3. Rikkart
RIKKART
“Remind me why we needed to wait till it was nine o’clock to go to this place?” I grumbled.
“We shouldn’t be going this early at all, we should be going closer to eleven or midnight. We need to wait till the women have had a few drinks in them—makes it easier for them to ignore the wolf vibes we give off to normies,” Koit explained.
“I’ll take your word for it,” I said as we approached a building that looked far from anything resembling a bar. “Do you know how to get in?”
“Yup. We need to ring the buzzer next to the vet office,” Koit said as he looked for said buzzer.
“How very unoriginal of them. A vet office, of all places, to hide a werewolf bar,” I said, shaking my head.
We had to take public transportation to get here, which had been quite the adventure already. I wanted to make sure that no one knew where we were off to, not even a taxi driver. As an alpha, it was just instinct to protect the wolves weaker than myself.
“Found it!” Koit yelled as he pushed the button.
A few moments later, the metal door next to the vet office buzzed, and Koit pulled it open. As an alpha, I could tell from their energy the two burly-looking bouncers that greeted us were werewolves. They wore the typical black suit and bad attitude as they looked us over.
“I’m sorry, this bar is for members only. If you aren’t a member, then you need to be escorted by one the first time,” the wolf on the left said, crossing his arms.
“That sucks. We’re visiting from out of the country, and I was told this was the only werewolf bar in all of London,” Koit said, giving the bouncer the side-eye to see if dropping the wolf card would work.
“No werewolves here in London, that’s just a myth for the tourists. Now I’m going to have to ask you gentlemen to leave.” The bouncer on the left started to pull the door closed.
I wasn’t sure if this was going to work or not, but I figured that I didn’t have much to lose, seeing as they weren’t going to let us in as it stood now. I walked up and grabbed the door before it was halfway closed and looked the bouncer in the eye.
“You are a member, correct?” I asked, holding his gaze and letting a flicker of my alpha power show in my eyes.
The bouncer froze, his face tightening with fear, and it took him a moment before he could answer. “Yes.”
“Good. Then you can be our escort into the club,” I said, adding a rumble to my command so the bouncer on the right wouldn’t get any ideas.
“Yes, alpha, I can escort you into the club,” the bouncer said, stepping aside along with his partner.
“Forgive us, alpha, but we must take the utmost precaution when it comes to newcomers,” the second bouncer said.
“Rightly so. I applaud your effort. London is a dangerous place to be a werewolf these days.”
They both nodded in agreement and waited for Koit and me to pass through the door before they locked it behind us.
One walked in front, guiding us, while the other stayed back to guard the door.
At the end of the hall, we entered a dim room lit only by candles on the tables and behind the bar.
The rest of the space was filled with leather armchairs and couches.
The room was half filled with other werewolves silently watching us as we made our way to the bar, the bartender’s eyes flicking from us to the bouncer.
“It’s all good, Jimmy. This one’s an alpha visiting with his beta,” the bouncer explained.
Jimmy nodded and turned his attention to me. “What can I get ya, alpha?”
“I would love a beer, not picky what kind. I’ll take whatever you recommend,” I said and then moved out of the way for Koit.
“And for you?” Jimmy asked.
“What is your house cocktail?” Koit asked.
I huffed at his need for flashy drinks. Ignoring the exchange, I looked around the room to find a place to sit.
I found a few armchairs in the corner, and I would have naturally gone for that location, but this night was for Koit.
I saw a small table with a curved couch more towards the middle of the room and made my way over to it, knowing that Koit would grab my drink when it was ready.
As I sat on the couch, I tried not to meet the eyes that followed my movements.
Do they not have many alphas around here? Or is it that they don’t get many visitors? I felt unrest in this bar, but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Could’ve been everyone.
“Hey, Rik, you might want to tone down the alpha waves. You’re freaking everyone out here,” Koit whispered when he sat down, sliding my beer over to me.
“I’m not the one doing it; there is something else going on in this place.” I sighed, knowing that I should’ve been prepared for this.
I was so used to the way things were back home, where alphas could mingle with any of the other wolves in The Collective without worry.
