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  “A bunch of idiots attacked your sister,” Eric said.

  Billy wanted to bust the guy’s head open. It was obvious to him that Thea was more than a little protective of their younger brother. She wouldn’t have wanted to worry him.

  “Are you okay?” Alex shot to Thea’s side.

  “It’s okay now,” Thea said as she gathered him into a hug. Billy noted that she avoided the question, though. As tough as she was trying to play it, she was shaken up. He didn’t blame her.

  “I’ll call for a car,” Eric said.

  “I’ll stay with them,” Billy offered. He wasn’t about to let Thea out of his sight. He was having a hard enough time keeping his bear under control. “I know you’ve got your…event tonight.” He knew that he was going to have to address the shifter fight tournaments with the men at some point. Lukas wasn’t in favor of continuing to condone those kinds of events. It was going to cause even further friction between him and the three owners of the club.

  “I couldn’t impose,” Thea answered instead of Eric.

  “It’s not any bother,” Billy said. He could tell that Eric wasn’t a fan of the idea, but it was almost 9pm. The first fight was going to start any time.

  “We’ll see you back here at 10pm tomorrow night. Don’t be late,” Eric growled. Then he stormed out the door.

  Billy glared at the man before realizing that both Thea and Alex were watching him. He softened his expression. “That went better than I expected,” he said, trying to smooth the moment. Regardless of what he thought of Eric, he was their sibling.

  “I’m sorry if this sounds abrupt, but I’d like to go home now,” Thea said. Her voice carried with it a strain that Billy immediately picked up on. “You don’t have to worry about staying with us. We’re fine.”

  “It’s my job,” he said, repeating what he had said to her earlier. He held out his hand to the teenager. “We haven’t met yet. I’m Billy.”

  The boy looked at his hand with suspicion. “You and my brother don’t seem to like each other much.”

  He had read the room and picked up on the nuances within just the span of a few minutes. Billy liked him already. “I just met your brother, so I don’t know him that well. What I do know now is that he and his friends said they might be able to help me with a problem I have, and for that I will be grateful to them.”

  The boy took his hand then. “Alexander. Alexander Carmichael.”

  The name carried with it the ring of old money and connections, which, of course, was an apt description of the Carmichael family. It had a long lineage and had produced more than its fair share of politicians and financiers who dabbled in oil, gas, and other commodities. They had more money than they probably knew what to do with. Billy had been raised in a middle-class family consisting almost entirely of men who served their city or country in various forms. He had no idea how to comprehend the kind of lifestyle that young Alexander had grown up with and was accustomed to.

  “Nice to meet you, Alexander.” Since the kid had insisted on the formality of his full name, Billy would respect that until he was given permission to address him differently. With shifters of that age, they could be wildly volatile. Billy was going to have to keep an eye on him, especially if he spent time with Thea. Then he mentally shook himself. It wasn’t his job to watch over anyone in Copper City. He had to remind himself of that. “Let’s get your sister home, okay? She’s had a rough night.”

  Alex turned to his sister, who gave Billy a dirty look. He could read her mind from where he stood. She didn’t want anyone fussing over her, even though she needed it.

  “Here, let me give you a hand, Thea,” Billy said. “Can you get the door for us, Alexander?”

  He could see that Alex was torn between stepping between him and Thea or obeying his request. Luckily for both of them, he decided on the latter course of action. That was good. Billy wasn’t sure that he’d be able to stop the bear from knocking the boy off his feet if he dared try to block him from his woman.

  His woman? Where the fuck did that come from? Billy still couldn’t believe it. He had always scoffed at the idea that when he met his true mate, he would know almost instantly. Lukas told him that he had known that Maren was his mate for years. But he didn’t recognize the signs consciously until after his first phase. Even then, Lukas had blatantly tried to ignore it. If he felt the way that Billy did now, Billy had no idea how he had been able to do it.

