by D. N. Hoxa
“Only one way to find out,” Lexar said and headed back to the beginning of the street.
I hated running from one place to the other without a proper plan. This day wasn’t looking to be good, and it wasn’t even noon yet. I followed Lexar back to his bike, and I still slammed my fist—sometimes helmet, too—on every door I passed. No answer. Breaking in to check would have been a waste of time so I didn’t even consider it. Instead, I climbed on the bike behind Lexar and put my arms around him.
Then he grabbed my hands and pulled them tightly until there wasn’t an inch of space left between our bodies. “Don’t be shy, Sassy Pants. Hold on tight.”
I wrapped my arms around him even tighter, intending to make him uncomfortable. If he noticed, he didn’t comment. But I did notice how comfortable I felt wrapped around him like that. If it wasn’t for the helmet, I’d have considered resting my head on his shoulder, too. Helmets really do save lives. And dignities.
“Careful, dove. People might think you care about my wellbeing,” I said, but my heart wasn’t in it.
“When have I cared about what people think?” I heard the grin in his voice perfectly.
“No idea.” I didn’t know if he cared about that or other things. I didn’t know him as well as I thought I did. I’d had no idea he even had a girlfriend. Ugh. “Are you going to drive this thing or what?”
He sighed. “As you wish, Princess.” He finally turned the ignition on.
“Motherfucking prick. I fucking hate you. Whoever invented you is probably burning in Hell right now,” I said to the razor as I pulled it up my leg.
Yeah, I was shaving. And I cut myself in at least eleven places, but just because those cuts heal within minutes doesn’t mean they don’t hurt like hell.
It was already seven p.m., and guess what? I was going to a fucking party. With Lexar.
Do you see why I wanted to murder the stupid razor? No?
Let me repeat that:
A party. With Lexar.
Once out of the bathroom, Chelsea and Feather Girl practically dragged me into one the smaller rooms because the master bedroom didn’t have a door now. And I was naked, save for the towel wrapped around my body that Chelsea eagerly took off me even before Feather Girl closed the door.
When we found out that Michael Alifair wasn’t in the city, I wanted to go find him wherever he was. A call to the pack and we were informed that he would be coming back this evening—and straight to the party that his pack had been preparing for him for months for his birthday. It was being held on pack grounds, in the master alpha’s home, too.
So, I had two choices: wait until morning or go to the stupid party.
Like hell was I going to wait until morning. The master alpha was going to find those cheetahs for us tonight.
I didn’t think it was a big deal, at first. I had my clothes, my knives, and my fire, but no. I, apparently, needed to wear a dress because it’s a party.
But I didn’t have any dresses with me, right? No big deal.
Except Chelsea did—in that same suitcase that Feather Girl had brought to Lexar’s apartment. So, I was doomed because trying to talk Chelsea out of anything was the closest thing to impossible I’d ever encountered.
“I don’t want to wear that dress,” I reminded her, looking at the tiny piece of black fabric she’d laid on the twin bed. It was just so…tiny.
“Shut up and sit down. I’m going to need some time to deal with your hair,” Chelsea said. The distant look on her face was completely gone now. She looked like a woman on a mission—completely focused.
She sat me in front of a small mirror they’d hung on the wall, and behind me, I could see Feather Girl grinning as she handed Chelsea a blow drier.
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” I mumbled because it was easy to see that she was.
“Not at all,” she said with a grin. “I’m gonna do your makeup. We don’t have a lot of things, but we’ll make do.”
“I really don’t want to do this,” I said to Chelsea, looking at her through the mirror as she pulled at my hair, and I tried to put on a pair of panties. She didn’t give me a fucking break.
“You’re going to let me have this, okay? I never get to play dress-up with you, and you’re not going to ruin this for me,” Chelsea said, waving the comb at my face.
“But I—”
“I’ve been bitten by a shifter. I turn into an animal now. If I wanna do this, you’re going to let me—and I want to do this.”
I sighed. “You’re going to hold that over my head forever now, aren’t you.”
