Blackstone Ranger Chief

her.” He flashed her a grin. “We thought he was going to hit on you or something, which he never does, by the way. Hit on girls, I mean. Not that he isn’t interested in girls! He is, but … er, anyway, it turns out he just wanted a drink.”
The disappointment she had felt when he turned away came back to her like a sharp knife slicing against her skin. Again, why did she feel that way toward a man she hardly knew?
“Then,” Gabriel continued, “a while later, these two human assholes start sniffing around her, and Damon goes apeshit on their asses.”
Her jaw nearly dropped to the floor. “He did?”
J.D. looked at her incredulously. “How much did you drink?”
“Too much. Tequila has that effect on me,” she groaned. “Most of it was a blur. Those guys were trying to talk to me, but I was ignoring them. I think … I remember while they were distracted, I really had to go to the bathroom, but I must have gotten lost and gone outside instead.”
“Humans,” he snorted. “Anyway, Tim comes down on him and everything’s seemingly fine. That’s when those two bastards call Damon a …” His voice lowered. “A filthy animal.”
J.D.’s lips peeled back and her teeth bared. “Motherfucker.”
“Yeah. Tim went nuts. So Anders, Daniel and I get ready to pull him back, but Damon just disappears just as Tim finishes shifting into his polar bear—”
“Wait—what?” Anna Victoria blinked, not sure she heard him right.
Two pairs of eyes stare back at her. “Shifted. Into his polar bear,” Gabriel said matter-of-factly before his jaw slackened. “You don’t know?”
“That the bartender is a … a …”
“A shifter,” J.D. finished, her mouth pursing together. “Do you have a problem with that?”
“No!” she said quickly. Everyone knew about shifters of course, and back in Albuquerque, they had been around, though there weren’t many. According to what she’d read, most of them didn’t like city life and lived in more remote areas. “I mean, I’m not one of those people who say, ‘I can’t be prejudiced, I have shifter friends,’ because there aren’t a lot back home. But I’m more of a live and let live kind of person, you know?”
“But then, why did come here?” J.D. asked.
“To Blackstone? I didn’t really have a destination when I started driving.” She paused, not wanting to reveal more. “I was tired and needed to stretch out a cramp, then I saw the bar. What does it matter?”
J.D. and Gabriel looked at each other, silent communication passing between them. Finally, J.D. spoke. “Hon, Blackstone is a shifter town.”
“Shifter town?”
“Yeah, nearly everyone around here is a shifter,” Gabriel said.
The air around them turned dead silent and Anna Victoria felt like someone had knocked her on the head. “You mean you guys are …”
They both nodded.
Looking around, she saw a table with a family of four. “And them?”
Another double nod.
Rosie passed by and winked at them as she sat a couple at the next booth. “Her?”
“Yep,” J.D. answered.
“Damon?” She didn’t know why his name popped into her head, but somehow, she wanted to know.
“Yeah,” Gabriel stated. “Most shifters come here because Blackstone is protected by a family of dragon shifters.”
“Dragon?” Oh goodness. “I … I …” Her mind completely blanked. “I’m sorry … I’m just … I’ve only met maybe two or three shifters my entire life.” And when she was younger, she had seen the videos of them changing into their animal forms. It was something she had done out of curiosity, because her other friends had done it, but she’d never looked at those videos again. It seemed like an incredible invasion of their privacy.
“It’s all right,” J.D. assured her. “I think we didn’t realize that you didn’t realize we were shifters. Most people who come here already know the deal.”
“As you can imagine, this is just our normal everyday lives,” Gabriel added.
Except you turn into animals, she added silently. “So, what are you guys?”
J.D.’s lips tightened, and her shoulders tensed. “It’s actually rude to ask people that.”
“Don’t worry about J.D.,” he smirked at the other woman. “What she means is that she’s the one who’s sensitive about it. Care to take a guess what I am?”
“I wouldn’t know where to start, honestly.” And she didn’t want to risk further offending either of them.
He chuffed. “I’m the king of the jungle, baby.”
She sucked in a breath. “You’re a lion?”
“Oh, yeah.”
As he shook his long golden locks, Anna Victoria supposed it was an obvious guess. “I’m sorry, J.D., if I was being rude.”
“It’s all right.” J.D. waved her hand casually. “But just be careful when you ask stuff like that around here.”
Before anyone else could say anything, Rosie arrived holding a tray with their pies. “Here you go, kids.” She placed the plates on the table. “Enjoy,” she said before she walked to the next table.
J.D. lifted a forkful of apple pie into her mouth, chewed, then swallowed. “If you don’t mind me being rude for a second, Anna Victoria, can I ask you where you’re going?”
“I … I don’t know.”
And now it all seemed to weigh on her. Yesterday, she’d been in survival mode, and the only thing she could think of was to get as far away from Albuquerque as possible.
“Do you have family elsewhere?”
She shook her head. “Anything and everything I know is back in New Mexico.” And Edward Jameson’s reach in the state was far and wide, which is why she high-tailed it out of there. He would not be happy being jilted at the altar and having his cash taken.
“So, what’s your plan now?” J.D. asked.
She let out a long, deep sigh. “I don’t know. Keep driving. North maybe.” Colorado was still too close to New Mexico and Edward’s influence. Canada might be far away enough, if she could manage to get a copy of her passport.
J.D. slapped a palm on the table. “I have an idea.”
“You do?”
“Why don’t you stay here?”
“What?” Searching her face, Anna Victoria could see J.D. was dead serious.