by AJ Merlin
Reckless
A Prowl Novel
AJ Merlin
Copyright © 2021 by AJ Merlin
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover design by Ryn Katryn Digital Art
Thanks to Affinity Author Services for their services.
1. FIC009050 FICTION / Fantasy / Paranormal 2. FIC024000 FICTION / Occult & Supernatural
3. FIC072000 FICTION / LGBT / Bisexual
eBook ISBN: 9781734884685
Created with Vellum
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Chapter One
“You look frumpy, Alek.”
Taken aback, I looked down at myself, long legs stretched in front of me as much as they were able to be in Noah’s small car. “I’m wearing a skirt,” I pointed out dryly. “And boots.”
My blonde-haired best friend threw the car into park like it, too, had somehow offended him with its frumpiness. He turned to look at me with a scowl that wouldn’t even frighten a mouse and certainly didn't reach his eyes. “Leg warmers aren’t socks,” he said, gesturing to my thigh-high black socks. “And that’s barely a real outfit.”
“Because it’s comfy?” I asked sweetly, pinching and pulling on the stretchy, soft black cotton of my mid-thigh length skirt. My dark red t-shirt was just as soft, just as clingy, and probably just as offensive.
“Yes.”
“Well, aren’t you going to be naked in a few minutes anyway? And as I’m not here to get naked, I’m not sure why it matters how frumpy I may or may not look.” Not that I needed to know specifics. We may have been as close as foster siblings could be, we may live together, and he may hang his sex toys in the bathroom to dry, but I had never, not once wanted to know anything about his cam work.
We stared at each other. The corner of his mouth twitched with the smile he couldn’t hide from me for very long. We’d known each other much too long for me not to be able to see right through him.
“You’re right,” he sighed good-naturedly. “And I really appreciate you coming to help me out. You signed that NDA I sent you and emailed it back to Prowl, right?”
“Yes, Noah,” I groaned, tired of hearing about this again. I understood how important it was that I signed, but I’d done it days ago.
Getting out of the car when he did, I took a moment to check the mirror, wondering just what impression I should want to make at Noah’s place of employment. When he wasn’t looking, I snaked a hand into the back seat and pulled out one of his black, cotton hoodies. I pulled it on over my clothes without him noticing, the black fabric hugging my curves.
When Noah turned to me, he moaned in defeat.
“It’s winter,” I reminded him, closing my door.
“It’s Atlanta,” he shot back. He himself only wore a grey, long-sleeved shirt and dark jeans.
Shrugging, I walked to the trunk with him, arms out as he reached inside and pulled out two gym bags. One held enough clothes for a few days. The other held his personal items.
I took the one with the clothes, and let him keep his accoutrements to himself.
“I expected something different,” I admitted as we walked through the private parking lot and towards the tidy, one story building in front of us.
“Like a warehouse in a dark alley with neon lights spelling out XXX?” he asked.
Rolling my eyes, I ‘accidentally’ stepped on his foot as we walked. He hissed in surprise and jumped back. “Like…I don’t know. Security guards? Blacked out windows?” Instead the building was nice. There were large windows on this side that showed a front desk and wood-floored interior white walls. The windows were large enough to let in an ample amount of light, giving the place an overall cheerful, welcoming look.
And there were no neon lights. Nothing at all to signify that this was a cam studio and not just some suburban office building, residing in a very well-off part of Atlanta, Georgia. Only a small black sign above the door even held the name of the place:
Prowl.
One of the best known cam studios in the shifter community. Everyone I knew subscribed to someone who made content here. Or at the very least, knew who the big players were.
I was no exception. The Prowl app was hidden on my phone, sure, but it was absolutely still there and sucking some of the meager money I made as a part-time barista on the other side of the city.
Something shifted in my stomach. I couldn’t tell if it was excitement, nerves, or the fact that I’d eaten a questionable burrito for breakfast that Noah had sworn was stomach-safe…but the small feeling was present all the same.
Noah pushed the glass door open and the woman at the desk looked up with a wide grin.
“Good morning Noah!” She greeted, standing and walking over to throw her arms around his shoulders in a very friendly gesture.
Her scent washed over me, assaulting me with too much perfume and the smell of beta.
Sure, as an omega, I was so much more in tune with scents and pheromones than the average shifter, but surely even Noah’s beta-nose was itching with the scent of her perfume.
Sneaking a glance at him, I had to assume he’d gone nose-blind. He hugged her back with one arm, a smile lighting up his face.
“Good morning, Andi! This is Alek.” He gestured to me and the woman turned, straightening.
Even in her stilettos, the brunette didn’t come close to reaching my almost six foot height.