“Absolutely. I’m calling it The Shifter Card, and I have the right to pull it in any situation. It’s never going to get old. Now shut up and let me make you pretty.”
And she and Feather Girl got to work.
* * *
Half an hour later, I looked at the woman in the mirror, and I didn’t even recognize myself. My hair was wavy and the red of it looked brighter, shinier. I had eyeliner on. I hadn’t done eyeliner since college, and it change my eyes completely. They no longer looked as round. It was…okay, to be honest. Not as bad as I thought it would be, even with the red lips, but the dress?
The dress was a disaster.
“Why the fuck is this so short? Seriously, it’s barely covering my ass.” And I was right. The dress was a small thing, almost skintight with spaghetti straps and a shimmer to the black fabric I could have done without. It was also a lot shorter than anything I ever wore.
“It’s not my fault you’ve got a big ass,” Chelsea said.
“The dress is fine. Put the shoes on,” Feather Girl said, pointing down at the black stilettos she’d set in front of my feet. But Chelsea’s foot was a size smaller than mine, and I barely got my toes in there. Six-inch heels were not my thing. “See? Perfect!” Feather Girl clapped her hands together as she looked me over, then stepped back toward the door. So did Chelsea, and for the next few seconds, they just stared at every inch of me in adoration. That’s why I decided not to mention to them that I was not, in fact, going to wear those heels to the stupid party. My Docs would do just fine.
And I would wear them just as soon as I got in the car.
“Okay, if you’re done, I’d like to get going now. I need my stuff. Where is my stuff?” I needed my knives, and I had no idea where I was going to put them, but I’d figure it out.
“You don’t need your stuff. You’re going to a party,” Chelsea said.
“There’s no reason why I wouldn’t need to kill someone at a party. Plus, I want to change as soon as we get out of there. This is really uncomfortable.” The dress and the shoes were a nightmare.
“C’mon, Sassy—” Chelsea started to complain, but this time, Feather Girl jumped to my rescue.
“Let her have her things. She’ll feel better about it. Lexar’s not going to let her change until after the party,” she told Chelsea, and to my utter surprise, Chelsea agreed. I liked it. Feather Girl was balancing things out between us. It was kind of nice.
The walk out of the room was brutal. I wanted to murder those stilettos even more than that razor, but all those thoughts left my head when I actually saw the guys in the living room.
When I saw Lexar. In a suit.
My eyes immediately moved to Abraham, but in the second that I’d looked at Lexar, my brain had taken a mental picture of every detail about him. The suit he had on was black, hugging his figure in a way that made me want to be it. Just for a second. The crisp white shirt he had on underneath made his skin look more tan, and his lips redder, and his eyes…fucking asshole. He had no right to look that good in a suit. He was a creature of Hell, for fuck’s sake. Why was he so goddamn perfect?
“You look beautiful, Sassy,” said Abraham with a cheeky grin, and I pressed my lips into a smile, reaching for the hoodie from Hell that I’d left on the couch. I put it on right away.
“Thanks, Abraham,” I said, keeping my eyes down. If I looked up, they’d immediately find L
exar, and he was going to see a lot more than I wanted him to—like the fact that I was turned on. My eyes felt a bit bloodshot, too.
“What are you doing?” Chelsea demanded, pulling at my hoodie.
“Just till I get there. It’s cold,” I said and jerked my hand back. “Okay, we’re leaving. If anything happens, you know the plan. Don’t try to be brave. Just get the hell out of here if somebody finds you, okay?” I told the others.
Feather Girl was particularly pissed that she didn’t get to join us, but she didn’t complain out loud. Since we were taking the car, they had the keys to Lexar’s bike that Abraham could drive. Feather Girl was going to run away on foot if something happened. It was just going to be a couple hours, but I still felt like throwing up every time I thought about it.
