The Wild Within (Book 2)

by Jeff Hale

  “I promise.” But she gave me a wicked look.

  We pulled into the almost full parking lot of the club a little bit later. It was a Friday night, and this was the only under 21 club in town, so it was no surprise that it was busy. Luckily, I had reserved a table for us, with a certain number of extra seats, so we bypassed the line that trailed down the length of the sidewalk outside.

  Inside, the noise was so great, we could barely hear. I found a waiter and he directed us to our table, where I found Cody already waiting for us. A wistful sigh escaped me. Nate should be here, but he was hundreds of miles away.

  Cody’s eyes brightened when he saw me. He scooted over so I could slide in next to him, and Kris sat on the other side of him, although she left a decent gap between them. There was a brightly colored gift bag on the table, which Cody pushed toward Kris.

  “Happy birthday, Kris,” he told her, smiling.

  Kris just gave him a suspicious look, probably figuring that he was trying to buy his way into her good graces, but it didn’t stop her from opening the bag. Inside was a CD by one of the more popular bands and a black t-shirt that simply read ‘I Bite’ across the front in dripping red letters. She gave me a look that I understood all too completely and had me wondering at the irony of that shirt considering what we had learned not too long ago.

  “Thanks, Cody.” She actually sounded a little less hostile.

  “I hope you like the band. I don’t know who you’re into. And I just took a wild guess with the shirt. It seemed… fitting.” He grinned at her and she actually smiled back.

  “The CD is fine, I like the group and I don’t have this one. And the shirt, well, yeah, I like it.” Her attention was suddenly drawn away as a good looking young boy walked up to the table on her side.

  “Birthday girl?” he asked Kris, smiling at her and pushing longish blonde hair back behind his ears. I’d never seen him before but there were at least three different high schools in the area. He looked maybe seventeen or eighteen.

  “That’s me,” she answered brightly.

  “Would you like to dance?” the boy asked her.

  “Sure.” Kris took his extended hand and let him pull her out of the U-shaped booth. She winked at me as he led her out onto the crowded dance floor, leaving me to sit at the table with Cody.

  “Did you want to dance?” Cody finally asked me after a long awkward silence. I shook my head and his face fell.

  “Oh, Cody, no, nothing against you at all. Just that there is someone else coming and I want to be at the table when they show up, plus I want to have the cake brought over while Kris is out there.” I put a hand on his arm and smiled at him. “There’ll be more dancing later, I’m sure.”

  I had just called the waiter over and asked if he could bring out the cake I had reserved when I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and the little noise in my head, almost like a muted whisper, that signaled me that Darien was nearby.

  My head went up and I scanned the room for him, finally seeing him through the crowd and motioning him over. As he got closer I could see that he had Alex in tow, and Alex had a young blonde woman hanging onto his arm.

  “Who’s that?” Cody asked quietly next to me, then groaned. “Fuck me, that’s not the guy you’re dating, is it?” He groaned again when I nodded.

  Darien slid into the booth until he sat next to me, while Alex sat down on the other side of Cody, the blonde girl sitting next to him, close, but not too close. Alex gave Cody a complete look over, returning Cody’s friendly smile, but Cody’s smile disappeared when he turned and met Darien’s cool gaze.

  “Katelyn, I hope you don’t mind that Alex came along? And he brought a friend of his as well, this is Brenda.” Darien gestured in the blonde girl’s direction.

  “Oh, no, I don’t mind at all. Hi, Brenda.” I waved at her. “I kinda figured Alex would come along with you.” I laughed. “And we have extras as well. This is Cody, a friend of mine from school.” I patted him on the back.

  “Thanks for being okay with this,” Brenda said, her nervous look changing to a smile. “I wasn’t sure if you’d be upset or not since you don’t know me, but I had nothing else to do tonight and Alex suggested I come along.” She glanced at Alex. “We’ve been, uhm, hanging out a lot since he’s been in town.”

  “Are you two…?” I made motions with my hand that indicated both of them.

