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“You’ve got a pack started, huh?” Sen nodded, pushing his food around with his fork. “I can respect that. And no bashings needed. No man here’s gonna hurt you or your mum. Anyone who does that gets sent away. I’d just like the chance to get to know the both of you.”

“OK,” Kade replied with a nod. “Do you like Star Wars?”

“I liked it when I was a kid.” I saw Kade frown at this. “Now I’m more a fan of the MCU movies. How about you?”

“Mum won’t let me watch those movies. Says they’re too old for me.” Kade looked at Sen speculatively. “Would you let me watch them?”

“Can’t go against your mum,” he said with a shake of his head, then shot me a wink. “Mum’s are always the boss.” He watched Kade slump with a smile. “But there’s plenty of animated Marvel series. I think we still have some on DVD. What about that? Would that work?”

The man watched Kade consider it with amusement, but seemed relieved when he finally nodded.

“You can come over and watch with me and Aidan,” Kade declared.

“C’mon, Kade, we better get you something with dietary fibre,” Peter said, getting to his feet, Aidan following suit.

“You just want me out of the way so Sen can talk to Mum on his own.”

“Busted,” Aidan said, steering him towards the buffet.

“Nice little pack you got going,” Sen said, watching them go. “You wanting to add to it?”

Did I? That question had so many permutations, it dizzied me.

“I…” I put my fork down and rubbed my face. “I got out of an abusive relationship only a few weeks ago. I’m still working out what I want.”

“Makes sense,” he said with a nod. “You’d have to know the matriarchs circulated that information. Would coming over there and sitting next to you be too much?”

“Um…”

“Why don’t you try it? See what you think, then if it makes you uncomfortable, you send me on my way.”

He sounded so reasonable, I found myself nodding along, then tracking his movements as he walked around the table. He pushed his plate towards mine, then straddled the bench seat, his knee almost touching my leg. He leaned on the table, picking up his fork and spearing a piece of bacon on it.

I just stared.

People had warned me that this was coming, that other guys would be making plays, but nothing had prepared me for the reality.

Sen looked like he should have been holding a bottle of high-end men’s cologne, shot in black and white and stuck in a fashion magazine, not sitting beside me, eating high cholesterol foods.

“So how does this feel?” he asked, then crunched on the food.

“Weird, and people are always asking me that.”

“Just weird?” he asked, leaning forward, slowly, surely, and watching me. His eyes danced, as if he dared me to disagree with him, playing a strange little game of chicken I was bound to lose.

Sure enough, I couldn’t take it. I trembled with the effort of holding still, breathing in his scent, feeling his proximity and the heat of his body.

“That’s too close. Gotcha.” He settled back into his previous position, picking at his food.

Too close? He seemed bloody nonchalant as my heart felt like it rebounded within the cage of my ribs, my breath coming in sharp little pants.

He’s just a man. If he does not please you, send him away , my Tirian said. There are many who wish to take his place. Find one that triggers you less.

Everyone and everything triggers me , I said, tossing my fork down on the table.

“Sorry, that didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted it to,” Sen said.

“Not your fault I’m a basket case,” I mumbled, keeping my eyes on the congealing food.

“Did I hear you say badass?” My eyes jerked sideways to see him grinning, but there was no teasing there. Rather, he gave me a respectful nod, like one would to an equal.

I snorted at that, then shook my head.

“What kind of badass freaks out when a strange guy gets close to her?”

“A warrior,” he said, the smile fading. “You fought the fucker who hurt the two of you and put him in his fucking place. You got some scars from it? Most fighters do.” He jerked the collar of his t-shirt down to show me a white scar across his collar bone.

“Got chomped by a beastie when we were on patrol.” He pulled up his sleeve to show me a long snaking scar down his bicep.

“Got knifed by a dickhead who didn’t want to go home when the bar closed.

” My heart rate slowed as I watched the show of tempting little glimpses of Sen’s body.

Somehow, the scars made him both hotter and more approachable.

Probably all part of his plan. “This one’s the worst. Nearly killed me.

” The smile faded as he pulled up the hem of his shirt to reveal cobblestone abs and a scar like an explosion site, frozen in ropes of pink keloid scarring.

“Fucking boar… The thing got his bloody great tusk into me. Tore me up good. You can touch it if you like.”

I’d leant forward, studying the damage without even realising it, moving into his space as he had mine, causing him to grin again.

That same challenging smile that belonged more on the face of some teenage boy, yet it pricked at me.

I placed a hand down on his stomach, to the right of his belly button, and felt the strangely slick feeling of the scar. Then it came.

That same warmth, it felt like sunlight on my skin, like being wrapped in a warm blanket, like the feel of fur between your fingers. It was weird and alienating, to feel something so intensely about someone I’d barely said two words to.

“What is that?” I said.

“Attraction,” he panted out, his smile failing and reinstating itself.

“Stronger than fucking normal.” He covered my hand with his, but removed it as soon as I pulled away.

“Look, I was gonna take this slower, but fuck it. Come out with me. Everyone reckons the boys have gotcha locked up in that house of yours. Come and see more of Sanctuary. I wanna get to know Kade a bit better, spend some time with your boys, but…”

His words fell away as he stared at me, drawing closer, then stopping himself.