Chelsea wasn’t alone this time. Feather Girl could fight—I’d seen it with my own eyes—and Abraham could make anybody go blind with that light of his. I had to do this. I had to talk to that man and have him find the cheetahs, so I swallowed hard and walked out the door. My things were in a plastic bag with me—my Docs, jeans, and a plain white shirt. I’d change into them as soon as the party was over, but before we even got in the car, I took off the stilettos that had practically folded my toes and put on my Docs.
“Much better,” I mumbled at myself, put the stilettos in the back, and closed the driver’s door. My dress was so short. Seriously, I could almost see my own panties, and trying to pull the hem down wasn’t working, so I just put my hoodie over my thighs instead. Then, I risked a glance at Lexar, already sitting in the passenger seat, staring out the windshield. It occurred to me that he hadn’t said a single thing to me still.
Hmm. I liked this version of him a lot better. It let me focus completely on the driving.
The Forgotten Bottom was where the lion pack lived. Well, most of them. It was a bigger pack, though not as big as the werewolves, who always had the biggest numbers—everywhere, not just in Philly. That’s because they took breeding really seriously. Rumor had it that the master alpha had at least a couple of his shifters on each side of the city to keep an eye on things. I’d actually believed it before, but now? I wasn’t so sure. Because if that were true, he’d have known about the were-cheetahs. He’d have tried to find them, at least sent some of his people to their houses to check. Nobody had been there that morning.
“Have you met him before?” I asked Lexar. Yeah, I preferred it when he was silent, but we did need to talk about what we were going to do at that party.
“No, but I’ve heard of him,” he said, and I could have been mistaken, but he sounded a bit…off.
“I have. He keeps a perfect facade and hides his power like nobody else I’ve ever seen.” Except my dad. All alphas had a natural aura around them. They were born leaders and our instincts sensed it, but the first time I’d met Michael Alifair, I hadn’t even known who he was until he’d introduced himself. In fact, he had made me nervous, too. There’s something about knowing that a man could turn into a fucking lion any second that kept me on edge. “Let’s just try not to piss him off, okay?”
“He still answers to us,” Lexar said.
“To our fathers,” I corrected. Everybody answered to our fathers—not us. I’d always tried to remember that. “But all shifters are his responsibility, so assuming that he isn’t already looking for the were-cheetahs, he’s going to have to get to it right away.”
“I’ve never seen you with red lipstick on before,” he said, and for a second, I turned to look at him, sure that I’d heard him wrong. What did my lipstick have to do with anything? But it was the wrong move. He was still staring at the windshield, fisted hands on his lap, and he still looked picture perfect, damn it. I wondered if I could sneak a real picture of him with my phone later on.
For now, I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, yeah, go ahead, get it out. But F.Y.I, I had no choice.” If he was going to make fun of me, he’d better get it over with before we got to the party.
“It looks good on you,” he whispered.
“Right.” I cleared my throat. “Don’t you dare make fun of me when we get there, Nevermore. We need to present a united front if Alifair is going to take us seriously.” Since we were in this together, we might as well use it to our advantage because the master alpha was not going to be easy to deal with.
“I’m being very serious right now. I can’t even look at you straight,” he said.
If another car wasn’t right behind us, I would have slammed on the brakes just to get him to keep his mouth shut. I was a woman—I liked it when he said stuff like that to me, and that was a problem I didn’t want to deal with. I already knew how it would end.
“Then don’t,” I said in the coldest voice I could muster.
“Sassy, whatever you think happened a year ago, it’s not true.”
“Oh, yeah? So, you didn’t flirt with me for a fucking month while your girlfriend waited for you Downstairs? And you didn’t push me away when I tried to kiss you?” The words slipped out of me before I even had the chance to think clearly. What the hell was I doing? Why was I letting him get the best of me now?
The nocturnal bitch, damn it. The were-cheetahs. That’s what I should have been focused on right now.
“I know how it looks, but—”
No. I was not going to sit there and take this from him. I didn’t have to.
“I don’t care,” I spit. “I really just don’t give a shit. I told you before, I don’t want to talk about it. Let it go. It’s done.” And we could never get that time back. Even the Fallen couldn’t turn back time.
