About Face (Wolf Within)

by Amy Lee Burgess

  He turned to snarl at Declan, but I put a hand on his arm. No one needed to fight my battles for me, fuck that.

  I looked straight into Declan Byrne’s vivid blue eyes. “I answered that question for the Councils at my tribunal, Declan, and the only thing you need to know is that I was cleared of all charges. If that’s good enough for the Great Council, surely it’s good enough for you, right?”

  “She wasn’t just cleared, you bastard—she was commended.” Paddy couldn’t keep his damn mouth shut, and I resisted the urge to smack the back of his head.

  “Was there a tribunal after you killed your former bond mates in that car crash you were telling me about earlier?” Declan asked.

  Paddy cursed beneath his breath again, his hands curled into fists.

  “I was cleared at that one, too,” I said and Declan snorted.

  “How the hell many tribunals have you faced, woman?”

  “Just the two so far,” I replied.

  “How’d you avoid one after that poor German bastard croaked on you at the Great Hunt in Paris?” Alannah’s face was spiteful as she formed a tag team with her bond mate. He grinned at her.

  “They never figured out how he died. It’s hard to hold a tribunal when you haven’t got anything to charge a person with.” I tried not to think about Rudi’s empty eyes but it was impossible.

  “So maybe you didn’t kill him, but I’d say you were bad luck, wouldn’t you? Your bond mates died, that German guy died, that American Alpha sure as fuck died, and maybe Liam Murphy doesn’t want to be the next one whose time runs out while he’s standing next to you. Maybe he dumped you instead of the other way around. Can’t say as I blame him. Who wants to try his luck with the Black Widow here?” Declan turned around to speak to the whole crowd, who kept silent.

  Guilt kept me silent although I knew I hadn’t killed anybody. If I hadn’t wanted to go out on my birthday, Grey and Elena might still be alive. Nate had deserved his fate, but I still didn’t like to think about my wolf tearing his throat out. Rudi’s murder had nothing to do with me. I’d witnessed it, not caused it, but I still couldn’t shake the way he’d said my name before he died as if he thought I could help him. If only I could have.

  Declan did have a point. People died around me. I couldn’t refute it.

  “Piss off, Declan Byrne, you bastard. Leave off the woman. You’re just jealous she plays the way you know you never will because you lack the fucking soul to pull it off. Black hair, black heart, that’s you.” The red-haired giant stood just inside the pub door, his meaty fists clenched. The crowd parted a little so he could get through quickly if he wanted. They seemed eager to see a fight.

  “You offering to bond with her? You check that with Deirdre? It’s not every woman who’d want to make a triad with a murderess.” Declan Byrne’s expression turned arrogant, and he clenched his fists, too. If there was a fight, my money would be on the giant, no contest.

  “It wasn’t murder, you arrogant prick. You don’t get commendations from the Great Council for acts of murder. I’m sure as hell not listening to any more of your shite, Byrne. Now shut it, or come out back with me. Which will it be?”

  “Looks like you’ve got at least one fucking idiot willing to risk his luck and bond with you, Stanzie, good for you. But Colm is hardly worth your while if you ask me.”

  “Lucky for me I didn’t ask you,” I snarled. “The day I need a bond mate broker, Declan Byrne, I’ll be sure to knock on your door, but until then why don’t you go screw yourself.”

  “Ooh, I struck a nerve.” Declan’s grin was irritating as all hell. The grin turned bloody when Paddy popped him one in the mouth with his fist.

  With a furious roar, Declan Byrne threw a punch back, and the fight was on. They crashed into the table behind them, and Fee barely got out of the way in time.

  I dove toward her and dragged her to the side before she got hurt.

  “Why don’t you all just fucking stand there and watch your Alpha get trampled, damn you,” I shouted at all the idiots around us who just stood there with their heads up their asses. One and all, they were riveted on the fight, but at least a few could have helped Fee.

  Of course, as soon as I yelled, several of them helped me pull Fee in back of the bar, although I didn’t like all the glass around. I wanted to go into the kitchen, but Fee fought that too hard.

  “If either one of them comes across this bar, you hit the floor, understand?” I yelled in Fee’s ear above the roar of the crowd. I couldn’t see over their fat heads, but Paddy or Declan must have landed a good one by their response.