  As it was, Billy wanted to sweep Thea up in his arms and hold her close to him. He wanted to make sure that every part of her smelled like him so that other shifters would know that she was spoken for. They would know that there would be hell to pay for touching a hair on her head.

  He took several deep breaths as he crossed the room. She put up an arm as if to stop him, but then he saw the slight wobble as her knees threatened to buckle underneath her. He scooped up her elbow and put his arm around her.

  “You need to stop trying to push me away,” he said. He quickly added, “You need a hand. It’s okay. I have two.”

  “Aren’t you just the comedian?” she replied. The rhetorical question held no mirth in it.

  “I’m a friend,” he said. Although I want to be something more if you’ll let me. Those words were only in his head. Thankfully he managed to keep them from emerging out loud. That was guaranteed to scare the shit out of her and ensure he’d never see her again. “You seem like you could use one of those tonight.”

  She looked up at him with those dazzling green eyes, and he thought he saw something there before it disappeared. “Thanks.”

  He knew that his face broke out into a goofy grin then when she didn’t fight him anymore. “C’mon.” He gently guided her toward the door where Alex waited for them. The darkened look of confusion on the boy’s face was another flag that no matter what he thought, he was coming off too strong given the situation. Billy wanted to groan. Of course, as soon as he would find a woman he desired, he’d have to deal with not one over-possessive brother but two. It was just his luck.

  “Thanks, kid,” Billy said as they passed him into the stairwell. He backed off a few inches to give Thea room to maneuver down the narrow staircase. He would have preferred to carry her again, but he knew that would be too forward. He was going to have to take things slowly with her. For one thing, she was human and probably didn’t believe in anything like the immediate, irresistible sense you felt when you meet the one who is supposed to be your mate. For another, she lived over a thousand miles away from the place he called home. Last, but not least, she was the sister, albeit through marriage, of one of the biggest political pains in the ass to his clan. The situation was nothing but complicated.

  As he and Thea made their way out onto the street, Billy saw that the street was still clustered with dozens of cars. Even if they managed to flag a taxi down, they’d be stuck in traffic forever. “Is there a better place to find a ride?”

  “Over on twelfth,” Alex said.

  “How do you know that?” Thea asked. Alex was already making a beat in the opposite direction and given his pace, they were going to have a hard time keeping up with him.

  “I can see him,” Billy said. “You don’t need to rush.”

  “I can’t believe him!” Thea said in a harsh voice.

  “He’s just a kid,” Billy started, but she interrupted him.

  “Not Alex. Eric. He was a complete asshole to you.”

  Billy was surprised. It gave him hope that perhaps Thea had more than a passing interest in him as well. Plus, he knew that her anger at her stepbrother was serving to keep her mind off of other, far darker, things. Those things Billy didn’t think Thea was ready to deal with yet.

  “I got the feeling that’s the way your brother operates the majority of the time.” Billy doubted that he and Eric would ever see eye to eye. It would become far worse if Eric realized that he had feelings for Thea.

  “Stepbrother,” she corrected. “That’s not how you treat someone who jus
t did your family a solid.”

  Billy hid his smile in a hard grunt. She sounded cute trying on the slang that she had likely picked up from Alex.

  “Shifters can be pretty territorial.” That was really the understatement of the year. “What I represent as a member of Lukas’s clan is a threat to them and what they’ve built here. I don’t mean them any harm, and I’m certainly not trying to stir up any trouble.” Billy didn’t go into the fact that at some point, those intentions might have to change. Lukas wasn’t going to let them go on ignoring him forever. As soon as he was settled in with his family, Billy had a feeling the Greyelf alpha was going to attack his vision with a vengeance, and God help anyone who got in his way.

  “When is that going to stop being an excuse?” Thea said.

  Billy stopped short and inadvertently caused her to pitch forward when her body continued its forward momentum. Billy caught her easily before she fell. The Lopers, the clan of lion shifters, would probably say that he had the reflexes of a cat. It was something Billy prided himself on. “When is what going to stop being an excuse?”

