Kindred by J. A. Redmerski

huge arms. “Your man here wouldn’t have brought you.”
    I twist my neck around and look upward at Isaac standing directly behind me. For a second, I want to lay into him and ask just how many times he’s actually done something like this since we’ve been together and I didn’t know about it. Because there’s no way he’d tell me. But I reconsider. I’ll save it for later when we’re not surrounded by male werewolf testosterone and I’m not risking making Isaac look like I have a collar around his neck.
    I hear a WHAP! and see Nathan’s body hit the ground.
    My eyes bulge wide and my body locks up.
    “Damnit!” Nathan says, rubbing his jaw and…laughing.
    Darren reaches out to help him back up and a smile breaks his face.
    “If you want to go another round,” Nathan says to Darren still with laughter in his voice, “just ask!”
    “Ask?” Darren’s face twists into a WTF sort of look. “You want me to ask you if I can punch you in the face? Man, you have gone soft.”
    From the corner of my eye, I see four female figures jump down from the steep ledge and walk over to join us.
    A beautiful black girl with long, dark hair comes up behind Treven and I see her hands slither up and over his shoulders. An excited growl rumbles in his chest and between these two and Seth and his girlfriend sucking face on Isaac’s Jeep, I’m starting to think Isaac and I should probably cut this gathering short.
    Treven pulls the girl around in front of him, rather savagely, but I get the distinct feeling she’s used to it and happens to like it. He kisses her hard.
    I look up at Isaac again and he nods, knowing I’m ready to leave.
    “Isis, meet the Mayfairs,” Treven says.
    Everybody introduces themselves and by the time it comes my turn, I’ve decided that she seems nice enough that I don’t need my Rachel-defenses up at all.
    “I’m Adria,” I say and her smile gets wider.
    “A pleasure,” she says, running her hands up Treven’s chest. “I’ve heard about you.”
    That takes me by surprise. Since when did I become interesting enough to talk about?
    “You have ?”
    Isis nods, her smile dazzling against her caramel-colored skin. “Hook up with a Mayfair,” she says, glancing briefly at Isaac, “and everybody knows about it.”
    I breathe a quiet sigh of relief. I didn’t want it to be for any other reason, the sort of reasons that might single me out for being human, or for once being Vargas property.
    “Nate,” Isaac says, “are you good?”
    Xavier laughs at my right. “He didn’t look so good on his ass a few seconds ago.” He and Darren bump fists.
    “I’m good,” Nathan says, grinning over at Isaac and me.
    I chuckle a little under my breath.
    Suddenly I feel like I need to sit down again and I reach for the Jeep door. Isaac pulls away and takes my hand. “Let’s go get something to eat,” he says, looking worried. “Did you eat anything today?”
    I shake my head. “The last thing I remember eating was a tuna fish sandwich for lunch yesterday —haven’t had much of an appetite.”
    “Well no wonder,” Isaac says. “You’re going to eat.”
    “What about the windshield?” I say, gazing down at the concave where Seth’s body had slammed against it.
    Isaac looks at the windshield. Then he looks at me. Back at the windshield.
    He turns at his side, pulls back his arm and buries his elbow into the already broken glass, busting it out the rest of the way.
    Seth and his girlfriend hop off the hood of the Jeep quickly and go back to fondling each other a few feet away.
    I just stare at Isaac, my lips parted, my eyebrows wrinkled in my forehead while he clears all of the thick, jagged pieces away. Good thing windshield glass isn’t as thin and sharp as regular glass or else his arm would surely be covered in blood and cuts.
    He opens the door for me, dusts the nugget-like pieces of glass out of my seat and gestures with his hand for me to get in. I just shake my head, barely