Because a big chunk of the football team had shown up, including Hunter and Charlize’s boyfriends, and then they’d all started turning into wolves too.
And then, if that wasn’t all bonkers enough, Professor Rojo stepped forward and red scales started flowing up his neck and across his face, and he grew a snout. His whole head was replaced by what looked like a dragon’s head, and when one of the still-human-looking bikers charged with a length of pipe in his hand, that long snout opened, and he just breathed fire all over the place.
All I could do was stare, watching black flakes of ash rain down onto the grass like really gross snow.
I just… wasn’t going to think about that. It was hard to ignore, with the dragon man literally standing next to me, but I’d gotten really good about compartmentalizing bad memories and scary things, and I distracted myself by watching Bash.
I knew he was hot, I mean, really hot. Smoking hot. With the eyes, and the face, and the body, and… anyway. But he was beautiful as a wolf too. He flowed through the fight, moving so fast and so gracefully, just managing to never be where the biker wolves’ teeth snapped shut.
One of them tried sneaking up behind him, and I bent down to pick up one of the books that Charlize had thrown andwhipped it as hard as I could. It made a really satisfying thwack when it smacked into the biker’s skull.
And then, because this wasn’t a weird enough episode of the Twilight Zone yet, with werewolves and dragon men and magic tattoos, some cars screeched up the path between the buildings, and a bunch of men in dark suits came pouring out.
I knew the gossip rags were right about the Men in Black.
“Are they the secret service?” Charlize called to Hunter, and I had to admit they did kind of look like government officials, except they only seemed interested in fighting their way to Bash’s side.
The royal guard, I realized with a jolt. Because Bash was a prince. A werewolf prince.
I almost laughed.
The men in suits pretty much all just exploded right out of their clothes and turned into wolves themselves, and they joined the fight. With Professor Rojo barbequing any bikers that got a little too close, the ones that hadn’t just run off were pretty quickly captured. Several of the royal guardsmen shifted back into their human forms, their very naked human forms, and bundled the unconscious bikers into the back of one of the cars.
And then I lost track of what everyone else was doing, because the beautiful black wolf that Bash had become was trotting toward me, and then with a pop and a weird slide of skin, Bash was there, in my arms.
He pulled me into his chest, clutching a little too tightly as he rained kisses down onto my head.
“Stacia, Stacia, my Stacia. I’ve been looking everywhere. I’m so sorry, love.”
He pulled me a little tighter into his chest. His bare chest. Because Bash was totally and utterly naked, and that was distracting enough that I had to jerk my thoughts back into line to even hear what he was saying.
When he finally let up enough for me to breathe, I leaned back enough to see his face. “So. A prince, huh?”
He winced. It was so much easier to see without the glasses. I felt like a bit of a dope. I was never going to make fun of Lois Lane again for not recognizing Superman in his Clark Kent disguise.
“Among… other things.”
Yeah, fair. The werewolf bit was at least as surprising as the hidden royalty bit. I realized I was stroking his chest and made myself stop, because it was really distracting.
“I… have so many questions.”
“And I will answer all of them, love. I promise. But I have to go.”
I jerked in his arms. “Wait, what? Go?”
And I realized then that the royal guards were fanned out, covering their naked junk, clearly waiting for their prince.
“I need to take the one-bloods to the Wolf Tzar for interrogation. They have information that I made a promise I’d find out.” He flashed his teeth in something that was a little too feral to be a smile. “But the second that’s done, I will be with you. I promise.”
I was ready to be upset, maybe even angry, but then Bash’s mouth was on mine, lips and teeth and tongues clashing like he was starving for the taste of me, and heat was roaring through my body and my knees turned to water. I had to cling to his shoulders just to keep from ending up a puddle of goo on the ground.
When we finally broke apart and I had enough air to speak, I managed a very small, “Okay.”
One of the guards, who must have come prepared with a change of clothes because he was the only guy not naked, came forward to drape a coat over Bash. That was a crime, hiding all that gorgeous brown skin.
Bash made his way to the car, but he never once took his eyes off my face, like he was afraid I’d disappear if he looked away. I felt the same, so I couldn’t exactly judge.
I felt that golden gaze on me, right up until the car turned the corner and disappeared.
