Page 59 of The Dragon's Mate

“Good. Thanks for looking after Tyler andCorey on Thursday. I appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome. Hey, do you know whoCeline Dion is?”

Bren blinked at him. “Yeah, why?”

Ronin grinned. “No reason. You want a -”

“Holy shit.”

Ronin followed Bren’s gaze. A man had walkedout of the house and into the yard. He was massive in size, standing overseven feet tall and his body was thick with muscle. He joined a curvydark-haired woman talking to a wolf shifter named Porter and Porter’s human mateMaggie and slid his arm around her waist before bending and kissing her briefly.

“That’s Hudson. He’s built like a brickshithouse, isn’t he?” Ronin said with another grin.

“What kind of shifter is he?”

“Polar bear. He’s a bartender over at Bud’sBar. I take it you’ve never been to the bar. Hudson’s kind of hard to miss.”

“A few times for work when I was a beat copand then when the original owner, Bud, was murdered,” Bren said. “I hear it’smore friendly to humans now that Porter owns the place.”

“Yeah, a little, but it’s still mostly shifterswho go there,” Ronin said.

“So, heal anyone lately by crying on them?”Bren asked.

The phoenix shifter burst into laughter. “Notlately. It’s been a slow few weeks.” He clapped Bren on the back. “Can I getyou a beer?”

“Sure.”

“Be right back.”

Ronin walked away. Bren stood awkwardlynear the back fence staring at the mixture of shifters and humans scattered throughoutthe yard. Kaida wasn’t among them. Maybe she was in the house?

Do you think she actually came to theparty? You saw the way she looked this morning after Elora reversed the potion.She looked sick to her stomach, didn’t she? And she couldn’t wait to get awayfrom you. She’s not going to show up.

No, she probably wouldn’t and that made hima complete idiot. He didn’t want to admit to himself that he’d only come tothe party in the hopes of seeing Kaida, but it was kind of hard to ignore when hewas nearly vibrating with anticipation of seeing her.

She’s not going to show.

“Bren?”

He turned and held out his hand. “HappyBirthday, Bishop.”

“Thanks.” The grizzly shifter shook his handbefore handing him a beer. “This is from Ronin.”

Bren took the beer with a nod of thanks. “Lookslike the party is going well. Lots of people.”

Bishop glanced around the yard. “Yeah,that’s because of Ava. I didn’t have a lot of friends before I met her.”

“Kaida mentioned you’ve been friends sinceyou were kids.” Bren asked.

“Yeah,” Bishop finally said after an awkwardsilence.

“Good, that’s good,” Bren replied, heat driftingup the back of his neck.

They drank their beer in silence for aminute or two before Bren said, “So, I haven’t seen Kaida. Is she, uh, still comingto the party?”

“You need to stay away from her,” Bishopsaid.

Irritation painted the edges of Bren’svision a pale red. “Is that right?’

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