Chapter 9

“YOU’RE HERE EARLY,” Travis said as he set a beer in front of Cole.

“Needed a drink.” He grabbed the beer and chugged it, trying not to think about how everything had ended with Megan.

“What’s wrong?” Travis leaned on the bar and waited.

Cole shrugged. He didn’t feel like he should say anything. It felt disrespectful and somehow wrong to share his mate’s shortcomings with others.

“Another beer for my man here, and one for me too, please.” Dan slid up to the bar and settled beside Cole. 

“You got it.”

“So lay it on me, Cole.” Dan turned to face him. “What’s got you looking like you lost your favorite kitten?”

Cole shrugged. He wasn’t going to say a thing. Not one word.

Travis set a beer and a shot glass in front of Cole. “Enjoy.” 

An endless number of beers and several shots later, Cole was thoroughly drunk. Sadly, all the drinking had accomplished was to make him even more depressed. The more he drank, the more he thought about Megan and the more depressed he became. 

And so he drank some more. 

It was a never-ending cycle of pain

And while he’d been drinking his way down that cycle, the bar had been filling up. 

Dan stood, grabbed both their beers, and said, “Come on,” then led the way to the wolves. 

This was a brilliant idea. Why hadn’t he thought of the wolves before? They could definitely help solve his problem.

“Of course we can help solve your problem!” Pete exclaimed cheerfully. 

Had he said that out loud?

“Just tell us what’s wrong and we’ll get to the solving.”

Dan rolled his eyes. “I’ve been trying to get him to spill his guts for three hours.”

Had it only been three hours? It felt like days had passed since the disastrous second date.

“You went on a second date?” Max asked. 

Damn, Cole was drunker than he thought if he was spilling his guts to the wolves without even realizing it.

“I assume it was with Megan, the little pretend witch,” Max said.

Cole nodded morosely. “My mate.”

“So what’s wrong?” Pete asked. “How come the date was disastrous?”

“My mate’s crazy.” Cole enunciated his words very carefully, wanting to make sure the wolves understood he wasn’t exaggerating or making stuff up. “Like really crazy.”

“Which one’s your mate?” Cole looked up at Phoenix, who stood at their table handing out beers. 

“The pretty one,” Cole said.

Dan laughed. “They’re all pretty, dude.”

“Megan.”

“She didn’t seem crazy to me,” Phoenix said. “Actually none of them seemed crazy at all.”

“Well, trust me,” Cole said. “They’re all crazy, but especially Megan.”

“How do you know?”

“She thinks she can do magic!” Cole flung out his arms, causing Dan and Max on either side to jerk back to avoid being hit in the face. “Isn’t that enough?”

Phoenix rolled her eyes. “This again? Really? If I can believe in shifters, why can’t you believe in witches?”

Cole looked at Dan and shook his head. Why didn’t she understand? “Uh, Phoenix, you’re a shifter too. And you’ve seen us shift. Plus you’ve shifted. At least once that we know of. So it’s kind of obvious that shifters exist. But none of us have seen any proof that witches are a real thing.” He nodded emphatically, then shook his head. “Yes, shifters. No, witches.”

“Yeah, but didn’t one of the sisters make Dan’s chair collapse?” Phoenix asked.

“That was just coincidence,” Cole said. “Just because the chair collapsed while they were at the table doesn’t mean they actually caused it. Or maybe it does. Maybe they sabotaged the chair before Dan sat in it. Did you ever think of that?”

“Okay,” Phoenix said. “If you say so.” She walked off.

Max sighed. “She doesn’t get it. But come on, Cole. You knew yesterday your mate believed she was a witch and you still went over there today to ask her out. So what’s changed? Why are you so upset?”

Cole let out a huge sigh. “I asked her to show me some magic so she did a spell thing. Or at least she tried to and she said it worked, but it didn’t. She’s just crazy. She was seeing things that weren’t there or I guess not seeing things that were there.”

“Did you understand that at all?” Karl asked the rest of the table.

Everyone shook their heads.

“Try again, Cole,” Max ordered.

“She did this thing with her hands.” He waved his hands drunkenly in front of his body. “And then she just looked at me like I should see something, but I didn’t. So I kind of shrugged at her and she told me she was invisible. Invisible, guys! I’m staring right at her and she’s claiming to be invisible. So I tell her, ‘No you’re not. I can see you just fine.’ And she holds out her arm and looks at it and then looks at me and says, ‘Yes, I am. I can’t see me and neither can you.’ But I’m staring right at her!”

Dead silence.

Then Pete finally said, “Okay, you’re right. She’s crazy.”

“How’s your cougar feel about this?” Karl asked. “I mean is he willing to let her go, now that you know she’s crazy?”

Cole groaned. “He’s depressed, but no, he’s not giving up. Even when I tell him she’s a crazy human, all he ever says back is, ‘Ours.’”

“Wait. Your cougar talks to you?” Pete asked.

“Well, yeah. Doesn’t your wolf?”

