“I hadn’t even finished my first drink when a commotion exploded in the bar. Yelling and tussling—I ignored it at first, because it had nothing to do with me and I didn’t know anything about this town. I didn’t want to get thrown in jail or held up by some mage. But it quickly became apparent that the situation was no good. If there was law in the town, it wasn’t stepping in like it should.”
“What was the problem?”
“A young shifter—a fox—was being used for sport. Instead of being chased by fat men on horses with dogs, he was being hunted by a pack of young wolf shifters in a training exercise. The fox kid ducked into the bar to get help, and the organizers of the hunt wanted to get him out and get him running so the wolves could track and tackle him.”
“Tackle him?”
“It’s a nice way of saying what they actually do. After tackling.”
I grimaced in horror. “That’s legal?”
“No, it’s outlawed, but some organizations don’t want to change their customs and don’t much worry about the outside world. As I watched, I recognized the majority of the people in the bar were clearly uncomfortable but doing nothing. They were afraid to stand up for the kid. They were afraid to create waves with the organization. Organizations like that have money and power. Their influence is far reaching.”
“You found a way to get out of the slow lane,” I surmised.
His gaze found mine, something unreadable in their depths. “Exactly. I found a worthy outlet. And I ran at it with all my pent-up aggression. I…sent a strong message. A message I knew would be received badly. I stuck around, waiting for the organization to come to town and quell my uprising. When they came, they came hard. Harder than I’d expected. Not harder than I could handle, though. I met the challenge. I lost myself to it.”
He paused, staring out at the water. I waited in silence, knowing he needed to tell his story. Given he had no friends, and he was a gruff man clearly slow to trust, I doubted he’d talked about this before.
“The fight was vicious. It was brutal. They brought shifters and mages—I was outnumbered twelve to one. But I had a lot of pain I needed to work through. A lot of uncertainty in my past. Hell, I’m unbalanced. I told you. I let my dark side, as you called it, have free rein.”
“What happened?” I asked softly.
“I didn’t send them to the hospital. I sent them to the morgue. Every last one of them. I made a statement.”
“And that ended it?”
He chuckled darkly. “Nope. They sent more for the second wave, asking for my head on a spike. Offering a reward for it. By this time, my name was being circulated around the shifter community. People were talking. Word reached my brother, and he offered to send aid.” He shook his head. “But by that time, fire burned deep within me. I’d found…a purpose. I’d found a place where I was needed. But I’d also found some peace. I faced the second wave alone again, but this time I offered a way out. They could go in peace, as long as they left the corrupt organization that employed them, or they could stay and fight and find their own heads on spikes. Half walked away. The other half…”
“Please tell me you didn’t actually put their heads on spikes.”
“No. I’m not that sort of man. But I did maim them for life. I didn’t kill anyone, but I made sure they’d never fight again. The organization they came from wasn’t so kind.”
“Do not tell me they sent more.”
“No. That was it. I then made it clear to the town that it was time for change. Be kind to your neighbor, or get the hell out. I got shot in the back a couple of times, but eventually things settled down.”
“You got shot in the back?”
“I heal quickly. Because magic.”
Niamh’s nightmare alicorn form flashed through my head. Rainbow Bright meets Halloween. I wasn’t about to argue with his ability to heal quickly. Or any other weird thing I ran into. I was officially naive again, needing to learn this new world from the ground up. If I’d wanted to start over, I was certainly doing that.
“And that cemented your reputation?” I asked. Dawn had lightened the sky to a deep blue color nearly matching Austin’s eyes.
“It started it, for sure. Over the years I’ve cemented it. People talk. The stories grow bigger and bigger with each telling. It wasn’t until I’d lived in the town for a while that I learned about Ivy House. I thought the rumors were tall tales until I met Niamh. Even then I took a lot of it with a grain of salt. Turns out those tales weren’t so tall. Barely even did the situation justice, actually, if Elliot Graves is interested.”