Julian told me he’s going to be in enough pain by the time the Senate gets done with him.” And wasn’t that freaky to learn? It wasn’t enough that there were shifters in the world, but they had their own laws, their own government. Their own law enforcement—even their own jails. She was still processing everything she’d learned since Tabby came into their lives.

Someday soon, she might even be one of them.

“I’m going to pick Tabby up tonight. If anything, and I mean anything happens that makes you uncomfortable you call me, Ryan or Julian, hear? Gabe told me some unsettling news a few days ago, and I want you girls on guard.”

Great. More shit coming down on top of them? Just what they needed. “What news?”

“Gary’s main reason for being in Halle wasn’t Tabby. It was Chloe.”

“Chloe?” What the fuck did Gary have to do with Chloe?

“She was one of the people he was sent to Halle to keep an eye on. We have no idea who else he was here to watch, but I doubt she was the only one. He also told me that Hunters in other parts of the country have found three other bodies, all beaten the way Chloe was. All of them were half-breeds.”

“And Tabby is pregnant with a half-breed.” Fuck her gently with a chainsaw. This was bad. Alex was protective of Tabby on good days.

Alex smiled. It was full of sharp, pointy Bear teeth. If she didn’t agree whole-heartedly with the sentiment behind the look she’d be scared spitless.

“Right. Watch pregger-lady, call you if anyone looks shifty eyed.” She snapped off a salute worthy of Glory. “Aye aye, sir.”

He shook his head again, grinning like the Cheshire cat. The feral, overprotective look disappeared, to be replaced by a mischievous one. “How are things going with Julian, by the way?”

She shrugged, hoping it came off as nonchalant when she was anything but. “We’re dating. It’s okay. He’s not a bad guy.” And that was all Alex was going to wheedle out of her. No way was she telling Alex that Julian had to be the best damn kisser she’d ever gone out with.

“Maybe you can convince Glory to do the same with Ryan. If he doesn’t claim her soon he’s going to lose his damn mind.”

She bit back her smile. “He’s giving her fits.”

“She’s giving him hives. Just…talk to her, please? You two are the only ones she listens to, and Ryan’s slowly going insane.” Alex looked serious for the first time since he entered the shop. “You can’t possibly understand what it’s like, to have your mate right there and you can’t touch, can barely look at them before they start running away. It’s this itch under your skin, a burning need you can’t quench. You start dreaming about her. Your Bear can’t even look at anyone else, think about anyone else. She’s it. She’s the one.”

She swallowed hard. “So you’re saying Julian and Ryan are suffering?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Bad. You’ll never understand, because when they change you, they’ll mate you. You won’t go through what they are.” He held up his hand. “And they wouldn’t want you to.”

Cyn immediately bristled. “I could handle it.”

“I never said you couldn’t. I said they wouldn’t want you to. Big difference.” He leaned in close, his eyes completing the shift from hazel to dark brown. Bear’s eyes. “Perhaps you two should think about that.”

Cyn didn’t back down. Her heart might be racing, her palms damp, but Alex would sooner bite off his paw than hurt her, if only because it would hurt Tabby. “I am.”

He blinked, his eyes bleeding back out to hazel. “You aren’t afraid of anything, are you?”

“Only one thing.”

One of his brows rose, questioning her.

“Losing who I am.” And she was terrified the extremely sexy Julian could make her do just that.

Julian pulled his car into LA’s parking lot and hopped out. He hoped Cyn was ready to go. He was starving. An emergency at the doc’s office had kept him from his lunch, and his stomach was growling louder than Ryan had.

Julian took a deep breath and stretched, pulling his arms taut over his head. The scent of strange shifters, mostly Wolf, drifted through his senses. It wasn’t uncommon for him to catch the occasional whiff of other shifters. Halle housed a university on its outskirts, and the students would often come to town, especially this part of town. It was a little bit rougher than the pretty downtown area where Becky and Emma ran Wallflowers. There was Living Art Tattoos, a really great Chinese restaurant, a small bookstore that specialized in pagan books and artwork that Cyn said the students adored, and a few clothing shops that seemed to carry the type of clothes Cyn and the girls wore. He loved coming to this part of town. It was vibrant and fun and suited his mate to a T.

He walked up to the glass front door of LA Tattoos and peeked in, totally unsurprised by what he saw.

Chaos. The place was chock full of it, as usual, only this time the chaos was the fun kind. Julian smiled as he watched Cyn chase Tabby around with a rolled up set of papers. Whatever the Wolf had done, Cyn was ready to bat her nose over it. Glory was holding her stomach and laughing as Tabby skidded in her heels and went down.

Julian was through the door so fast the bell barely had time to jingle before he was kneeling at Tabby’s side. “You okay?”

“Ow.” She rubbed her hip and grimaced. “Just a bruise to my pride.”

Julian brushed his finger over the area, grinning at her sigh of relief. “What can I say? I’m better than Bengay.”

That sent Glory into another round of musical giggles.

Cyn swatted Tabby on the head with the papers. “I am not tattooing you until after the baby is born. Get over it!”

Tabby stuck her tongue out at Cyn. “Please. The needles are changed every customer, we pour the ink into those tiny little cups and toss what we don’t use. It’s perfectly safe.”

“No, it’s not.” Cyn tapped her foot. “Unless a doctor can tell me you won’t go into shock and lose the baby, I won’t tattoo you until after your flabby ass gives birth.”