7. Poe
Poe
Bow met me at Copenhagen Airport with a friendly hug and a quick handshake. I didn’t typically go around sniffing my packmates, but when I got close to him, something heavenly and delightful assaulted my nose.
Mango. Vanilla. Coconut.
“It’s good to see you, you broody son of a bitch,” Bow said, nodding toward the car.
“You, too.” I walked to the passenger seat. “Did you get a new cologne? It smells great.”
“What?” Bow laughed and climbed into the driver’s side. “No.”
He chatted most of the ride to the hotel while I tried not to dwell on coming face-to-face with the love of my life for the first time in months.
Yeah, I’d seen him around the homestead.
He’d started working out more, and he’d cut off all his curly blond hair, making him seem more serious somehow—like he balanced his checkbook or invested in the stock market or some adult shit like that.
Lycan had never taken anything seriously in his life. Not me, not his finances. Nothing.
Knowing he looked good didn’t make this journey any easier for me.
My stomach twisted into angry knots, and my leg wouldn’t stop bouncing.
I tried to focus on the Danish skyline, but with each passing minute that I got closer to being in his vicinity, my lungs grew tighter, and my wolf whined louder.
He always knew how to reel me in, how to make me submit, how to take what little willpower I cultivated for myself, wrap it firmly around his fist, and yank. Fuck if I wouldn’t be on my knees in less than a week.
That scent billowed off Bow again, tugging me from the depths of my depravity. It was hypnotizing, making me want to jump my securely hetero buddy.
“Are you sure you’re not wearing anything?” I turned toward him and inhaled deeply. “Or maybe…were you with someone earlier?”
“Oh.” Bow laughed as understanding dawned on him. “It’s Ava.”
I blinked. “Ava Vanderbilt?”
Bow nodded. “She went into her transition a few days ago.”
I took a deep breath through my mouth, tasting that mouthwatering array of pheromones, and cursed the beast inside me that wanted to bottle it up and wear it around his neck like a collar.
No.
No, we’re not going there.
It’s just a female in transition. That’s all. That’s the appeal.
“I’m surprised you can smell it,” Bow said as he pulled up in front of a huge luxury hotel. “It ended earlier today, and I’ve showered like five times since then, trying to get the scent off.”
I stilled at the information and tried not to read into it.
Again, it meant nothing. Ava was a powerful shifter from a line of powerful shifters.
Of course her hormones would go buck-wild when she transitioned.
The fact that it left me half hard the entire ride was just a side note, nothing to worry about.
Mine, my wolf growled. Find. Take. Claim. Mine.
I winced and rubbed my forehead.
Shut the fuck up. I sneered at the idiot beast. What exactly did he think was going to happen? That I would walk in there, sweep her off her rich little feet, claim her as my mate, and ride off into the sunset with her?
She’d spent the last month and a half with Lycan. He’d helped her through her transition. If they weren’t fucking before, they certainly were now. And I’d be the outsider, the unnecessary bystander. I’d be the one they asked to throw them the cum-towel and close the door on my way out.
Despite how delicious her scent might be, Ava and Lycan were both off-limits, and this was going to be six weeks sent straight from my own personal hell.
The rush of Ava’s scent bombarded me as soon as we stepped inside the hotel’s foyer. The place screamed luxury, and there were probably marble columns and a harpist in the corner or whatever else these rich assholes thought they needed at the entrance to a hotel. I noticed none of it.
I focused on my breathing, on inhaling and exhaling through my mouth to keep from going rabid as her scent grew stronger, more potent, reaching inside of me to wrap around my heart and bang the pathetic thing against my rib cage until I could barely walk.
We took the elevator to the penthouse floor, and I nearly keeled over when the doors opened.
The inviting bouquet of citrus hit me in the face, mixing with Lycan’s toxic blend of leather and cedar and man.
The combination sent me into a tailspin, and I clutched the handle on the side of the wall to stay upright.
“You okay, man?” Bow asked, grabbing my shoulder.
I hauled myself up and put one foot in front of the other until we got to the end of the hallway.
Bow narrowed his eyes at me before knocking on the door. “Hey, it’s me. Poe’s here.”
