Dire Wolf Mates - Chapter 20: Chapter 20

Serious Moonlight
was at full capacity by ten o-clock and Lucy’s feet were killing her. Perhaps Derrick was right, and she should have stayed home. Not that she would tell her overprotective mate that. No need to inflate that big head of his. Besides, she could finish out the night.
A full moon hung low in the sky outside, and the place was overloaded with Shifters who were feeling the power that came with the change in the lunar phase. Without Thor there to wrangle the customers, who were a bit enthusiastic, the job had been mostly left up to Derrick.
She watched him when she could and there was no doubt about it, her Alpha was one tough mutt. Still, something was off. She’d been on edge all night. Her thoughts kept drifting to Derrick and his amazing new ink. She took a pic of it with her phone and held it up to him so he could read the glyphs to her.
“It says, ‘For each Wolf there is a perfect mate, the road was long and lonely, but the destination complete. Lucy is for Derrick, and he is for her, their hearts forever entwined, a home for each other, united until all the stars burn up in the sky’, Then this here is the symbol of my house. Rand literally means ‘wolf shield’, see that there? There’s a feline paw print inside of it now. It means I’m your shield, kitten. I’ll protect you and our cubs from the whole damn world.”
His words had turned into moans as their mouths crashed together in a long, drawn out kiss Phoenix had interrupted with a fake sneeze. Idiot, she smirked and shook her head. The entire Pack was a lot more easy-going than she would have expected of a bunch of tough bikers, who happened to also be giant, prehistoric Wolves.
“Can I get a drink here?”
Lucy turned and faced the same angry customer who’d been tossed out her first night on the job. She stared the man down, but there wasn’t much she could do by herself.
“I said, I want a beer. I’m a paying customer,” the sour-faced man grumbled.
She couldn’t ignore him any longer, but she was uneasy. He should have known better than to come back. There was not much she could do now. Everyone was busy and she could not catch Derrick’s eye.
“Okay. One beer, then you need to leave,” she told him as she slid a domestic bottle across the bar and took his five-dollar bill.
“I’ll leave when I’m ready,” he mumbled under his breath, but Lucy still heard him.
She needed to find Derrick, but a group of young human women snagged her attention next, and she spent the next fifteen minutes mixing a bunch of Cosmos. Her thoughts drifted back to the tattoo ritual and Thor. Derrick had explained a little about his gifts. That Shifter certainly had a mystical way about him, despite being enormous, tattooed, and pierced. Or maybe even because of it.
Lucy happened to like the Pack’s propensity for ink. She’d have to ask Derrick about acquiring some of her own. That was the thing about Shifters. They tended to heal quickly, and tattoos faded away a lot quicker than they did on humans, but he’d also explained about the special ink they had.
The sound of glass breaking brought her head up, and she watched Weylin vault over the front bar, broom, and dustpan in hand. He efficiently cleared the mess while Derrick made his way from the front door, a concerned expression on his face. Weylin gestured to the slinky blonde woman who’d made the mess and made quick work of the clean-up. Derrick walked the woman around the spill to the bar and got her another drink.
The woman was already tipsy and did not seem to understand what no meant. She kept running her hands up his shoulders while he efficiently removed them and frowned when she reached for him again. The woman giggled and tried tugging him back to her side when he replaced her drink, and Lucy growled. Her mate’s golden stare found hers, and she closed her eyes for a second. Her feline was turning into a seriously possessive bitch.
She sighed and opened them to find him staring, the female customer happily attached herself to another male, and all was right in the world. He cocked his head to the side, and after a minute, Lucy was surrounded by her mate’s wonderful embrace.
“Kitten, you need to stop flashing those gorgeous eyes of yours at me if you want to keep working,” he growled, and dropped a warm, quick kiss on her mouth before turning to fill an order.
“Yes, Alpha,” she said and nudged him with her hip.
“Need help back here?” he asked softly, and she felt their bond pulse and beat in time with her heart.
Damn, she’d missed him. Craved his touch, His scent. It was silly. They’d only been right here. Separated by a few measly feet, working for just a few hours. Derrick Rand had officially turned her into some clingy, mated female. Eeek! But she would not have it any other way, she thought as he touched her hip to reach past her for a bottle of booze.
“Are you finished with the door?”
“Brock’s on it.”
“Then, yes, please. Stay and help me,” she replied, loving the smile that lit up his handsome face as he nodded.
Derrick hadn’t wanted her to come in tonight, but that was him being protective. Besides, she was glad she did. She enjoyed working beside him. The band tonight was all female, a group of Fox Shifters from Philadelphia calling themselves the Stealth Vixens. They were good. Loud, but good.
She liked their country rock rhythm. Brock had closed the kitchen early, and had taken over as Bouncer for Derrick, so the Alpha could join her at the back bar. He’d spent the last few days working alongside her, and she loved it. Lucy decided then that she was going to work as long as she could fit behind the bar. If Derrick wanted to work beside her, she’d welcome it, but that was up to him.
