Little Red (Twisted Dark, #4)

Chapter Twenty-Four: Family Matters

I looked at the giant walls the portal orb had spit us out in front of and raised an eyebrow. "Overcompensating or what?" I gestured at the giant walls and Lyxton shrugged, shaking his shaggy hair from his face. I had to force myself to look away from him. It wasn't entirely my fault, the werewolf was made to be looked at. With those earrings, tattoos, and an abundance of muscles, he was fucking eye candy. Which didn't help my feelings at all. I was still fucking pissed off that he was on his 'you're gunna be my breeder' kick he had going on. If had wanted to have a casual fling, that was one thing. Wanting to hitch himself to my 'I'm not going to have kids' wagon was a completely different thing.

I knew how werewolves worked. Three instincts, the three big F's. Feed. Fight. Fuck. And with fucking came babies, it was how their damned internal Instinct worked. If Lyxton wasn't having issues with it by now, he would be shortly. He would end up fucking off and I wasn't in the mood to share. So there was nothing good that could happen between us. We had sex, that was where it ended. It was bad enough I got pissed when handsy patrons groped him, things were getting too far too fast and I knew when I had to bail.

"Thinkin' hard there, Red." He said it low and almost conversationally.

"You finish with the plumbing and then you're out of my life, mutt." I said it lightly before stalking towards the large open gates. He needed to leave because I was getting attached. It was really really hard not to. He was attractive, could fuck like a god, and he liked chaos. That was too much of a home run. So I had to oust him from my life and quick.

"Done with how I lay pipe? Can't say there were any complaints last night." His tone was utterly cocky and it was enough that I wanted to cuff him upside the head so when he caught up I didn't hesitate. I relished in the crack of my hand against the back of his head.

"Shut the fuck up." I said it with a rather up beat tone as I threw him a brittle smile that dared him to push me more than he was. He just grinned in return and winked at me before he moved through the large gates. He sauntered into the rather crowded compound and I cursed as I followed in his wake.

People called out greetings to him and he waved in return or nodded and I pulled my hood up before shoving my hands into my hoody's pockets. The weremales were looking at me, I could feel it and didn't exactly appreciate it. In my bar the stupid feud between witches and weres was non-existent. People came to get drunk and fuck shit up, and that was it. Here in werewolf Territory? I had no fucking clue how they would react. I hadn't just popped out a set of twins so I wasn't sure if there would be hostility.

I carefully glanced around and became aware of just how big of a disparity there was between males and females. I could only spot one or two females total in the crowds. Certainly a tiny amount compared to the dozens upon dozens of males I was spotting. I kept half an eye on Lyxton, knowing it was better to follow him than to get lost in the crowd. There were loud cheers and they only grew louder the further we moved into the compound and the crowd grew thicker. It got to the point where even Lyxton was using his elbows to shove through and I figured I had to as well as the crush of bodies around me got a bit too tight.

We came out to the edge and someone called out Lyxton's name and I spotted Violet's male. He was standing up, with his arms held wide, from a large table that had been set in front of a rather large brass statue of what I believed to be the werewolves' moon goddess. I spotted Violet sitting down, cradling one of her babies to her chest. I blinked in surprise as I spotted Aunt Hestia, in her silver haired glory, sitting beside her. Her usually stern and severe manner was relaxed and warm as she looked at Violet, talking to her with a motherly and rather excited smile. Violet herself looked flushed with pleasure at the attention my great aunt was giving her and I found a small smile on my face as I watched them.