Prologue #5
A loud thudding on the door practically vibrates the entire room. The walls seem to quiver as I crack an eye open, feeling confused and disoriented. My mouth is furry, like I’ve been licking one of Mother’s cats.
Stretching, I realise Hunter’s arm is thrown across my chest, my skin clammy from where he’s obviously been clung to me for a while.
“Hunt?” I croak, my throat dry as I squeeze my eyes shut, rubbing my face.
“Mmmm?” He hums against my shoulder, holding me tighter.
“Waz’tha?”
“Huh?”
Swallowing, I try again. “What. That?”
“Someone knocking.” He mumbles before sinking his teeth into my shoulder.
“Ouch! Fuck. What was that for?” I hiss, slapping the top of his head, awake now as my skin throbs. Fucker.
“Make ‘em go ‘way.”
Peeling him off me, I roll to the edge of the bed and sit up, resting my elbows on my thighs and my head in my hands. “Shelby?”
I glance around, but there’s no sign of the omega who was moaning our names just a few hours ago.
The light filtering in through the cracks in the curtains isn’t bright, and if I had to guess, based on the way my stomach was doing somersaults, it was closer to lunchtime than first thing.
“Shelby?” I say again, ignoring the pounding on the door. It must be a wrong room and whoever was on the other side was mad as hell. I wasn’t going near that drama with a barge pole.
Hunter groans, finally moving, even if it’s just to roll onto his back. Catching sight of the red marks on his chest between the lines of ink, I look away, face feeling warm and I picture his face above me last night.
“Fuck…”
On shaky legs I head to the bathroom, but it’s empty. Grabbing my trousers off the floor, I pull them on over my boxers. Sliding my hands into my pockets, I realise something.
My phone and my wallet are gone. Leaning over, I swipe Hunter’s trousers up from where he tossed them. His belongings are missing too.
“Hunt, I think we’ve been robbed!”
“I don’t give a fuck right now.” He grunts, running his face.
“We should call the cops.” I say as I pull my shirt on and fumble with the buttons. Goddess, my head is pounding as the hangover sets in.
He arches a brow at me, “Over pocket change?”
“Not the point.” The loud banging and angry shouting continues and I sigh as Hunter gets to his feet.
“What the fuck is that cumstains problem?” he growls, pushing past me to swing the door open.
Here’s the thing about Hunter, he’s usually very chilled. He’s an easy going, boho artist, y’know? But when he’s pissed, he’s pissed. His temper went from 0 to a thousand quicker than you could blink.
“What in the ever fuck is going on out here? Can’t a dude get some sleep?
” He roars, standing there in his underwear, startling a familiar looking alpha mid-knock.
The guy is huge, almost filling the entire doorway as his face quickly turns purple with rage, while a housekeeper peers out from behind him, looking like she’d rather be anywhere else right now.
Shoving Hunter aside, the noisy man barges in. Bitter pheromones fill the room, smelling like burnt toast as the man’s anger floods the tiny space.
“Which fucker knotted my girlfriend?” He screams, and I finally place him. He’s the ex-boyfriend from the bar.
Hunter’s lip curls up, and I know he’s recognized him too. There’s a mark on his skin where the man pushed him away and I don’t know why, but that flips a switch in me. No one, and I mean no one lays a hand on my Hunter. I mean, friend.
“That would be him,” Scoffing, I cross my arms. “I fucked her ass. No knotting though, she couldn’t take any more.”
A thick vein bulges in his neck, throbbing as that purple flush spreads down his neck like wildfire. Would he look like an eggplant if the shade got any darker?
“Listen here you smarmy prick. She is mine. My. Omega.” He seethes, pheromones spiking as he jabs my shoulder with his massive fingers.
Those things were like sausages. No wonder she dumped him, I wouldn’t want those inside me either.
Hunter’s fingers on the other hand, those were artists' hands. Even if they were larger than mine.
My lingering hangover is forgotten as I grin. “Well, it didn’t seem that way while she was moaning on his knot.”
“She was a bit loud, wasn’t she.” Hunter smirks at me, his pheromones seeping in.
Hints of spiced orange and nutmeg soothe my own bristling nature.
