Page 37 of Shifter Omegaverse AU

“My brother’s coming,” Rowan murmured, and Milo straightened up, pulling their arm back down to their side.

“Oh, don’t let me interrupt,” Ruben said, the corner of his lip turning up into a half-smile that looked closer to a grimace.

“You’re not interrupting,” Rowan said, even though the cold air on his back said otherwise. “Actually, I’d like to introduce you to my friend, Milo.”

Ruben’s smile evened out, and some of the rougher angles his body had been holding all night seemed to smooth over. “Oh shit, is this the friend?”

“The one and only…literally,” Rowan said, taking a swig from his beer.

“And you must be the brother,” Milo said, holding out a hand for Ruben. “I guess I should actually be thanking you for introducing us. It’s thanks to you being so late for your movie with Rowan that we ended up meeting.”

Ruben’s smile turned goading as he accepted Milo’s hand, and Rowan sighed loudly. “Please don’t encourage him.”

“No, no, feel free to thank me some more. That might be the only attention I get tonight."

Milo tipped their head to the side and batted their pale lashes. “And why’s that? Is the infamous playboy striking out?”

Rowan’s hawk let out a cry that sounded suspiciously like a laugh.

“I see my good name precedes me!” Ruben said, somehow managing to smirk at Rowan while simultaneously leaning across the bar to flag down Hank.

Rowan cleared his throat, putting on his “responsible brother” voice, as Raina liked to call it. “Is everything okay?”

“Fine,” Ruben gruffed before lifting his chin at Hank. “Can I get three waters?”

“Coming right up,” Hank said, setting out three flimsy-looking plastic cups and grabbing the soda gun.

If it were up to Rowan, he would have let the subject drop, but Milo made a “go on” gesture with their hand behind Ruben’s back.

“Are you sure everything’s okay?” Rowan pressed.

Ruben grabbed the first cup of water when it was only half full and chugged it, wiping the back of his mouth with his hand before putting it back down in the row of cups to be filled again. Hank didn’t even blink, just continued filling them up.

“Yeah, I’m just having an off night. This big guy I was dancing with pissed me off. Didn’t seem to understand the word no.”

The sound of the soda gun cut off, and tobacco and gin surrounded them once again. “Which guy?”

Ruben looked Hank up and down before turning to the dance floor. “Let me see if he’s still…ahh, yup, there he is. With the cute little black-haired shifter.”

Milo whipped around so fast, something in their back cracked. “Ray!”

“Alright, hang tight, Milo. I’ll call security,” Hank said, pulling a walkie-talkie off his belt.

From the limited time Rowan had known Milo, he knew there was a next-to-zero chance they would “hang tight” when it came to Ray.

They pushed off from the bar, but before they could get more than a few steps away, Ruben grabbed their wrist. “I’m assuming that Ray guy is a friend of yours? Trust me, you’re better off leaving it to the bouncers. It looks like he’s doing okay right now.”

Milo attempted, fruitlessly, to shake off Ruben’s hand. “I think I’ll be the judge of that, thanks.”

Ruben sighed loudly. “Rowan is really not going to like it if you get into a fight in the club, especially not one that I could have prevented if I’d said something sooner. It’s my fault; let me handle this.”

While Ruben definitely wasn’t wrong, he also wasn’t completely right. “I’d rather you not get in a fight, either,” Rowan said. “I can go—”

Ruben and Milo said no at the same time, in almost the exact same pitch and volume. They turned to look at each other, and before Rowan’s eyes, it was like some sort of truce was reached.

“If things go south—” Milo tried to say.

“I’ll wave or something,” Ruben said, releasing Milo and darting past them onto the dance floor.