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ACE

“ S o, these are the three pilot products: a pale ale, a rye whiskey, and a vodka.” The young man brandished his hands at the bottles lined up on the surface of the clubhouse bar. Each had a black label with silver block lettering that read NIGHT SHIFT DISTILLERY.

It was early evening. The clubhouse wasn’t open to the public yet, and Hawk had asked me to meet with him and this bearded businessman, Ryan.

At first, I had wondered why the hell we had given this scrawny, flannel-wearing kid a huge investment check, but as I peered at the bottles, I thought he might be onto something.

“We’ll test the markets, then expand our offerings depending on interest and sales,” Ryan continued. “We’ll start in New York, of course. I’ve already got a handful of interested bars.”

“Let’s see what you got,” Hawk said eagerly. “You think it’ll actually give us a buzz?”

“I know it will,” Ryan said. He uncapped the whiskey bottle and poured us each a finger of amber liquid. Standing behind the bar, he looked like a regular member of the clubhouse, despite his small size.

I raised the glass and took a sip. I expected to feel what I always felt when I had whiskey, which was a whole lot of nothing. It usually tasted sharp on my sensitive palate and made me alert, but didn’t bring a relaxing buzz with it.

This whiskey had a rich, smoky flavor, and a warm burn that ran all the way down into my chest. I sat the glass down and blinked at Ryan.

“Feel that?” Ryan said with a grin.

“Whoa.” Hawk stared slack-jawed into the glass. “That’s really good.”

“It’s a great mixer, too,” he said. “Whiskey ginger, negroni, old-fashioned… You can do anything with this rye. Now, the vodka’s not meant to be enjoyed neat, so let me fix you a cocktail.”

After the whiskey, a martini, and half of a delicious pale ale, I was feeling a buzz. I’d never been drunk before, and I had no intention of getting drunk now, but the loose warmth in my limbs told me I would be three sheets to the wind if I had anything else.

“This shit really works,” I said. “You really pulled this off.”

Ryan beamed. “As far as I understand shifter metabolism, it should still run through your system pretty quickly. You’ll be sober in a half-hour or so.

That’ll be good for sales, since dragons will be able to drink all night to maintain a steady buzz.

Good for us, too, since you’ll have to try really, really hard to drink enough to cause a hangover. ”

“A buzz and no hangover. This is a miracle.” Hawk looked between me and Ryan, awed. “We’re about to make a fucking killing.”

I shook Ryan’s hand firmly. “Good work. Let us know what support you need from the clan to start getting the product into test markets.”

“We should throw a little kickoff party here,” Hawk said. “The clan will love this.”

My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out and glanced at the lock screen. Unknown number. I frowned. Very few people in this world had my personal contact details. I left Hawk and Ryan at the bar to discuss the logistics of a kickoff party, and stepped outside onto the front porch.

“Hello?”

“Ace?”

“Who is this?”

“It’s Levi.”

Levi? The wolf who had caused all those problems with our last shipment? Why was Sean’s dog calling me? “What the fuck do you want?”

“I need to talk to you, Ace,” he said. “It’s about Sean.”

There was a quiver in Levi’s voice. I couldn’t detect lies through the phone, but there was something meek and unsure in his voice. Maybe Levi could give me some information about Sean’s plans.

And if worst came to worst, I could handle a stray dog.

“Meet me at Lola’s,” I said. “And come alone.”

I stepped back inside and intercepted a bottle of beer before Hawk could open it. “Bad timing,” I said. “We’ve got to go to Lola’s.”

“Now? Seriously?” Hawk asked. “Well, you’re driving.”

“If you need to sober up, you could run a quick experiment for me,” Ryan said with an embarrassed smile. “Shift and shift back? See if that clears it out? It’d be great information for our development team…”

Turned out Ryan was right. After a quick shift outside, I was stone-cold sober again, and Hawk was back to mildly buzzed instead of on his way to tipsy. Ryan scribbled furiously in a notebook and shouted his thanks as we left.

I drove the hour south to the tiny roadside diner attached to the gas station. Hawk got out, nostrils flaring as he glanced around the mostly vacant parking lot.

“Sense anything?” I asked.

“Not Sean,” he said. “Doesn’t seem like there’s any dragons out here at all.”

“Maybe Levi actually listened,” I said. “Let’s get this over with.”

The bell above the diner door jingled when I pushed it open. Inside, the diner was quiet, save for a few long-haul truckers dining at the counter and the cracked vinyl booths. In the far corner, with his back to the wall, Levi sat twisting his hands nervously in his lap.

I slid into the booth across from him, and Hawk sat next to me.

