Page 30

Ace

“ A nd now we bow our heads and offer a moment of silence for the end of Miri’s spring break.”

Ace bowed his head, his shot glass raised high.

Arm wrapped around Miri’s waist, he squeezed her against his side.

The days of coming home from work in the middle of the afternoon and finding her lounging around in tiny shorts that made his mouth water had come to a devastating end.

They were all lucky he wasn’t holding a funeral in the middle of the bar.

At least summer break was right around the corner.

“You guys really can find any reason to drink,” the waitress laughed, another tray of glasses in her hands.

“Yes. Yes, we can.” Ashley pressed another round of shots into everyone’s hands. “To Dollar Tequila Shot Tuesdays!”

The entire bar cheered at that one. Ace chuckled and pressed his face into Miri’s soft curls.

Tucked into his side, she was the perfect height to peek down her low-cut blouse.

As the demon who had been smart enough to arrive first, Ace had claimed cuddle rights for the night and was strictly enforcing them.

A quick rap across the knuckles with the end of his tail had earned him no shortage of glares from Kaz and Duke, but he didn’t care.

If they wanted to get their hands on Miri, they should have arrived earlier.

Nico was firmly out of the running. He’d gotten stuck late with a client and hadn’t show up yet.

Nor had one of Nicole’s bloodsuckers and her werewolf, for that matter. Thank Gaia, he was a barista. Ace couldn’t imagine have a boring office job like the two vampiric lawyers. At least the wolf got to get his hands dirty on a regular basis.

He swiped another shot from the two pushed together tables. “To not having to wear a tie to work!”

Duke and Atticus rolled their eyes and begrudgingly raised their own glasses.

Sliding Miri a glass of water, Kaz pressed a kiss to her temple. Ace glared at him over her head. Clearly, they were going to have to have a talk about dibs and cuddle rights.

Speaking of… His tail dipped below the table to curl around Miri’s ankle.

Doing his best to look innocent as a lamb, Ace ignored the way the curvy redhead was side-eying him.

Was his tail sliding up her leg? Completely coincidental.

Would she buy that his tail had a mind of its own as it curled around her thigh? Probably not.

“Ace,” she warned.

“Yes?”

Miri crossed her legs under the table, blocking his silent foray under her skirt. Cheater. He winked and gave her hip a squeeze. Fine, it could wait until later… preferably when he could steal her away to a dark corner of the bar.

A purse landed on the table with a clatter. Ace blinked at the harried brunette on the other side of it. Swiping two shot glasses off the table, Marta slammed them back one right after another. The group waited in silence as the glasses thumped back down.

"My ex is dragging out the divorce. Don't ask."

Grumbling under her breath, she grabbed another shot of tequila. Ace just managed to catch the words “slash” and “tires.” He quickly nudged another drink in her direction.

“I think we’re going to need more margaritas too,” Ashley said, emptying the last of the pitcher into the girls’ glasses.

Hawthorne leaned around Nicole and swiped her cup.

Half the margarita disappeared in one huge gulp.

It was probably for the best. Miri’s friend was looking a bit green as the night wore on and that wasn’t even the first drink one of her monstrous boyfriends had swiped.

Hopefully, she wasn’t about to pass some bug to Miri.

The hives had been bad enough. Ace had never been an anxious demon, but he’d spent hours searching the internet just to make sure she wasn’t going to stop breathing in her sleep or something. Strawberries were officially banned from the house.

"So, Nic. At what point are you going to just admit you're pregnant?" Miri asked, smirking over the rim of her own margarita glass.

Ace blinked. His gaze bounced between the four women at the center of their knot of monsters. Had he missed something?

“I don’t what you’re talking about.”

“Seriously, please stop pretending.” Ashley laughed. “Not only are you are a terrible liar, but you look like you’re going to throw up on your own shoes.

Nicole sighed. “Damn it. I only found out a couple days ago.”

Dear Gaia, that one had better not be contagious. He wanted a couple years of bending Miri over every piece of furniture in their house before they worried about baby demons.

The tiny horns were a menace on upholstery.

“So which one of you skipped health class the day they were putting condoms on bananas?” Kaz teased.

“ Somebody’s magic claiming mark destroyed my birth control implant.” Glowering, Nicole opened her bag and yanked out a half-eaten sleeve of crackers.

Ace was making copious mental notes as he shot a look at Kaz and Duke. The other two demons caught his eyes, identical wide- eyed worry on their faces. They were definitely going to have to do some research before marking Miri up.

