by Lola Glass
The elevator emptied when it reached the first floor, and then a middle-aged woman stepped inside. When she took a breath in, her lips lifted.
“You two seem like a good match.”
I’d expected her to hate on me too.
“Uh,” I didn’t finish the sentence. Didn’t know what to say. She pressed the button for her floor, which luckily was only a few above where we were.
“I’ve known Roman his whole life and never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at you.” She added. “He needs someone to pour all that protectiveness into.”
By the time I came up with half a response she was striding out of the elevator, leaving me with a,
“Good luck, Wolfsbane.”
It was the first time someone called me that and I didn’t want to punch them.
SEVENTEEN
“Oh, that’s bad.” Kyler coughed, pounding his chest with his fist. Tears streamed down my face as I laughed harder than I had in years. If I’d ever laughed like that before. Jamie’s nose screwed up with her face.
“I did exactly what you said.” She protested.
“Whatever that was, it wasn’t a martini.” He grabbed a glass of water and chugged it.
I slid a whiskey sour down the bar to some chick and she nodded her thanks as I wiped the tears off my face. Training Jamie had become my favorite pastime as soon as Kyler showed up to help. He was testing her drink-mixing knowledge, guiding her through the steps to make them as customers ordered them. Not that the customers got to taste her drinks; that was all on Kyler.
“I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.” Jamie’s forehead wrinkled.
My eye caught on Oliver, who was watching her closely. If I hadn’t known better, I’d say he was worried about her.
“There, there.” Kyler put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
Oliver was on his feet in an instant, stalking toward the bar. I acted like I hadn’t noticed him, taking another order and handing out another drink as he approached.
Kyler choked on another of her drinks.
“Everything tasted better when Henley was teaching me.” Jamie complained.
“Hey Jame,” Oliver gave his mate a quick smile, but I noticed the territorial way he flashed his eyes at Kyler. “Can I get a drink?”
“Sure. What do you want?” Her cheeks pinked a bit.
Did these people actually live together?
“What’s your specialty?”
“That would be shots.” Kyler grinned at Jamie, who scowled at him. I choked back a laugh when Oliver growled at the nightclub owner.
“She’s still learning.” He dared Kyler to dis her again.
“Easy, Prince Charming.” Kyler lifted his hands.
“It’s fine, Oliver.” Jamie’s expression held a hint of excitement. Their semi-relationship was so freaking adorable. “Alright, what next?”
She failed a couple more drinks before Kyler somewhat approved of the way she mixed one, and she handed it to her mate with a sheepish smile. Oliver grinned and took a big drink.
The liquid wasn’t in his mouth for more than a second before he spat it back into the glass, coughing. Kyler gave the guy a knowing smirk and handed him some water, which he gulped down quickly.
I couldn’t take it anymore and lost myself to my laughter again, my face hurting from the smile I wore and my belly cramping as I laughed.
“This is hopeless.” Jamie moaned.
“Learning takes time.” Oliver comforted her, reaching across the bar to take her hand. Her eyes met his in surprise and my lips tilted upward. I’d never even seen them touch like that before.
A smile blossomed on Jamie’s face, lighting her eyes.
“Henley was a better teacher than this idiot.” Oliver tipped his head toward Kyler, releasing his mate’s hand and sitting back in his stool.
“He’s right. Her drinks were fine when I was in charge.” I grabbed a cocktail shaker and tossed the ingredients I needed in, pouring it into a glass after a moment and handing it to the customer, who gave me twenty bucks in exchange. I stuck the money in my bra, as always.
“Alright, swap. You teach, I’ll serve.” Kyler said.
Jamie and I fell quickly back into the pattern from the day before.
“Grab the glass.” I instructed, leaning up against the bar and wiping my hands on a towel. “Add ice, and then gin.” She did as I said, “Now tonic. Good. Give the glass a good swirl, and grab a lime wedge.” I waited, the side of my lips lifting with her awkward glass-swirl.
“Kyler told me to stir it.” She explained.
