A Muse for Mishka (Wiccan-Were-Bear #12) by R.E. Butler Read Free Book Online Page A

menace.
    Mishka’s stomach churned. Seeing those
protestors brought to mind Harmony and her need to be protected.
Rising to his feet, he headed for the door, reaching for the
connection of their beloved bond. He could feel her in the club and
knew she was in the converted apartments on the third floor.
    As he exited the offices, he was flanked by
Vex and Rage, who always accompanied him whenever he headed out
into the club. Although he could and would fight if necessary, it
was always better to have security. Especially with those damn
church members hanging around.
    As if reading his mind, Rage said, “I could
just go kill them all. Problem solved.”
    Mishka snorted. “If it were only that
simple.”
    “Hell, I probably wouldn’t even break a
sweat.”
    “Perhaps, but you’d be held accountable by
the human court system, and I’m in no mood to go through that mess
again.”
    During the previous fall, Arissa had set up a
protective barrier around the club. A church member had crossed the
barrier in order to grab the mate of a coven member and had been
severely injured. The man had brought a lawsuit against the coven
for harming him. It had been a non-starter – the idiot was on the
surveillance cameras trying to abduct the female – but it had
wasted time and money and been one large headache after
another.
    “All right. What if I go turn a fire hose on
them?” Vex said.
    “Let’s just keep watching them and ensure
they don’t do anything worse than hurl insults at the people
waiting in line outside.”
    They accessed the third floor through the
security door connected to the family room on the second
floor and took the stairs. At another security door, Vex entered
the passcode and opened the door for Mishka. The long hallway was
sparsely decorated, with a long carpet runner down the center. The
last door on the left was open, and he could hear Harmony
laughing.
    He entered the room, and she turned as soon
as he walked in. “Oh, Mishka!” She ran to him and leaped into his
arms. “I felt you coming down the hallway.”
    He kissed her as she chuckled. “It’s our
bond.”
    “It’s freaking cool.”
    “I wanted to talk to you about security,” he
said as she slid down his body and put her feet on the floor.
    “Of course. Let’s go talk in private.” She
took Mishka’s hand and led him across the hall, opening a door to
another apartment. All the apartments were similar – two bedrooms,
two bathrooms, kitchen, and living room – but were decorated in
different styles. When he’d converted the building to a club with
the coven’s living space underground, he’d anticipated having
important guests from time to time, but it turned out people rarely
stayed the night in another coven’s home.
    Rage shut the door behind them.
    “What’s up with security?”
    “Brone suggested, and I agree, that as the
mistress of the coven, you need to have vampire security. Whenever
you’re in the club, and especially if you leave the building, you
should have at least two guards.”
    She hummed. “It’s important to the
coven?”
    “I think it could be. But more important than
that is there’s a group of malcontents who have made it their
mission in life to destroy anyone associated with vampires. They
went quiet for a while, but they’ve started protesting again. It’s
why you can’t go anywhere alone, even in the club.”
    “What is the protestors’ problem?”
    “They don’t like vampires or anyone who lives
or works with vampires. They’re mostly just idiots with nothing
better to do, but some of them are violent. They should all be
considered dangerous.”
    “I promise I won’t go anywhere alone.”
    He nodded. “The guards won’t get in your way;
they’ll just be alert for trouble. Any time you’re in the club, two
males that Brone wants to assign to you would be with you. Even if
your friends wanted to be guards with you, I am still strongly
encouraging you to have vampire