The effect on the customers was immediate.

Some sprang over the fence that bordered the patio, sprinting off into the night. Others dove under their tables, huddling together as they watched the confrontation unfold. All of those that remained stared at Saguaro Pack with wide eyes.

Luis puffed out his chest, putting on a brave façade as his spines quivered. "Unless you intend to eat here, take your pack and leave."

"We are not leaving until we teach the packless filth who chose humans over his own kind a lesson," Martha said with a hiss. Her venom dripped onto the pavement in a sizzling drizzle.

Miguel trotted to Luis's side with Alejandro right behind him. "I'll handle this."

"This your old pack?" Luis snorted and curled his lip over his fangs. "Feisty bunch, aren't they?"

Martha drew herself to her full height as she leered down at Miguel, spines bristling. "You have caused us more harm than you could possibly imagine. If it weren't for you and your partner, we would still have a territory."

Miguel's eyes widened as he took in the many chupacabras crowded behind Martha. These were not just her mate and hunters. No, she'd brought elders whose scales had dulled with age. Parents carrying their clutches in clumsily woven baskets, their eggs peeking between gaps in the mesh. Hatchlings so small they still had their egg teeth.

The entire pack had come.

"Saguaro Pack has lived on that farm for generations," Miguel said. "What could make Mr. Miller cast you out now?"

"He found these in the barn." Martha threw a fistful of collars at Miguel's feet. The familiar scent of dogs brought a wave of memories back to Miguel. He'd known the pack had been forced to hunt strays to survive, but had they really become desperate enough to hunt pets as well?

No. His scent was muted by the blood covering the collars, but there was no mistaking his odor tinged with the sour stench of alcohol.

David had set them up.

"David didn't take too kindly to you getting between him and that one." Martha flicked her head toward Isabella with a snarl. Isabella bared her teeth at her but stayed put, claws twitching as she prepared to protect the Morales family.

"David has always hated chupacabras no matter what any of us have done," Miguel said firmly. "I don't know where you can claim a new territory, but you are welcome to eat here as long as you do so peacefully."

But Martha wasn't listening. Whatever sense of reason she'd once had was long gone, replaced by a hunger as sharp and desperate as the bones jutting out beneath her scales.

"I know full well where we can find prey. Can't you smell it?" Martha sniffed the air as her eyes roamed the tables. The human customers shied away from her gaze, but half-starved chupacabras moved to block their escape routes. "I hereby claim this territory for Saguaro Pack."

"It's already been claimed." Miguel's spines bristled as he moved to block Alejandro from view. If Martha truly intended to hunt humans, she'd have to get through him first.

"Then let your pack's leader come forward so that I may challenge her." Martha bared her fangs. "It will be a pleasure to beat her again."

This was not how Miguel had imagined asking the other pack leaders for their acknowledgement, but he had no choice.

He motioned for Alejandro to come to his side, smiling gratefully as his partner's hand gave his a gentle squeeze. "I, Miguel Packless, hereby ask for acknowledgement so that I may form Carolina Reaper Pack with Alejandro Morales and Isabella Packless."

Silence hung in the air as thickly as flies over carrion. Miguel's grip on Alejandro's hand tightened. No matter what anyone said, they'd be together.

At last, a lone chupacabra rose from her seat. Customers and staff alike parted as she approached Miguel with a slow, deliberate gait, her crooked jaw tight with determination. Though she would never perform a clean killing bite, Valentina's status as a leader brought her unquestioned respect.

"Ralph mentioned some friends of his were planning to form a pack." Valentina appraised the two of them with narrowed eyes as if she was selecting the best cut from a fresh kill. Her gaze came to rest not on Miguel but on Alejandro. "Would you truly stand beside him in the face of a challenger? I have heard you're strong, but they will not go easy on you just because you lack claws."

"I will always do everything I can for Miguel." There wasn't the slightest hint of fear in Alejandro's voice. His smile brightened the night as he glanced at his partner. "I love him."

"I love you too, Moonbeam." Even in their darkest hour, the tiniest glimpse of that beautiful smile was enough to make Miguel thrum.

"If you accept Martha's challenge, I shall formally acknowledge you as Carolina Reaper Pack." Valentina dipped her head. "May the stars shine brightly upon you, and may your claws and fists strike true."

"You're sure about this, Moonbeam?" Miguel would do everything in his power to keep Alejandro safe, but Martha's hunger had sharpened her claws as well as her words.

"As sure as the stars, mi amor."

"See how openly they disrespect our ways?" Martha growled. "This human has raised his hand against us before. Are we going to stand back and let him do it again?"

"No!" Saguaro Pack roared.