“Well Kyler doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
He shot me a teasing glare and I smirked back.
“How do you know, if you never drink?” Jamie legitimately sounded curious. I couldn’t blame her.
“I’ve served a lot of them.” The half-truth weighed on my conscience. We were friends; friends could talk about their pasts. “And I used to drink for fun. When the last pack had me, pretty much everything about me changed. Trauma.” I shook my head, not wanting to go more in-depth. “Now, drinking gives me too much of an escape. I have to be careful not to do it often.”
Jamie gave me a sympathetic smile.
“Rub the lime wedge around the rim of the glass. Be generous with it. Then squeeze that sucker and drop him in.” I guided the conversation back to our gin and tonic lesson. Jamie did as instructed. “Alright, Oliver.” I gestured to him. He and Jamie both grimaced.
“He already suffered once.” She protested.
“Hand it over.” He held out his hand.
Jamie reluctantly gave it to him. Cautiously, he took a sip.
She waited, body tense. I bit back a grin.
“It’s good.” Oliver’s eyes lit as they met his mate’s. Jamie cheered.
People on the other side of the bar were looking at her weird, but she didn’t seem to care.
I caught a scent that had me freezing in place and my gaze jerked to the door. My fists clenched when I saw two of my torturers from Ledger’s pack stroll inside.
Their eyes landed on me and they grinned wickedly. I tossed the towel I’d been holding on the counter and stalked into the back room. Either I’d get away or they’d grab me, but whichever way things went for me, the humans in the club couldn’t see it happen.
One of the werewolves vaulted over the bar and sprinted after me while the other created a diversion by grabbing a human man and tearing his head clean off his body. Screams erupted from the humans, the level of noise quickly growing louder than that of the pounding music.
“Ledger misses you, Henley.” The guy behind me yelled as he chased me. I didn’t have to look back to see the sneer on his ugly mug; it was forever ingrained in my mind. “Make this easy for us and we’ll make it easy for you.”
“Go to hell.” I yelled back as I shoved the back door open. It led onto a street, and in proper New York fashion, none of the humans cared that some random chick was racing down the sidewalk.
My lungs burned as I ran with everything I had, chest heaving for air. I’d been working out, but I was still a female werewolf, and we weren’t made to outrun males.
My torturer’s body came hurtling at mine, tackling me to the ground. I grunted as two hundred pounds of werewolf knocked the breath right from my lungs. His hand wrapped around my mouth and I bit down on his fingers. The only thing that accomplished was making him swear and shove his elbow into my side.
I cried out at the impact.
Freaking muscular elbow.
Muscular elbow man tossed me over his shoulder and charged down the street. I screamed for help and people finally started noticing that I was being attacked. They were no match for Muscular Elbow though; he barreled through anything and everything in our path, including a hot dog stand.
He slammed my head into the top of a sedan and I saw stars. Next thing I knew, my mouth, wrists, and ankles were duct-taped and I was being shoved into the trunk. When Musc
ular Elbow slammed on the gas, I flew face-first into the odd-shaped inside of the car’s tail end. My nose crunched, and I screamed into the duct-tape. Tears fell automatically as the pain had me nearly seeing stars.
My body slammed into the back of the car’s seats when Muscular Elbow hit the brakes so hard I smelled them burning. The tail end of the car spun out of control, and I was thrown around like a rag doll.
I could hear yelling outside but no one opened the trunk to let me out. This wasn’t my first time trapped in a trunk, and I’d made it a point to know how to escape after my last, which led to Ledger’s storm cellar. Mentally spewing every swear word I knew, I wiggled myself enough to locate the trunk’s release button near the latch. It was a lever-type thing, so I rolled to my back and squirmed over so I could grab it with duct-taped hands, yanking up and down until I heard the giving ‘pop’ of the lock releasing.
The yelling was much louder with the trunk open and the sirens were nearly deafening. I threw my bound legs up over the trunk’s ledge and used every ounce of ab muscle and finger strength I possessed to lift myself into a seated position. Hopping down was easy after that.
