Page 12 of Moody as a Minotaur

Besides, the thinghadbeen annoying, always flapping around.

“Simon’s right. We all know what happened to the Sasquatch family up by Rock Creek,” someone said from the back of the room. “They had to abandon their home to escape all the cryptid chasers.”

“Same thing happened to a mermaid pod on the coast,” someone else added.

“And the?—”

“Enough,” Van said firmly, holding up his hands to silence everyone. The flames of his hellhound flashed brighter in his eyes, like they always did when he gotriled up. “We’ve all heard the stories. But that doesn’t mean it’ll happen here. We have resources.”

People muttered but didn’t look relieved.

“Do we have pictures of them?” Ogden asked.

In the last few minutes, Simon had shifted to his cat form and was cowering in his mate’s arms. He was shedding black fur all over Ogden’s bright green shirt and pastel yellow pants. Was it a fear response? I didn’t think I shed that much in my minotaur form. Although, I couldn’t remember ever cuddling with anyone when I was shifted. I didn’t cuddle with anyone when I was in my human form either, so there was that.

“I’ll get a picture and text it to anyone who wants it.” Van sighed and rubbed his forehead.

“Good.” The dragon nodded decisively. “I can get rid of them.”

“They’ve done nothing wrong…” Van reminded us. “We don’t know for sure if they are hunters…”

Had anyone else noticed the silentyetdangling at the end of both his sentences?

“So, no one is getting rid of anyone. Do you hear me?” Van cast his fiery gaze around the room until people started nodding. When his eyes landed on me, he beckoned me forward. I didn’t move from my spot by the pool table. “But it wouldn’t hurt to know a bit more about them. Levi? Can you describe them?”

“Well, there are three of them…” I snapped my mouth closed when the three people in question strolled into the pub.

All heads pivoted toward the door.

The hunters walked in like they didn’t have a care inthe world, eyeing the pub with open curiosity. Finley appeared eager. The other two… They moved with what I’d call a predatory grace, not exactly like a wolf shifter, but similar. Their gazes swung around the room, and I was sure they were cataloguing everyone’s faces, the exits, and what was close at hand that could double as a weapon.

A ripple of unease fluttered through the crowd of supes, like everyone was suddenly wishing they could shift like Simon had done. A supe always felt stronger and safer in their shifted form. Unfortunately, in this case, that would be the exact wrong thing to do.

A petite older woman dressed in black followed behind them. She hadn’t been with the trio who’d booked into my motel. I frowned. Where had she come from? She squinted suspiciously at everyone in the pub as her gaze swept the room.

The door opened one more time.

Parker was here.

My heart hiccupped in my chest before it started racing. The same thing happened every time I saw him. He was gorgeous, from his ginger hair to his beautiful blue eyes. He also had an amazing smile, and his body…

Well, let’s just say I’d had dreams about his body. So many dreams.

He was exactly my type except for one big, glaring flaw: He was human. He was unaware supes existed, and I knew from bitter experience it was better that way. Humans didn’t belong with supes. Humans couldn’t be trusted with the truth.

Of course, if I said that to anyone in Willow Lake,they’d point to the few local humans who’d mated with supes as examples of how I was wrong. Exceptions happened. That didn’t make all humans trustworthy.

Although, it didn’t matter about Parker being human, anyway. Not to me. Because I wasn’t looking to get closer to him, or anyone else, for that matter. That led to heartache, and I’d had enough heartache to last a lifetime, thank you very much.

The only thing thatdidmatter was making sure Parker didn’t discover the truth. He was dangerously close to finding out about supes—so dangerously close that I’d approached Jake and Gage about making the Willow Lake Pub members only.

Okay, what I really meant wassupesonly, and everyone knew it. But the assholes had refused. Of course, they’d reasoned that Parker would just become more suspicious if they banned him from the pub.

Why couldn’t they see barring humans was the best way of ensuring Parker or any others wouldn’t see or hear anything he—uh, I meanthey—shouldn’t? Gage had been around for almost two millennia; he should know how terrible things became when humans, any human, found out about supes. Even the ones who looked like perfection and sex all rolled up together could betray a supe in an instant.

But tonight, I wanted to ban Parker from the bar for a totally different reason. It was way too fucking risky for him to be here right now with the hunters. I wanted to scoop him up and carry him far away. Away from the hunters. Away from imminent death.

It was either that or shift and skewer the hunters with my horns. I’d be good with either. Perhaps both.