Page 15 of Bullied Wolf Mate

“What’s up?” I asked, glancing around, taking each of the shifters in. In some of their eyes, I saw the same interested scrutiny.

“I don’t think you’ve had the chance to meet anyone properly,” Declan said, nodding to the cluster. “Figured I mightas well change that since it seems like we’re gonna be sticking around. At least for a little bit.”

Some of the tension in my shoulders eased. “Yeah, might as well.”

“Glad you agree. In that case, might as well get started.” He gestured at the broad-shouldered one with light brown hair, who looked bored as he played with a knife. “That’s Jackson, my second.”

Jackson jerked his head in acknowledgment, eyes not moving from the knife twirling between his fingers.

“You always play with knives?” I asked.

Jackson cracked a grin, finally looking at me as he flipped the knife in the air. “Do it when I need to think,” he said.

“You actually think?” the one with short-cropped red hair quipped. He snickered as Jackson mimed, throwing his knife at him.

“You’re lucky we’re guests,” Jackson said without any real malice. “I can’t throw knives at you.”

“That’s Nolan,” Declan said, rolling his eyes. “Ignore him being obnoxious. We do. Granted, that means ignoring him most of the time. But he’s good in a fight, so we keep him around.”

“You say obnoxious, I say underappreciated comedian,” Nolan fired back.

“Whatever you need to tell yourself,” Declan said. He nodded at a guy with salt and pepper hair, clearly the oldest of the group. “That’s—”

“I prefer to introduce myself,” he grunted. He got to his feet and held out his hand. “Chris.”

“Mark,” I said, clasping his hand. He had a tight grip, and his hands were calloused.

Chris snorted. “Trust me, I remember. I don’t think I’ve seen a woman that angry at a guy for a long time.”

I kept my face impassive even as the words made me wince inside. I didn’t need a reminder of what Lorelei really thought about me.

As if sensing that he needed to change topics, Declan took over again. “Trent is the one on the laptop over there,” he said, gesturing at a lanky guy with shaggy brown hair. Trent glanced up, gave a brief nod, then went back to the laptop without a single word.

“And we’ve got Will over there. The only one who can tolerate Nolan on a consistent basis.”

Will looked up at the sound of his name. He met my gaze and gave a short wave of the hand before returning to his conversation with Nolan. With his stocky stature, broad shoulders, and long blond hair and beard, Will made me immediately think of a Viking.

“Sounds like you’ve got a pretty good crew,” I remarked.

Declan gave a soft smirk that might have been something like pride. “At least when we aren’t getting captured by witches,” he joked. “But we try.”

Before I could respond, Jameson popped his head in and glanced at Declan. A sort of silent communication went between them, and Declan nodded. Turning back to his crew, Declan made a motion with his hands, and every Gold Wolf shifter got to their feet.

“Come on,” Declan said. “Meeting’s about to start.”

***

“Inara’s been quiet,” Declan said, frowning. “I don’t like it. I’ve been studying her for years, and when she goes underground like this, it usually means she’s planning something big.”

“It can’t just be because she’s frightened?” Alex asked.

Jackson snorted, folding his arms. “No way. If anything, we pissed her off.”

“Does she have any way of knowing where we are?” Jameson asked. “Do we need to be worried?”

“If she doesn’t know yet, then she will soon enough,” Declan said. “She’ll have made it her mission. And she’ll just follow us if we move, burning Brixton to the ground out of spite.”

“Okay, so moving is useless,” Luke said. “What’s the solution?”

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