Page 122

I fell silent.

“So, you’re the big bad alpha. That doesn’t matter to me. You don’t own me, and you don’t get to tell me tostay outof things that affect my son’s safety. And you never,everget to speak to me in a tone like that.”

If I didn’t know better, I’d expecthereyes to flash with draconic anger. She was human, but in that moment, the strength of her anger shocked me. And even through the haze of booze and guilt and frustration… it turned me on. I’d never seen her like this. Fierce. Ferocious. Gorgeous. She’d try to kick my ass to keep our son safe. And she’d probably succeed.

“I’m going back to the house,” she said. “Don’t follow me.”

“Harley, wait.” I tried, one last time. But I knew she wasn’t going to listen. Not tonight, at least. All I could do was lean against the bar and watch the crowd part around her as she stormed out.

Then she was gone.

Someone cleared their throat, and then the party picked back up around me. I sank onto a barstool and slumped my weight against the bar in front of me. At least I still had another whiskey to drink.

Hawk appeared next to me. He was a little red-faced, but mostly clear-eyed. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“I know.”

“You really can’t talk to Harley like that.”

“I know.”

“I mean, if I tried to shout at Mia, she’d cut off my balls.”

“Hawk,” I said firmly, resisting the urge to bark at him as well. The last thing I needed was more awkward attention from the surrounding clan. “I said Iknow.”

Hawk sighed and squeezed my shoulder. “This whole Sean thing’s got everyone fucked up, doesn’t it?”

I huffed a laugh, but there wasn’t any humor in it. “Understatement.”

“Nothing we can do about it tonight,” Hawk said. “You can apologize to Harley in the morning. When you’re sober. And probably hungover.”

“I’ll drink to that,” I said and drained my whiskey.

The party continued like my outburst had never happened. After another hour or so, and a few more rounds, it finally began to wind down. Mia and Bella were long gone, and Hawk had passed out upstairs. Tank was lounging on the grass outside, maybe passed out as well, and Striker was on the couch with one of the local girls, Tori, in his lap.

Tori glanced over at me and gave me a flirty little wave, then leaned down to kiss Striker’s neck. I huffed and stood up from my seat at the bar. My head spun. It was that time of night when everyone either passed out or wrangled someone else into their bed.

I hoped Harley was asleep. My dragon hoped she was asleep inmybed. Probably not, though. She’d probably retreated back to her bedroom at my house. She probably wanted nothing to do with me.

The clubhouse spun around me. There was no way in hell I was making it home tonight. Hell, I’d be lucky if I made it up to my room.

I took the stairs one careful step at a time—a herculean endeavor. I stumbled to my clubhouse bedroom and shoved the door open. The room looked the same, but it was stuffy. I hadn’t spent any time here since Harley had showed up in Lakeview. Itdidn’t exactly fill me with joy to be back here, but at least I had a bed.

I threw open the windows so the cool night air flooded the stuffy room. Then I managed to get my shoes and jeans off without falling on my face, collapsed onto the bed, and passed out into a dreamless sleep.

After what felt like minutes, maybe seconds, my dragon woke up first.

He stirred, then he thrashed. Angry. Repulsed. Something was wrong.

A small, broken voice filled the room like an alarm clock.

“Steph?”

I blinked my eyes open a sliver. Early morning sun poured into the room—so I’d slept, even if it felt like I didn’t. My head throbbed like someone was jackhammering my brain. My dragon was still thrashing and twitching.