But not all of them joined in. Some crouched low to the ground, quivering as their leader's steely glare raked them more harshly than claws ever could. Esmeralda stared at the ground, standing behind her mate in all but spirit.

The other pack leaders abandoned their tables. They herded the human customers and staff into a cluster on the patio before forming a ring around them. A protective ring, with their fangs bared at Saguaro Pack.

They were not alone.

Mrs. Morales and Isabella faced the intruders with all the fierceness of twin hurricanes. Creosote Pack's combatants raised their fists, ready for their first real fight. One by one, humans and chupacabras joined them until the entirety of The Crimson Goat stood against Saguaro Pack.

Together.

Fierce as they all were, none could outmatch Miguel. "You come onto my territory, frighten my customers, and threaten my partner. I will not stand for it!" Despite his limp, Miguel strode to face Martha with the confidence of a true pack leader. Venom leaked from his throbbing fangs as his entire body trembled with the force of his growling. "Leave."

Martha took a step back. Her eyes met Miguel's, her pupils mere slivers as her nostrils flared.

One breath. Two. Miguel kept his gaze locked on Martha's, praying to the stars above that she would leave them in peace.

"So be it." Martha snorted, leering at Miguel as if he was a mite trying to burrow under her scales. "I, Martha of Saguaro Pack, hereby challenge your claim to this territory. As you have a partner, my mate shall partake in our fight."

Esmeralda slunk to Martha's side, her head bowed low.

"As the challengers, they have the right of the first strike," Miguel told Alejandro quietly. "One of us will get hurt." His throat tightened around that admission. He'd take the strike. He had to. He'd never let them hurt his Moonbeam.

Alejandro brought his arms around him in a hug so tight Miguel felt their hearts beating against each other as if they too were trying to embrace. "When I said we'd be in this together no matter what, I meant it."

Miguel nuzzled the top of Alejandro's head, but not even his familiar lavender scent could ease his hammering heart. They faced their challengers hand in hand. "We accept your challenge and permit you the first strike, as is tradition."

Martha flexed her claws as she bent into a hunter's crouch. "Which of you will take the blow?"

"I will!"

The chorus was not two voices strong, but three. Esmeralda strode between the challengers, facing her mate with her fangs bared. "You have hurt them enough, cariña. Leave them be."

"Have they not hurt us as well?" Martha growled. "You saw that human attack me."

"I saw him defend his partner. Would you not do the same for me?" Esmeralda took a shaky breath. "If you do not rescind your challenge, I shall leave Saguaro Pack."

"You would leave me over this... this..." Martha spat, her venom sizzling against the pavement. "This mockery of a pack."

"If you hurt them, then you are no longer the chupacabra I fell in love with," Esmeralda said firmly. "My mate would never do such a thing."

Esmeralda raised her voice for all to hear. "How many of you have seen humans comfort a chupacabra as if he was one of their own? How many of you have seen one spring to his partner's aid to protect him from any threat, whether illness or a challenger? Do you dare to fight against love as pure and true as that?"

Growls faded and snarls ceased as Saguaro Pack considered her words. One by one they backed away, leaving Martha to face her mate and Carolina Reaper Pack alone.

"We mean Saguaro Pack no harm," Miguel said quietly. "Lower your spines, and you will be as welcome here as any other human or chupacabra."

Martha flexed her claws. "We have nothing because of humans, and yet you still dare to defend them?"

"Is our pack nothing?" Esmeralda stood her ground, staring at her mate with a low growl rumbling in her throat. Her voice cracked as tears filled her eyes. "Am I nothing?"

Martha reared back as if she had been struck. "Never!"

"Then leave them be, or you will truly have nothing," Esmeralda said.

At last, Martha bowed her head.

"Very well," she said. "I rescind my challenge, Miguel of Carolina Reaper Pack. We shall leave now."

Saguaro Pack retreated as quickly as they had come. Esmeralda was the last to go, dipping her head to Miguel. "Sorry for the trouble my mate has caused. May the stars light your path."

"And may they also light yours. Are you sure you will be alright?" Miguel didn't know whether the question was more for the pack's wellbeing or her own.

Esmeralda sighed. "Perhaps not tonight, but someday. Thank you for your concern, but I must go."

Once Esmeralda disappeared into the night, the tension fled with her. Some customers left, shakily thanking Miguel on their way out. Others went back to plates of food that had gone cold.

Some refused to go back inside, instead sitting among the humans on the patio. Their conversations began as tentatively and clumsily as hatchlings taking their first steps out of their eggs, but they were trying.

As he and Alejandro wrapped each other in an embrace trembling with relief, Miguel knew everything would be alright.