“Like what you see?” the guy in the middle asked. “I’ll let you give me a tug.”

A tight and prickly sensation squeezed Emery’s chest. He connected eyes with the guy in the rearview mirror, changing his power to mimic their territorial vibe and pumping it into the cab. He wasn’t a jealous man by nature, but he would not stand for another guy harassing his woman. Not in this lifetime.

Everyone in the back tensed, muscles going taut. The women both glanced at the guy in the middle before looking away again. They didn’t plan to get involved.

“Not wise, bro,” one of the guys on the end said in a low tone before averting his gaze. The one on the other side followed suit.

“We’re drifting from the topic,” Penny said in a low, husky voice. He knew that tone. She’d felt his possessive push of magic, his claiming of her, and liked it.

Preventing a smile, he upped the power, magic throbbing in the truck now, needing that guy in the back to look away before he did. Damned unfortunate timing, given that he was supposed to be driving a truck.

Those dark brown eyes flared with fire once before the challenge in them muted. The shifter tore his gaze downward.

Ms. Bristol had been right about what it took to get respected as an Alpha. Not that Emery had needed the lesson.

“He stood up to one of the members of the Mages’ Guild,” the woman said after Emery’s magic receded. “Stopped him from picking on a teenage human male. It was James’s job as a shifter, but also the right thing to do.” Her voice dropped an octave. “That Guild member got a couple of his cronies together, found out where James lived, went to his house, and hacked him up. Hacked his girlfriend up, too, just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.” She swallowed. “Nothing we could do about it, either. The MLE office is in their pocket. No one wants to stand up to the Guild.”

Penny nodded, staring straight out the window. Her magic rolled through the cab, hot and intense. “Until now.”

“Fuckin’-A,” the guy on the left side said.

They turned off the freeway as the sun lowered in the sky. They still had a couple hours before it would be dark enough for the vampires to go outside. He really hoped Ms. Bristol had gotten the time frame right.

“I hope my mother wasn’t wrong,” Penny said, echoing his thoughts.

“She’s not wrong,” the guy in the middle said. “I was there when she told the beta’s fortune. She started getting into his personal life, and I thought he was going to smack her across the room to shut her up.”

“That would not have been bright,” Penny murmured.

Two of the guys in the back huffed out laughter. “Don’t suppose it would’ve been, no,” the one on the right said. “I was there, too, for most of it. I could feel the magic. She wasn’t making it up. The way her voice and body and everything changed? No way. I saw Vlad’s face in the crystal ball. It couldn’t have been a picture or video, because vampires don’t show up in video. That was legit.”

“Yeah, that was whack, yo,” the guy in the middle said with a toothy grin. “I didn’t think crystal balls were real. Ain’t never seen one. I’ll never forget it.”

“Everyone loves a fortune teller,” Penny grumbled.

“Except for the frauds who try to get by on their looks and colorful rocks,” Emery teased, earning a dark look.

They turned off the main road and onto a smaller one. He passed a bright pink sign and slammed on the brakes. Furry bodies slammed into the front of the truck bed.

“My bad,” he said, catching another sign up the way. Instead of reversing, he pulled ahead to that one, realizing he was making the train of vehicles behind him stop as well.

“What’s the matter?” Penny asked, magic rolling and boiling through the cab.

He pointed at the marked-up “garage sale” sign, studying the added red words and low slashes, hard to see on the pink paper. “I saw something like this outside the Bankses’ house before the mages attacked. I never did get to piece together the code. The mages have been communicating with each other right under our noses.”

“That’s…a weird code,” one of the women in the back said, leaning toward the window. “It looks more like punctuation than characters, doesn’t it?”

Roger stepped out of the SUV behind them, still completely naked, and a driver coming the other way slammed on her brakes. A woman in her twenties gawked out the window with stars in her eyes and a crooked smile. Roger didn’t seem to notice.

“You’ve stopped because of the sign?” Penny asked. “That sign? The pink one?”

“What’s the problem?” Roger asked at the window.

“We’ve got some sort of—”

“That’s not code.” Penny waved Emery on. “Don’t be silly. That’s just Veronica letting off steam. Go. Reagan will get there before us.”

“But it’s all marked up,” the guy in the back said.

“She corrects the grammar on signs and things around the neighborhood. She’s an editor.” Penny pounded on the dash. “Come on. Let’s go.”

A honk sounded somewhere down the line. Roger stepped away from the car and stared down in that direction for a beat, and Emery had no doubt his nudity wouldn’t detract from the sheer force of command he exuded. When no other honks came, he stepped back to the car.

“My God, he’s terrifying,” Penny mumbled, slouching in her seat.

“You’re sure about the sign?” Roger asked her.

“Yeah.” The woman from the back nodded and leaned back. “That fits.”

“Oh sh—” The guy she was sitting on jumped and shoved at her. “Woman, watch out where you put that bony butt. You’re going to break my dick in half.”

“Why is your dick hard in the first place?” she asked dryly.

“I’m straight, and I’ve got a naked woman sitting on me. You’re under the impression I can control what my body does in this situation. I’m not trying to find a hole, so count yourself lucky.”

“Ah, come on, man.” The guy in the middle tried to scoot away from the one on the end.

“Enough.” Roger’s whip-crack command silenced the cab. His eyes bored into Penny. “You’re sure?”

“Yes. Look”—Penny gestured at the window, accidentally flicking the glass with her fingers—“she put a command there, and added words to make that last bit a complete sentence. You guys, we’re wasting time!”

Roger stepped away from the truck and headed back to his SUV. Emery pulled away, not gunning it, since they’d have to turn up the driveway soon, anyway.

“Your friend corrects grammar on other people’s signs?” the guy in the middle asked.

“I’m glad someone said it,” the one on the end said. “That’s weird.”

“It’s not weird, it just ain’t right,” the one in the middle said. “She’s basically walking around, calling people dumb.”

“Well…if the shoe fits,” one of the women said.

The other guy huffed out a laugh. “Maybe the sign makers will learn something.”

“They ain’t gonna learn shit,” the guy in the middle said. “They probably won’t even take the signs down.”

“Well, I’ve learned something, and that’s all that matters,” the one on the end said.

“Yeah, you’ve learned that you can’t get laid even with a naked woman on your lap,” the unaffected naked woman said.

Everyone in the back busted up laughing, not at all tense or worried about the battle they were about to walk into. Their lack of fear indicated they were part of the select group of shifters Roger employed to keep magical people from outing themselves to humans in the Brink.

“There’s Reagan’s SUV,” Penny said quietly, having ignored the banter in the back seat. She hunched in her seat and pointed off to the side where the vehicle was parked in a little turnoff.

Emery pulled in and parked, then got out and motioned for Roger to do the same. There was space for a couple more cars, and then they’d have to take up the road. Not that it mattered. Darius’s residence was the only one up this way.