  “Oh! No!” she was quick to respond. “We’re not going out. I know Alex is only in town for a limited time and I don’t need a broken heart.” She laughed nervously. “We’re just friends.”

  Friends. Uh huh. I glanced back over to Darien and saw that he was trying not to smile in amusement. I turned a bright smile back to the blonde woman. “Well, it’s good to meet you, Brenda.”

  She nodded nervously again, and glanced quickly toward Darien before her eyes came back to me. “So, you’re Darien’s girlfriend?”

  I was given a brief reprieve on answering as the waiter showed up with the cake and set it on the table in front of us. It was a chocolate cake with fudge frosting, and had ‘Happy 18th Birthday, Krista!’ written across it in white icing. Kris had a thing for butterflies, so I had picked out little plastic butterflies for additional decorations. There were eighteen brightly colored candles placed in strategic areas.

  “You could say that,” I finally answered, keeping an eye on Darien’s reaction out of the corner of my eye and patting Cody’s leg in reassurance under the table.

  Darien looked surprised at my answer and I felt a wave of emotion roll off him. I slid my gaze to Alex, who looked much less surprised and was gauging Darien’s reaction himself. Cody just sat quietly, although I felt his fingers now resting against my thigh.

  Kris came bouncing back to the table at that point. There was another quick introduction of Brenda, and then Kris sat down next to Darien, her eyes glued to the cake. “Kat! A cake? Thank you!”

  With Kris’s comment, I opened the pack of matches that was sitting next to the cake and lit one, then lit a candle and used that candle to light the others. Once the candles were all lit, I cleared my throat and began the traditional birthday song. Brenda chimed in rather quickly, but we were a duet for over half the song before Alex, Darien, and Cody added their voices to ours, Darien only after I had prodded him with my shoe. On the last note, Kris blew out all the candles and we applauded.

  “I’m sorry we don’t have a gift for you, Kris,” Alex said. “We had no clue what to get for you, so we decided that we would owe you, anything you want. Just let us know.” He gave her an impish grin.

  “Really? Anything I want? Well, that’s going to take some thinking on.” She laughed. “But don’t worry, I’ll let you know when I’ve come up with something suitable.” She gave Darien a wink and he chuckled.

  The song changed then, to something that was one of mine and Kris’s favorites and her eyes lit up. “Oo.” She hopped up from the booth, then leaned in and grabbed my arm. “Kat! C’mon, must dance!”

  I had no problem agreeing with her. Darien didn’t seem to want to move, so Brenda, Alex, and Cody slid out of the booth to let me out and I followed Kris out to the crowded dance floor. The song was Eminem’s “Without Me”, and one that Kris and I found amusing to dance to with each other, and had done so many times at this very club in the past. I let myself go in the song, closing my eyes, feeling my body move along of its own will, and felt that bit of wildness well up within me, bending itself to the music as well.

  I heard a low laugh from Kris as she moved behind me, our backs to each other, and I slowly opened my eyes… to find the two of us surrounded by teenage boys and young adult men, Cody and the blonde boy among them. They were trying to dance as close to the two of us as possible, their eyes fixed on the two of us as though we were the hottest things out there. The heat in those collective eyes made a little thrill of satisfaction run through me and I made a noise low in my throat.

  Cody was nearest to me and moved closer, his
eyes never shifting from me, until he had pressed his body against my side, moving along with the music, his body sliding on mine to the beat. Another boy took claim of the other side of my body, and I could sense that Kris had her own share now as the boys rubbed and ground against us.

  The song had changed somewhere during all this, to Nine Inch Nails, but the new tune had a sensuous and heavy beat that only deepened the mood. I wasn’t sure what exactly had happened, but I was lost in the feel of the lust emanating from them and I reveled in it.

  It was short lived. A wave of rage rolled across the room, so strong that I could almost smell it, and the next thing I knew my dance companions were pulled roughly away from me.

  “Get your hands off her!” The voice was Darien’s, the words almost growled, and the anger coming off of him felt almost like a tangible force. His back was to me and he was inches away.

