The event had been far more successful than they had hoped. Thanks to Luis's generous tip and several large orders placed by chupacabras taking leftovers to their packs, they'd fixed the air conditioner and put away more than enough money to cover their rent. Business wasn't quite up to where it had been before the graffiti incident, but the customers they did have were happy with the new and improved menu. Some of those who had come to the new menu's debut evening had even become regulars.

Of course, some things still hadn't changed.

"Move it, Scales!" Yolanda marched past him with a plate full of aspic. "I swear, sometimes it's like having a slab of concrete in here."

"Guess I'd better stay out of the way." Miguel sidled closer to Alejandro and brought his arm around his back, pulling him close.

Alejandro's muscles were firm yet relaxed against his touch. "Everything alright, Miguel?" Warm brown eyes glanced up from the steak he was seasoning.

"Just have something on my mind." Miguel's heart skipped a beat at the way Alejandro inhaled when he nuzzled his hair. The faint scent of lavender he'd smelled on the night they'd first met was still there, a delicate fragrance hiding among his soft curls. "Is this okay?"

"Yes." The single breathless word sent Miguel thrumming. Alejandro chuckled softly as he leaned into Miguel's touch. "Let's just save it for after work, alright? It's hard to focus when you do that."

"Okay." Miguel stepped back, his spines sagging. Was he not doing it right? Perhaps the others had been right, and Alejandro was losing interest in him already.

"One last hug should be alright though." Alejandro leaned back into Miguel's arms, standing on his tiptoes for a moment to brush his lips against Miguel's jaw.

The kiss was brief and gentle, a quick caress. Yet, in that instant, Miguel felt as if he'd lived another lifetime in which the only sensation he knew was the tentative touch of those warm lips on his cool scales. Lips that did not fear the serrated teeth hiding inside his mouth, even if they should.

For Alejandro, the gentleness of the kiss was a choice. For Miguel, gentleness was a necessity. As he carefully unwrapped his arm from around Alejandro, he was struck by how fragile the man was. Sure he hid surprisingly firm muscles under his uniform, but what good would those do against careless claws?

What good would any of this do if Alejandro wanted more than Miguel could give him?

A voice broke through Miguel's thoughts. "Miguel, there's someone who wants to speak with you." The waitress refused to meet his eyes, keeping her gaze firmly fixed on the counter in front of her.

"Probably another hot sauce junkie trying to find out where they can get a good fix," Ralph said. "I swear, that stuff is like crack to you guys."

"What does that make Alejandro?" Yolanda said with a smirk.

"Wonderful," Miguel squeaked out as he brushed his hand against Alejandro's one last time before turning his attention to the waitress. "If they have a special request, we might not be able to handle it tonight. We're starting to run low on the spicier sausages. You know how it gets toward the end of the night!"

"It's not about the food." The waitress gripped the pass as if she was afraid she'd fall without its support. "Could you please just come out here?"

"Let me finish this ticket first," Miguel said. Grease splattered against his apron as he turned sausages over with his spatula.

"I don't think she—"

"This is ridiculous. Out of my way!" A scaly hand yanked the waitress away from the pass. She bolted for Mr. Kaminski's office as Isabella stomped into view.

With her spines standing on end and dried blood staining her fangs, it was a miracle the waitress hadn't made a run for it sooner. Miguel handed Alejandro his pan before meeting her at the pass. "Is everything alright?" Whatever Isabella needed must have been serious for her to come to The Crimson Goat. Even though he'd invited her a handful of times, he never thought she'd set a claw into the place again.

"Explain this." Isabella thrust a flier into his face. Even with dark brown blotches of grease rendering the words illegible, there was no mistaking the advertisement he'd handed out to his pack.

"We needed to raise money for rent and repairs, and I was hoping some of our packmates might be interested." Miguel ducked his head, trying to look as small and nonthreatening as possible. "They weren't, but they seemed to enjoy the sausages."

"So it's true?" Isabella flared her nostrils. "I didn't want to believe it. My own brother, going behind my back for the sake of these humans." A low, rumbling growl crept into her voice as her pupils turned to slits. "Enough of this foolishness. We're leaving."

The kitchen had grown quiet. Gone was the usual chatter as they wound down for the night, replaced with Miguel's heart hammering so hard it drowned out all else.

Every instinct told him to go, to obey his pack leader without question, but the thought of leaving Alejandro weighed heavily on his heart.

He couldn't tell Isabella that. Not without exposing how much he'd been hiding from her.

"The pack needs the extra money now more than ever," Miguel said. "We can barely afford to take care of everyone as it is."

"You think I don't know that?" Isabella hissed. "You are the only one I have allowed to work with humans, away from the pack. We can find somewhere else for you and some of the others."

"But I'm happy here." Miguel's throat tightened around the words, his voice strained. "Happier than I've been since I was a hatchling. Since before..." He gestured wordlessly to his twisted leg.

Isabella winced. She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as her spines lowered. "It means that much to you?"

"Yes." Miguel smoothed out his apron, breaking eye contact with her as his gaze drifted to the name lovingly embroidered there.

She flexed her claws, tensing and relaxing them again and again. "What is it about these humans that makes you happier than I can?" The sharpness was gone from her voice, replaced with a quiet ache. "Tell me, hermanito."

He wanted to. Oh, how he wanted to. But the words caught in his throat like a sharp bone fragment.

Miguel glanced over his shoulder, his eyes lingering on Alejandro. The way he was biting his lip as he so often did when he was anxious. The concern in those warm brown eyes.

Alejandro didn't need him to say anything. He came to his side quietly, slipped his hand in his, and gave his fingers a gentle squeeze.

The meaning behind the look they shared was not lost on Isabella.

Her lips curled over her fangs in a bitter snarl, droplets of venom sizzling onto the pass. "Ah, so that is what means more to you than the pack. More than me."

"I-i-it's not like that." Miguel's tongue tripped over his words as his heart pounded against his ribcage. His claws screeched against the pass as he gripped it for support, his whole body trembling with nerves.

"You mean so much to him. We—" Alejandro's protest died on his lips as Isabella growled.

"Let him prove it, then." She fixed Miguel with a look that burned worse than her venom ever could. "I have put you above the rest of the pack for so long, hermanito. Is it not fair that I should expect you to let me put them first for once?"

Miguel understood her logic. He really did. Much of the pack had resented how she treated him even before he'd started working at The Crimson Goat, and things had only gotten worse once word had spread.

But working at The Crimson Goat was the first time he had put himself first. Perhaps he was doing it more for himself than the pack, but was that such a bad thing? Surely he deserved to do one thing for himself, just this once?

His silence was all the answer she needed.

"You leave me no choice, hermanito." Isabella drew in a shaky breath. "I, Isabella of Saguaro Pack, hereby banish you."

"You don't mean that," Miguel whispered hoarsely. His eyes burned with tears as Alejandro tensed beside him. "You can't."

"I can, and I do. You will no longer nest with us. You will no longer walk upon our territory. You will no longer poison my pack with this human nonsense!" Tears ran down Isabella's face in an unrelenting rain, yet her voice remained firm. "Until you reject these humans and their ways, you are no longer welcome among Saguaro Pack."