“Come in,” Lycan said.
His voice cut straight through my gut, clenching my insides.
Bow opened the door, and I hiked my backpack up on my shoulder, hardening myself for what I’d find on the other side. A small foyer led to the living area with a few couches and a huge TV. The kitchen sat off to the left, and in front of it, the dining area.
Ava sat on Lycan’s lap in front of the table, a buffet in front of them, her fingers wrapped around a strawberry.
She looked even more gorgeous than I’d imagined.
Her glowing skin accented her dark, luscious hair and illuminated her sky-blue eyes.
Lycan, by contrast, looked like shit. In typical post-transition form, he’d lost twenty pounds, his cheeks sunken and his eyes dull and lifeless.
It tugged at my chest. It made me want to help him, feed him, cuddle him into rest. Hell, something to make it better.
I stood rooted to the spot as both sets of eyes shifted to me.
“Poe,” Lycan said, pulling his lips into a genuine smile—the one that he reserved for me and only me. Or, at least, he used to. Now, he probably grinned at Ava like that. “It’s good to see you.”
“Poe?” Ava looked between Lycan and me. “Your Poe?”
Lycan hummed. “Yep. My Poe.”
The possessive pronoun sent a shiver down my body.
“His ex, Poe,” I corrected.
Bow pursed his lips, raised his eyebrows, and gestured toward the door. “Now that you’re all acquainted, I’ll just…” He turned to leave.
“Still mine, in any case,” Lycan said. He pressed a kiss to Ava’s temple before guiding her to the seat next to him, and I swallowed the ache rising up the back of my throat. I had no reason to be jealous. I didn’t own him. I didn’t belong to him. We’d broken up months ago.
Yet, when he stood wearing nothing but a pair of gray sweatpants and walked closer to me, his arms spread wide, I let my gaze wander over the tightly coiled muscle in his torso and the little trail of blond hair that started at his navel and disappeared under his waistband.
“Thank you for coming,” Lycan said, patting me on the shoulders before sliding one hand up my neck to cup my jaw. It would have been so easy to lean in and kiss him, and I glanced down at his lips to check if they were still as full and pouty as I remembered. (Much to my cock’s chagrin, they were.)
“Didn’t have much of a choice,” I said. “But I’m happy to help, in any case.”
“Here, let me get your stuff.” Lycan grabbed my suitcase and carried it past me into the bedroom at the far end of the suite. “You can take the extra room in here.”
I stared at Ava and wondered what exactly about her scent had driven me so feral.
Standing there now, the power of it nearly sent me into a tailspin.
I wanted to bury myself in her neck and lick her until the world ended.
My wolf howled and paced in my head, both sizing her up and wondering how long would be appropriate before I made a move.
“It’s nice to meet you, Poe.” Ava pushed to her feet so she could walk closer and hold out a hand.
I took it, sliding my calloused biker’s palm against her gentle aristocratic skin. She felt like silk.
“You, too,” I said. “Congratulations on your transition.”
“Well, don’t congratulate me yet. I’m still convinced I’ll turn into a toad on the full moon.”
I rubbed the back of my neck as I tried not to laugh at her joke.
I didn’t want to like her. She wasn’t supposed to be likable.
She’d holed up with my ex and let him do undoubtedly despicable things to her (just like the things he used to do to me), and I was supposed to hate her and everything about her and…
Fuck, does she have dimples?
“Not many toads in the pack,” I replied, “but if that happens, I’m sure Lycan will let you ribbet the song of your amphibian ancestors from his back all night.”
She laughed and covered her mouth with her hand. “Can you imagine? Lycan, a big giant werewolf, and his stupid little frog companion? I wouldn’t force such a thing on him.”
“Then best hope you don’t end up a toad,” I said.
“For the last fucking time,” Lycan moaned, walking back into the room. “You’re not a toad. You’re definitely a canine.”
I smelled it too, the underlying hint of feralness that suggested dog or wolf rather than toad. She wasn’t a fox like her sisters, but we also didn’t have any dogs in the pack, either.
“My money’s on wolf,” I said.
