Page 56 of Moody as a Minotaur

“Yeah, great…” I said.

Then I went over to the bar and asked Jake for anantacid. When he dumped one on my palm, I wiggled my fingers for more. I ended up downing the whole bottle.

19

ROOMMATES FOR A NIGHT

LEVI

By the time the hunters finally returned to their motel room, with Nelson literally shadowing their steps, I was exhausted, but I couldn’t return home yet. Unfortunately.

Instead, some of the top supes in town, which somehow seemed to include me, were having an impromptu meeting in the inn attached to the pub. It was a safe location, since we were certain none of the hunters had been inside it to plant more listening devices.

Or I guess it wasn’t an inn any longer. It’d taken me a long time to quit referring to this place as the pack house and it’d probably take just as long to stop calling it an inn. But back in the summer, Jake and Gage had announced they wanted to convert the place into a sanctuary, and we were putting that idea to the test tonight.

Still, I wished we were down the corridor in the pub right now. I could really use a strong drink. Somethingenhanced with magic for a bit more kick would be perfect, because I doubted any human-strength drink would ease my tension tonight.

“I’m not some shrinking violet,” Edith grumbled as she marched up the stairs to her temporary room. “I don’t know why I have to move in here for the night.”

“No one is staying alone tonight. Everyone’s doubling up. Just in case,” Parker said, reminding her again what our alpha had decided half an hour earlier. I’m sure they’d had the same argument all the way to his apartment and back.

He was climbing the steps behind her, hauling all her bags. I’d offered to help him, but he’d refused. So now I was watching him while wishing that the bags didn’t cover so much of his ass.

I sounded like a creep. Even to myself. But he filled out his jeans so beautifully, it was a wonder more people weren’t staring.

Davina jogged up the steps behind them. “Come on, old lady,” she said in a teasing lilt when she reached Edith. “You’re with me tonight.”

Edith stopped abruptly and spun toward the other woman. “What?”

“You didn’t think I’d let this opportunity slip by, did you?”

Good grief. Was Edith, the woman who her grandkids called the Nana-nator, actually blushing? Would wonders never cease?

“Well, why didn’t you say so earlier?” Edith’s face crinkled into a lascivious grin as she slipped her handinto Davina’s and lifted it to her lips. “That’s different, isn’t it?”

“Good God,” Parker muttered. “Can you hold off flirting until we aren’t all teetering on the stairs?”

They ignored him, but after a long—and, for all us witnesses, uncomfortable—moment, the two women continued up to the second floor. Parker grunted and followed the unlikely lovebirds.

When they disappeared up the stairs, leaving only us Willow Lakers in the foyer, I scuffed the floor with my heel. It was something I did a lot in my shifted form, but it didn’t usually carry over into my human one. Tonight was different, though. The tension in the room was making me wish I was shifted.

The supes who’d been involved with all the goings on this past summer were here. Van, Gage, Jake, and several members of Gage’s old team, including Teague, Nelson, and Isaac. Jeremy and Adrian had been left in charge of the pub, and if I knew Jeremy at all, I bet he was pouting about being left out.

Carter was here too, and although he was the fire chief, he didn’t usually get involved in all the troubles our town faced any more than I did. I figured Carter was the only one who was here to specifically support Parker and me. The others were here because of the situation.

“You sure you’re okay with this?” I asked the demon. “I know you guys talked about making this a sanctuary for supes, but you’re still in the middle of renovating.”

Gage nodded, and his horns dipped toward me. I clenched my fists to keep control of my emotions. The stress from the night was still a living thing inside me andseeing him lower his horns in my direction had my minotaur instincts wanting to take over and ram him.

“If things go the way we think they will,” Gage said, glancing at his mate, “we’ll need to use more rooms soon.”

I swallowed hard. The hair on the back of my neck quivered.

“You’ve had a vision?” Van asked Jake.

Jake grimaced but nodded. He grabbed Gage’s hand.

“So, something’s coming…” Van heaved out a sigh.