The bartender walked over to a table on the far side and grabbed a man whose head rested on his arm. The bartender said something softly to the drunk, and then ended up dragging him out with help from another werewolf. Shawna waited while they cleared out the last of the humans.
A man sitting at a table about ten feet from her inhaled. “You’re human.”
She inclined her head. “I sure am.”
“But you know about us.” It wasn’t a question. It was a statement. “You don’t want to mess with Merl there, honey. Did he promise to mate you and then take off? Merl is just like that. He’s always going after a piece of tail.”
A man behind her but far enough away to not worry about laughed. “I don’t smell pregnancy on her. Too bad. I’d love to see Merl taken down by a little redheaded mate.”
“Forget that,” another one laughed. “Don’t mate her. Leave her for the rest of us. She smells damn good. I’ll fight for a chance with her.”
The bartender hesitantly took a few steps toward Shawna. “Listen, little girl. You need to leave. This isn’t Disneyland, and we’re not some tour for you to be walking through. Merl is trouble. I’ll cover your back while you head out the way you came in.”
She gave him a dark smile. “Thanks, but I don’t need your help leaving here.”
Shawna caught movement out of the corner of her reflective glasses. A man was inching up behind her, probably a friend of Merl’s, or just some stupid werewolf with a desire to grab her.
She moved quickly and dropped her trench coat, going for her weapons. She reached for her .45 Winchester Magnum in the shoulder harness under her breast with her left hand as she slipped her right down to grab the other semi-automatic from a belt around her waist. She cleared the holsters and turned slightly, aiming one gun at Merl, and the other at the man behind her.
“I wouldn’t do that,” she warned loudly.
She heard a few sharp intakes of breaths around the room. The bartender backed up slowly. He softly cursed. “What in the hell?”
“Rambitch.” Someone whistled. “Four guns. I’m impressed.”
She smiled tightly. “Actually, six. I also have five throwing knives strapped…somewhere.”
Another werewolf in the corner table took a deep breath. “What the fuck did you do now, Merl? The woman is loaded for bear.”
“Never bear,” Shawna said. “I’m loaded for wolf.” She cocked her head at Merl. “You’re going to look nice stuffed on my mantel, Merl. Want to be a good boy and change for me so you’ll look even prettier in fur up there?”
A man at a corner table slowly stood up.
Shawna cut her gaze to him, really paying attention to his face—and felt a jolt when she recognized this particular werewolf. He’d been a teenage pup the last time she’d seen him, a nice one, but he was more than full grown now…and she hated that she couldn’t trust him.
“Don’t do it.” Shawn adjusted the gun from Merl to a spot between them, knowing her old friend wouldn’t recognize her any more than Merl did. “Sit your cute ass down, Wolfy, and mind your own business. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
He didn’t sit, instead, he slowly raised his hands, palms out. “You know bullets are just going to piss a shifter off if you shoot him, don’t you? It’ll only be more dangerous for you.”
“Silver-wrapped casings. They’ll blow through his body and the silver will make it harder for him to heal. I guess I should also mention I’m an excellent shot. I don’t miss. A few well-aimed bullets will solve all his problems—permanently.”
“I’m Jason,” he introduced himself, though she already knew who he was. It was the next part that surprised her. “I’m an enforcer for the Nightwind pack. If Merl has somehow offended you, why don’t we go before our alpha? He’ll hear you out. I’ll personally assure you that no one will harm you if you just put your guns down.”
She shook her head, her stomach lurching at the thought of the once-kind teen being an enforcer now. They were the quickest, hardest, meanest wolves of the pack, handpicked by an alpha to do their dirty work. Jason seemed the same, straightforward and honest, but that was the thing about shifters—they could change.
“No thanks. I’m familiar with your alpha, and I’d love to put a bullet in him too. Not to be cliché, but the only way you’re getting my guns from me is if you take them from my cold, dead hands.” She paused. “Good luck with that.”
In her reflective glasses, Shawna saw the man behind her move, taking a step toward her as if to attack.
On instinct, she lowered her gun and shot him in the thigh without fully taking her gaze off Jason. The sound was loud and her would-be attacker howled, crashing to the floor.
Every man left in the place, seven of them with the exception of the one holding his bleeding thigh, was on their feet now.
“Woman,” Jason growled, sounding shocked she dared pull the trigger. “I won’t tell you again. Put down your weapons and I won’t harm you. I’ll take you before our alpha and you can explain your issues with Merl to him. That’s how we do things here.”
“I don’t even know this crazy human,” Merl assured him.
She flashed her gaze toward Merl. “Two words for you. Ralph Markum.”
She watched as Merl paled and cast a concerned look toward Jason.
“Ralph Markum?” Jason frowned. “He isn’t here anymore. He moved away a long time ago. No one’s heard from him in years.”
“He’s dead,” she said softly. “Merl killed him nine months ago over in Reddly.”
Jason turned to Merl with a snarl. “That better not be true, and you definitely better not make shit up, because I’ll know. You were never good at hiding that scared scent of lies.”
“It wasn’t here,” Merl huffed in a grudging confession. “And it’s nobody’s business.”
“You killed an ex-pack member? Why in the hell didn’t you say something?” Jason’s voice took on a low, animalistic growl. “I liked Ralph.”
“Tell them why you killed him, Merl. Tell them how you attacked that girl in Reddly—the human you raped—and when Ralph tried to step in and help her, tell your enforcer how you killed him. Go ahead and explain that one, asshole.” Shawna clenched her teeth and kept staring at Merl, but spoke to the enforcer as she whispered, “He killed Ralph for being a decent wolf who tried to protect a human. Did I mention she wasn’t even twenty-one? She was walking home from college, not a care in the world…until Merl showed up. Now I get to watch him die for it.”
“Can you prove this?” Jason still sounded more wolf than human.
“I sure can,” she assured him. “Call anyone in Reddly. Talk to Ralph’s folks. The girl escaped because Ralph didn’t die easy. It took asshole over here a little time to fight him. She made it to safety and told the police what Ralph said to her attacker. Ralph called him by name. He told him to go back home and stay out of Reddly or he’d call the alpha. The police are looking for a man named Merl. Check that out.
“I heard the story through the grapevine and I knew who the hell did it. The girl even gave a description. I showed her a picture of his driver’s license. She identified Merl instantly from a photo lineup of twelve men. No doubt in her traumatized head that I’m staring at the right asshole.”