Outside of The Collective, alphas normally didn’t intermingle with the lower-ranked wolves, acting more like monarchs than true leaders.
I hadn’t even thought to find out if there were any werewolves in London because they had been outlawed to the countryside.
But wolves, by nature, push the limits of the rules put upon them, so I should have done some digging to find the pulse on the wolf community out here.
“If you’re going to be successful in your plans for tonight, I’ll need to leave. No one here will relax till I’m gone,” I said to Koit, giving him a meaningful look.
Wolves of old could communicate telepathically to one another, but that ability had been washed out of our genes generations ago.
I wish I had that ability now so I could talk to Koit and figure out what was going on in this bar.
Now I would have to wait for him to finish his evening and tell me if he found anything out tomorrow.
“At least finish your beer. It would be odd to come to a bar and not even finish your drink,” Koit said.
So, we chatted quietly for a while about what the plan for tomorrow was and made sure he had his cell phone on him in case he needed me.
I made sure that I had mine, and I turned the volume up so I’d be sure to hear it.
I had a horrible habit of not even having the damn thing turned on.
With my alpha ability, I could always find who I was looking for in my pack, but it didn’t really work both ways.
I finished my beer, clapped my friend on the shoulder, and wished him happy hunting before I left. Then I walked a few blocks away to another bar before I hailed a cab to the hotel.
I spent the rest of the night flipping through the channels on the TV since I didn’t own one.
It was a luxury I didn’t indulge in often.
I tried to stay awake to make sure I heard my phone if Koit needed me—I tended to be a deep sleeper, and traveling and the stress of the situation had drained me.
Just as my eyes closed, I was jolted awake by the vibrating and screaming sound coming from my phone.
I forgot that Koit had set my ringtone to the same sound it would make if an air raid was going to happen. He wanted to make sure I would hear it.
I slid my thumb across the screen, answering it to hear heavy breathing, like someone was running hard.
“Alpha, it was a setup! They knew we were coming! They were waiting for us at the bar,” Koit’s voice shouted through the phone.
“You need to leave the hotel now! Get to safety—the ambassador set you up!”
Fuck, shit, damn! How could we have been blindsided so badly?
“Koit, are you okay? Can you get somewhere safe?” I asked, my alpha-sense telling me that Koit was still very much in danger.
“One of them got me pretty good, but I’ve got to shift to get away, and I couldn’t call you as a wolf.” Koit panted as he ran.
“Get to it. I’ll find you, just stay out of sight. Don’t shift back unless you have to. It's too dangerous shifting that much when you’re hurt,” I said, already grabbing my jacket and stuffing the basics we would need to get back home into a smaller bag.
The call ended; I grabbed an extra pair of clothes for Koit and raced out the door.
It didn’t matter that we’d be leaving almost everything behind, what mattered was us getting out of London alive.
It took me some time to trace where Koit was since he was running all over the city, but finally, he stopped, and I was able to get a lock on him.
Thankful for my inhuman stamina, I started to jog in his direction.
I could feel his pack connection to me begin to fade, and I gritted my teeth and picked up the pace.
God damn it, don’t you even dare think you can die on me!
I was worried I wouldn’t make it in time, but his connection pulsed back to life.
Something happened, and whatever it was, it was helping him hold on long enough for me to get to him.
I knew once I could get my hands on him—being his alpha—I could give him a boost and help his healing ability work faster.
How bad did the idiot get hurt for his healing not to have helped?
What the fuck kind of trouble did he find this time?
I’m never going to leave him on his own in a strange city ever again.
The connection to him was getting stronger, but I could also feel, through his emotions, that someone else was with him.
He wasn’t alone—did they find him? Were they going to finish him off before I could get there?
I rounded the corner and entered the alley he was in, stopping when I saw a woman bending over him, struggling to lift him.
Koit was lying on a blanket unconscious, but I could see ragged gashes on his chest stitched up.
Did this woman do that? Why? Who the hell was she?
Did she know what Koit was? Did she see his wolf?
I could feel my wolf’s anger and need to protect what was ours from this strange woman, but I tried to hold him back long enough to figure out the situation.
“Who are you and what the fuck do you think you’re doing to my friend?” I growled, my wolf very much in my voice.