Hi everyone! I've tried playing with the formatting a little in order to keep Mack and Ashleigh in every chapter, but I think the story works better without that. So you'll see them in the next chapter -- for now, Yosef and Travis try to get to the bottom of things. Special thanks to everyone who volunteered to proofread and offer feedback on this chapter before it went online! If you're interested in being one of those people, send me feedback through this site and I'll include you in the next e-mail. - ♥ Ava
PS: If you're itching for more of my writing you can also find my series The Commander's Cat on Literotica. (Still contains shifters but is very different.)
The idea of accompanying Travis on a trip to parts unknown filled Yosef with dread.
This is when he kills me,
Yosef thought every time the SUV turned in front of him.
He's going to take me somewhere no one will find me and leave my body in that SUV.
He wasn't sure if he should be relieved or more concerned when, nearly an hour later, he followed the SUV into the parking lot of a bar. It reminded Yosef of something he had seen in an American movie when he was younger. The building was long and low, with a second story over part of it. A long covered porch with railings and posts made of logs ran along the front of the building, the large windows illuminated by neon signs advertising different brands of beer and the presence of girls, girls, girls. Atop the second floor a neon light blinked "The Growler" in blue, a yellow neon crescent moon beside it.
Dozens of motorcycles were parked in front; trucks and muscle cars in all the other taken spaces. The SUV was the only car like it in the parking lot. Without a word Travis mounted the steps of the porch and waited at the top, holding open one of the heavy double doors for Yosef. The young wolf froze and pointed at the neon pink "girls, girls, girls" sign.
"I don't think I should go in there," he looked to Travis for direction, more concerned about how he would react than he was about Jana's reaction.
"I won't tell your girlfriend," Travis said, jerking his head toward the interior of the bar.
Hesitantly, Yosef stepped across the threshold into the dark atmosphere of the tavern, Travis right behind him. He felt the alpha put a hand on his back and heard him mutter, "Go to the bar, the far end, and sit next to that door." Yosef found the directions confusingly specific, but did as Travis commanded. Without even taking his order the bartender slid a glass of something cold and amber-colored across the bar to him almost as soon as Yosef's ass was on the stool.
"What is this?" Yosef asked, remembering the multitude of lights advertising different beers in the window.
"Beer," the man answered gruffly.
"Okay," Yosef replied with a nod. Taking an experimental sip revealed that it was a typical American beer. Drinkable, but nothing like the beers he'd become accustomed to when he lived as a refugee in Germany. He raised the glass and muttered "Prost" at the bartender, who just eyed him suspiciously and poured another beer for himself.
Looking around Yosef was surprised at the number of lycans around him. Wolves, and werewolves especially, held a strange place in the mythology of his homeland. Over the years he'd seen the symbol of the wolf become politically charged, and now he didn't think it would be possible to have a place like The Growler where lycans could publicly meet in such numbers. At least not in his homeland.
"America is beautiful," he said to the bartender. The bartender seemed to like that more than his German toast and nodded.
"Where are you from?" the bartender asked.
"Iraq, Germany, nowhere."
The bartender's eyebrows raised as he studiously cleaned a glass. "I went to Iraq, twice," he said, his gruff voice a little softer than before. "Germany a few times. Usually for fun, once not."
"Did you?" Yosef asked, raising his eyebrows as well.
The bartender grunted. "I'm glad we both got out of there, I'll tell ya that much," the bartender finished. "I'll drink to that," Yosef replied, and smiled when the bartender raised his glass as well, clinking it against Yosef's before draining it.
"I'm John Larsen, everybody here calls me Johnboy or Johan. Please don't," the bartender held out his hand.
Yosef laughed and shook it. "Yosef Nouri, just Yosef--" he started to say before a commotion broke out behind him. Yosef turned and watched a man, clearly too drunk to even walk, stumble and take a swing at Travis.
"Come on," Travis egged him on, "get it all out of your system, Francis."
Yosef and the bartender watched as the man swung again, stumbled, fell, then rolled onto his back. He started to say something, then turned his head to the side and vomited on the rough wooden floor of the bar.
"Fuck's sake," John snarled, throwing down his towel and walking around the bar. Grabbing the drunk man by his collar, he dragged him out onto the porch, all the while the drunk hurled arguments and wolf-slurs at John and Travis both. Yosef couldn't make enough of it out to make any sense of it, but could certainly hear John yell at the man, "He didn't fuck your wife! She's not your wife anymore, you drunk cuck."
Travis slid onto the barstool next to Yosef, then reached across the bar and poured himself a beer. "That was years ago," he told Yosef. "His ex is a lousy lay anyway, just laid there like a starfish," he muttered, quickly draining the glass and then grabbing Yosef's. "You're driving," he told him, then walked away with his beer.
"What is this place?" Yosef said aloud to no one, his eyes sparkling with amusement as he got up and followed Travis. He imagined that he felt like a kid at Disneyland must feel.
Travis sat in a booth with several other lycans, then turned to Yosef as he started to slide in next to him. "I told you to sit at the bar. I want you to meet my friend Johnboy."
"I met John," Yosef replied, still trying to get the alpha to scoot over.
"Go make friends with Johnboy," he told him, shooing him away with his hand.
"Why?" asked Yosef, frowning and confused.
"You both need a friend that knows what you went through. Go away. It will be good for you. Johnboy is an asshole, but an asshole with a heart of gold."
A couple of the lycans at the table chuckled, carefully minding their own business while Travis dealt with his greenhorn.
"He speaks German, too. He plays dumb but he's not. Go," the alpha repeated, and Yosef finally gave up, returning to his seat at the bar.
"What's up with you and Travis?" John asked as Yosef returned to the bar. John poured him another beer which Yosef tried to refuse. "Knowing Travis, you'll be here long enough it won't matter. Enjoy yourself," John told him, pouring another for himself as well.
Yosef sipped the beer while he tried to decide how to sum up his situation. "I'm engaged to his daughter," Yosef finally said. John nearly dropped his glass.