She had a car to pay for. Not that she needed it for anything since she wasn’t leaving her mate obviously, but still. It was hers. She and Buddy—that was what she called her car—had been through a lot together. She tried to be angry at Derrick when he unceremoniously bent down and retrieved a case of beer faster than she could, restocking the rear coolers, but she just couldn’t.
Really, she wanted to yell at him, to stand up for feminism, but he was just so darn sexy. And that Alpha male attitude of his kind of turned her on. Okay. It seriously turned her on. How had she gone from being nothing but a vagabond, to being claimed and mated to the sexiest damn man, and one of the most powerful Shifters she’d ever met, all in a week’s time?
Maybe Fate had finally thrown her a bone, or Karma had finally caught up with her. After being on the road alone for most of her adult life and, if she were interested in looking back, most of her youth, Lucy had finally found a home.
In him.
“You alright?” Derrick asked.
“I love you,” she said, feeling the words to her marrow.
“Love you too, mate,” he said back, no hesitations.
His warm hands cupped her face and neck, and he dragged his lips across hers in a kiss that screamed of possession. Her stomach tightened and pulse raced. She felt her heart explode with emotion. Lucy could have spent all night kissing him.
She was still lost in his touch when the first scream broke out.
Derrick’s Wolf snarled and snapped to attention just as all hell broke loose., He shoved his mate gently behind him as not one, but five men, wearing masks, came busting through the doors waving actual fucking torches and screaming profanities.
“What the fuck is going on?” Sheila asked, running over to them from the back room where she’d been getting some bottles to restock the front bar.
“Lucy, stay down! Sheila, protect her!” he ordered.
“I’m fine, Derrick. Go,” his mate said, anger and worry making her scent sharp.
“I can’t see anything,” Lucy said to Sheila, who was already grabbing her hand and pulling her to safety.
“Sheila’s got you, Lucy.”
“I’m fine, Derrick. Go, get everyone out⁠—”
Smoke billowed, stinging his eyes, and making it difficult to see. Forget about hearing anything. The crowd had begun to stampede at the first sign of trouble. He pushed back against the throng, trying his best to reach the first masked male who was holding what he realized wasn’t an old-fashioned torch, but rather was some kind of a homemade holder for a smoke bomb.
“Motherfucker,” he roared.
Derrick punched the guy in the face, knocking him out cold, and grabbed the device, ripping it from the hands of the stupid human fuck who thought this would be a good idea.
Another approached, but the fucker went down fast. Weylin ran to him, covering his mouth to stop from choking. He grabbed the torch and took off for the side door with it fast as his Shifter legs would take him. Derrick had another offender by the throat as Brock handled one by the front door. He didn’t see the other man until the bastard was on him with a blade of some sort.
“You filthy animals. I know what you are. Get out of our town!” He screamed and slashed at Derrick’s forearm.
The fucker cut him, and Derrick’s rage boiled as he scented his blood on the air.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” he growled, dropping the man he’d been holding hard on the ground.
That dick would just have to wait. Derrick turned and faced the man with the huge hunting knife. The human swallowed, the stink of fear and liquor coming off him in waves. This was the same asshole from their opening night. The one whose name he’d given to the Council. Derrick frowned, they should have caught up with him by now.
“Come on, then. You’re nothing but an animal. You belong on my wall,” he sneered, and Derrick’s Wolf pushed forward.
“Oh, I wouldn’t do that,” the stranger gestured behind him, and Derrick saw another guy with a video camera pointed at him.
“I’ll expose all of you for what you are,” the asshole sneered. “And I’ll hurt your bitch too.”
Derrick turned to see his worst nightmares come true. One of the assholes resurfaced holding some kind of homemade pipe bomb in his hand, and he had Lucy. Sheila was crumpled on the floor, bleeding from her head and Lucy’s hands were covering her stomach. Her wide purple eyes met his, and he realized she wasn’t afraid. She was waiting. For him.
“That was your last mistake,” Derrick growled.
He watched the stupid fucker laugh right before Derrick jumped on him. In an instant, Derrick’s Wolf lent him fangs and claws without needing to swap skins. He heard scuffling behind him, recognizing Sheila’s snarl as she whooped the would be Spielberg’s ass.
Fuck these assholes, he growled and squeezed the man’s throat snapping his neck like a twig. Lucy was holding the wrested pipe bomb in her hand and Derrick ran to her, taking it gingerly before running to the door and tossing it hard as he could away from everyone. The explosion was loud and sharp, but small. Still, the entire bar went quiet.
Everyone had started clearing out the moment chaos erupted, and only a handful of people, Shifters, had remained to round up the bad guys. Eight in all, two dead in the struggle, the other six subdued and waiting for authorities.
The video camera had been wiped and destroyed, no evidence of the Shifter secret would remain for police to discover. Derrick sat on a stool with his arms wrapped around his mate while the investigators finished working the scene. He could have lost her tonight, but his mate had remained levelheaded and calm. She’d trusted him to protect her, and he did his best, but his fierce little she-Cat had really saved herself.
She’s safe. Safe. Mine. Protect.