Page 65 of Mage Massacres

We were all going through withdrawals of some sort, missing our usual activities.

We walked around the backside of the small cafe as we stepped out of the frigid winds of the Void. I hadn’t adjusted to the time change yet, and I was desperate for breakfast. It may have been well into the lunchtime hustle in Northern Ireland, but it was early morning in Nashville. My body was still stuck in Central Standard Time.

Thankfully, the cafe wasn’t too busy on Thursdays. Had we waited a day to visit, we’d have hit the weekend rush. I could honestly say the food here was worth the wait, though.

We were seated immediately, and I wasted no time scanning the menu. Once I decided on a meal, I waited for everyone to set their menus down before I asked Barbie the question that had been searing a hole in the back of my mind.

“How did everything work out with Miller’s problem?”

Sloane smiled for a moment before shrugging. “Felix is dead. I would bloody my hands a hundred times over to bear witness to the end of the LaBlanc family line. They were all poisonous.”

She turned to Palmer. “Did you know about her mates?”

“I know about Korbin,” he admitted, furrowing his brows. “There’s another?”

“Two,” Stone confessed, gaining Barbie’s full attention.

“Two more? Not two total?”

“The other guys at our table last night?” York prompted Sloane. “Those were her mates.”

“She hasn’t met Zephyr yet. I didn’t ask him why he was staying away, though.” Stone grimaced at the missed chance.

Barbie smiled politely at the waitress as she asked to take our orders. We could see her mulling over the information, but she wouldn’t speak until the human had made her way around the table and walked away from us.

“I was curious about who they were,” Sloane admitted, studying the waitress’s back. “She knew Farris would be there.”

“Wait.” Novak waved his hand. “Farris? Farris Reynolds is Millie’s mate?”

“Yeah.” She rolled her eyes. “He keeps telling her that he needs to stay away to keep her out of danger, but he knew about Felix. I’m all for handling my own business. I just can’t understand how he stood back and watched that asshole threaten her. He knew there was an issue, knew that she was struggling to deal with it, yet he didn’t intervene.

“Doesn’t matter anymore. Felix is dead. She did a great job. Her mates can rest easy knowing that she’s no longer a victim.” She shook her head. “I think…”

“What are you thinking?” I asked cautiously, waiting for the smoke to pour from her ears.

Her brow creased. “I think between you, me, and Palmer, we should be able to fix the misunderstanding with the lycans and her other mate.”

“That’s not a misunderstanding, Love,” Palmer told her softly. “Korbin’s parents are tyrants when it comes to his decisions. They’re all about the good of the pack.”

Barbie pursed her lips, and I could see the gears in her mind speed up as she worked some of the finer details out. Finally, she straightened her shoulders, a wicked grin playing across her lips.

“Did you know that, despite keeping themselves isolated from the rest of the shifters, lycans still fall under that umbrella? And…” She held her hands out as she shrugged again. “We happen to know the Supreme Alphas.”

“We are very partial to Miller,” I added, catching onto her idea.

Palmer nodded, then shook his head quickly. “Ya can't demand that they—”

“I’m not going to demand anything. Briggs and I could simply stress that we’ve heard he’s the mate to the new Guild apprentice. It would be beneficial for us to strengthen the ties between the packs and the guild beyond the mating between the three of us.

“Not only would their heir be a powerful lycan alpha on his own... Imagine how capable he would be with allies like us? Better yet, imagine how strong he would be with someone as powerful as Miller by his side?”

“I like where you’re going with that, but what if they don’t bite?” I questioned.

“Then we demand. I’m not above killing them to prove a point.”

We all grew quiet as the waitress delivered our food. As soon as we were witness-free, and I’d had my first mouthful of grits and bacon, I spoke up.

“No. We’re not killing the alpha to prove a point, Barbie.”