“Not liking your tone, son,” Smith warned. She had a real warm spot for the hybrids, although she’d never admit having a warm spot for anyone.

“Don’t you?” He stood up, towering over Smith. “Well, that’s not really the problem right now. Is it?”

“And what is the problem?”

The grizzly pointed across the room into a far corner. “She is.”

As one, they all looked at the full-human girl standing in the corner. She was Italian American, Cella would guess. Pretty and young, wearing an old leather jacket with some bloodstains on one side and driving gloves. And, at the moment, just realizing she was in serious trouble.

Mikey’s grip tightened on Cella’s hand and she looked at him.

“She brought me here. She saved my life. You know what that means to us, Cella.”

Mikey Callahan, like Cella, was another Traveller, although the Callahan Pride had lasted a little longer before they’d been asked to go their own way and leave Ireland. Loyalty was all to the Callahans, like it was to the Malones. If the girl had saved his life—and why would he lie when he was bleeding out onto the Group office floor?—then she had to be protected.

But before Cella could move, MacDermot stepped in front of the girl, her face swollen, but the Bronx attitude firmly in place.

“If I were you,” MacDermot said to the tall grizzly, “I’d just walk away.”

“I know you feel like you have some power here, full-human. But you don’t. Just breeding one of us, doesn’t make you one of us.”

Charlene kneeled on the floor and placed Mikey’s head in her lap. The fox was small compared to the rest of them, but she had a .45 holstered to the back of her skirt and when the fox nodded at her, Cella knew she’d watch out for him.

Standing, Cella and Smith slowly made their way around the room, closing in on the two grizzlies.

“I think you better go,” MacDermot pushed.

“We’ll go, but we’re taking her with us. Since we can’t trust you to do what needs to be done with her.”

“You’re not taking her anywhere.”

He reached for MacDermot, his hand grabbing her jacket, but MacDermot already had her hand on her gun. Still, none of them actually expected little Abby to jump between the bear and MacDermot, barking and baring her teeth, biting at his wrist so he’d release MacDermot.

“Shit,” Smith snarled, her bowie knife out, she and Cella moving fast. But before either could reach him, the bear casually kicked Abby out of the way. He knocked her into the chairs. The girl gave a surprised yelp.

They were all so focused on Abby that they didn’t see Hannah until she rammed into the tall grizzly, knocking the bigger bear into the door. Smith went to help, but Cella caught her arm, holding her in place as Hannahbattered the second bear with her forearm, hitting him across the chest and then up into his jaw.

Abby shifted to human and grabbed the bigger bear by his hair. She dragged him away from the door, ignoring his surprised roar of pain, and MacDermot leaped forward to help the pup, ramming her foot into the bear’s knee.

The full-human girl, seeing her chance, charged out, barreling through the doors and into the freezing cold outside.

Smith looked down at Cella’s hand and then at her. “Reason you did that?”

“Figured the girls could handle themselves.”

The two bears got back to their feet and Abby shifted back to canine, running and hiding behind Cella. Poor thing, she never knew whether she should be escaping or fighting. Hannah, though, now blocked the door, giving the full-human girl more time to get away.

MacDermot placed her hand on the kid’s forearm and tugged until Hannah moved to her side.

“I think you need to go,” MacDermot said again to the grizzlies.

“Or what?”

She shrugged. “I’ll let a naked girl beat you up again. Because that was funny.”

One of the bears snarled, aggressively stepping into MacDermot, but then Crushek was there. He got between his partner and those bears, his hands slapping against the bigger grizzly’s head and digging his claws into his face, the pair roaring at each other. Windows and furniture rattled; Group members poured into the room, guns raised. But they weren’t needed because Crush yanked the big grizzly close, nearly tearing the other bear’s face off in the process. “My partner said it was time for you to go.” He pushed the bear into the second grizzly, sending both of them careening out the door, and roared, “So go! Go run home to Mommy!”

The grizzlies fled and Crushek stood between the two sets of doors, his back to them, chest heaving, hands now covered in grizzly blood.

The front office was completely silent, everyone staring. Which was when Smith leaned in and whispered to Cella, “You may want to take it down a notch, darlin’—your nipples are hard.”

Cella brought her fist up, her knuckles colliding with Smith’s nose, then she returned to Mikey Callahan’s side.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Crush sat at his kitchen table, chin resting on his raised fist, and stared across the room. He’d crossed a line. Not with his boss or even his own moral code. No, he knew he’d crossed a line with Peg Baissier. She’d always hated him, which seemed only fair since she was the one woman Crush openly admitted detesting. But Baissier was very protective of the BPC “brand.” And what had happened to her “boys” tonight was not something she’d let go. Crush knew Baissier well enough to know that she’d never let this insult slide. Not her.