  “Move your asses so I can see!” Fiona bellowed and tried to heave herself on top of the damn bar for a better vantage point.

  “Shit,” I shouted as I struggled with her. “Stay off the bar, Fiona Carmichael, you fucking idiot. You’re pregnant, remember?”

  “Yeah, like I can ever forget. You fucking get up there then and tell me what the hell’s going on. They’re fighting over you in the first place,” Fiona shouted back. Somewhere in the melee her silver barrette had fallen out and her hair was all over her face. She pushed it back irritably and shoved me at the bar.

  “Don’t you dare stand on my bar, you bloody cow.” Alannah Doyle threatened me with a bottle of Jameson’s. It was only half full, but it still would have hurt. I didn’t want to get on the damn bar in the first place, but the hell some redheaded bitch would tell me what to do. Especially when she called me a cow.

  I boosted myself up onto the bar and ignored her scream of rage. She took a mean swing at me with the bottle and Fiona snatched it away.

  “Back the fuck off now,” Fiona yelled, and Alannah snarled at us both before she flounced to the other end of the bar.

  Declan Byrne was a dirty fighter. He’d picked up a shard of broken glass and slashed Paddy’s arm with it. The first thing I saw when I stood up on the bar was the blood all over the floor and Paddy. The edge of the glass was bright red, too.

  Declan Byrne’s lips were drawn back in a snarl of fury, but Paddy was laughing, even though I’m sure his arm hurt like a bitch.

  “You never could fight without a weapon to hide behind,” he sneered and ducked when Declan lunged at him. The glass sliced a thin line across his cheek, and more blood spattered onto the floor.

  They circled each other warily, and I clenched my fists in rage. I willed Paddy to pick up a piece of glass and make the fight even, but he didn’t. He danced back out of range and continued to laugh.

  Declan Byrne lunged again, and more blood flew, this time from Paddy’s throat. It was just a nick, but it enraged me. Declan had his back to me, and before I could think it through, I leaped off the bar and landed on him.

  He wasn’t expecting it, and we went down hard. I had time to hope he landed straight on the glass, and then things went a little fuzzy because my head hit the edge of a table on the way to the floor.

  The next thing I knew, Paddy loomed over me and blocked out the light while someone else threw water—no, beer—in my face. Alannah. Being helpful.

  Declan Byrne was out cold on the floor next to me. Woozy as I was, Paddy’s face wavered in and out of focus. I blinked and his worried eyes became clearer.

  “Paddy, you’re dripping blood all over me,” I remarked. It was true. A steady patter of red droplets dripped on my face and, worse, my new shirt.

  “What? Oh, shit. Sorry about that.” Paddy drew back and clapped a hand to his bleeding face.

  “That’s going to scar.” I tried to sit up, but the fucking world tilted in the most sickening fashion, and I decided it was not such a hot idea after all.

  “Won’t be my first.” Paddy leaned close again and smiled at me, although his eyes were still worried. “If you want, I’ll show you me others later tonight. What do you say, Stanz?”

  “Sounds like a plan,” I agreed, and things went dark for a little while.

  * * * *

  “I never saw anything like it.” Fee giggled in the
car on the way to Murphy’s apartment. She was behind the wheel, and Paddy slumped in the passenger seat with a blood-soaked bar rag pressed to his still-oozing cheek. The earthy smell of blood filled the interior of the car, and it added to my general nausea.

  I lay in the backseat with a bar rag full of dripping ice pressed to the lump on the side of my head. I was relatively sure I wasn’t concussed, but my ears hadn’t stopped ringing since I’d hit the damn table.

  “Stanzie was like some sort of huge flying squirrel in platform boots sailing through the air to land on Declan Byrne’s back. And didn’t he go down like a ton of bricks, the bastard, and him not expecting it? You should have seen your face, Paddy, you didn’t know whether to laugh or scream at her.”

  “Normally I can fight my own battles,” Paddy remarked from the front seat. “Some Alphas might have found Stanzie’s theatrics a little insulting. Luckily, I’m not one of them. I thought it highly entertaining, although I do wish she hadn’t smacked her head so hard on the way to the ground. Couldn’t you see that table coming, love?” He craned his neck so he could look over the back of the seat.

