Page 19 of Bully Wolf’s Nanny (Silvermist Wolves #1)
He paused for long enough that Dane cried out in victory, drawing the attention of several other pack members in the bar, “You fuckin’ have, haven’t you! I fuckin’ knew it!”
“Keep your voice down,” Nicolas hissed, his voice pure venom.
At the same time, Felix’s brow furrowed. “Watch it, Dane.”
Predictably, Dane ignored the warning. “I knew you’d go back for seconds. You were mad for her at school. It was fuckin’ obvious. How long did it take to get her on her back? Two weeks? Three? She’s as sweet as fuckin’ pie, I bet she tastes just like—"
Felix noticed Nicolas’s movements just a fraction too late, reaching out with a warning shout. Nicolas was too quick. His fist swung into the side of Dane’s jaw, his knuckles connecting with a satisfying crunch. Dane’s head whipped to the side, his glass falling from his hand.
Nicolas stood panting, his wolf howling to be released, blood roaring in his ears.
Dane didn’t take long to recover. He pushed off the bar, wiping the blood from his lip, a feral smile on his face.
“You wanna go, pretty boy? Let’s fuckin’ go!”
Nicolas didn’t need to be asked twice. Ever since that day at the bar when Dane had barely managed to conceal his lust for Daisy, he’d been itching to beat the other alpha into submission.
And with all his pent-up rage and frustration at Francesca, now was as good a time as any to let off some steam against his pack brother.
Dane ducked low and rammed into him with considerable force, knocking the air from his lungs and shoving him back into a table. The wood splintered and broke beneath their weight,
Nicolas was dimly aware of Felix ushering other pack members to the side. Brawls weren’t uncommon; amongst shifters it would be impossible to prevent them entirely, and as such Felix only had three rules:
No shifting inside. No endangering others. Never in front of children.
Break any of those rules, and you’d find yourself at the business end of Felix’s teeth,
Lucky for them, it was late enough that only a few other grown alphas were in the bar, and they watched on with keen interest.
“Ten bucks on Dane.”
“Nah, did you see Nick’s right hook? He’s fucking pissed. Dane’s going down.”
Nicolas pushed himself up from the broken remains of the table, raising his fists in front of his face as Dane circled in front of him.
Dane was massive. There was no getting around it.
As wolves, only Felix was bigger, and as humans Dane easily had fifty pounds of pure muscle over Nicolas.
It meant he was fucking good at his job as pack enforcer.
It also meant if anyone picked a fight with him, they had better be damn sure of their abilities.
Nicolas could fight. He’d been taught how since he was small by a father who valued strength over everything else. And while he wasn’t roped with bulging muscle like Dane was, he was fast. One of the fastest in the pack. All he had to do was catch Dane off guard and get him down.
He never got the chance,
Dane rolled his shoulders, licking the blood from his teeth, but his gaze wasn’t feral with anger. Instead, there was a sort of calculating victory in his dark eyes.
It caught Nicolas by surprise, and he lowered his fists slightly. “What?”
“You love her, don’t you?”
Too stunned to maintain his fighting pose, his fists fell down to his side entirely, shock replacing the blinding rage. “What?”
“Sorry ‘bout what I said,” Dane stepped over the broken table to clap Nicolas across the back. “I didn’t mean to be disrespectful about her. I just wanted to see for myself.”
“You…” Nicolas reared back, baring his teeth, “you fucking bastard!”
“Guilty as charged,” Dane held his hands up. “You never would have admitted it. Far too bloody stubborn for your own good. Hopefully now you can stop being so fuckin’ dumb and actually do something ‘bout it.”
“Felix,” Nicolas spun around to see Felix with his arms crossed and one eyebrow raised, “were you in on this?”
“Now, why would I agree to a plan that involved destroying one of my tables?” Felix said, glaring at Dane. “But I do admit I was curious.”
“Well, I hope your curiosity is satisfied,” Nicolas hissed, stalking back to the bar and accepting the fresh glass of whiskey offered to him.
“I really don’t see what the big deal is,” said Dane, coming up beside him, careful to maintain enough distance that should Nicolas decide to swing again, he would have time to avoid the punch.
“I have to agree with Dane,” Felix replied. “Why don’t you just be with her? Francesca’s presence doesn’t change anything. Daisy’s a sweetheart, she’s brilliant with Gracie, you may even be able to convince her to rejoin the pack. So what’s the problem?”
“The problem,” Nicolas said, his fists tight, “is that she’s made it clear she wants fuck all to do with me.”
Felix and Dane exchanged a glance.
“If it’s something to do with Francesca,” Felix said carefully, “then you know we’ve got Rick working on a legal solution—"
“It’s not Francesca,” Nicolas replied. “Well, it is Francesca. She’s a raging bitch, and Daisy seems to have gotten it into her head that I want some kind of relationship with her, no matter how many times I’ve tried to convince her otherwise.
The real problem, though, is she doesn’t fucking trust me.
And why should she? I already destroyed her life once, why the fuck would she hang about and let me destroy it all over again? ”
“Nicolas,” said Felix, “you didn’t destroy her life. She’s here, isn’t she? No offense, but she’s made of stronger stuff than that.”
“That’s not the point,” he said, his voice raising. “I promised her I wouldn’t hurt her. And I did. Sure, it was to keep her safe, but it doesn’t change what I said. She’s better off without me.”
“Nicolas—"
“End of discussion.” Nicolas finished the rest of his drink, pulled out a ridiculously generous sum of bills for the barkeep, and left before Felix or Dane could say anything.