Besides, where the hell would they even put a baby in her tiny house? A dresser drawer?

The pale fae scrubbed a hand over his weary face. “How was I supposed to know?—?”

“Save it, Legolas.” Nicole crammed a whole cracker into her mouth. Even though she seemed to be doing her best to glare a hole through his silver-haired head, her small hand patted his on the table.

“I have so many questions, but I’ll start with congratulations.” Miri broke away from Ace to hurry around the table and fold her friend into a hug. “Dibs on godmother.”

“No! You sneaky ho!” Ashley groaned. “I was going to call dibs.”

Miri stuck out her tongue and released her hold on Nicole. Smirking, she circled the tables to sit down in her abandoned seat. Ace wrapped an arm around her. Beautiful and tricky… he might be in love.

“Okay, but the audience needs to know.” Ace tore his eyes from Miri to look at the three of Nicole’s monsters who had managed to make it to the bar for the night’s festivities.

“Which one of you beasties is the baby daddy? Is it going to be a pointy-eared rugrat or is the spawn going to sprout fur and howl at the moon?”

A small hand slapped his chest. “Don’t call my future godchild spawn!”

His golden fingers wrapped fully around Miri’s wrist as he raised her hand to his lips. He pressed a small kiss against her knuckles in apology. Shooting her a wink, his tail curled tighter around her thigh. A pink flush bloomed in her cheeks.

Maybe it was time for that dark corner…

“It’s too soon to tell,” the were-cougar interrupted. Drake slipped a thick arm around Nicole’s shoulders. “And technically, it could be a tiny bloodsucker too.”

The horny thoughts vanished like smoke in Ace’s mind. There’s no way that was possible… right? It was Atticus’s turn to bear the weight of the group’s silent attention.

Fuck it. Ace had to ask. He would happily jump on that grenade for the sake of group curiosity.

“Aren’t you like… dead?”

An elbow landed in his ribs. His cousin glared at him. “Dude, you can’t just say that!”

“Why not?”

“It’s rude!” Kaz hissed.

It was a perfectly valid question. Vampires were dead…ish. So, surely they had to be shooting equally dead blanks. Or was it more of a “the gun is already loaded and only has a certain amount of shots left” type of situation?

That definitely couldn’t be right. Atticus was a fine ass specimen. There was no way he hadn’t been banging his way through the centuries before he hitched his undead wagon to the very much alive Nicole.

“Technically, yes. Vampires can’t reproduce. But, apparently—“ Atticus shot a look at the weary elf— “if a fae dumps too much magic into a claiming mark in the middle of some monster revelry, it can bring certain attributes back to life.”

“Do I need to get ‘I’m sorry’ tattooed on my forehead?” Hawthorne grumbled.

Ace watched them argue back and forth with rapt attention. This was better than any version of Real Housewives— even that one season with a gold-digging succubus that totally should have won an Emmy. She’d clawed another cast member at the tell all episode, for fuck sake.

Nicole crammed another cracker in her mouth and glared at them both.

“It’s not like I’ve ever done a claiming mark before!” The fae threw his hands in the air. “There was bound to be some margin for error!”

“A whole ass fetus is not some teeny margin, Thorne,” Nicole growled. “That’s a whole fucking football field of error.”

Waving her hands in the middle of their tables, Ashley dragged everyone from the fight that had clearly already been ongoing since Nicole had come back with a positive pregnancy test.

“Hold up, hold up. We’re gonna circle back to Hawthorne being in the doghouse in just a sec.

” Ashley folded her hands together. Her bright eyes stared so hard at the vampire that Ace worried he would burst into flames.

“Are you seriously telling us that Hawthorne… our sweet baby Hawthorne who has obviously never done anything wrong in his precious little life… brought your cumshot to life?”

“So it would seem.”

Oh. My. Fuck.

Ace was so delighted he thought his heart might beat right out of his chest. Beaming at the table like Christmas had come early, his mind started to race.

There were so many jokes to make and only about seven-ish months— based on Nicole’s scent and the way she was shoveling down crackers— left to make them.

Marta was the first to laugh. One by one they broke down until the whole table was crying with laughter. Miri was biting her knuckles to try to hold it in. Kaz face was pressed into her hair as he choked. Even surly ass Duke had snapped, his wings shaking as he gasped for air.

“To the fetus!” Ashley raised a shot glass high.

“To the fetus!” they managed to cheer through their laughter.

