Stronger Together Series: Bonus Chapters

Déjà vu (SaO/Maggie bonus chapter)

Note: If you have not read Stronger as One, this chapter may contain spoilers.

MAGGIE

I took another look around to make sure that everything was perfect and that the place was ready for today's customers.

The Bond Bar was my cousin Sophie's and my baby. By far, our favourite joint project since I took over from my parents as Alpha of the Windfire tribe and she became the next Alpha Moreau of the Blackwood pack after my uncle stepped down.

Of course, we had our hands full with our respective Alpha duties, and it was not easy filling the shoes of our parents, all of whom were all renowned shifter leaders in Scotland and in the UK. Not to mention that mine were a legendary Alpha triad– a human, a wolf and a dragon, Alphas of a wolf-dragon tribe– which not only made them unique in our world but also earned them fame as frontrunners as far as progress and modernisation in the shifter world were concerned.

Sophie and I both grew up believing in the values that our parents– and our maternal grandparents before that– stood for, so we took to heart the idea of working with different shifter kinds. Bear sleuths, dragon clans, fox skulls, wolf packs and others- we embraced the diversity of our world and wanted to build on it. Something that was evident in all of our ideas and projects, and the Bond Bar was one of them.

But this was no ordinary locale.

If you were to look from the outside, you would never know there was a bar here. There was no sign to lead you to it, nothing to even hint what was inside. The facade, an artfully casual assemblage of old wooden slats, gave the place a boarded-up, abandoned look. Yet, shifters, even those visiting the area, knew what was hidden inside.

It was our secret haven to let loose away from prying human eyes, even if our lives were entwined with the humans in the area and my ‌mother and one of my aunts were human themselves. This was a place for shifters to mix, find their mates, meet others of our kind and just relax side by side, regardless of what animal lived inside them.

I preferred to leave it to the patrons to share what they thought of the place but, personally; I was proud of what we had put together. The velvet seating, antique leather-bound tomes, and exposed brick that we opted for created a moody but classy and intimate atmosphere in the dimly lit underground bar. There was also a mix of cosy booths and high tables, as well as a small stage for our live music nights.

Yeah, I loved this place.

Satisfied that everything was in order, I went back behind the bar, restocking the fridges and the bottles displayed on the liquor shelves. It was not often that I stood in for our staff but it was the early evening and we were just opening up, so it was no problem for me to replace Angie, who had a family emergency, until the rest of the team showed up later on.

And, to be honest, I liked it- it gave me a chance to speak to the customers and to get a feel for how everyone was feeling and what was happening amongst the various shifters. Plus, it was always good for an Alpha to keep an ear to the ground.

The fresh citrus smell filled up the air as I polished the dark wooden bar. I wiped it one last time when I heard the curtains that separated the stairs from the main entrance upstairs move. Most shifters wouldn't have noticed it, especially with the lounge music playing in the background, but I knew that someone had just entered the bar, thanks to my wolf hearing.

When the curtains finally moved apart, I was taken aback by the handsome stranger that walked in. Despite the low lighting in the bar, my dragon vision meant that I could clearly see his features, even from a distance. His black leather jacket and torn-off jeans gave off a bad boy impression, but even with this look, he oozed class. He was definitely no scruffy biker guy. His slightly trimmed beard added to his attractiveness, yet it was the confident, almost smug vibe that he exuded that had me intrigued as he stood tall at the top of the stairs.