Levi glanced between us and worried his lower lip in his teeth.

He was never a very intimidating wolf, but he looked worse than I’d ever seen him.

His brown eyes were bloodshot, and his cheeks were sunken like he hadn’t eaten in weeks.

His dark hair was pulled into a stringy ponytail, and there was dirt on the cuffs of his beat-up leather jacket.

Hawk and I exchanged a look. What the hell was making Levi so jittery?

“I don’t have long,” Levi said. “Sean is supposed to get back tonight.”

“Get back from where?” I asked.

The waitress dropped off three mugs of coffee and raised her eyebrows at me. I shook my head slightly, and she nodded. If she left us alone, I’d leave her a fat cash tip when we were done here.

“Sean’s been making some bad business decisions,” Levi said. “He’s making really bad deals. And he’s gotten wrapped up with some terrible people. That’s what he’s doing now—he’s across the border trying to get in with some new dealers. The type that even Michel warned us off.”

I took a sip of my coffee. Could use a pour of whiskey in there. Maybe I could get Lola’s to keep a bottle of the Night Shift stuff for us. “I don’t see how that concerns me.”

“He’s not listening to me,” Levi continued. “Or anyone. He’s going to get himself killed.”

Neither Hawk nor I reacted, but I heard the cadence of Hawk’s heart pick up.

“You know that’s the outcome Michel wants, right?” I asked. “You and Sean have caused nothing but problems for Lakeview. Especially you. Why should I help you with this after you stole our last shipment?”

Levi’s eyes flashed briefly red with rage. My dragon snapped to alertness at the sensation of Levi’s wolf awakening in him. “I was following orders,” Levi snarled. “He blamed me for that, he said I was going rogue—why the fuck would I do that? How would going against you and Sean benefit me?”

“I had the same question,” Hawk said.

“That interference was on Sean’s orders,” Levi said. “It was his plan all along.”

I sat back in the booth and frowned at Levi. His wolf was still near the surface, awake and angry, but my dragon could sense the truth in his words. He wasn’t lying. He’d obeyed his master like a good dog.

Hawk glanced at me, and I nodded slightly in confirmation.

“Then why would he tell me otherwise?” I asked. “What was his goal?”

“That’s the thing,” Levi said. “I have no fucking idea. He’s been erratic, angry, restless.

He lashed out at me for that interference, and when I told him it was his orders, he acted like I was trying to usurp him!

He’s forgetting things. Losing time.” Levi grimaced.

“His dragon is pissed off. All the time. It’s impossible to handle him. ”

Levi wasn’t lying. He was embarrassed and furious, but he was speaking the truth. “Shit.” I raked a hand through my hair. “How bad is it? Really?”

Levi fell silent. His eyes, back to their normal muddy brown now, cut restlessly to the side.

“What is it?” Hawk pressed. “What’s happening?”

“His clan’s gone,” Levi said. “They’ve defected. Left town.”

My dragon huffed with frustration and something that felt dangerously close to sadness. For all the trouble Sean had caused, he was still my brother. My twin. And the thought of him entirely alone, without a clan, made smoke burn in my lungs.

“His behavior got to be too much for them,” Levi continued. “He’s been so fixated on taking control of Lakeview, but every time he tried anything, he kept getting shut down. The few dragons he had got tired of being outcasts.”

“So he’s even angrier now,” I said.

Levi nodded. “He thinks if he throws his hat in with some of the guys up north, he’ll have a better chance of taking control of your clan.”

Hawk and I shared another look. Those guys up north were not to be messed with.

The Canadian clan had already tried to take Lakeview’s territory once, when I was a young dragon and Sean was beginning to show signs of his first shift.

Dad had managed to beat them back, but it hadn’t been easy.

When I became alpha, I knew I had to be ready for another territory dispute.

“They won’t help him,” Hawk muttered to me. “If anything, they’re using him.”

Levi nodded in agreement. Of course, his sharp wolf ears caught every word. “I don’t think Sean’s meant to lead. I thought we’d stick together, being two loners, but…”

“Dragons can’t adjust like wolves can,” I said.

“Apparently not,” Levi said.

“What do you want us to do about it?” Hawk asked. “Why call us?”

I answered before Levi could. “Because Sean needs a clan. He’s losing his grip on reality without one.”

Levi nodded. “I can’t get through to him. And I’m sick of trying.”

Sean was an alpha dragon like me, but he was no longer a clan alpha. He had a bone-deep instinctual drive to lead, but nowhere to direct it. No clan to protect. He was an alpha without purpose. Aimless. And that aimlessness was eating away at him like a disease.