Page 19 of Savage Claim

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?” He winked as he passed me another whisky. “I’m a terrific listener.”

The panther shifter ran his long fingers through his silky ebony strands, his honey irises glittering under the row of lights dangling over the length of the bar. His gray t-shirt stretched over his thick, corded arms as he leaned against the glossy counter, gouges from shifters ripped into the wood.

If my heart didn’t belong to the asshole demon shifter, I could have fallen for Dante’s smooth charm. He was sexy, with a smile that melted hearts. And panties.

“I’m good,” I said, sighing and staring into my drink. “Just having one of those nights.” Ha! Having one of those lifetimes was more like it.

“Wave me down if you change your mind.”

I wouldn’t but nodded anyway.

The bartender sauntered away and rained his attention on a group of female coyotes at the other end of the bar.

Lunar Souls, the shifter bar on the outskirts of historic Savannah, posed as a private establishment to keep humans out. The only membership needed were teeth, fur, and claws. Technically, I didn’t have the fur, but they didn’t know that. As I’d walked toward the door, the bouncer sensed shifter and let me in.

“The head alpha will lose his position if he doesn’t find another mate.” A tall woman with blonde ringlets running down her back leaned against the counter a few feet away, waiting for Dante to look in her direction.

The brunette next to her sipped the last of her fruity cocktail. “He’s heartbroken, Greta. You don’t just get over losing your fated. It doesn’t matter how long ago it was.”

Greta rolled her eyes. “He’s an alpha, the freaking head alpha of Georgia. It’s his duty, Jasmin. He looks weak without a mate by his side.”

“You’re just sour he turned you down.” Jasmin smirked as crimson blossomed in her friend’s cheeks. “You wanted to be the shifter queen of Georgia.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Greta tapped her long nails on the bar. “Besides, I realized being his mate would come with too many responsibilities.”

Another female planted herself on Greta’s other side, closer to me. “Barric turned you down because he’s a snob.” She laid her purse on the bar and took out a tube of lipstick, using the mirror along the opposite wall to reapply it. “He would never mate with a bitten shifter.”

Jasmin peeked around Greta to glare at the other girl. “Kerri, don’t believe those stupid rumors. Some jealous skank probably started them.”

My brows furrowed as I listened to their conversation and doodled on a cocktail napkin, Kerri’s claim echoing Knox’s. In Heldrok, the wolf shifter said that Barric treated shifters who were bitten and turned differently than born ones.

I hadn’t noticed anything like that. Barric could be harsh, but he’d always been fair. He didn’t seem like the prejudiced type. Plenty of bitten wolves were in his pack. Hell, he believed I was bitten.

Maybe Jasmin was right, and someone started rumors about him to hurt his reputation.

When Dante returned to check on me, his bright smile dropped as he looked at my drawing of a tree with twisting branches and roots within a circle. “Don’t go flashing that thing around here,” he hissed under his breath and flattened his hand over the napkin.

My head snapped back. “Do you know what that is?”

His eyebrows shot up. “If you don’t know what it is, why are you drawing it?”

“I’ve just seen it before—doing some research on shifter history,” I lied. “But I haven’t found any information on it.”

“You wouldn’t.” Dante glanced around to ensure we didn’t have an audience and leaned forward. “It belonged to a group of shifters called The Collective Hunt, or just The Collective, who believed only born shifters were worthy and any humans turned with a bite were mutilations of the bloodline.”

My skin chilled as Dante’s words collided with the females’ conversation about Barric. Why would this symbol be on the head alpha’s painting and on the page recording his son’s death?

Barric couldn’t believe that bullshit. Why would he protect me if he did?

Dante’s head dropped forward so that our noses almost touched. “The Collective was destroyed decades ago, but some believe it still exists in secret. No one knows who’s involved, though. There could even be people in this very bar, bonding over their hatred for turned shifters.”

Ice continued to crystallize in my veins as a conspiracy theory emerged. Was it just a coincidence that the missing shifters were all bitten?

A tingle suddenly slithered over my back, and the tattoo on my neck crackled. I didn’t need to look over my shoulder to know who just walked into Lunar Souls. Hushed murmurs circulated as the demon shifter’s presence demanded attention. The women’s conversation halted, their gazes following the domineering creature across the bar.

Dante drew away, his charming grin in place as he balled the napkin up and tossed it in the trash. “Ready for another one?” He was the only person oblivious to the approaching beast.

Two powerful arms slid around either side of me, tattooed hands pressing into the bar. “That won’t be necessary. I’ll pay her tab now.”

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