Page 4 of Enemy Wolf

I marched for the storage room door and shoved it open. Only one person could slam door around here and that was me, asshole.

“Didn’t I fucking tell you—”

I stopped short at the sight of the man across the bar, who was not Orson.

He wasn’t even a werewolf.

This man wore a long, dusty brown coat and equally dusty boots. His eyes were even stranger than Orson’s because they were bright orange and had a long vertical pupil like a reptile’s. On top of that, those eyes were sinister and cunning.

“Sorry, we’re closed.” All my internal alarms were going off, and I tried my best to sound firm with this stranger, despite the unease coiling through me.

The man only gave me the creepiest smile I’d ever seen, revealing extended canines. A rippling, shimmer effect ran over the side of his face, and a stripe of bright orange scales appeared from his cheekbone to his jaw.

I became prey, frozen in place. Every instinct screamed at me to run, but my muscles locked up. Besides, where could I run to? This dragon shifter could torch the entire building, and me in it, if he so much as sneezed.

As if the scales on his face weren’t enough proof as to what he was, a set of wide, leathery wings spread out from his back. Watching those limbs grow and fan out would have been beautiful, fascinating even, if I wasn’t so damn terrified.

With one beat of his wings, the dragon shifter kicked up a gust that whipped back my hair, sent receipts and invoices flying, and swung the front door shut.

“Have a seat, witch,” he said in a low, gravelly voice. “You and I have a lot to talk about.”

Chapter 2

Shiloh

Damn it, why did I leave my phone in the back room? I needed to alert Sawyer, Derric, hell, the entire Howling Death pack right fucking now.

As allies of the vampires, dragon shifters were forbidden from coming into Vargmore. All of the territory’s residents, werewolves and humans alike, were forbidden from associating with dragons or vampires.

This dragon was risking all-out war by coming to my bar and cornering me. And holy shit, I did not want to be at the center of such a conflict.

“There’s nothing for us to talk about.” I hid the shaking in my voice as best I could. “I don’t mean to be rude, but for the safety of both of our territories, I have to ask you to leave.”

“Oh, don’t be like that, little witch.” He approached the bar and set his hands on the surface. Each finger was covered in orange-gold scales and tipped with long black claws. Fuck, this guy didn’t even need to breathe fire to kill me. “You can help me immensely.”

“I refuse.”

The dragon cocked his head at me, his creepy smile getting wider. “I’m afraid that’s not an option.”

“I won’t betray my territory!”

He lunged across the bar, the movement faster than my eyes could track. A cold grip wrapped around my forearm and pulled me forward so hard, I thought my arm might rip out of the socket.

“No! Let me go!” I tried to pull back, but my strength was no match for the dragon shifter. My enchanted baseball bat flashed through my mind, and I lifted my free hand, ready to hurl some defensive magic straight into his face.

I never got the chance to before he scraped a dark claw over my wrist and the back of my hand in his grip. The scratch burned so badly, my mind went empty of everything except the pain.

When I tried to pull away again, he released me so abruptly that I went flailing backwards until the counter hit me in the center of my back. I sank to the floor and curled up, hot tears burning down my face, my back and arm throbbing as I whimpered for this dragon shifter to not kill me.

“That mark will not go away until you’ve fulfilled what I need.” He nodded at the scratch he made, which became a long, ugly stripe surrounded by red, irritated skin. “So, are you ready to talk?”

I looked down at his mark. The skin was raised and black, textured in what looked like hard scales. And it hurt so fucking badly.

“What do you want?” I whispered, cradling my arm to my chest.

“I need a potion made in a fairly large amount.” He smiled again, forearms on the bar like he was just another customer ordering a drink. “That’s your specialty, isn’t it, little witch?”

“Don’t you have witches in your own territory?” I shot back. “Why bring me into this?”

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