Dark Lies (Magic Side: Wolf Bound Book 3)
Dark Lies: Chapter 15

Jaxson

Fuck everything.

I held Savannah close and ran my hands through her hair, letting my alpha presence pour into her to calm her trembling.

I sent my power blasting through the parking lot to subdue all the others. The Order agent with her badge raised. Her partner, a sandy-haired man who had his sidearm drawn but wisely held low. The stammering bartender, who’d been cowering behind the bar. And finally, the bloody bastard lying on the ground. He was a drug-crazed shifter twice Savannah’s weight, and she’d absolutely annihilated him.

That, and she’d been one second from ripping out his soul.

Not good.

I didn’t pity the prick. He was scum who sold drugs and treated women like disposable objects. But there would be fallout from this, either with the Arrowheads or the Order.

“Everyone stay the fuck where you are.” The Order agent—Harlow—knelt by the body. “What the hell happened?”

“He attacked me…I fought back…I didn’t know what I was doing,” Savannah mumbled, her voice distant and thin with shock.

My muscles tightened with rage as she lifted her head and I got a good look at her. Her face was bruised and battered. My claws ripped out of my hands. “What did he do to you?”

Savannah’s hands dug into my jacket, and she whispered, “Please, no more violence.”

Harlow backed up quickly and held out a warning hand. “This is not the time or place to shift, Laurent.”

An asshole had battered my mate, and he was sitting five feet away. It sure the hell was the time to shift and rip his throat out. But we needed him alive. I tried to calm my breathing and glared at Harlow. “His buddies jumped us inside as well.”

“Is this true?” Harlow asked the bartender, who was human.

“One of the guys at the bar stood up, and then—” The bartender pointed at me with a trembling hand, then froze. “Shit, why are his eyes yellow? Like those freaks inside?”

The hair on my neck rose in frustration, and I gestured to the doorway. “You’re in shock. Go back inside and start cleaning up.”

I let my alpha presence slam into him like a baseball bat. He gulped and scuttled back into the bar.

Harlow cursed and knelt to check the unconscious biker over. “Well, this doesn’t surprise me in the least. I’ve got a file on Big Red here. He’s got a history of starting fights and beating women. He may rethink that after today.”

“He’d better,” Savannah hissed.

Harlow looked up at Savy. “Let me be clear. Whatever he’s done in the past, you’re not within your rights to stab the man, so it’s better for all of us that your knife is over there on the ground and not sticking out of his chest.”

Savannah nodded, and with the flick of her wrist, she discreetly returned the blade to the ether.

Harlow turned to her partner as she rose. “Okay, Max, go cuff the other Arrowheads before they wake up. Then call this in. We’ll need a cleanup crew and some mind mages on the scene, ASAP. I’ll take care of the mess out here.”

Harlow’s henchman headed inside, and I grabbed Savannah to follow.

The cop crossed her arms. “Nuh-uh, Laurent, I’m not through with you two.”

“We need to check on our friend, the blonde woman in the biker jacket,” I growled.

“She’s fine, just out cold from the potion bomb. First, you two need to answer some questions, like what the hell were you thinking”—she checked around the corner to make sure that the bartender wasn’t eavesdropping at the door—“starting a brawl in a human bar? Are you insane?”

We were forbidden to use our powers in the presence of non-Magica. The punishment could be dire.

Crossing my arms, I turned back to Harlow. “These assholes tried to abduct Savannah a few days ago. We came here to figure out why. We weren’t looking to cause a fight, just ask questions. We thought we might be able to talk to one alone. But four showed up, and they thought they could grab her.”

Harlow cursed as she rubbed her forehead with her fingers. “What a mess.”

“What are you doing here, anyway?” I snarled in irritation. “You got here suspiciously quickly.”

Harlow pulled out her phone and began texting someone. “We’ve had eyes on you two since Savannah was attacked, and we got an alert that you were headed out of town, dressed as bikers, so we followed. Seemed like a good bet that you were going to get yourselves in trouble.”

What the fuck?

I balled my fists. “So what, you were just sitting outside in your car, waiting to see what would happen?”

She shrugged. “Until someone threw a half-shifted werewolf through the front door. Speaking of which, we need to get the other shifters from inside. Help me restrain this asshole.”