Pete looked around at the other wolves, who all shook their heads no.

Cole looked at Dan, who nodded and said, “My cat’s quite chatty sometimes.”

“Huh,” Max said. “I would have thought it’d be the other way around. You know, what with cats being so standoffish.”

“Well.” Cole looked at Dan, who laughed and made a waving motion for him to proceed. “Cougars tend to be argumentative. They’re not just going to go along for the sake of going along. Usually when my cougar has something to say, it’s because he wants to argue with me. Like this whole witch situation.”

“Your cougar believes her?” Dan asked incredulously.

“Of course not. He just wants me to pretend to believe, so that we can have our mate. But I’m not lying to her. I can’t.”

“Yeah, that’s a problem,” Karl said.

“We need a plan,” Dan announced.

Max groaned. “Not another plan.”

“What kind of plan?” Cole asked.

“Well, if you’re not walking away from your mate and you don’t want to lie to her, somehow you have to get her to admit she’s not a witch.”

“How in the world am I supposed to do that?  I’m telling you, she believed, truly believed she was invisible! Besides, if I keep trying to convince her, she’s going to end up hating me.”

“No problem,” Dan said. “You concentrate on romancing her during the day and we’ll concentrate on forcing her to face the truth at night.” 

“How?” 

“By asking the women to prove they have magic over and over again. Every time they fail, we’ll explain it’s because they’re not witches. Eventually they’ll realize the truth and then you can have a happy mating.”

Max looked doubtful, which was pretty much how Cole felt. “I’m not sure–” 

“This’ll work,” Dan assured him. “You just focus on being her supportive mate. We’ll be the bad guys.”

“This is gonna be a hoot,” Karl enthused. “Too bad it probably won’t take very long since there’s no way they’ll actually succeed at casting spells.”

“I don’t know,” Cole said. “I bet it takes a lot longer than you guys think it will.” 

Pete’s eye lit up. “That’s a great idea!” 

“What is?” Cole asked suspiciously. 

“A betting pool! We haven’t had one of those since we were betting on Phoenix’s shifter form.” 

“Yeah, and look how great that turned out,” Cole grouched. “Most of the money went to the bar since no one won half the bets.” 

“I don’t think you should be complaining since you’re the only one of us who did win that day,” Karl said. 

Cole rolled his eyes. “Okay, true. But the point is you guys might lose a lot of money on this betting pool because I bet the women won’t ever admit they’re not witches.” 

“What are you guys talking about?” Glory asked. 

Cole hadn’t even noticed her walking up.

“We’re wanting to set up another betting pool,” Pete told her. “Will the bar hold our money again?” 

“Sure, but the bar’s taking a cut.” 

“Yeah, yeah.” 

“So what are we betting on?” 

“How long it’ll take us to convince the humans they’re not witches.” 

Glory froze, then slowly turned her head to stare at Cole. “Seriously? This is the best you can do?” 

“What?” 

“Why don’t you just talk to your mate?” 

“I did and she tried to convince me she was invisible!” 

Glory just stared at him. “And how’d that turn out?” 

“Well, since I could see her the entire time, not so great.” 

Glory nodded. “I see. So that’s your evidence?” 

Cole looked at the other men. 

Dan jumped to his defense, “Sounds pretty good to me. I mean, if Cole says he could see her, then…” he trailed off under Glory’s glare. 

After a moment, she relented and nodded. “Very well. I’ll hold your money. Set up the board.” She waved a hand at the chalkboard on the other side of the bar and walked away. 

Thirty minutes later, the entire group had moved to the chalkboard where Max was writing down their bets and collecting their money.

“This is going to be great,” Pete exclaimed. “It won’t be like last time when none of us guessed Phoenix’s shifter form. This time, someone’s gonna win that money, guaranteed.”

“It’ll probably be me,” Phoenix said as she walked by. 

“No way, Phoenix!” Pete hollered after her. “We’ve got this one all wrapped up.”

Phoenix laughed and a few moments later, stopped on her way back to the bar. “I’ve got a new bet for the board, okay?” 

Everyone groaned. 

“Not again, Phoenix!” Karl glared. “There’s no such thing as a never bet.”

Phoenix grinned. “While that is a tempting bet, I’d rather have added to the board ‘the men admit the humans are witches.’ I’ll put fifty on that one.”  She slapped down a stack of bills.

Pete whirled toward Max. “Write it down, Max. That’ll be the easiest money we ever made.” 

“You know you’re gonna lose that bet, right?” Cole said to Phoenix. 

“Not a chance.” She shook her head. “Besides, even if I do, I feel like I need to stand in solidarity with my fellow humans.” 

“But you’re a shifter,” Pete protested. 

Phoenix shrugged. “Raised human. Human at heart.” 

Max groaned and Cole rolled his eyes. 

“Whatever,” Pete said.

“Your bet’s on the board,” Max said. “You can go away now.” 

Phoenix laughed and wandered off.