Blaze a mental note of that. “I’m sure you’ll remember it once you get used to it.”
“Not if I had to tend bar.” She pushed the door and made her way up his apartment’s stairs. “You have a hard job,” she said. “Between managing the bar and having all of the wolves coming to you for every little thing while you’re working, I have to wonder how the hell you don’t collapse from exhaustion.”
Blaze laughed. “I’m used to it. I’ve been doing it for so long, now it’s just part of everything.”
“I guess that makes some sense. I’m ready to pass out. Do you think I could steal some clothes to sleep in? I would sleep in the scrubs and your tee, but I smell like bar.”
She didn’t smell like a bar. She smelled like Astra. Her sweat was sweet and delicious to him, but he wasn’t about to tell her that. That would make him sound crazy to the mortal woman.
“Sure,” he gestured for her to follow him into the bedroom.
From his dresser, he pulled out a pair of boxers and a worn tee he had gotten in his college years. Astra took the clothes with a small smile and she headed to the bathroom to change. While she was getting ready for the night, he switched out the bed’s sheets. He had never had another woman in his bed, but that wasn’t why he was changing the linens. He was trying to be as chivalrous as he possibly could.
“What are you doing?” Astra asked as she came back into the bedroom.
“Getting your bed ready for sleep,” he answered.
Astra shook her head. “Oh, no. I can’t take your bed. That’s really too much. I already forced you to give me a job for the night. You should have your own bed.”
“I’ll sleep on the couch. It’s fine. I can’t even tell you how many times I've fallen asleep there after work. It’s comfortable.”
He saw her eyes taking in the bed as if she was calculating how much space she needed and how much space Blaze would take up. He was going to argue with her, but his phone rang. It was Carson, one of the wolves who ran perimeter checks when he and Jett were busy with the bar. He was a good second to Jett as enforcers went, and Blaze did consider Carson to be his third in command.
He excused himself and went to the kitchen to take the call.
“What’s up, Carson?” he said into the receiver.
“Alpha, we have an issue” came the response.
Blaze could feel his wolf snap to attention deep inside. “What’s happened?”
“There’s been an attack on pack lands,” Carson answered with bitter anger.
Blaze felt his skin tear, and it took all of his concentration not to shift into his wolf right there and then.
“Was anyone hurt?”
“No. No one was hurt.”
“Did you catch the culprit?”
“No, they were long gone by the time the boys and I did our perimeter checks. Humans, by the smell of them. They vandalized the community center with spray paint. We’ve got witch lover, heathen, and a few other things painted on the outside walls.
"They set up a pyre in the front yard and set fire to it. The flames did some damage to the playground equipment. We got the flames extinguished, and thankfully, it’s very late. None of the kids saw anything. They’ll just have a nasty surprise tomorrow when they can’t play on their jungle gym.
"I already spoke with some of the elders. We should have the community center back into shape in a couple days. We have a team tracking their scent, but it looks like they took a boat up the river into the pack lands.”
Blaze was listening very carefully, taking in everything he was hearing.
“Thanks, Carson. That all sounds good. I should come by and help you all clean it up.”
“No, Alpha. Don’t. This is clearly about the witches we’re helping. If you’re seen on pack lands, they might follow you back to the bar. Back to the witch.”
“Shit,” Blaze hissed. “You’re right. Take pictures of all of the damage and fill out a police report. Make sure that you send the information to Axel, the sheriff up in Salem. He’ll need to know all of this when it comes time to put charges on these fuckers.”
“Yeah, okay. Should I let Jett know this has happened?”
Blaze thought for a second. This would make Jett furious. This was a security breach and Jett prided himself on keeping any threats away from the pack. The wolf might decide to leave Selene unprotected and go deal with this on his own.
“No,” he answered, “don’t tell him. I’ll do it in the morning. Keep me posted of any new developments. Spread the word that no one is to roam the lands alone, even in wolf form. I’m establishing an official buddy system. That goes for all you doing perimeter checks, got it? No one goes off alone. The witch hunters are armed, and I know they have no problem shooting a gun.”
Blaze gave Carson a few more orders before tucking his phone into his back pocket. How had the Order of Salem found the Marblehead pack lands? Unless Selene had done magic while she was at Jett’s cabin. It seemed the murderous lunatics had caught on that there was a connection between the witches and the wolves.
“Is everything okay?” Astra asked. Her bare feet made a slapping sound against the floor as she came to stand in front of him. She put a small hand to his arm. “You look really mad.”
“There was an attack on the pack lands.” He went on, giving her a very brief and condensed version of what he had just learned from Carson.
Astra gasped and shook her head. She looked down, shame and fear scenting the air. “I am so sorry,” Astra whispered. “We’re putting so many people in danger by letting you all protect us. We should have just taken care of it ourselves.”
“Hey, no. None of that.” Blaze took her in his arms and squeeze her tightly.
“Witch lover?” she said against his chest. “Why do you think they wrote that? They caught on that the wolves are helping us, and now your pack and Axel’s pack will be in danger.”
“Not one of us wolves regrets taking you Bishops in, do you understand me?”
“But—”
“No. You can’t argue with me about this. This is as much our fight as it is yours. And I don’t mean because our…gifts make for better fighters. I mean it because if these witch hunters have an issue with witches, then I can guarantee they will have an issue with shifters. Turning into an animal at will is just as unusual as you doing magic.”
“Well, sure. It still doesn’t make this right.”
“These people are unhinged. It’s clear. I don’t want you feeling guilty. None of this is on you or your family. The Order of Salem is made up of people who are adults, who can make their own decisions. They’re choosing to do bad things. It’s their choice, and you have no control over that.”
Astra nodded, but Blaze could tell that she still felt guilty. It wasn’t just the sad look on her pretty face. It was also the slightly uncomfortable smell emanating from her.
Blaze had no idea how to make her feel better with his words, so he did the best thing he could think to do.
He wrapped his arms around Astra’s waist and held her close to him. He took a deep inhale, letting the smell of her skin, of her shampoo, fill his lungs. It made him feel drunk, and it made his wolf react. The animal was pacing inside his mind, begging to be let out.