  “I’ve seen your alpha on TV and read his interviews in the paper. He keeps talking about a total integration. How’s that going to work if every time we humans turn around, you keep reminding us of how different you are from us? That hardly seems in the spirit of what he’s trying to do.”

  It was an astute question, and not one that Billy wanted to debate. Billy saw the top of Alex’s head stop. He turned back toward them, and Billy saw his arm waving in the air.

  “Looks like our ride’s here,” Billy said, neatly sidestepping her question. As they arrived at the busy street curb, Billy saw that Alex had indeed managed to flag down a taxi. He crawled in, and Billy thought for a moment of climbing into the back seat with them, but it would be too tight. He gently helped Thea get inside, and then made his way around to the passenger’s door next to the driver.

  As he got inside, he heard the murmur of conversation in the back seat. He turned to look and found Thea with her eyes closed, resting her head against the headrest. Alex stared out the window with an unreadable expression. The driver looked at Billy expectantly.

  “So, I don’t know where we’re going,” Billy reminded the two in the backseat.

  Thea opened her eyes with a guilty expression, but Alex was already rattling off their address. Billy turned back to the front. As he looked out the windshield at the bright, harsh neon lights that seemed to be everywhere, he realized that for the time being his bear was quiet. That made dealing with the sensory overload of the city somewhat easier to handle, and he gratefully absorbed the silence while it lasted.

  Ten minutes later, the taxi pulled up to the curb of a building in what was obviously a very nice part of the city. A doorman hurried up and opened the back door. Alex slid out.

  “Hang on a sec,” Billy told the driver. He opened the door and got out realizing that he felt anxious. He knew why. This was the point in the evening where Thea and Alex went up to their apartment, and Billy went back to his hotel. That was what was supposed to happen, but he didn’t want it to.

  He stood there with his hands shoved in his pockets as he watched Alex help his sister up the sidewalk. Alex waved off the doorman. As they reached the door, Billy wondered if she was going to leave him without even saying goodbye.

  Then she looked back over her shoulder at him. He could see by her face that the wheels were spinning in her mind. Then she sighed and shook her head. “You promised Eric you were going to make sure that we arrived safely home, so I assume that means you’re going to want to see that we are inside the door. Are you coming in or what?”

  Billy grinned at her in response and quickly paid the taxi fare. He didn’t want to give her a chance to change her mind.

  CHAPTER SIX

  It had to be the attack that had thrown her so far off balance. She didn’t invite strange, yet thoroughly attractive men into her apartment, especially with Alex there. But Thea didn’t want to be alone just yet, and she could tell by Billy’s stance next to the taxi that he was hunkering for an invitation. It was so strange and surreal, but she was too tired and stressed to question it.

  “This is new,” Alex muttered under his breath. Thea knew that he thought she couldn’t hear him, but she didn’t have to be a shifter to hear the mock whisper of sarcasm.

  Billy stepped into the lobby with them, and Thea pushed Alex away a couple of inches so that she could walk by herself to the elevator. Both Billy and Alex hovered close by as if they expected her to topple at any moment. She was feeling the effects of the whiskey, and it was just the shot of energy she needed.

  As the elevator hummed its way to the top floor, Thea saw Alex giving Billy looks out of the corner of his eye. Billy didn’t move. He seemed to be studying the designs of the wallpaper on the elevator walls. Somehow, she suspected he knew that Alex was watching him. She couldn’t have said why she thought so, but there was something about Billy’s nonchalant stance that told her it was anything but. It was as if there was something coiled up inside of him just waiting for the chance to strike.

  Thea shivered at the thought. Immediately, Billy reacted to her movement by putting his hand on her shoulder. “Are you cold?” The sheriff definitely saw and observed everything around him.

  “I’ll be fine,” she said. Thea felt as if she was saying the same three words over and over again. As the elevator doors opened, she moved into the foyer and threw her purse onto the side table. Alex was already moving around her and into the kitchen, no doubt intent on an evening snack. The kid was going to eat them out of house and home.