  I extended my middle finger, and he laughed as he reached back to pat my leg.

  “I’m flattered you cared enough to fling yourself into the fight, woman. But it’s what I would expect from a Callahan. Never met one who could keep out of it once a fight broke out.”

  “Oh, for Christ’s sake.” I blew out my breath in exasperation and gritted my teeth when Fee shifted gears and the car lurched around a corner. “I will never get used to being on the wrong side of the damn road. This is hell.”

  “No, tomorrow morning will be hell when you wake up with a head bigger than a house,” Paddy predicted. “Maybe I should stay the night with you. Help you through your agony.”

  “Oh, God, that’s just what I need.” I groaned. “Fee, help me!”

  “Paddy, you’re coming along home with me. I might need some help through my own agony. You’ll never know how I felt watching that bastard slice you open like a ripe orange, and me eight months pregnant with your child.”

  “Knowing you, you were cheering the bastard on. You love a good fight, Fiona Carmichael, don’t you dare lie to my face.” Paddy was unmoved, especially when she burst into merry laughter.

  “So does he get away with fighting dirty like that?” I asked. “Or is what he did normal behavior for Mac Tire?”

  “Normal behavior for Declan Byrne, which is why nobody will fight him but my idiot bond mate.” Fiona shifted gears again, and I grimaced.

  “I had to or Colm would have, and I’ll not be having him cut to ribbons just because he’s trying to impress our Stanzie,” Paddy defended himself. “He’s too pretty for scars, the big bastard.”

  “Colm does have a thing for you.” Fiona glanced into the rearview mirror and grinned at me. I gritted my teeth and hoped like hell she’d remember to look at the road before we crashed into something.

  “I think it started when Stanzie called him a freak of nature last night.” Paddy’s tone was jovial as he searched for a clean part of rag that wasn’t saturated with blood already.

  “You never told me she started it between them,” Fee accused and I groaned.

  “Since when is calling someone a freak of nature flirting?”

  “He is cute as hell,” Fee mused. “I wonder if his cock’s as big as the rest of him?”

  “I can’t believe you of all people haven’t found out firsthand.” Paddy laughed.

  “Not for lack of trying on my part. But between him being your half brother and lately me being the size of a small whale, he’s just not making it easy.”

  “Wait. What? He’s your brother?” I sat up and smacked Paddy in the back of the head. “Haven’t we talked about this? It’s hard enough to navigate through the twists and turns of a pack’s blood ties, but when you deliberately withhold information like Colm is your brother, you’re just fucking with me, Paddy.”

  “Maybe just a little.” Paddy rubbed the back of his neck and gave me a reproachful look. “It never came up. He and Alannah are twins. Couldn’t you see the resemblance?”

  “He’s so goddamn tall I can’t crane my neck back enough to look at him up close,” I muttered and Paddy snorted.

  “Well, if you do get him into bed, you’ll have to let me know if he’s as big as I think he is,” Fee ordered.

  “Woman, from the way you’re running your mouth, I’m thinking you’re in the mood. But you’re killing mine, discussing my own brother’s bait and tackle with me sitting right beside you. Wasn’t last night’s romp enough for you? You need more?” Paddy’s grin was seductive, and he reached out a hand and put it on Fee’s thigh.

  That made me nervous because she was supposed to be driving, not flirting.

  “Ah, that was charity, you fucking idiot, to keep you from crawling beneath Ellen Maguire’s skirt. She’s on her period and begged me to distract you.” Fee swerved around something in the road. I gulped and squeezed my eyes shut.

  “Damn nicest charity I’ve ever gotten,” Paddy said happily. “You think I could have another donation tonight?”

  “Fuck off, you pervy bastard.”

  “Well, then, you’re forcing me to stay with Stanzie. And what’s Liam going to think, him walking in on me fucking his bond mate seven ways to Sunday and her begging and screaming for more? You’re going to get me into trouble, Fiona Carmichael, unless you take off your knickers for me, I swear.”

  “I’ll take them off and strangle you with them. They’re big enough,” she threatened, and they both laughed.