  The lust was still riding high in me and I reached out to run my hands across his back, the power coming off of him drawing me in. Kris still had her back to me, swaying to the music, and the group of boys that were still moving against her began to filter toward me to fill the spots vacated by Darien’s first demand.

  Darien whipped around to face me, his eyes jet black and smoldering. “Kat!” he said harshly, “Snap out of it!”

  I slid my arms lazily up around his neck. “I’m having fun, though,” I protested softly, trying to reach out with that inner part of me to draw him in. I felt hands touching me, moving on my body. I sighed in contentment.

  “I said, get your hands off her!” Darien yelled it this time, his voice a snarl, and he physically pulled Cody away from me, shoving him to the side.

  The show of violence snapped me out of the dreamlike state I was in and anger flooded me. “Darien, what the fuck?!” I exclaimed loud enough for the whole room to hear.

  The space around us cleared out quick, even though the music kept playing, but we were now what had everyone’s interest. I felt Kris shudder, then slide down my back until she was sitting on the floor leaning against my legs. I stumbled a bit but kept my footing.

  “They shouldn’t have been touching you like that! What the hell did you think you were doing?” He was glaring at me and his voice was strained.

  “I was dancing! What did you think I was doing? What? I’m not allowed to dance?” The anger coming off of me was almost palpable and he flinched from it briefly.

  “Not like that,” he replied, “not with them.” There was a note of distress in his voice, but the rage was still there, and now it was directed at me.

  I so did not need another man trying to control my life. I snapped.

  “Who the hell do you think you are? You are not my keeper and I am not your property! I refuse to let someone else tell me what I can and cannot do!” I turned my back on him, strode angrily over to our table and snatched my purse from the seat. I stared regretfully at the untouched festive cake, then marched toward the door of the building.

  “Go fuck yourself, Darien!” I called over my shoulder as I headed out into the cool night air. I started to head toward the parking lot, then thought better of driving in the mood I was in, picked a direction that was away from the club and began to walk.

  ELEVEN

  Alex

  I sat back down in the booth, Brenda on one side of me, Darien on the other, the boy, Cody, still standing, and watched in amusement as Kris led Katelyn out onto the dance floor. I recognized the song from the radio and it had an infectious beat to it. Brenda had yet to get up the nerve to ask me out onto the dance floor herself, possibly feeling as self-conscious as Darien and I did with the crowd of under-twenty-ones that filled the place, and I surreptitiously swiped a finger full of frosting from the side of the cake as I kept my eye on the two girls on the floor.

  I nudged Darien. “You should go out there and cut in,” I told him.

  Darien inclined his head toward Cody, who was slowly making his way out to the dance floor as well, then whispered, “I wouldn’t want to scare the boy any more than he already is.”

  “Well then quit exuding Alpha. What’d you expect?”

  I hadn’t really expected an answer, but Darien’s attention was suddenly drawn very intensely toward the dance floor and as I looked back over to where Katelyn and Kris were gyrating, with their backs to each other, I could partially see why. A bevy of young men, including Cody, had migrated in their direction and were circling like sharks on a wounded swimmer. And then I felt it.

  Not quite lust, more of a sense of desirability, was emanating out from the dance floor, and specifically from Katelyn herself. She writhed against Kris’s back, her body undulating in a way that promised the same movement in private, with the man or men of her choice, and Kris mimicked her. The cluster of boys slowly moved in on them until they were right up against them, in one large rhythmically moving group, Cody pressed up against Katelyn.

  “Ah, shit,” I muttered under my breath, a general sense of what was occurring coming to me.

  As Katelyn got closer and closer towards shifting for the first time, her beast would begin to manifest itself more in other ways, ways that were tied in to whatever it was that was her totemic creature. And until she began to recognize what was happening to her, Katelyn wouldn’t be able to control it. It seemed that at the moment, probably due to the crowd, the music and the atmosphere, her beast was manifesting some sort of mating call, or dance.

  “What the hell?” Darien’s voice was not happy.

