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Tapping on their shoulder, Mortimer said. "It looks like both of you are in the wrong seats, drinking someone else's Mead."

One of the men, who wore a green cloak, narrowed his eyes then smiled. Noah cringed at the cockly gleam in green cloaks eyes. If the man could see through Mortimer illusion to see he wasn't a wolf but a dragon, there was no way in hell he would be picking a fight! "Oye, Eddy." He slapped his friend off to the side. "Looks like the little wolfy is getting upset that we're drinking his mead!"

The brown-cloaked man laughed. "Aw, is he now? What's wrong, wolfy? Hasn't your ma taught you what it means to share?"

"Damn right! Especially when you're getting it for free." The green-cloaked man looked back up towards Mortimer. "Hey, wolfy. Why don't you order another pint and find a different seat and let your seniors occupy this spot?"

"How about you get the fuck up and drop my pint?" Mortimer's words were sharp and quick, like a blizzard in the middle of winter.

The bar grew deathly quiet as everyone watched with anticipation and excitement. Placing down the pint, the man in the brown cloak staggered to get to his feet. "Aw, looky here. Getting upset, are we? Think because you're huge that we can't whoop your ass?" He took a step up towards Mortimer and put his entire weight into shoving the dragon.

Yet, Mortimer didn't take a single step back. The man in the green cloak blinked in surprise and looked up at Mortimer. Not a single word could escape his lips before Mortimer's fist planted into the man's temple, sending him flying twelve feet across the tavern.

Noah flinched when he saw the man's head slam into a table. The man was extremely lucky. Noah had seen times where Mortimer would walk up to a tree and knock it over with a single punch just so they had some firewood, and that was without magic reinforcing his fist. So while everyone's jaws dropped at seeing the man fly, Noah was thanking Pangea that the man's head didn't fly off his shoulder.

"The fuck?! You son of a bitch!" The brown-cloaked man tried to unsheathe his blade, but in that split second Mortimer was already on him. His paw shot out and stopped the man from being able to fully draw the blade before he slammed his fist into the man's ribcage. The sound of bone breaking echoed across the inn along with a scream that shouldn't belong to a grown man.

"Who the hell does this wolf think he is?!" Six guys from on the other end of the bar jumped up. Standing up front, a man in iron-clad armor and a grizzly, mangled beard bellowed, "Wolf, you know that messing with the Gory Skulls is the same as courting death!"

Mortimer snorted and tossed the limp green-cloaked man off to the side. Without looking back, he grabbed up his mead and sighed before drinking what was left. "A waste of a good drink on idiots." He slammed his mug on the counter.

"You little...you three, teach him what happens when you fuck with the Gory Skulls! Luke," the grizzly man pointed to a scrawny guy then looked over to the squared jawed man in leather armor, "Orion, come with me beat that husky."

Damn it Mortimer, you had to cause a riot! Noah growled towards the dragon who had a smug, cold grin on his face.

Everything can't be peaceful; besides, I won't ever sit around and watch as someone takes what's mine. Cracking his knuckles, Mortimer walked over to the three men that charged towards him.

Cursing to himself, Noah looked up towards the three mercenaries that pushed past the crowd to get to him. "Whoa, wait. Wait! We can talk about this. There's no need for violence!" Noah took several steps back to the bar, looking at his walking cane and the three men that were quickly approaching.

"Should have thought about keeping your friend in check before he hurt my buddies," Luke said with a sick sadistic grin.

"Now, now you've got the wrong idea. It's obvious that we got off on the wrong foot. How about this: we'll pay for your friend's medical expenses and we let bygones be bygones?"

"Aw, aren't you a cute naive little bastard." Orion laughed and cracked his knuckles. There was a sick look in his eyes as they wandered up and down Noah's body and licked his lips. "Hey boys, let's not break too many bones. I'd like to have him please my cock later on tonight!"

"I never will understand your liking in men, Orion. However, I won't deny a brother's request." Mr. Grizzly said, swaggering in front of the other two, said, "Hey brat, this seems to be your lucky day. Only your friend will die. You'll get to tag along with us for awhile and help my little brother out."

Noah's ears dropped, as did his tail. "Come on guys. I'm only traveling with him. There's no need to joke like that. Come on, let's just sit down and--"

"Shut the fuck up and get over here!"

Noah faltered and stumbled backwards before he felt a tight grip on his wrist. He winced and whimpered while Orion pulled him to the group. "Oh, listen to that little whimper. God, I haven't had a good beastman for awhile." Thug number two chuckled and grabbed Noah by the scruff of his neck. Tremors might as well have been happening from how bad Noah was shaking when Orion got only a few whisker lengths apart from him. "Hey boy, if you don't want to be a broken mess in my bed tonight, why don't you show us what a good little boy you are. Get on your knees and service me."

"Ri-right here?" Noah's voice was barely audible.