He was silent for a long minute, and I could feel his eyes on the side of my face, but I didn’t turn to look at him. I couldn’t.
“As you wish, Princess,” he finally muttered.
I desperately needed to find something to distract him with, and lucky for me, I had just the right thing this time. Pushing his knee away, I opened the glove compartment and smiled when I saw the glass bottle inside it.
I’d almost forgotten, but I had a debt to my friend Elizabeth—the ghost—and now was the perfect time to make sure I delivered.
“See that bottle?” Lexar reached for it right away and looked inside. “Put a lightning strike in it real quick, will you?”
“You’re joking,” he said, but he already knew I was being serious.
“Nope. To find the witch I had to promise your lightning to a friend. So…”
“You bargained with my lightning?” He pointed the empty bottle at his chest.
“Yep. I had to. She wasn’t going to tell me shit if I didn’t. But don’t worry—the bottle is lightning proof. She said so herself,” I said as fast as I could.
I realized how this sounded to him and that I was asking him for things twice now, but it had to be done. Screw my pride. He would have asked me for my fire if the roles were reversed.
“Don’t bargain with my lightning again, Princess,” he said, and it was a warning if I’d ever heard one. My mouth opened to say something else, but he opened the bottle and put his palm over the rim, so I held my tongue. Lightning struck inside the bottle, slammed against the end, and shot upward again, hitting the side of the glass with a clink. Lexar put the cap back on and looked at it for a second.
Wow. The lightning kept dancing from one side to the other, but the glass held. A real lightning proof bottle.
Without a word, Lexar put the bottle in the glove compartment again.
“Thanks,” I choked out. Thanks meant I was in his debt, again, but at least he didn’t say anything else for the rest of the way.
18
Never in a million years did I think that I’d find myself at the birthday party of the master alpha—right beside Lexar Dagon’an. Like I said before, I didn’t deal with other paranormals. Killing maggots was my thing, and I tried to keep away from everybody else, but right now, I wished I hadn’t kept away. If I hadn’t, I might have had a better clue about where to look for the nocturnal bitch instead of playin
g dress-up and coming to a fucking party.
I was about to enter a house that could easily be considered a mansion, with so much yard surrounding it on all sides that I couldn’t see the end of it. The territory of the master alpha started at the end of a trailer park and went all the way to the Schuylkill River. There were no other houses except his around here, and all his subjects lived on the other side of the trailer park.
People were there. A lot of people—shifters and witches and sprites—and maggots, too. My internal compass was going crazy trying to pick which direction to point me in. At least fifty cars were parked outside of the low fence surrounding the house. The music blasting from the speakers could be heard all the way into the woods we’d come from. For the millionth time, I thanked my lucky stars that I’d traded the stilettos for my Docs. It would have been a disaster to try to walk when my attention was everywhere but on myself.
Were-lions were by the gates, spread out on the yard, eyes wide and alert, looking at us—the guests. They all wore suits, too, but they weren’t there to have a good time. They were there to make sure nothing went wrong at the party.
But who would be foolish enough to attack the master alpha in the first place?
The closer we got to the property of the lion alpha, the worse I felt. Wind blew a bit, but I wasn’t cold, despite what I told the girls earlier. I was never cold. Plenty of heat under my skin, even though that dress I had on barely covered anything.
Nobody stopped us. The guards looked at us, and I almost expected them to ask for an invitation, but they didn’t. And when we were close to the crowd that had gathered in front of the open doors of the house, they all turned to look at us, almost at the same time.
One of the most awkward moments of my life. I felt so fucking weird, I stopped walking, too, and stared right back. There were about twenty people on either side of the doors, not counting the other five suited up guards among them. They knew who we were, and they shamelessly stared at us—especially the women. One of them in particular, a blonde with lemon-yellow eyes, practically had a stroke when her eyes took in my outfit—the dress and my boots. They were all dressed impeccably. This party was a bigger deal than I thought.