Chapter Six
Marcus
Club Luna was emptier than usual, even for a weekday. If it had been any other night, that would have worried me. But as luck would have it, the bar remained stocked, and the heady scent of need still filled the air.
My kin indulged in their vices. Claiming with eager hands and wet tongues. Shadows could only conceal so much—especially when most of us saw and heard everything—so there was no reason for the desperate to hide.
None of us were searching for love.
We were searching for the right now.
Darnell looked up from where he stood behind the bar. EDM thumped around us, but his voice threaded right through the music. “Ready for another one, my man?”
I held up the almost empty glass, pretending I didn’t need to concentrate to keep it still. “If you promise to make it stronger than this shit.”
Darnell smiled, his teeth bright against his signature full beard. “Your gamma will have my ass, Alpha. Promise to protect me, and you’ll have yourself a deal.”
I chuckled, knocked back the last of my drink, and slid the glass across the bar. It cut through a strobe light beam before stopping where Darnell’s open hand lay waiting.
Maya was furious with me—as much as her reverence for me would allow—but I understood her concern. In fact, I respected it. So, when taking care of the rogues failed to satisfy me, I did the responsible thing and told my gamma where she’d be able to find me.
Then, she’d called the club and threatened the bartender.
Darnell placed the drink within my reach. “You already owe me, you know…? Respectfully.” He jerked his head to the left. “I had to explain that.”
I didn’t need to look. The first thing I noticed when I walked into the club was the chemical tang of fresh mortar tainting the aroma of pheromones.
Plus, the last time I was there I’d thrown a werewolf through the wall.
I bobbed my head to the music as I brought the glass to my lips.
Darnell’s gaze still lingered like hives. “Where… is she?” His body tensed. “The human you claimed that night?”
I brought the glass down hard on the bar, the dark liquor splashing onto the granite. My wolf growled beneath the surface, confusing my irritation for possessiveness.
Darnell cleared his throat, smart enough to inch away.
Despite the way the room swayed, I shut my eyes, fighting the tightness in my chest.
What in the moonless hell was wrong with me if even a memory could cause my blood to boil? Remembering how that alpha touched her… wanted her…
I should’ve killed him. And if Darnell knew who he was, I still had a chance. All I had to do was convince the bartender to give up the information… or beat it out of him.
I forced a deep breath and waited until my wolf calmed before opening my eyes, but a woman’s sharp gaze halted my plan.
“So, you’re the reason this place got a makeover?” She leaned against the bar, one elbow propped on the granite while she twirled a strand of her blonde hair around her finger.
A sheer black lace top clung to her curves, the deep plunge of her neckline almost as teasing as the dusty pink circles surrounding the buds hidden by flower motifs.
“Was it really over a girl?” she teased with a sultry grin.
I finally brought my gaze up from traveling along her body.
Her plump lips rose into a smile. “Because if it is, I might be the unluckiest wolf I know.” Her orange eyes sparkled through the low light and atmospheric smoke.
I smirked, nodding to the stool she stood beside. “I don’t see a girl in that seat, do you?”
Her smile widened. She hopped onto the stool, her black miniskirt hugging her hips like a second skin. She held out a hand. “I’m Amber.”
We shook. “Marcus.”
She raised a brow. “Alpha, huh?”
I nodded.
“Looks like my luck is improving by the second.”
I chuckled. As was mine. “Can I get you a drink?”
Without breaking eye contact, she brought her bottle of beer to her lips, enticing me to watch her swallow.
Perfect.
Amber and I talked for a bit, us both pretending we didn’t know the night would end with me inside her.
She was a regular at the club. Thankfully, she hadn’t been there the night I saved the hunter, but she’d heard about it soon after. Fearful that I would scare her away, I mostly listened and let her bring it up.
“The humans are drawn to us,” she declared, assuming I’d met the hunter that night. “Like moths to a flame… acolytes to a god. And some of us eat that up—literally, if it’s a good night.” She smiled, running her tongue along her canines.
She ran a hand down my arm, the way she’d done a few times already.
“But wolves got greedy. It’s why the club is so lame tonight.”
I looked over my shoulder at the dance floor. Normally packed with bodies moving and grinding against each other in primal bliss, it was empty by comparison.
“They made it so easy for those fuckers to snare them.”
I faced Amber. “The revolutionaries?” I whispered, spinning my glass by the rim.
Amber confirmed with a slow, cautious nod of her head.