The grin on thug two widened, while the other two snickered mischievously. "Yes. Show me how good of a slut you are and work that muzzle around my cock. No teeth, else you won't have any."

"Bu-"

"On. Your. Knees." Grizzly tossed him over to Lucas, making him stumble into one of his friends. All three were circled around him, giving him no room to run away or even think of getting help from anyone.

Biting his lower lip, Noah eyes instantly locked on to thug two's fingers as they worked his zipper down. "Get a move on!" Lucas laughed and tossed Noah to Orion.

"O-okay..." Noah said and slowly got onto one knee. From the corner of his eye he saw thug two reach down to grab his head, and a gleam flickered in Noah's eyes.

It was amazing how fast a well placed uppercut to the groin could have a grown man bent over, even more so than how quick a "cute" husky like Noah could go from helpless to savage. Noah's eyes narrowed as he grabbed Orion by his belt and leather chest strap and tossed him back into Grizzly before he had a chance to react. Lucas had the most dumbfounded expression on his face. "You're dead, you little brat!" He unsheathed his sword.

Noah snorted and smirked as his wrist snapped outwards, followed by a glint of silver flickering under the candle light. Lucas only had enough time to take a single step forward before a dagger dug deep into his thigh. A bewildered look shot into his eyes and he stumbled to keep on his feet. Noah's brows furrowed; he didn't want to give the man enough time to react, else he would have a bigger headache on his paws. He lunged forward right as the thug grabbed the dagger in his thigh.

A twisted smirk appeared on Noah's muzzle as he slammed his paw into the butt of the dagger, shoving it deeper into the Lucas thigh. Ignoring the scream from thug one, Noah shot up and punched the bastard in his jaw. Blood splattered from Lucas's mouth as Noah had nearly forced him to bite off his tongue. Wincing at the blood, Noah stepped back and watched as the man twitched on the floor. "Asshole..."

Noah's ears twitched and his nose scrunched up in disgust as he quickly turned around. Grizzly had shoved off the pervert and gotten back up. "Oh, you little brat, I hope you're not planning on leaving this motherfucking bar alive!"

A thought popped into Noah's head, and he quickly reached out and grabbed up both the thug whose thigh was now impaled and the sword, placing the sharp steel against the man's throat. "Want to try and take another step?"

"You little..." Grizzly cursed and stopped in midstep. "Do you even have the balls to slit another man's throat?"

On the outside Noah's expression was calm and relaxed, but he could feel his heartbeat thumping as he resisted the urge to look back to see if Mortimer was done. The only knowledge he had of the dragon's fight was that he could hear the sound of screaming, along with the overflowing excitement that was coming from Mortimer. "We won't know until you try something stupid."

A smirk appeared on Grizzly's face. "Boy, you're really something else. You must be stupid to think that I can't tell that you've never dirtied your paws before."

"Oh, are you so sure about that?" Noah pressed the blade closer to Lucas neck.

Grizzly grabbed the hilt of his blade. "This entire time you've never once release an ounce of bloodlust pup, nor do you have the scent of another man's blood on you." He took another step closer, making the husky tighten his grip on the hilt of the sword. "Though I'll give it to you... For a pup to bare his fangs at us is something worth some praise. As such... I'll make sure to make your death painless!"

Grizzly took several large steps towards Noah, drawing his blade held up high and ready to stab down between the husky's eyes. Noah felt his heartbeat speed up rapidly and he could no longer keep calm as he felt the same kind of cold, suffocating pressure envelop him like when he was chased by the wraith. Even if the man in front of him was human, he couldn't cast a spell else he'd be ending up placed on the stake.

Noah felt his grip on the blade tremble as he met Grizzly gaze, and he felt his breathing halt as he saw the obvious gleam in the man's eyes that showed that he was right. Shit! Think Noah, think! He could feel a wave of rage surging through him from Mortimer as he heard another scream coming from the other end of the inn. From how far he felt, Mortimer wasn't going to make it in time to save him.

He had to do something, think of something!

"Tch!" He stood up and tossed thug two over at Thug three and moved towards his cane. A loud laughter boomed through the inn as Noah turned to see that Grizzly had maneuvered around his companion and continued to charge towards Noah.

"Boy, your hide is mine!" Thug Three shouted.

"Leon!" Everything froze as everyone in the bar turned to see Cole standing at the bar, glaring at the scene in front of him. "What is the meaning of this?"

Thug Three spat and pointed his blade at both Noah and Mortimer, the latter of whom was holding a chair that was covered with blood from the thugs that went after him. "These bastards had decided to start a fight with my mercenary crew! So I'm aiming to finish it."

"You're aiming to get banned from my bar and lose out on any contracts I might have, that's what you're about to do!" Cole snapped.

An ugly expression covered Leon's face as he gripped his sword tightly. "How is it that you're going to take the side of these two beastman versus your own kind?!"

