me do this, and the rest of you make sure Gabby's big day is everything she wants."
Trent patted my shoulder. "Can do. I'll also make sure she knows."
"She knows," I assured him, because I'd already caught Elena looking at me a few times.
She wanted to say something. She'd managed to brush her fingers across my hand or arm at least three times now, but we were both aware of her parents hovering at her side. If they had a problem with Ian, there was no way they'd accept a guy like me dating her, and that wasn't a fight any of us wanted to have today.
I would, though. If I had to fight to be with my mate? Yeah, I would throw down in a serious way. Damn, but that woman made me feel wonderfully stupid. Just thinking about her curling up against me put a little smile on my lips as I slipped through the crowd, trying to see where the young tiger was going.
Naturally, to the bar. I strained my ears to listen, only to hear the boy ask for a Coke instead of a beer. Granted, his father was around here somewhere, and that would probably put a bit of a damper on things. Then Roman, of all people, noticed him.
"Hey," Roman said, moving to the guy's side. "I'm Roman, with the birthday girl. Haven't seen you around."
"Nikolai," the kid responded. "Kinda here by invitation." Then he closed his eyes and inhaled. "You live here, right?"
Roman just smiled. "Yep. Gonna guess you're a cat man, huh?"
"Definitely," Nikolai agreed. "You're more of a dog kinda guy, huh?"
"Oh yeah," Roman said around a laugh. "Tenth grade?"
"Yep," Nikolai said. "You?"
"Same. Gabby's in the ninth. The blonde beside her and the Black girl are too." Then Roman jerked his thumb that way. "I can introduce you if you want."
Nikolai's green and yellow eyes just narrowed. "You related to someone special or something?"
"My girlfriend is," Roman explained. "She's also pushing for a little diversity. Kinda why she has a human as her beta. C'mon, let me introduce you. Promise, we don't bite unless you do."
"Sure," Nikolai decided, letting Roman lead him deeper into the crowd.
I had to admit, I was a little impressed with the kid. Sure, tigers were supposed to be isolationists and all that, but this was still a room filled with wolves, and he had to be able to tell. Between all the amber eyes and the smell of us all around, there was no way Nikolai had missed that, but he was still willing to follow a strange teenager deeper into this mess.
It kinda made me realize just how desperate these people must be. And if we'd already found this many without even trying, how many more were out there, too scared to even ask? As I made my way around the crowd, making sure I wasn't acting too stalkerish, I thought about that. We had about eight more houses without tenants. There was another block ready to build, and that would give us another dozen.
And then there was the land behind us. If Henry purchased the abandoned apartment complex at the side, we could effectively double the available space for housing. Granted, that was a multi-million dollar investment, but I was starting to get the feeling that it just might pay off. Not that it would happen fast, but it was definitely something we needed to think about.
When I reached the kids again after coming around from the other side, I found Nikolai being introduced to Gabby's betas. Samantha smiled at him like it was no big deal. Then again, had anyone told her what he really was? Probably not. Olivia was clutching Xander's hand, making it clear she was taken, but that wasn't who the boy was looking at.
Nope, Nikolai's eyes kept making their way back to Theo. The same boy who'd made a mess of things by releasing a video, but there was no way for the tiger to know that. Samantha had taken public credit for it. So far as the rest of the world knew, Theo hadn't been involved at all. The rest of us were aware that he'd made a stupid and innocent mistake because he happened to have a crush on Roman. One that wasn't exactly reciprocated. But from the way Theo was blushing, maybe things weren't going to turn out so bad after all.
"Champagne?" Pax asked as he fell in at my side, all but pushing a glass on me.
"Beer?"