I let my gaze fall and furrowed my brow, the look convincing her I felt the way she did.
She released a sigh of relief. “Now the rest of us are afraid of being recruited for a war we didn’t ask for,” she continued.
“You’re still here,” I pointed out.
“As are you.”
I shrugged. “Prior to this conversation, I didn’t know they were recruiting at the club.”
Amber frowned. “And now that you do…?”
I raised my glass to my lips. “I’m going to finish my drink.”
My words caused the corners of Amber’s soft-looking lips to rise. “Alpha is trying to get fucked up,” she mocked, in the deepened voice of an immature frat boy.
I couldn’t help but laugh, and I ended up choking on my drink.
Amber jumped to her feet, slamming her palm onto my back. “I’m sorry,” she exclaimed through her own laughter. She waited until my coughing ceased to stop pounding, but she didn’t remove her hand. It now teased up and down the length of my back.
With her free hand, she found my chin and lifted my head. She stared into my eyes as she brought her face closer to mine.
“Or,” she whispered, licking a drop of spittle from my lower lip, “is the Alpha just trying to get fucked?”
I grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled her until her lips slammed onto mine. Her eyes fluttered closed, and a moan escaped her mouth as my tongue slid inside.
She tasted of beer… and blood.
Her hand found my cock, where it began its strain against my jeans. I grabbed her neck, her pulse racing beneath my palm. She stroked my erection through my jeans, pulling her head back and looking down with a grin of surprise on her face.
“Fuck,” she groaned.
I kissed her again. “My Hummer is by the willow tree at the far end of the lot. It’s unlocked.” I dragged my lips down Amber’s neck, loving the way her body shivered against mine. “Wait for me in the back seat.”
“You… have me confused,” she moaned. “You’re not my alpha, Marcus. You can’t tell me what to do.”
My hand slid around her throat again.
Did she think this was a fucking joke?
“Do I need to repeat myself?”
She shook her head rapidly, the smell of her lust rising from between her legs. “Hurry,” she begged.
I watched Amber strut toward the front door. The eyes of both humans and werewolves followed each sway of her seductive hips. One man approached her with a stupid grin on his face. She shook her head to shut down his advances and turned, gesturing toward me.
The human followed the point of her finger. Our eyes locked, and even with the magic from the entry stamp on his hand blinding him to the genuine danger he’d be in, the frown on my face emitted a clear warning to him and anyone else who dared to shoot their shot.
No one stopped Amber again.
I turned back to the bar, noticing Darnell had already placed the check in front of me. I signed and turned to leave, almost crashing into the small, voluptuous woman who had snuck up behind me.
“Sorry, I—” The Hispanic woman staring up at me through her long eyelashes and brunette bangs paused.
A smile bloomed on her face. “It is you! I couldn’t see the gray streak in your hair from over there.
” She must have noticed my blank expression, because she continued, “Is your coworker here with you?”
I glanced toward the exit. “You’re confusing me for someone else, sweetheart,” I declared, placing my hands down on her shoulder. “Excuse me.”
She trapped my hand in her own as I pulled away. “She was looking for her sister?” she rushed as she tried to regain her balance.
I caught her instead of letting her fall to the floor like I intended.
“Mierda! You really are a giant, aren’t you?”
I blinked in disbelief. “What… did you say…?”
She hesitated and flung her hands up in surrender. “It wasn’t an insult, honey, I promise—”
“I meant about the coworker,” I snapped.
She brought her arms down and smoothed out her silk dress. “The chocolate baddie with the braids?”
Fuck. I was doing so well. “And how do you know her?”
“We met waiting in line,” the Latina replied with a shrug. “And then I convinced mi manito to ask her to dance—”
An inebriated human dropped his glass, and apparently it was hilarious to his three friends. As they cheered, they snapped me out of my impending stupor and saved me from making a mistake.
I turned without saying another word to the woman and hurried away.
“Tell her Camila says hi!”
I flexed my fingers as the gravel of the club’s parking lot crunched under each of my boots. My wolf wanted blood. And not the blood that coated Amber’s tongue. No, we wanted blood caked under our claws and dripping off our fur.
My cellphone vibrated in my pocket.
I was wondering when she was going to call… but now my gamma had to wait. Because if I did not fuck the werewolf wet for me in that instant, I was going to run looking for her…
I approached the vehicle, annoyed when I noticed Amber in the driver’s seat. She’d kicked off her heels and had one of her long legs dangling from the open door.
“Didn’t I give you specific instructions?”