“Your sister, right?” She raked a glance over me and then met my eyes with a friendly smile. “Thanks for sending over the NDA early and not waiting until the last minute like so many people. Makes my job a lot easier.” She held a hand out to me. “You’re so tall. Which of your parents gave you their genes and stuck Noah with the short straw?”
I took her hand, not missing the way her nostrils flared when she touched me. It wasn’t new. A lot of people reacted noticeably when scenting an omega, even if they didn’t realize it. Beside me, Noah pulled a face at the short comment. He wasn’t really short. Five-eight was respectable, in my opinion. But beside my five-eleven-and-a-half…he was a bit short.
The two of us glanced at each other. I raised a brow, not sure how to answer. I wasn’t ashamed of our family situation, but I didn’t want to reveal any of Noah’s past that he might be ashamed of.
“We’re not related by blood,” Noah explained. “If we were, I’d clearly be a six foot-five Adonis.”
“And I’d have freckles,” I added.
Andi laughed as she let go of my hand. “You’d look cute with freckles,” she commented. “Especially with your dark red hair.”
“She’s going for dan
gerous,” Noah fake-whispered, gesturing to my hair.
“My hair is natural, and I’m succeeding at dangerous,” I replied with a sniff, smoothing my hand through my half-up, half-down blood-red mane.
Andi coughed to hide a laugh. “Go check in with Rita, will you? She has some mail for you,” the receptionist said. “Are you sticking around?”
“Yeah, I guess I’m here while he’s here. Since Noah is my ride.” I certainly did not make enough money for my own car.
“If you get bored waiting for him, you’re welcome to come see me. It’s going to be a slow day. Saturdays always are.”
“Thanks so much.” I smiled, knowing I probably would not come back out here to spend time with her. I definitely wasn’t going in anywhere that Noah was getting naked. Even though we weren’t related by blood, that was gross. I’d only come here as his moral support to sit leagues away while he filmed the biggest scene of his short, lucrative camboy career.
Besides, while Andi seemed incredibly nice, what would we even talk about?
Okay, so scratch that. She probably had a lot of information on their well-known cam guys and girls. Maybe there was a chance of getting to talk about them with her.
Or one, specifically. Hades. Panther shifter. Alpha. Biggest taker of my salary and the one guilty pleasure I was absolutely unwilling to give up.
I wasn’t special in that regard. He had over five hundred thousand followers on his Prowl, and I was just one of many besotted men and women who drooled over every piece of content he posted.
I dreamed of the day I made more than minimum wage so that I could move up from basic subscription to premium subscription and make all my dreams come true.
“Are there donuts in the kitchen?” Noah called, already walking towards the hallway behind the desk. I caught up, following at his heels as he left the desk and Andi behind.
“Rita got Krispy Kreme!” Andi called. “See you two later.”
“Bye Andi!” I waved before disappearing, doing my best at being as polite as possible before catching up with Noah in the well-lit hall.
“You going to go visit her while I film?” Noah asked softly as the distance between us and the receptionist grew.
“Nope,” I said.
“Not even to pick her brain on who you subscribe to?” He wiggled his brows.
I snorted quietly. “I can totally control myself better than that,” I said, half-wishing I could see into the rooms with closed doors that lay down the halls that split off from the main hall.
What did the rooms where they filmed look like? I knew that Hades always did his content in a very dark and luxuriously decorated bedroom, or a bathroom with a huge jacuzzi tub, but I wondered what the rooms actually were behind the cameras.
When Noah swerved to enter a small kitchen, I nearly kept going, as caught up in my thoughts as I was. At the last second, however, I turned and walked in without smacking my face into the door frame.
Boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts lay on the black table, lemonade and cups out beside them.
“I am so jealous,” I drawled as he flipped through the boxes in pursuit of the jelly filled donuts he favored.
“Oh? Is this what will finally draw you in to working in the industry?” Noah turned, closing one of the cardboard boxes with a jelly donut in hand. “The sweet joys of fresh donuts in the morning? Rita has a way with the Krispy Kreme down the street. They give them to us still warm.” He held it up in front of my nose tantalizingly.
“Please,” I looked around, surprised again at just how cheerful and clean and professional this looked. The kitchen had the same hardwood flooring as the rest of the building so far, and the walls were the same pristine white. In here, the wall art was abstract and brightly colored. “I’m not made for cam work.”
“You’re too pure,” Noah agreed in a sober voice, nodding sagely.
“Clearly,” I snorted.
“Too tall,” he went on, going back out into the hallway and down another corridor with me at his elbow.
“Ouch.”
“Too dangerous, right Alek?” It was our private joke, in some ways. Omegas like me weren’t considered even a little bit imposing by the general public. Even if we did stand taller than a lot of alphas.
“Right,” I agreed.