“You don’t want me to touch you? I won’t. You want to go home at any point? I’ll take you there. Fuck, you can drive if you want. We don’t have much, but let me show it to you, Flick.”

There was a desperate edge to his voice that sat oddly with his male model visage, something that had my eyes jerking up and documenting his every reaction.

Because the view I’d built of myself did not include guys like him acting like this.

Because I’d lived under the petty tyranny of one guy, aided and abetted by others.

Because he was hot, because I liked the feel of him under my fingers.

Because it made me feel, for just a minute, powerful.

“This might be nothing. We might not like each other,” I said.

“I’m not asking for promises. I’m asking for an opportunity. Say yes, Flick.”

“So this is what it takes, does it?” a harsh voice broke in.

Both of our heads jerked up to see a tall sandy-haired guy standing at the opposite side of the table, a dark-haired guy standing beside him.

“That what Monster did, to get a chicky like you willing to climb Mount Everest? Showed you his boo boos? Got you hot under the collar?”

“Who the fuck are you?” I snapped out without thinking. Something inside me cringed at that, but I was willing to bet my eyes flashed green as I felt my Tirian shift inside me.

“We’re the warm up act, love, if you wanna tackle our boy without rupturing your cervix,” the dark-haired man said. “Darren, Brett.” He pointed to each of them in turn.

“These are friends of yours?” I asked Sen with a frown, already pulling away.

“Not mine,” he said, then nodded off to the left-hand corner of the shed.

Peter stomped over, his face like thunder, Kade and Aidan struggling to keep up. He nearly pushed a woman and her kids out of the way to get to us, and the effort it took to stop himself managed to calm him a little.

“You bloody idiots,” Sen said. “Turn around now and slink on back to whatever hole you crawled out of. This is not the way to get a woman to want to rehabilitate you two useless fucks.”

“Some like it all smooth and slick, like you, Senny, but if she likes our Monster, she likes all kinds of rough,” sandy hair said with a cocky grin. “Hey, Petey, mate.”

Peter had arrived by my side, standing to the left, his shadow covering me. Both men noted when his hand came to rest on my shoulder.

“Heard you found yourself a woman, Petey boy, but I could scarcely credit the stories,” sandy hair said before looking down at me. “So, lovely, and it appears we’re about to get to know each other a whole lot better.”

“Piss. Off.”

This was delivered in a low, terse tone, but people around us were starting to stare.

“Mum, what’s going on?” Kade said, wiggling through the crowd until he got to my side, but everyone looked at Peter. His hands had balled up into fists the size of boulders, and his words had apparently been forced out between clenched teeth.

“Getting all protective, Monster?” dark hair said. “You know how you get when you first catch a whiff of them. You want to keep your loveys all to yourself, but that’ll never work. She’s a pretty little thing. Wouldn’t want to hurt her now, would you?”

Hurt me? My neck was stiff when I turned to look at him, this ‘Monster.’ They were talking about Peter?

“You’re scaring her,” Peter growled, his nostrils working.

“No more than she will be when she looks at your—” dark hair said.

“Fuck off, Darren.”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Brett said with a frown.

He looked me over much more objectively.

“We’ve been out at the mines, but now we’re back.

Just because you got yourself a little dove in the big smoke, doesn’t change anything.

She’s still gonna need warming up, and we’re just the blokes to do it.

” His hands went to the hem of his shirt, pulling it up and over his head with a quick movement, then he tossed it onto the table.

His chest was a masterwork of muscle. In the old days of giggling over cocktails with my girlfriends, I’d have salivated over that perfect slab of man meat, but that was before.

I reached across the table and grabbed up a steak knife when he took a slow, swaggering step closer.

I'd been through too much to let myself be molested by a really rude Chippendale dancer.

“Darren! Brett!” All our eyes jerked up to see Ophelia striding across the floor. “What the bloody hell do you think you’re doing here?”

Brett straightened with an effort, trying to meet her burning gaze when she drew close but failing.

“We just?—”

“Did I, or did I not explicitly tell you to keep away from the married mess and Flick and her pack?”

“Yeah, but—” Darren said.

“No buts, no excuses, and none of that bizarre idea of friendship you seem determined to continue with. Sen, can you take these idiots over to the lock up for some thinking time?”

“Of course, alpha,” he said with a quick bow, walking around the table to grab the two strangers by the scruffs of their necks.

“Go, or begone from my settlement.”

The whole room went silent at the sound of her voice. It wasn’t loud or insistent, merely communicating what appeared to be an iron will, one which took all the fight out of the men. They went limp under Sen’s grip.

“I’ll be in touch, Flick,” Sen said before marching the two men out.

“Monster…?” Kade asked, his eyes narrowing. “Hurt Mum?”

“Now, look Kade…” Aidan said, putting a hand out as my son started to burr up. I yanked him back down to my lap, wrapping my arms around him to hold him still.

“No, I’d like to know the story behind that as well,” I said.

This was my mate? The man I’d chomped and tied myself to until the end of time or until I decided otherwise? What the hell had he done to get a name like that from men like them?

But he didn’t answer me. Instead, that stony look was directed at me, his nostrils flaring for a second before he turned on his heel and walked off.

“Well, I think it's safe to say that coming to the mess didn’t go well,” Aidan said.