“Oh wow, interesting,” Sebastian said, watching Austin with thinly veiled fascination. He’d realized the same thing.
“Get out of the bar, Jess,” Austin growled, putting out his hand to nudge Paul to the side. Donna, the cute twenty-something bartender who’d turned into a rat to induct me into the magical world, had already scattered, leaving Austin alone behind the bar.
“Ye’ll want to clear away now, lad.” Niamh nudged Sebastian before standing, her full glass clutched in her hand. She didn’t leave drinks behind. “They’re about to make bags of the bar.”
Sebastian rose, his movements surprisingly unhurried, and followed Niamh to the side as the menace from the back worked its way forward, one guy at the front, two flanking him, and three more at their backs. People had stepped aside for me earlier, sensing my mood and knowing my power, but now they were tripping over each other in their haste to clear the way for this crew. They poured into the pool room or out of the front door.
“Jess, get out of here,” Austin said, and I felt the command down to my toes.
It took everything I had to stay put.
“No.”
I stood tall, back to the bar, watching the tide of muscle coming toward us. Those in the back of the group topped Austin’s six-foot-two frame by a few inches, but their thick bodies were layered over with fat. The man in front was made of iron. Pecs popped under his tight black shirt and robust thighs strained his snug trousers. Those to his sides were shorter and stockier, blocks of muscle with smooth grace. They’d be trouble in a fight.
Adrenaline coursed through me, followed by fear. The fear of the woman I’d been rather than the woman I’d become. This was always the way before action. I’d snap out of it. Usually I had Ivy House at my back, but Austin would do just fine in a tight squeeze. If worse came to worst, I knew Niamh could change into her second puca form, the horrible little goblin with razor-sharp teeth. That thing loved tight spaces.
“You have a pretty little territory here, Austin.” His use of Austin’s name rather than his title was an insult. A challenge. “Thanks for setting it up for me.”
“Bit early to move in.” Austin put a hand onto the bar and launched himself over it, sticking the landing right next to me. He took a step forward before reaching back, his hand connecting with my hip and then tucking me in behind him.
I wrapped my hand around his arm and pushed, but it didn’t budge. Luckily, I didn’t need to be face to face with these guys to work my magic.
“I’ve barely mapped everything out,” Austin said.
The guy to the leader’s right, a guy whose buzzcut drew attention to his pinhead, smirked at me as I peered out from behind Austin’s broad back.
“Looks like he’s got a mate all picked out for you, too, alpha,” Pinhead said. “Pretty, but you’d better bed her quick if you want heirs—”
Austin moved so fast that I jumped. With a vicious growl, he grabbed Pinhead by the shirt, and in a show of savage aggression that had the guys in the back widening their eyes, he slammed his fist into Pinhead’s face three times in quick succession before lifting him and throwing him into the wide-eyed guys.
The leader barely had time to flinch before Austin was on him, one hand at his throat, the other at his nuts. He squeezed, and a strangled, high-pitched shriek barely made it past the guy’s lips. Austin used him as a club, swinging and hitting the last man standing, knocking him toward the bar. Another step forward, and Austin threw the leader against the wall so hard that the entire building shook. He was on him again a moment later, pummeling him with a fist before lifting him, swinging him, and throwing him out through the door.
The three guys pushed Pinhead off and struggled to their feet.
Too late.
Austin was like a tornado of rage and power and destruction, touching down on them before hurling them out through the door, one after the other. The guy that had staggered into the bar tried to crawl out, desperate to get away, but Austin delivered a few more strikes before evacuating him.
Pinhead was left cowering on the ground, a dark stain down the insides of his pants.
“Please, alpha.” He lifted his hands over his head. “Please, alpha.”
Austin stalked toward him like a wild thing, savage and untamed. Blistering rage burned in his eyes, and a killer’s grace sang in every movement. The predator had sighted his prey.
“You dare disrespect her?” His voice was not his own, fueled by the darkness within him.
Austin grabbed Pinhead by the throat and held him above the ground, his feet dangling.