Page 91 of Partnering with the Artist

I…do not know what to do with this.

The moment I saw him, a slice of dread ripped through my stomach.

Now that he’s…publicly…in front of four world-renowned household names…sniffingat me…I’m just a little crippled by…second-hand embarrassment?

“Step back, chihuahua,” Lukas murmurs. “If you bite someone and haven’t had your shots, we’ll need to crack open your skull and take out a bit of your brain to see if it’s got rabies.” His fingers flex at his sides. “Assuming, of course, you’ve got enough brain left in there to sample.”

Harry grips the flute glass he’s holding as his eyes narrow. “Watch your mouth. I deserverespect. You have no idea what it’s like, knowing you were born to bemorebut you were stuck in human flesh.”

“You’re so right. I don’t know what that’s like at all.” Turning to me, Lukas asks, “Can I snap his legs now?”

“No,” Viktor mutters.

Harry growls some more and tosses a couple barks out before waving his free hand at me. “I’ve business with that woman! We dated foryears. She was my fiancée, before my awakening. I don’t know what she’s told you or done to convince you to bring her here, but she’s here because ofme. She’s obsessed with me.” He forces a shudder that rocks his whole body. “It’s disgusting. If only her soul were more like mine, I could have added her to my pack. But she’ll never understand.”

“Your pack?” Zakery interjects. “Don’t you mean yourharem?”

“Myfamily. Who understands and respects me.” Harry tosses his nose in the air, not at all like a giraffe. “As theiralpha.”

“Cringe,” Kyran mutters, ignoring most everything, and playing…I think that’s snake? on his phone. Kyran is playing snake.io on his phone right now. That is how little Harry matters.

Scanning Harry up and down his cheap tux, I clasp my hands against the skirt of my gown. It’s probably rented, unless MoonWoof saw fit to buy him one. Where is MoonWoof anyway? She’s big enough to have gotten an invitation to this gathering, so that must mean she’s got the sensenotto antagonize the Bachelors, right? Maybe she needs to collar her, um,alpha.

“Well, Maelin?” Harry snaps. “Are you going to explain yourself?” He scoffs. “If you’rethisobsessed with me, you could have begged to join my pack. I may have made an exception, let you be my omega and tend to us. You never were very obedient when we were together, though.” Something thoroughly demented and the opposite of attractive slips into his eyes. “Have you had a change of heart? Admit you were being idiotic every time you turned down your alpha, and I’ll consider taking you back so you don’t have to chase me.”

“Um.” I clear my throat, try again, stronger, so Harry can hear me as I deliver a message of utmost wisdom and import: “No.”

“What? You ungrateful—”

Zakery steps forward when Harry swears. “I wouldn’t talk to the princess like that if I were you.”

Harry snarls, like a man who has quite thoroughly lost his mind. By comparison, adding over a dozen layers of tulle to my dress was sane. “Who are you to tell me what to do?”

Simply, Zakery says, “Hers.”

Disgust riots through Harry’s being, and he takes Zakery in, narrowing his eyes. “Did she make you wear that? Soflowery. It’s clear you’re not an alpha like me.”

“Thank—” Zakery swears. “—I’m nothing like you.”

Snarling and barking some more, Harry lifts his flute glass to throw it.

Before I can blink, Lukas grabs Zakery’s shoulder, jerks him back toward me, and wraps his grip around the slender pedestal of Harry’s glass. Silence buzzes in my ears as Zakery catches his footing on the edge of my skirt.

Zakery doesn’t get a chance to step off my hem. The glassexplodes. Shards and drink erupt to run down Lukas’s hand as lethal promise vibrates in his voice. “I’ll let you choose, little runt…should I breakbothyour legs, or one and an arm?”

Viktor cusses under his breath, but he doesn’t stop his brother. He merely flags down security while Harry…wets himself.

Two men in all black with dark glasses and earpieces approach. One separates Harry from the rest of us while the other addresses Lukas. “Sir, is there a problem here?”

“Yeah,” Lukaspurrs. “I don’t think this little pup was housetrained.”

“I— I’m being harassed,” Harry croaks, like a big strongalpha man (clearly). “H-elp me.”

The security guard talking to Lukas glances at Harry, promptly returning his attention to people with functioning brain cells. “Mr. Bachelor, sir, I’m terribly sorry about this. We’ll take care of it.”

The other security guard grips Harry by the scruff of his suit coat, then presses the button of his earpiece. “I need cleaning service. There’s been an…accident. Literally.” Bowing toward the Bachelors, he then says, “Terribly sorry, sirs. They let anyone into these things these days…”

Leaving his partner to monitor the mess, the other guard drags Harry—kicking and screaming and barking and howling for his “luna”—away.

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