Noah slowed and I did too, my eyes on the advertisements in this hallway that served as art. They were contemporary, most of them looking like they belonged in old-time Hollywood theaters.
Except, I was pretty sure old time Hollywood theaters didn’t hang advertisements of the porn and BDSM variety.
My eyes landed on one poster that held a woman with a whip, her hair cascading to her waist and her full lips open in a pout. Noah had stopped, though he wasn’t looking where I was.
Smile turning sly, I said quietly to him, “I am just too dangerous to be on camera.”
A door opened behind me, but I didn’t think to turn.
“Are you really?” A new, rough voice asked with amusement.
The man’s scent washed over me a second later, quite literally hitting me like a wave and nearly knocking me over. He smelled like cinnamon, like musky spice and perhaps the sharp tinge of leather under all that dark spice.
And above all of that, competing with his masculine scent in my nose, he smelled like sex.
I whirled, some kind of explanation ready on my lips as my brain tried to tell me that I absolutely knew that voice.
“I–“ I broke off, eyes widening as my mouth fell open uselessly.
Hades stood there. Panther shifter. Alpha. Cam star Hades Ahlleron himself.
Maker of wet dreams and breaker of hearts.
His smile was downright wicked, and as I watched, he used a t-shirt to wipe the side of his neck. “I wouldn’t say dangerous,” the black-haired, green-eyed god mused in his very shirtless state. “And besides, from my own experience, viewers like a little danger.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me and I wondered if I would die right there of embarrassment while a sudden flush of arousal flooded my veins.
“I….” I tried again. I had never been gifted in conversation with anyone outside of my foster family, and no miracle inspired my vocal cords now.
He was a lot taller in real life than I’d ever expected him to be. I was tall, but he was taller. Easily six-three, with a gorgeous body and-Oh god there was a reason I looked at him on my phone and in the privacy of our apartment.
Hades nodded like I’d actually said something to add to the conversation. “Very dangerous. You’re right. I see now how I was mistaken to think otherwise.” His look blessedly switched from my face to Noah. “Rita switched our rooms today,” he said amicably to my friend. “You get the blue bedroom.”
“Oh, she did?” Noah perked up. “I didn’t know. Thanks for the heads up, man.” They clasped hands in that very bro way and Hades turned to grin in my direction once more. “See you around,” he said, before striding off towards the kitchen.
I watched him go, still a bit dumbstruck.
Noah leaned over, face very close to mine. “Really?” he drawled. “I mean-I knew you liked him but I didn’t think you were this bad for him. Alek, if this is you just meeting an alpha like him, then we’ve gotta get you a date.”
“I just…” I hadn’t expected it either. I could feel the blush rising to my pale cheeks, and blinked. “It’s not that? He just has a really strong scent. I would’ve loved a warning, actually. I know some alphas scent really strongly and like to throw it around, but that was intense. How do you deal with that?”
Noah watched me strangely. “No he doesn’t,” my best friend-slash-foster-brother said at last.
“Uh, what? I was standing right here. I know you’re a beta, but even you can’t be that nose-blind.”
“No. He. Doesn’t,” Noah said again. “Hades’ scent is really mild. Everyone says so. Omega or not.”
It was not mild. It was anything but mild, frankly. My knees still wanted to quiver at the memory of it, and I could
n’t stop running every note through my mind.
It was definitely an omega thing, I decided. Noah just didn’t understand.
“Yeah. Okay.” I rubbed my hand against my nose, trying to right myself. “You’re probably right. It’s just me being worked up and biology.” Maybe I was close to a heat? That would make me scent alphas stronger than normal. “Hey!” I punched him lightly in the shoulder. “Did you know he was going to be here today?”
Noah batted his eyes at me. “Why, Alek. Dearest sister of mine. Wouldn’t I have told you if I knew he’d be here when I brought you?”
No. No, he absolutely would not have.
I considered punching him again when the shit-eating grin he was trying to hide returned to his face, but withheld myself with the greatest self-control I could muster.
Chapter Two
The blue bedroom that Noah was filming in wasn’t nearly as blue as I’d expected. Had Hades really been set to do something in here? I’d never seen any of his pictures or videos outside of his two usual rooms.
A thought occurred to me.
Perhaps he used other rooms in his premium videos.
“I need to make more money,” I announced, tossing Noah’s gym bag to the floor by a floor-length mirror as my eyes traveled the small bedroom.
For all intents and purposes, it could’ve been a hotel room. A bed sat against the wall, neatly made with a navy comforter and white pillows. A bedside table sat squarely to one side, the obligatory fancy lamp gleaming from a recent cleaning.
The floor was the same fake-wood as the hall outside, but a lush white carpet covered much of it.