“See?” Lycan’s eyes shimmered as he grinned. “I was just telling Trouble about going to the RBMC chapter here in Copenhagen for the full moon next week. It’ll just be the three of us this time, but we should be home by next month to run with the pack.”
I gulped against my suddenly dry throat, trying not to linger on how awkward it was going to be. Just the three of us, alone in the woods, completely turned over to our animal selves.
“Trouble?” I assumed it was his nickname for Ava, but I didn’t know where it came from.
“You know me,” Lycan said, wrapping an arm over Ava’s shoulders to pull her in close. “I don’t go looking for trouble, but it always finds me.”
A sharp pang bombarded my chest as I zeroed in on the way his skin draped so eloquently over hers. His leather aroma, combined with her coconut perfume, formed an intoxicating blend that fueled the inferno deep in my gut.
Mine, my wolf howled.
No, I bit back. Stop that.
But as Lycan laughed and ran his hand over her shoulders, my gaze caught on a white gold band on his left ring finger.
It matched a shimmering diamond-studded counterpart on Ava’s.
My heart sank. My stomach hollowed out. My legs turned to jelly, and my blood boiled, flushing my cheeks, curling my hands into fists.
“Speaking of trouble.” I tried to keep my voice level, even though it came out more like a growl, and I gestured to the offensive jewelry. “Kodiak know about that?”
Lycan opened his mouth and froze.
Ava locked her features into a neutral expression, but the unmistakable putrid scent of anxiety wafted off her, clouding her perfect tropical essence.
“I…planned to talk to him about it,” Lycan said.
So it was real? I relaxed my features to pull off my best poker face, giving nothing away. Not the twist of the knife in my gut as he confirmed he’d married a woman he’d known for a few weeks instead of me, a man he’d dated for over two years. Were they mates?
I didn’t sense a mating bond between them, nor did I smell the telltale aroma of Lycan’s bonding scent on her.
“Poe, it’s—” Lycan started.
“None of my business,” I cut in. “None of this is any of my business.”
Two quick knocks at the door cut off anything else Lycan planned to say. It opened, and Locust appeared on the other side, smiling as he held out his arms to me.
“There he is!” He pulled me into a hug. “You made it! Welcome to the Euro-trip!”
I laughed and blinked back the sting in my eyes. I was thankful for the interruption, especially when Locust said he needed to pull Lycan away for a few minutes to talk logistics for the rest of the week.
“Excuse me,” Lycan said. “I’ll be right back.”
I kept my gaze on the floor to avoid direct eye contact.
I didn’t want him to know how badly it hurt that he’d moved on so quickly.
I didn’t want him to see the pain in my soul, my crushed heart, my broken spirit.
Hell, I was still whacking off in the shower to memories of us. And he was married? To her?
What was so special about her? What did she have that I didn’t? Was it the money? The fame? The power? Maybe it was her cunt. Lycan had sworn he was bisexual, but maybe he preferred women to broody, whiny men?
How could I have been so ridiculous?
My wolf growled in my head, its hackles raised as it snarled and whimpered.
“We were drunk,” Ava said, bringing my attention back to her. “It was a stupid, drunken mistake.”
“Like I said.” I forced the words out of my mouth, even though they tasted like ash. “None of my business.”
“Isn’t it?” Her glacial eyes pierced holes straight through whatever armor I thought I was wearing. Even if I didn’t want Lycan to see my addled soul, Ava clearly did.
“I’m gonna go unpack.” I took a few steps away and headed toward the guest room, but just as I did, a sickening wave of a heady masculine scent pummeled my nose. I winced like I’d been smacked in the face, the territorial notes nearly making me stumble back.
Mating scent.
For a moment, I thought it was Lycan’s, that perhaps he’d let it trail behind him like some possessive skunk intent on marking what he considered his.
But when it followed me into the spare room and lingered after I shut the door, I realized it was mine.
Oh, fuck. What the hell is this shit?
My inner beast yipped and yowled, pacing the cage in the back of my mind. It was just as confused as I was.
Was the scent for Lycan…or Ava?
I sat down on the bed, put my head in my hands, and took three deep breaths, telling myself it was nothing. It meant nothing. That’s all this was.
That’s all I was to him.
That’s all I was to Ava.
That’s all they were to me.
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.