  Thea turned and realized that Billy hadn’t moved from the elevator. She turned to see what he was staring at. It was the view of the city lit up at night, a sight that she had come to take for granted.

  “Best view in the city,” she said softly.

  “I guess,” Billy said with a low whistle. He finally stepped off the elevator and into the foyer. “I keep forgetting that people live like this.”

  “Robert did very well for himself,” she said. “Eric did even better.” She left it at that. Thea didn’t like the fact that her every whim was paid for by someone else. The sooner she got the experience she needed by working for Eric, the sooner she could start making a name for herself in her own right.

  “Clearly being a small-town sheriff doesn’t come with the same perks,” Billy said. He moved further into the room. It took Thea a moment to realize what he was doing.

  “Are you…sniffing?” It was an idea that seemed utterly foreign to her.

  “I can smell better in my other form, but I can make do. The only thing I can smell is Alex and you.” He smiled at her with a slightly amused expression. “You smell like coconut and daffodils.”

  Thea let out a laugh. “Glad I’m getting what I paid for then. That lotion costs more than some people’s mortgage.” The smile disappeared from his face so quickly that she thought she might have imagined it. Then she pulled on the bridge of her nose. “God, that was a horribly pretentious thing to say, wasn’t it? I’m sorry. I’m just…”

  He was beside her a moment later, and he tugged at her elbow to pull her further into the room. He settled her on the couch. Looking out at the skyline usually calmed Thea, but tonight she felt anxious for some reason. It had something to do with the man hovering over her, but it was more a result of the evening’s events finally coming to settle like a black spot on her mind.

  “You don’t have to apologize for your family’s success,” Billy said. “Sit here, and let me get you some tea.”

  “I don’t even know if we have any left.”

  “If not, I’ll find something,” he said. “Just sit back and relax.”

  She caught his hand as it brushed the surface of the leather armrest next to her. She wasn’t even sure why she had done that; it had been automatic. She stared up at him mutely, a wave of emotions rolling through her body. He leaned over and touched her hair softly
. “You don’t have anything to worry about. You’re safe.”

  It was as if he could read her mind. Thea felt as if he had wanted to say something else, but then he moved away from her. She immediately missed him. How could it be that she had just met the man, but she felt as if they were intertwined in some crazy way that she didn’t fully comprehend or understand?

  Thea found that she couldn’t sit still. If she sat for too long, she heard the voices of Kurt and Ollie in her head. She didn’t want that. She wasn’t ready to deal with that yet. Thea heard the voices in the kitchen and despite Billy’s recommendation to relax, her feet propelled her toward them.

  “No way. The 49ers all the way,” Alex was saying as Thea arrived in the doorway. She pulled off to the side so that they couldn’t see her.

  “Are you kidding me? The 49ers have sucked for years,” Billy replied.

  “This is their year,” Alex said confidently. His mouth was full, and Thea made a note to talk to him about his table manners later. “Did you see that first round draft pick? Man, he’s going to be awesome.”

  “Minnesota has all the right moves this year,” Billy replied. “Just you wait and see.”

  She thought that Alex’s sandwich might be bigger than his head. Billy moved expertly around the kitchen following Alex’s directions as her brother told him where to find certain things. The kitchen itself was probably larger than most restaurant kitchens in Copper City. It was more than a little ridiculous with the massive kitchen island topped with the finest granite from some far flung region of the world. The commercial grade appliances shone with shiny metal surfaces that were scrubbed immaculate twice weekly by the cleaning staff. No matter how many times she tried to tell Eric that they could clean up after themselves, he insisted on hiring outside help.

  Thea had reluctantly accepted it only because he got her with the logic that she needed to spend as much time as possible focusing on her job if she wanted to start her own business someday. Whatever time and energy she had left should go to Alex, not toward cleaning up the penthouse. Thea had to grudgingly agree with him on that point.