  “Is Murphy coming back tonight?” I asked, and their laughter faded.

  “I don’t know, love,” Paddy answered.

  “Maybe you better stay with her. She hit her head pretty damn hard. I heard it even above your bloody sister’s screeching. Maybe we ought to find Andrew and have him take a look.”

  “Who’s Andrew?” I was immediately suspicious.

  “Andrew Brody. He’s our pack doctor. One of them, anyway. He’s going to deliver this fucking idiot’s baby when the time comes.”

  “You aren’t going to let the women be with you? Don’t you have a midwife?” While it wasn’t uncommon for Pack women to have male Pack doctors examine them during the pregnancy, it was almost unheard of for a male to be in the room when a baby was born. That was the province of the women of the pack. Babies were almost never born at a hospital.

  “I’ll not be letting that cow near my vagina,” snarled Fee and Paddy groaned.

  “Don’t get her started, please, Stanzie. It’s my bad luck Fee’s been in a lifelong feud with Sheenaugh Donovan, and her being the pack midwife just like her mother and her mother’s mother. If she has a daughter, she’ll be a midwife, too.”

  “Ha. The bitch has to get to be Alpha before she can spawn, and I’ll not support that.” Fee’s voice was laced with such poison, I decided I’d never want to be on her bad side. Fuck that.

  “You know anything about midwifery?” Paddy asked with a hopeful look in my direction.

  “Are you fucked in the head? Where the hell would I have learned anything about babies? I was eleven the last time one was born around me, and I kept as far away from that scene as I could when Samantha went into labor.”

  “But you’ll be there with me just the same,” said Fee with perfect confidence. “And with Andrew and Siobhan and Paddy’s mother.”

  I thought about Faith’s mother, Lily. My aunt. How she’d died in childbirth and I’d watched, hidden behind a chair.

  “I’m bad luck, remember? I’ll wait outside,” I said. “Who says I’m even going to be here by then? Despite what Declan said tonight, I’m not on the lookout for another Mac Tire bond mate. If Murphy keeps avoiding me, I’ll be back in Boston before two weeks are up.”

  “My stupid brother better show up before then, Padraic,” Fee warned, her tone shrill. “You hear me?”

  “What the hell are you screaming at me for?” P
addy gave her a dismayed look. “Do I look like I’m the one holding the other end of his damn leash, Fee?”

  “I wouldn’t put it past you. You two always cover for each other.”

  “I want him back here,” Paddy whined. “Jaysus, I want him back with Stanzie, too.”

  “Then get his ass back here. I’ll not be buying that crap about him not answering his frigging phone much longer.”

  “He’s ignoring your calls, too, woman,” Paddy rumbled and yelped when Fee smacked him.

  “Shite. That’s my sore arm, the one Declan Byrne half amputated. Watch what you’re doing.”

  “I’ll be the one amputating more than your arm, Padraic, if you don’t stop being a preposterous bastard,” Fee vowed.

  “Why don’t you call him, Stanzie?” Paddy pouted over the back of his seat, and my head really started to throb.

  “Before I can call him, it might be helpful to have his frigging phone number,” I muttered.

  “Oh, yeah, he changed it. That’s right.” Paddy’s voice was less than convincing, and he yelped again when Fee smacked him.

  “Who’s the ridiculous bastard who didn’t give the woman her own bond mate’s phone number?”

  “You didn’t give it to her either.”

  “Because I didn’t know you didn’t give her the new one.”

  “Why is everything my goddamn fault?”

  Their bickering was done affectionately, but it still made my head spin. Paddy turned around and winked as Fee said, “You’re too stupid to live, I swear.”

  She slammed on the brakes for a red light that I’d wondered when she’d see.

  * * * *

  Fee decided I didn’t need Andrew Brody unless my head was really bad the next day. She also decreed Paddy would stay the night with me, mostly so she wouldn’t have to deal with his whining and blubbering about his wounds.

  “And you give Stanzie my stupid brother’s phone number,” she yelled as her parting shot before she pulled the Mini Cooper back into the street and disappeared in a flash of red taillights.

  Once inside Murphy’s apartment I made Paddy strip off his shirt so I could put peroxide on his cuts.