Right outside the car, I caught Kyler in a fistfight with Muscular Elbow. They both wore bruises on various parts of their figures, Elbow pinning Kyler to the cement. Police horns ordered the men to put their hands up, and the guys ignored them.
Kyler wrestled his way out from under Elbow. His knee landed on Elbow’s throat, and he held my torturer down.
The police surged forward and took Muscular Elbow from Kyler, cuffing him and shoving him into a police car. Even Ledger had some rules about keeping our society’s secrets, so the man glared out the window at us rather than shifting forms and going for our throats.
Kyler was also handcuffed and shoved into a separate cop car while two officers tugged at my duct-tap. The tape ripped hair and flesh as it was yanked from my body, and I rubbed at the raw skin when it was free.
“What happened?” a female cop demanded.
She was scarier than any werewolf chick I knew, except Jamie. That bitch had skills.
“The blond guy and his friend showed up in the nightclub I work at. When I ran, the blond followed and grabbed me. My boss,” I gestured to the car Kyler had been shoved into, “Must’ve chased after him because the car only made it a few yards. He saved my life.”
I tried to make Kyler into a big hero so the cops would let him go. They decided to hold him in the car until they heard a few more takes on the story, and I respected that. After a quick ride in one of the police cars, I followed the cops into the nightclub.
There was an obscene amount of blood on the tile. Jamie sat on the floor with tears streaming down her face, Oliver’s arms wrapped around her. Ledger’s enforcer was on the ground, his blood mingling with that of the human he’d killed and the third male enforcer who had been sent to protect me. Roman’s enforcer was dead, too.
One of the cops ran out the door, and I heard vomiting before it shut behind him.
“What happened?” A cop asked.
“It’s all on the security cameras. He attacked him.” Jamie pointed from Ledger’s guy to the human. “My husband’s friend tried to stop him and he…” She bawled, burying her face in Oliver’s shoulder. Oliver wore a sick grimace.
More questions were asked, but one of the cops dragged me away from the scene and set me down in a booth so my back faced the crime scene. With a gentle voice, he asked me more questions about what I’d seen and everything that happened earlier. I was only partway through the questions when the doors were thrown open and all of the cops turned, pulling their weapons out and pointing them at the entrance.
Roman stepped inside, face tight as he lifted his hands up beside his head. His eyes snapped to me in an instant and scanned me for injuries.
“That’s the owner’s best friend.” Jamie blurted.
The cops put their weapons away and asked him to leave. He wouldn’t listen, obviously.
I expected Roman to go talk to the officers or ask Jamie what happened, so I turned back around. A second later, large hands were on my shoulders before Roman slid into the booth beside me.
“Are you okay?” He demanded, both hands moving to cup my face. One lifted to my nose, and my eyes watered as he gently prodded it with his thumb.
“Just shaken up and a little bruised.” I batted his hand away from my nose. That sucker was probably broken and freaking hurt. Roman’s wolf-side seemed to be at the helm, though.
“You need medical attention.” His whole body began to shake with fury, a sharp scent that filled the air.
“I’m fine, Romeo.” I flicked my eyes to the human cop who’d been interviewing me, dropping the nickname and all to try to knock him into realizing where we were. He didn’t follow my eyes.
“I’m sorry, how do you know each other?” the cop pulled both of our attention.
“This is Roman Ellis.” I gestured to him.
“Henley’s fiancé.” Roman’s arm draped over my shoulder.
I coughed, choking on my own spit at the shock of the statement. Roman pulled me closer.
The cop leaned away, and the scent of his sweat caught my nostrils. I elbowed Roman in the gut, warning him to cool it. He ignored me.
“She needs to see a doctor. Her nose is still bleeding from whatever happened.”
It was?
I lifted my fingers to my nose and sure enough, wet red blood stained my fingers. It wasn’t pouring blood anymore, which was why I hadn’t noticed, but was definitely still bleeding.
