Chapter 16

Olistaire

Brad is bothering Grace again. He accosted her at the

park, and now apparently has kidnapped her son and forced them all to Silver Spoon, according to her second text. I park nearby along the street and slam my car door shut as I power towards the diner.

Unlike the other two times I helped Grace ward this male off, this time I feel a spark of something deeper igniting in my chest.

Who does this blunt thumbtack of a human think he is? How many times do Grace and I have to tell him to back off before he gets the message? He needs to keep his limp little hands off

my female and away from her child, or I might very soon snap and do something rash.

My feet falter as my thoughts catch up to me, and I pause at the door. He needs to keep his hands off my friend, I mean.

I catch sight of them through the glass pane, sitting opposite each other at a booth, and the spark in my chest immediately reignites. Brad's clammy hands reach across to grab at Grace's fingers, his colorless eyes doing their best to showcase what seems to me to be a pathetic, fake attempt at earnestness.

I shove the door open, stride across the restaurant and grab Brad's thin wrist within my palm.

"Do not," I say quietly, slowly prying him away, "touch

my female."

I feel a sizable spark of satisfaction at the flash of fear on his face when he looks at me, twitching in surprise at my sudden appearance and knocking his cup off the table with a shattering of glass. The room around us goes quiet, but I don't take my eyes off the human, or my hand off his arm. He's a threat, and threats are not tolerated.

"It's alright," Grace says. "We're just talking."

"He was not just talking," I say, my tone hard even as I keep my volume low. "He was touching."

"Oli—"

"And we do not touch claimed females around here." I drop his wrist and rest my palm on the table, lowering my horns and keeping my gaze direct, despite how his darts around with nerves. "This is your last warning, human. Do you understand?"

A sweat breaks out along his hairless upper lip, his mouth opening and closing without saying a word, until I feel a presence beside me.

"Is everything alright here?"

I turn to look at Daniel, the werewolf owner of this diner, who has his arms crossed and a towel thrown over his shoulder. I don't straighten from where I loom over Brad. "I'm reminding this male that Grace does not want him, and that his continued advances are unappreciated . "

I look back at Brad, hearing Daniel sniffing the air and muttering something about jealous mates and pheromones. I don't pay attention.

"Do you understand?" I repeat to Brad. "Or do we have a problem?"

"No problems in my diner." Daniel shifts forward, but rightly doesn't touch me in this state. I don't know how I'd react to that, as I feel my anger stirring further and the hair along my neck rise threateningly. "Take it outside, boys."

"Nobody's taking anything anywhere." Grace stands and lays her warm palm over my hand, fingers curling to grip my inner wrist, right where a minotaur Mating Mark would appear, if such a thing could ever happen to me. It's possibly the only thing able to break my intensity right now, and I let my gaze slide over to her. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

I purse my lips, before relenting and allowing her to drag me into the corner. I'm dimly aware as the natural clatter of a diner at dinner time picks up around us once more, and I resist the urge to tuck Grace's loose waves behind her ear as she folds her arms and raises a brow.

"Why's your hair out?"

She looks thrown off for a moment at my words. "What?"

"You only ever let your waves loose for me," I say, sending a glare over at the insipid, pale male we left behind. "He doesn't deserve to see your pretty hair."

"I… took it out just before you came," she mutters, as if embarrassed about the fact, but a small, tense little something settles in my chest at those words. She let it loose for me, knowing I was coming, and not him. "Anyway, quit flirting and pay attention. That was all a little overkill back there, don't you think?"

I frown. "No."

"What do you mean, no?" she scoffs. "You had the whole room thinking you were going to skewer Brad on your horns."

"Well," I say, unable to stop my gaze from trailing possessively along her body at the thought of him daring to touch her again. "If I did, it'd only serve him right. The male is a stalker, Grace. This is beyond unhealthy." I meet her bright blue eyes once more. "I'm worried he won't stop."

She sighs and rubs her forehead. "Yeah, I'm starting to think the same thing."

Without meaning to my hand reaches out to lace with her fingers, and I draw her closer. "Then let me show him what it means to cross an angry bull." She blushes, but when she doesn't pull away, I let my fingers move to rest at her hip. "Let me take care of it for you."

"Actually," she mumbles, looking at my chest now and fidgeting, "I was hoping you might take care of Lucas, instead."

I blink down at her, nonplussed, and she lifts her pretty blue eyes to mine, resting her hand gently against my chest. "Please?"

