Chapter 1 #2
“No shit, Tampax. I mean this as a whole.” Monster indicated the whole drink.
“It’s your usual.” Zach looked puzzled, but added, “Sir.”
“Exactly, but I didn’t ask for my usual. How do you know I didn’t want to switch it up?”
“Uh,” Zach stuttered until Creedence put the kid out of his misery.
“He’s just fucking with you. It means you’re growing on him. Go in the back and do the inventory. I’ll handle things out here for a while.”
Once Zach was out of earshot, Creedence turned to Monster. “Do you really want something else?”
“Fuck no.”
Monster tossed the lime across the bar toward the trash can he knew sat just out of sight behind Creedence. Lightning-fast, Creedence’s left hand shot out and caught the small green wedge impaled on a clear skewer.
“Nice,” Lower Monster added, “for a human.” It wasn’t the first time Creedence had heard that. His brother had good instincts, which is how he’d earned his rocker.
Kansas plopped back down onto the stool he’d occupied earlier, looking a little worse for wear.
“What? Conning beautiful women into kissing you is that exhausting?” Monster razzed him.
“Not at all. As a matter of fact, I’ve got a hookup later.” He grinned.
“So, your search is over?” Creedence asked with a level of enthusiasm that annoyed the piss out of Monster.
“We’re not a squad of high school cheerleaders crushing on the damn quarterback for fuck’s sake. Unless MC now stands for menstruating cunts, we need to start acting like men. Fuck.” Why was Ulf jittery, and why did his skin suddenly feel too small for his damn body?
Monster downed his drink and motioned for Creedence to refill it.
Kansas cut his eyes his way. “I don’t think wanting love makes me less manly than your miserable ass. Maybe if you were more open to the possibility of finding the one for you, you’d be less of a cranky bastard.”
Kansas shook his head in that disapproving dad way before continuing in a disappointed and defeated tone.
“Just because you don’t want it, doesn’t mean you need to piss all over it for everyone else.”
That made Monster feel about two feet tall.
Kansas was a good man, a stand-up brother, and a hell of a secretary.
Not to mention the only wolf raised in a pack, even as dysfunctional as it had been.
The sad part was, Monster wondered if it was jealousy.
Maybe he did want love in his life but was afraid to hope.
The apology was perched on his lips when a sexy as hell brunette approached Kansas. Leaning against the bar next to his brother made her rack sit higher in her low-cut shirt. Curves in all the right places, pouty lips, and a short pixie cut that wasn’t usually his thing but was hot on her.
The voice when she spoke shot straight to his cock.
“What, no kiss for me?”
Kansas turned to face her. He must’ve been just as tongue-tied as Monster felt because he didn’t speak.
“I mean, you kissed every other lady that came in, so why not me when I came in a few minutes ago?”
Monster was about to say he’d give her a kiss anytime and anywhere she wanted, when Creedence piped in.
“Kansas is probably all kissed out, beautiful, but my lips are ready to go. FYI, they make a pretty good seat too.” Creedence winked at her. Fucking winked. Monster pinged his gaze back to her just as Kansas raised his mistletoe above her head and leaned in.
As their lips met, he watched her dark eyes start to drift closed, but they clashed with his instead. Fuck, he felt the weight of her whiskey-brown eyes settle on him as she kissed his brother.
That was the first time in his life he remembered being jealous of another man. He wanted to feel those full pink lips against his.
An image flashed across his mind. Him with his hand on her throat and his wolf in control.
What in the literal fuck?
His wolf was never in control while he was in skin. Hell, he was barely in control when in fur. His hand absently stroked the cuff on his wrist.
As disturbing as that was, it wasn’t the part of the vision that had him reeling. It was the tears staining her face.
Monster reached out to Ulf. Nothing but a whimper answered him. His wolf couldn’t speak without great effort due to the cuff, but it was necessary.
I’ll give you fur later if you explain.
He couldn’t let him run, but he could give him a break. While he couldn’t take the cuff off, his wolf felt less pain in the fore. The silver didn’t hurt his wolf as much in fur as it did in skin.
There were a few moments during the shift to and from where they were both aware, occupied the same consciousness, but it didn’t last. During those precious seconds they were like one, as they were meant to be. No secrets, no cages. Ulf was less disjointed too.
Don’t know. Never do. You skin, me fur. Always been, always should. His wolf gritted the words out.
Yeah, Monster knew that, but he at least had to try.
Hurts more. So bad. Why? Must get out.
Monster hated keeping him caged. Hopefully some of the information Kansas had recovered from the decimated Domino pack would help.