It’s like pack mentality, I recognise him as family somewhere in the back of my alcohol soaked brain, while the meathead before me is another alpha in my territory, marking things that belong to me.
“She came so many times, I thought we were at Niagara Falls.” I make a clicking noise with my tongue as I try to ignore the housekeeper calling for someone out on the landing.
“Fuck you!” Alphahole grabs a handful of my shirt, pulling me towards him so that we’re almost nose to nose.
I can’t resist.
I mean, I should.
He’s bigger than me. Angrier than a nest of bees. But you know what they say, in for a penny, in for a pound—whatever the fuck that means.
“Fucking. Soaked.”
Silence.
I can practically hear the muscle in his jaw twitch.
The air vibrates around us as the bitterness ramps up. He’s so angry, right to his core and I can feel it. My alpha nature hates it. All this posturing. Asserting his dominance.
Hunter, trying to be the voice of reason for once steps in with his hands raised. The tension is so thick right now, I can taste it, like burnt honey on my tongue.
“Woah, let’s all calm down. Shelby invited us here, man.” He places a hand on the meathead’s arm, the one grabbing me, and a low growl slips from my lips. He blinks, something strange on his face before the corner of his mouth lifts. “Evans—shut it.”
As the other alpha snarls, I can feel his hot breath, droplets of spittle hitting my face. “It was your pheromones. And the booze you ploughed her with.”
I can’t help it.
I laugh.
“What? We don’t need to use booze to get a girl in bed. Or pheromones.” I know, somewhere in the back of my mind, silenced, drowning underneath the gallons of alcohol, there’s a voice of reason telling me to stop. But I can’t hear it right now, only the blood pumping in my ears.
“Evans...” Hunter warns, voice low and smooth, laced with an alpha command as he gives me a look.
Tilting my head, I stare back. “Hunter.”
“Evans…”
Shoving the angry alpha away, I turn in a circle. “Dude, look at us. We’re hot. No pheromones needed, just eyeballs.”
“You piece of shit,” the alpha screams, reaching for me as Hunter tries to hold him back. I chuckle as he tries to swing for me, his rage making him sloppy, but instead he ends up catching Hunter in the face with his elbow.
The man takes another swing, missing as I dodge, but barely, almost tripping over my own shoes in the attempt. He rips the phone from the bedside table and throws it at me.
“I’ve called the cops!” A quiet voice yells from outside, the housekeeper.
“My dad’s going to kill me,” I grumble as I duck another fury fueled fist, this one meets the wall, sinking into the drywall like it’s butter.
Do I care that this fucker is bigger than me?
Or that he’s blinded by rage?
No, but I do care about the lecture I’m going to get if my father finds out I’ve been fighting. Again. Stepping back with a hiss, Hunter seems disoriented as he lifts his hand and between his fingers I see red.
Blood.
Hurt.
Mine.
Mine.
“Fuck it,” I growl. I’d had enough. This fucker had laid hands on Hunter.
If I was going to be punished for fighting, then it wasn’t going to be for a fight I lost. The man swings for me again, catching my ribs, but I grab a fistful of hair, using it to hold him in place as I bring my knee up to his stomach with all the force I can manage.
He hurt Hunter.
He tried to dominate me.
I wasn’t an omega, I wasn't going to fold under his weakass bitter pheromones.
His arms come around my waist and we grapple, bouncing off the walls and at one point the bed, each trying to land shots.
My skin is sticky, from sweat and blood and we pummel one another, but the adrenaline keeps me going.
Voices yell, faded into the background.
Hands grapple with me, trying to tear us apart, but it’s too late.
The beast won’t be tamed.
It isn’t until hours later, when I’m sitting in a cell with busted knuckles, looking like I’ve been rolled down a hill inside a barrel loaded with bricks, Hunter by my side, waiting for my father to bail me out that I even wonder about Shelby. Or Sadie.
A warm hand lands on my thigh. “Evans…”
“Hunter.”
“Benedict, huh?” He chuckles. I forgot that the police had used my full legal name when we’d been booked in. “I didn’t have you down as Benny. Maybe a Benji but not a Benny.”
“Fuck off.”