“As an officer of the law, it should’ve been your duty to make sure my fiancé was medically cared for before questioning her about the incident.” Roman rose to his full height, pulling me to my feet with him. With six and a half feet of muscle and power glowering down at him, I’m surprised the officer didn’t crap himself. “You’ll be hearing from my lawyers.”
The cop’s face flushed.
“Roman.” My voice cut through the tension like a knife. “There’s no need for that. I’m sure he was getting there. Weren’t you?” I prodded.
“Of course.” The cop said stiffly.
When Roman let out a low growl again, I grabbed his hand and squeezed as hard as I could. The scent of his blood hit my nose, and I realized my nails had shifted into claws.
Shit.
I wasn’t about to think on the fact that I could pick out the scent of his blood despite all the other blood on the ground.
“Kyler was in a police car last time I saw him. Go check on him while I finish up. Please.” I added that last word after the fact.
Roman looked like he was going to argue. He was as much wolf as human in that moment, so I did the only thing I knew would snap his human side back into control.
I leaned forward and kissed him.
Our lips only met for a brief moment, but his hands found my lower back and mine found his chest. When I stepped back, his eyes were entirely human and his muscles were more relaxed.
“Thanks.” I tried not to sound breathy, sitting back down with the cop. Roman grudgingly left me with the officer. “Let’s finish the questions so someone can look at my nose.”
I answered the rest of his questions without protest, although they were pretty repetitive. My nose was throbbing long before we were done. The cop led me to an ambulance, and my eyes lingered on the body bags within.
Jamie’s ankle was wrapped and her arm around Oliver’s shoulder as he held some of her weight. They stood talking to a set of officers in front of a police car. Roman was talking to Kyler, and their body language made it look like they were arguing about something.
The EMT looked at my nose for a minute before deciding I needed to see a specialist. Going to the hospital wasn’t high on my to-do list, so I declined. Although I’d never had a broken nose before and didn’t know how to deal with it myself, I’d text Dr. Grant for instructions on how to fix it.
EIGHTEEN
They had me sign som
ething saying I’d refused care before I was allowed to leave. I thanked them for their help and made my way to Jamie’s side. She was leaning up against the building, waiting for me.
“The guys left us here?” I lifted an eyebrow. She shook her head and tilted her head toward the nightclub.
“Oliver and Kyler are cleaning up. Roman stepped away to take a phone call.”
“I’m ready to go home.” I told her. “You in?”
She glanced back at the building, eyes puffy and sad.
“It’s okay if you want to wait for your mate.”
“No, let’s go.”
We started off down the street together, cops staring at us as we left. When I noticed her limping, I pulled Jamie’s arm over my shoulder so she wouldn’t have to walk on her ankle.
“What happened?” I gestured to the wrapped limb.
“Oh, I kicked the Colorado wolf in the stomach. He’d already hit me, so the angle was weird. It’ll be fine in a few days.”
The walk home was longer than normal thanks to Jamie’s ankle but still only lasted a few minutes. No one inside the ‘scraper looked twice at our bruised, battered, and bloody appearance. I guess that was a benefit of living where everyone was a werewolf.
When we got up to the forty-fourth floor, I considered asking Jamie to stay with me in my apartment for a bit. After my near abduction, alone wasn’t something I was dying to be.
“Would you be okay to hang out at my place for a bit? After watching Charles die, I don’t want to be alone.” Jamie and I were on the same page.
“Sure. Let me just grab my clothes.” I agreed.
After I swiped one of my new bras and a pair of comfortable leggings from my room, Jamie and I headed for hers. Sleek chocolate-colored floors partnered with white walls and chrome accents as far as I could see. It wasn’t terribly homey, but looked nice.
“It’s pretty.” I commented.
“It’s modern.” Jamie shrugged, slipping her shoes off by the door. I’d already dropped mine in my place; no need to track blood everywhere. “Oliver and I moved to this apartment when you got here, so we’re still getting used to it. The guest bathroom is down the hall and on the right.” She pointed to the left.