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Her heart tugged painfully as she continued to scan the crowd, the weight of the loss pulling her chest tight. She dropped her gaze to the worn floorboards, swallowing hard, fighting back the tears that threatened to spill again. Not here. Not now.

“Billie.” A soft voice cut through the noise, and Billie looked up.

Macy stood on the other side of the bar, trying to smile but already losing the battle. Her chin trembled, her eyes red and watery as she pulled herself onto a stool like she had a hundred times before. But tonight, everything felt different.

“Hey, Macy,” Billie said gently, managing a small smile.

“I’m so sorry,” Macy whispered, her voice cracking as the tears spilled over.

Without thinking, Billie dropped the towel she’d been nervously wringing, walked around the bar, and pulled Macy into a tight hug. The kind that didn’t need words.

“Davey loved you like a daughter,” Billie said softly, her mouth close to Macy’s ear, just loud enough for her to hear over the hum of the bar. “And I loved that, because I always wanted a sister.”

Macy broke, burying her face in Billie’s shoulder as sobs shook her small frame. “I miss him so much,” she cried. “I just can’t believe he’s gone. It doesn’t feel real.”

Billie held her tighter, her own tears finally slipping free. “Me either,” she whispered. “But he’s still here. In this place, in us and every stubborn, sarcastic, kind thing we do.”

They stood like that for a long moment, two women wrapped in loss and love, surrounded by the very legacy Davey had left behind. Macy had worked at Shift Faced ever since she was old enough to be in a bar. She didn’t have a family. She was also a Crow Shifter who Davey took under his wing, so to speak, when her parents had been killed.

“What’s going to happen to this place?” Macy pulled away, asking, but before Billie could say anything, Mac walked to the middle of the bar, calling for everyone’s attention.

The door to the bar opened, but Billie Ann didn’t look at first, figuring it was someone late from the cemetery or someone trying to sneak in unnoticed. But then a strange energy shifted the room, subtle but unmistakable, and her eyes lifted to the entrance.

A tall, dark, and undeniably handsome stranger stepped through the doorway. There was a calm, quiet power in the way he moved. His long, dark hair was tousled, wind-swept from the mountain air, and his sharp jaw was shadowed with stubble. He wore a black worn leather jacket that stretched overbroad shoulders, and his boots thudded softly against the old floorboards.

He was a stranger. But not just any stranger. Something about him crackled in the air, something not quite human. Billie Ann’s breath caught. Her heart gave a little start.

Before she could look away, his eyes found hers. Dark, unreadable, and intense. She forced herself to blink and turned her attention to the stage where Mac, King of the Shifters, stepped up and raised his hand.

The crowd quieted instantly.

Mac’s chocolate-brown hair was pulled back at his neck, and even though his broad frame looked solid as ever, there was grief etched into his expression. Zelda, his delicate mate, stood just off to the side, her presence radiant and strong.

Mac cleared his throat. “Thank you all for being here today. Davey didn’t want a funeral full of tears and long speeches. He wanted this.” His arm stretched toward the crowd. “Family. Friends. Drinks. Stories. Laughter. I know he is smiling down at us today.”

A soft murmur of agreement rose.

“This bar meant everything to him. It was more than a business to him. It was a safe haven for those like us. A place where everyone, no matter what they were, could be themselves. He protected it like he protected all of us.”

Billie Ann’s eyes stung, and she glanced down, fighting the rush of emotion clawing up her throat.

“And now,” Mac continued, his voice softening, “he’s passed that torch.”

He turned his eyes to her, and everyone followed.

“This bar now belongs to Billie Ann Carter,” he said, pride and sadness threaded in his tone. “Davey left it all to her. And there’s not a soul here who would disagree that there’s no one better to carry on what he built.”

Applause broke out, gentle at first and then stronger. A few whoops followed, and a couple raised glasses. Zelda beamed at her.

Billie stood frozen as the reality sank in all over again. It was hers. The place that held her childhood, her love for the man who’d been more of a father than anyone ever had, and now her grief at losing him.

She glanced up through the mist of tears and found the stranger again. Still watching her. Who was he?

“The bar is staying open?” Macy’s eyes were wide with hope.

Billie Ann tore her gaze from the stranger to smile down at Macy. “Yes, Shift Faced is staying open.”

Wicked stepped forward first, her long, wild black hair cascading down her back like an untamed river. There was a fire in her magic, mixed with mischief and wrapped in grace. Wicked was a powerful witch who had always radiated confidence, even when she pretended she didn’t care. Billie Ann had always admired that about her.