We grabbed the huge shifter and set him up against a telephone pole. Harlow pulled his hands around his back and slapped a pair of magicuffs over his wrists, binding him in place. “That should hold him. Come on, let’s see the damage you did.”

We followed Harlow back into the bar. Chairs and tables were overturned. The front door was smashed in, and the countertop was decorated with blood and loose teeth. The pool table was snapped in half, with an unconscious man in the center.

The place looked like ground zero for a hurricane or an MMA match.

The patrons were all passed out, slumped over chairs and tables, and lying on the floor. Potions affected humans a lot harder than they did Magica.

Harlow’s partner bent over Sam. “Is this one yours?”

“Yes.” My heartbeat accelerated, though Sam only had a few scratches. I couldn’t afford to lose her for my sake, or Savy’s.

The agent—Max—lifted her up and gave her a sip of a potion he’d pulled from his coat.

Sam sputtered to consciousness and gagged. “Holy shit. What happened?”

Savy dropped to the ground beside her. “Are you okay?”

“A little woozy. Not sure my legs are going to cooperate for a bit.” Sam turned to Harlow’s partner. “Who the hell are you? What did you give me?”

He stood. “Max. I’m with the Order. I gave you a revival potion. The sleep bomb should wear off shortly.”

Sam gave him an appraising, almost lusty look. “Thanks. Then again, you’re the asshole who KO’ed me with a potion bomb in the first place.”

She staggered to her feet with our help and gave me a wicked grin as she looked around the joint. “We’re in trouble, aren’t we, boss?”

Harlow put her hands on her hips as she surveyed the wreckage. “I should chuck the lot of you in Bentham for having a rumble outside of Magic Side.”

“That’s not going to happen,” I growled.

“Oh, I’m not naïve. I know I’ve got no chance of that, not with your friends and connections,” she snapped, eyes burning with resentment.

She was right.

“We want the same thing,” I said as I crossed my arms and pushed my alpha presence at Harlow. “You want to stop these bastards from selling Scarlet. We want to stop them from going after Savannah. Give me a couple of minutes alone with the prick out back, and I’ll tell you what I learn. I can make him talk.”

She opened her mouth to object, but I pressed with my power until she nodded. “You can ask your questions, but I’m going to be there.”

“Fine.” I didn’t care what she did as long as she didn’t get in my way.

Max nodded to the bartender cowering in the corner. “Heads up—this guy called the cops before I could stop him.”

“Damn it! Not what we need.” Harlow cursed and pointed to her partner. “Max, you and Laurent drag the other Arrowheads out back.”

I hefted one of the unconscious assholes off the floor. It was the guy whose teeth I’d knocked out on the counter. A better man would have cringed at his broken face, but I wasn’t a good man. Just the monster my father and sister had trained me to be.

And shutting him up mid-slur? That made me happy.

Savy helped Sam hobble to the bar where she could sit.

I paused. Savannah made me better, or she at least made me want to be better.

As if she could feel the heat of my eyes on her back, she turned and met my gaze. Fortunately, the bastard hanging over my shoulder was facing away from her. She’d seen enough gruesome work today already.

Her eyes drifted to the zip ties that bound his ankles and wrists behind his back. Practically the same thing they’d done to her.

“Seems like a fitting end,” I said.

Savy just nodded, and I hauled the guy to the back lot and dumped him against the wall.

“You motherfucker!” the biker cuffed to the telephone pole snarled. Apparently, he’d woken up from his nap. He strained, and the thick wood pole cracked a little. “Let me go!”

I slammed him with my alpha presence. “Sit still and be quiet, and don’t speak until you’re spoken to.”

He slumped against the pole and set his jaw.

As I stepped back into the bar, Harlow was speaking to Savannah in hushed tones. “Are you sure you’re safe? With him? You don’t have to be a part of this.”

“I am a part of this. Part of the pack,” Savannah said with defiance.

“Part of the pack? Like, Jaxson’s pack?” Harlow asked. “I thought you were a LaSalle.”

“I’m a werewolf, now, too,” she said.

My muscles tightened at the despair in her voice, and a deep wave of failure cut through me.

So far, all that being a werewolf had brought her was trouble. She didn’t understand what it was to be part of a pack. She only knew the bad side, and that had to change.

I had to change it.