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“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.