  I looked his way, saw that his eyes were glued on the tableau unfolding out on the dance floor and felt the sudden rise in anger from him as he watched Katelyn allow those young men, and Cody in particular, to run their hands all over her body. His hands where they rested on the table top contracted into fists and I could see him begin to shake.

  I put a hand on his arm. “Darien, let me handle this, it might be easier.” I turned to ask Brenda to move, her attention fully on the dance floor.

  “No.” Darien only said the one word. He pushed himself out of the booth.

  “Aw, bloody hell,” I muttered. I poked Brenda to get her to move, and then moved out of the booth myself.

  But Darien was already out on the dance floor, trying to remove young men from Katelyn who had no idea just how close they were to be pummeled into the floor. I stood there, knowing it was too late to help, but ready in case things went south.

  “Get your hands off her!” I heard Darien demand loudly and watched him pull two boys off her before turning his back to her to glare at any other young hopefuls. A wide area parted in front of him.

  Katelyn leaned forward and ran her hand along his back, trying to pull him toward her as more boys filtered in around her again from behind her. Darien turned toward her and despite his voice lowering a bit my keen hearing could still hear him over the music. I felt Brenda slip back into the booth behind me.

  “Kat! Snap out of it!” he told her, his voice underrun with the growl that seemed to be there whenever his emotions got away from him.

  She slid her arms around his neck, and I barely heard her whisper of, “I’m having fun though.” I could see hands caressing her from the boys who were too into what she was giving off to really notice Darien.

  He pulled away from Katelyn and shoved Cody off of her. “I said get your hands off her!” he threatened.

  The anger in his voice seemed to snap her out of whatever she was feeling and her head went up. “Darien, what the fuck?!” she yelled.

  Space cleared out around them and the enraptured boys began to slink off. I watched as Kris seemed to come to herself as well, sliding to the floor along Katelyn’s body. Another wave of anger rolled off the dance floor, this one from Katelyn, and the strength of it surprised me.

  “They shouldn’t have been touching you like that! What the hell did you think you were doing?” Darien’s voice carried through the building, and though the music didn’t stop, there was a hush among the crowd.

  “I was dancing! Wha
t did you think I was doing? What? I’m not allowed to dance?”

  “Not like that,” he replied, “not with them.”

  I shook my head at Darien’s response to her. This was the wrong time for his jealousy to rear its ugly head. Darien had his fair share of possessiveness, it was just part and parcel of what he was, especially with being an Alpha on top of everything, but he had to remember that Katelyn had little control of her beast and how it affected others at this point. I started toward them, to see if I could head him off, but it was too late.

  “Who the hell do you think you are? You are not my keeper and I am not your property! I refuse to let someone else tell me what I can and cannot do!” Katelyn yelled at him. She stalked away from him, past me and over to the table to get her purse, the clear feel of her beast causing me to flinch as she went by. She made a beeline for the door, slowing only long enough to call out a parting remark.

  “Go fuck yourself, Darien!” Then she was out the door and out of sight.

  Darien turned to watch her as she left and he stood there now with a stunned expression on his face, as though he wasn’t quite sure what had happened. I felt a tug on my shirt and looked behind me to see Brenda. She had her purse and jacket.

  “Alex, I’m going to head home, okay? I’m not sure what just happened here, but, well, I don’t think I want to be around for it.” The expression on her face was sad and I had a feeling she probably wouldn’t be wanting to see me again due to the company I kept. For normal humans, strong shifter emotion, especially from Alphas, was something they had a hard time understanding.

  I just nodded, trying to keep my face neutral. I pulled my wallet out and fished a couple twenties out and handed them to her, which caused her to give me a perplexed look. I sighed and pressed them into her hand as I put my wallet away.

  “For the cab fare. You shouldn’t have to pay for something that’s not your fault.”

  She gave me a half smile and inclined her head, then stood on her toes and planted a kiss on my cheek. “Bye, Alex, it’s been fun.” And she hurried off through the throng of people and to the bar to call for a cab.