“Now which one of you is gonna put a ring on our girl?” Miri asked between giggles.

“Wait, what does a monster wedding even look like?” Marta asked. “Please tell me there’s still cake.”

“It’s the same as a human wedding.” Ace shrugged and clenched his claws into his palm to keep from grinning. “Wait for a full moon, everyone strips down and paints their vows on each others’ naked body… then the orgy starts.”

“The orgy?” Marta’s jaw dropped. Her eyes flicked from his face to Miri’s and back.

She was too adorable. Ace’s face broke, a grin stretching over his fangs. He fucking loved humans. They were so damned gullible it was actually kind of precious.

“He’s kidding,” Kaz promised her. “We have regular weddings. Fluffy white dresses, tiered cakes, useless wedding favors that you use once and then throw in a junk drawer. The usual.”

“ Then the orgy starts.”

“Ace!” Miri elbowed his ribcage.

Leaning over, he pressed a quick kiss against the soft stretch of her neck. He was definitely going to ask if she wanted to practice for their monster wedding orgy when they got home. Or right now, in the bar’s bathroom. He wasn’t a picky demon.

He leaned in and whispered in her ear, “What do you say you and I?—“

“Miriam!”

Everyone’s head turned to see what idiot was calling Miri by her full name. A lanky man with gelled blond hair and a polo shirt walked toward their combined tables. He stared at Miri, rudely ignoring everyone else.

“Hey, I need to talk to you.”

“Now’s not a good time, Jason.” Miri inched closer to Ace’s side.

“We need to talk.”

Yeah, they really didn’t.

Ace gave him a light sniff. Definitely human. “Sorry, guy. She’s taken.”

And just in case he was as blind as he was stupid, he tightened his hold on Miri’s waist. Kaz’s clawed hand caressed her thigh and Duke stroked one of his dinner plated sized hands over her curls.

“By who?” He looked down his nose at the demons. Eyes drifting over their horned head, he sneered. “You? Don’t make me laugh.”

Ace looked over his shoulder at the other two demons, a feral gleam in his eye.

“Which one you wants to take his soul? I’m giving you first dibs.”

So what if they technically couldn’t do that? He like the way the jackass blanched.

“Can I rip it out with my bare hands?” Kaz growled.

“Don’t make a mess.” Duke glared at the man over their heads. “Bribing a bartender to look the other way is not in the budget this month.”

Miri turned and shoved them all back a step. She narrowed her eyes in warning. Ace wasn’t sure why, they were on their best demonic behavior; it was the asshole in a starched polo shit that was causing problems.

“It’s fine, guys. He’s a… coworker.”

Ace looked down at her face, his eyebrows soaring as she stumbled over her words. Why didn’t he quite believe that?

“Coworker?” The prick’s laugh was as joyless and cold as his eyes. “Is that what you call all the guys you let feel you up in the back of your car?”

Oh, boy. This was going to get fun.

Ace unwound his tail from her leg and started to stand. Miri’s hand landed on his arm. She gave the tiniest shake of her head, her eyes wide. Ace patted her hand. It’s not like he was going to kill him… probably. Besides, what was some light maiming among friends?

“Definitely not the thing to say, shitdick.” Ashley shook her head. The corner of her mouth curled into a quiet smile as she caught sight of the demons’ murderous expressions. “But, please continue.”

“Whatever.” The human leaned forward and grabbed Miri’s arm. He gave a hard yank, trying to drag her to her feet. “Come on, Miriam.”

Oh, hell no.

Before Kaz or Duke could even think of moving, his clawed hand was digging into the human’s wrist. He let go with a hiss. Ace’s tail wrapped around the leg of Miri’s chair and dragged her back behind him as he rose to his feet.

The moron was still clutching at the bloody marks on his wrist when Ace’s fist caught his chin. Crashing to the floor, the human landed in a heap. His head smacked against the tiled floor and his eyes rolled back into his head.

“Seriously?” Ace frowned at the floor. “I didn’t even hit him that hard.”

“It was pretty good form though.” Kaz eyed the man on the floor. “Next time rotate your hips a little more and you’ll get more momentum.”

Ace rolled his eyes. Always the coach.

“Shit.” Peeking out from behind one of Duke’s enormous wings, Miri stared at the unconscious human. “We’re definitely getting banned from this bar.”

The bar was quiet as heavy footsteps headed toward them from across the room. A boot poked at the limp human. Dark brows rising toward his hairline, Nico studied the silent group of monsters.

“So… what did I miss?”