How could any male say no to that?

"Alright," I agree slowly, "but, why?"

She sighs again and takes a step back. "I have things I need to discuss with Brad, and we might be a while."

"Hm," I say, the flame in my chest reigniting, and I don't let her move fully away, clamping my fingers gently into her hip despite the gap between us. "No. You're not going anywhere near that male again."

She looks surprised. "What? Oli—"

"He's scum." I step back into her, and her voice fades to nothing as I slide my hand to her lower back and my heart begins to tug, tug in my chest, tugging to try and get closer to her. "He will never take advantage of you again. I won't let him. That's something you're just going to have to understand."

"I'm not—"

I press her body firmly to mine, lifting my free palm to cup her cheek. "I'll protect you from him, even if it's against your will."

Her lips part, and the realization flashes through me that she likes that, likes that I won't hesitate to step in for her, even if she never admits it. This only fuels me, sets a heat coursing through me that overpowers my anger, and I lean my forehead down against hers.

I will protect her, I realize with a mild surprise, against anything. Always. I refuse to see her hurt.

There's a clatter in the distance, which I barely register until Brad's voice follows. "Get your paws off her, you… big cow!"

My grip around Grace tightens as I look up to see Brad stand, but Daniel intercepts him before he can come over here and see how sharp my horns really are.

"First of all, cows have hoofs , you idiot," I mutter to myself, before leaning back to look at Grace. "You are not going back to him. I can take Lucas if you need, but I'm taking you home first. Away from him."

"Listen," Grace says, squirming in my hold. "I'm not going back to him, alright?" I don't let go of her, needing to feel her warmth, the press of her weight against me, to ground myself. She relents, and more tension leaves my shoulders. "Whatever you're thinking is going on, it's not that. I promise, alright? I'd rather pine after you, unrequited, for the rest of my adult life than go back to him."

"Unrequited?" I tilt my head. "It could never be unrequited between us, sweetheart. Not unless you stop wanting me."

She rolls her eyes. "I don't mean sexually unrequited, Jesus…"

Huh. That… wasn't what I meant. Why wasn't that what I meant?

"It's just, he's known Lucas from the day he was born," Grace continues, and when her shoulders sag and she finally leans fully into me, as if too exhausted to hold herself up any longer, I slide my arm along her back and cradle her neck. "He's helped raise my boy, and even if he's a real piece of shit now, he… he wasn't at the start. I can't take Lucas away from him without another word, not like this, not if he truly does care. That's beyond cruel."

"Of course you couldn't," I sigh, squeezing my fingers around her. "And that's exactly how he'll try to spin his web around you again. Because despite your temper, little Grace, you have a soft heart."

"Weak," she mutters, as if to herself, and it sends a pang through my chest. "I know."

"You're not weak," I tell her seriously. She's said that before, and it doesn't sit well with me. "It isn't weak to have a heart full of love, it's quite the opposite. Trust me." I move my hand back around to her cheek, and snort self-deprecatingly. "You don't want a hollow heart like mine clanging around in your chest."

Now it's her turn to glare. "Don't talk about yourself like that. You're not hollow."

I try for a smile. "Glad to know I've managed to hide it from you so well."

She balls her hand into a fist and thumps it over my heart. "Stop it, you're perfectly capable of love. You love Rhokar, don't you? And little Ry and Ro? You love my sister, too, I can see it when you tease her. You'd never let anything happen to any of them, would you?"

"That's not…"

"Would you?"

For some reason, my heart is thumping hard in my chest, and for a second I can't get any words out. I wouldn't let anything happen to you, either.

"That is love, Olistaire," she says firmly. "And I won't hear another word about it. You're not so bad that you can't love anything. You can. You're a good guy, even if you are a giant sleaze, alright?" She quirks her lips into a smile, but her eyes remain fierce, and when I don't respond she thumps my chest again. "Alright?"

"Alright," I manage to croak, and she nods decisively and extricates herself from my arms.

"Good. Okay. Now, I'm going to go and have a long, serious talk with Brad, and I don't want you to worry. I promise that if he shows any signs of being anything less than honest and real with me, he'll lose his chance forever." She takes a deep breath and squares her shoulders. "Can I count on you to look after Lucas for me, for just an hour or so? He's too young for this, he doesn't need to hear it all."

My voice is caught in my throat for some reason, so I just nod.

"Alright," she repeats. "Great. Let's do this."

And all I can do is follow.