"Don't you even think of playing the race card with me Leon. I serve everyone equally. I also punish those who are in the wrong fairly."

"Then you should be kicking these runts out for threatening me!" Leon roared.

Slamming his hand onto the bar top, Cole's brows furrow. "I know that your man started to provoke my guest and made the first offensive move towards them. Not only that, you even have the balls to draw weapons and threaten to kill someone in my establishment. So tell me, why is it that I shouldn't ban the Gory Skulls from my inn?"

"I...I..." Leon looked like he wanted to rip someone's guts out. Luckily for Noah, he had Cole on his side, else he would be the poor soul that would be offering his organs to the floor boards.

"Leon, take your men and get out. Since you have been patrons here for a long time I'll look past this issue this once. However, do this again and I won't let you off," Cole snorted and turned his back on them, leaving no room for discussion in his tone.

"By the gods, Cole, you'll regretting siding with these damn outsiders!" Leon shoved his blade back into his sheath before he and the other men grabbed those on the floor and walked out of the inn.

The room stayed deathly quiet for a moment until Cole's expression softened. "Sorry about that little disturbance folks. To make up for that bit of entertainment, I'll buy everyone here a pint of mead!"

An overpowering cheer rose up before everything went back to normal. Sighing heavily, Noah dropped the sword in his paw and walked over to Cole, who was watching him. "Sorry about that. Didn't mean to cause a fight."

"Nah, you were in the right this time." Cole waved his hand before his eyes grew serious. "However, don't expect Leon to let this go. He's a stubborn man and won't let you leave without suffering for this offense."

"Don't worry. I'll put them in their place again if they try it." Mortimer said as he walked over.

Cole's eyebrow twitched at Mortimer. "I hope you're right. Though next time, get the inn owner to kick them out instead of starting a fight. It was a pint of mead, nothing to get upset about."

Mortimer only smiled, but that alone was enough to say that he didn't plan on taking Cole's advice. "Thank you. Now then, speaking about a pint..."

"Yeah, yeah. Mira, grab up a flagon of mead to replace theirs." Cole shook his head and walked towards the back.

"Well that was fun!" Mortimer chuckled as Mira slid their pints over.

Glaring at Mortimer, Noah took his pint and doused the annoyance. "You could have found a hundred better reasons to pick a fight than your mead getting taken."

"Nope. If you take what's mine, you should prepare to get your face caved in," Mortimer said before looking at Noah with a grin. "Though, I didn't know a scrappy little puppy like you would be such an actor and a fighter."

Noah's nose twitched before taking another swig of his drink, letting the warmth that settled in the pit of his stomach ease his nerves. "In Crescent Lake, there were a lot of guys that thought it would funny to try and pick on the little husky. What they didn't know is that this husky learned a few things about how to fight from his mother. So I got into a few tussles, some I lost, many I won. And I learned that to use the whole 'cute' and 'innocent' act to gain the advantage over the assholes that thought I'd be a good way to impress the ladies."

"So that's the reason you let your guard down for me to feel how calm you were during that whole little play you did?" Mortimer cocked his head.

Noah nodded his head. "Yeah, I didn't want you charging over there and bringing me more of a headache that I couldn't handle."

"You couldn't. However, I could have." Mortimer said. "Also that dagger, I take it you picked it off of the idiot whose family jewels you ruined?"

That brought a smirk to Noah's face. "Mom may have taught me a few tricks of the paw."

Mortimer burst out laughing at that before he waved Mira over to order some food. The two of them sat for the bulk of the night, drinking, eating, and bickering. It had been awhile since Noah had been able to relax like this. Since leaving the village, he had been plagued with never-ending thoughts of what could be around the next corner, how they'll get to Hedge Holt, and what he would do once there. He had been worried to the point that he didn't truly realize that what Mortimer had been saying had been right; he was stressing far too much.

Not that he would ever let the dragon know, else he would never hear the end of it. Smiling, he downed the last of his mead, spilling some of it on his tunic. "Da-damnit!"

Mortimer laughed and shoved Noah's shoulder lightly, which almost sent him flying out of the chair. "Look at you, lightweight. Two pints and you're already a mess."

"Shut the hell up! I'm just...fine." Noah said before waving to Mira. "I'll take another pint!"

Mira rolled her eyes and placed one in front of Noah. "This is the last one for you, pup."

"I'm not a pup! I'm a grown male!" Noah held up a finger. "I'm eighteen years old. Eighteen."

"So in other words, you're still a baby to us old-timers." Mira chuckled, which made the fur on Noah's cheeks rise. "Look, junior. When you can handle your liquor then we'll talk. Till then this is your last one."

"But!--"

"It's free Noah, unless you're going to pay for it of course." Mortimer snickered with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"You know what, fuck it! I'm going to bed! Good night everyone." Noah fumbled out of the chair and made his way up the stairs.