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Chapter One

"Whoa there, little lady"

Maria stopped, scrabbling to hang on to the tray loaded with beer bottles and glasses, to find the asshat who’d been bugging her all night standing in front of her He was hu, and in the Shifter bar for kicks

Maria had labeled him asshat the second he’d walked in the door, for two reasons First, he’d strolled in with his friends in his greasy jeans and baseball cap, unshaved whiskers, and attitude He was huht--over these Shifters and the little human Maria as there to serve him

Second, Maria called him asshat, because Ellison liked that word, and she liked Ellison

"You bringing those tocountry song playing on the old-fashioned jukebox "None of that Mexican beer crap, right?"

"Your order’s conity "This is for them" She jerked her chin at a cluster of Lupine Shifters in the corner, one faood ti Take it to our table"

Maria stood her ground "Not yet"

"You talking back to me, bitch? Someone needs to teach you a lesson"

With a practiced hand, the ed the tray upward fro on to it, but the tray becalasses slid off to land in a spectacular crash on the floor Beer fountained over Maria’s black leggings, glass skittering past her sneakers The asshat danced back, laughing

Right into a tall Shifter in jeans and a button-down shirt, with honey-colored hair, wolf-gray eyes, and a body that bulked above the hue hand, tanned by Texas sun, landed on the human’s shoulder

The music from the jukebox ran down, and the Shifter’s slol sounded over the last strains "I think you need to apologize to the lady, son"

Ellison’s grip on the man’s shoulder looked loose and relaxed, but Maria saw the asshat flinch, his pale eyes widening "Stupid cluhtened "Wrong answer," he said in his fine Texas baritone "You go on over to the bar and pay for as on that tray, then you and your friends get on out of here"