Sorry, he apologized to his wolf.
Ulf was hurting with the constant silver; it must be doing something extra tonight because Monster was thinking too much about the past or something.
His wolf had been twisted since he’d awakened in violence way too early. He didn’t even have a proper name, just the one he’d given himself … Ulf. Which was how Arden used to pronounce wolf when he was even younger.
That day, so long ago, had been lost to Monster in all but retellings, but suddenly he was getting flashes.
No. Stop. Kill.
He’d been just a boy when his wolf growled those words in his head before bursting free from his little body. It happened so fast, ten-year-old Arden didn’t even understand what was happening. He watched through the giant wolf’s eyes as he ripped the man’s throat out.
Ulf licked Arden’s Grammy’s wounds, then curled up next to her.
That’s where his dad found Ulf later that day.
He’d been told the story over the years, but he didn’t actually remember anything after the wolf curled up next to his Grammy.
After that, when his wolf came out, Arden would drift off to sleep, for lack of a better description. So, his memories in fur didn’t extend beyond the few shared moments.
For some reason, he was having flashes from after his wolf’s first emergence, when he had been asleep.
Dad crouched over Grammy, sighing with relief when he found a pulse.
He turned and patted Ulf’s head. “You did good, but you’re not supposed to be here yet. You need to give the body back to my boy now. You protected them, and I promise to do the same for you.”
Whoa.
The shock of seeing that moment and not just hearing about it jolted Monster back to the present.
His eyes were still locked on the brunette who’d been kissing Kansas. She was looking everywhere but at him while she chatted with his brother.
Judging by the look on Kansas’s face, she wasn’t his one, and he was merely being polite.
Thank fuck.
The thought came out of nowhere when Creedence leaned over and whispered, “Damn, she is fine. If Kansas doesn’t hit it, I will.”
His brother’s words rubbed him the wrong way, maybe because that was exactly what was running through Monster’s mind.
He smirked at his very human brother. “Let the games begin.” He slapped a hundred-dollar bill on the bar and Creedence did the same.
“All these years around us and you still haven’t learned that your tired ass lines have nothing on the shifter sex appeal.”
Creedence slipped the bills under the cash register drawer. “And all these years around me and you’re still overestimating your own appeal.” He closed the drawer before whipping up a girlish-looking drink. “And underestimating me.”
Monster watched as Creedence took the drink over and slid it to the sexy woman.
“Hey, Kansas, I’ll keep the pretty lady company because you're late for your hook-up—excuse me—I mean hook-ups?” Creedence pointed at the two women dressed in barely-there club attire who were eating the man up with their eyes.
Damn, that was cold, but effective.
The woman’s eyes flashed with what looked more like relief than panic.
Interesting.
Kansas knocked on the bar. “Right, brother.” He said before turning to the lady. “I’ve got a previous engagement, doll, but I’m leaving you in good company with my brother. Creedence, this is Carys. Carys, Creedence.”
Kansas leaned in and whispered something to her that Monster couldn’t hear, even with his enhanced hearing. Her warm whiskey eyes widened impossibly large and clashed with his.
He could feel his wolf curled in his cage whimpering in pain. He really shouldn’t be thinking about getting laid. He should be getting home and letting Ulf take fur for a few moments.
He finished his drink while Creedence chatted up the … Carys, Kansas had called her.
Creedence turned his gaze to Monster, or rather to his glass. He poured another drink before opening the cash register. He placed the drink on a napkin and slid it across the bar to Monster, along with two one-hundred-dollar bills tucked between the layers.
Moster raised a brow at Creedence, who shrugged.
“Bro, she didn’t take her eyes off you once the whole time I was throwing my best at her.
” With a lift of his chin toward a pretty blond at the corner of the bar, he added.
“It doesn’t happen often, but I can admit when I've lost. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I've found the perfect way to cope with this rare defeat.”
He watched Creedence approach the blond and speak to her for all of ten seconds before he whistled for Zach. When the prospect emerged from the back, Creedence tucked the blond under his arm and headed to the back office.
Monster’s attention was drawn back to Carys. Viewing her from the corner of his eye, she looked Kansas’s way and nibbled her lip before turning her gaze back to him. Watching Monster, but clearly not wanting to divert her attention from Kansas.
It was confusing as fuck, but he was done for the night. They didn’t have a pack run for another week, so he needed to let Ulf out for a few minutes to ease some of his pain.
Downing his drink, he placed the glass upside down on the napkin. As he stood, he pulled his hair back and headed toward the door. When he passed Carys, she grabbed his arm.