Stripped (Wolves of Mule Creek #2)

by Katharine Sadler

  I knew what she wanted. She wanted to die. She'd never admit that out loud, probably never admitted that to herself, but it was clear. Had been clear since she'd driven her car into a tree after a few too many drinks and her boyfriend, her childhood sweetheart, had crashed through the windshield and met the tree headfirst. She'd started hanging out with the vampires after that and they'd been happy to have a new blood groupie in their stable. When she said they'd promote her, she meant they'd give her to one vampire on a permanent basis and he'd take care of her, feed her need for whatever the vamps did for her when she shared her blood with them, feed and clothe her. Some people said it was the vamp saliva that was addictive or that the vamps shared blood with the blood groupies or that the sex was addictive. I'd never wanted to know, in all honesty. I'd seen enough destroyed humans, male and female, to know that whatever it was it was toxic. I didn't believe Emily wanted to be promoted, it was a lie she told herself, because she couldn't admit that all she really wanted was punishment and an end to the guilt and the pain.

  “I can't give them money, Emily. I don't have anything to give and if I can't pay them, they'll ask me to give them Alice or Zara or one of the other women who work here. You don't want to see anyone else trapped, do you?”

  Her expression hardened and she shoved past me. “Forget it.”

  I turned to watch her go, wishing I knew what to say or do to help her and hating that there was nothing.

  ***

  The sky was pink with dawn when I stumbled into my condo, drowsy and ready for bed. I locked my door, kicked off my shoes and headed to my kitchen for a mug of the sleep-inducing tea I'd gotten in the habit of drinking before bed. It helped me get a good sleep when the sun was shining.

  “Hey, baby.” Rixton was standing in my kitchen eating take-out pizza from a box. He wasn't wearing a shirt, but thankfully, he was wearing pants. “I thought you'd never get home.” Rixton was a decent-looking guy, with a slightly crooked nose, a five-o'clock shadow that never went away, and a lopsided mouth. His attraction lay in his nova bright confidence and his lackadaisical attitude. Nothing bothered him and he attacked every aspect of his life with a laid-back grace like he knew it would only ever please him. He was also unemployed, with zero ambition.

  I glared at my ex-boyfriend and put my hands on my hips. I was not going to give in this time. I wasn't going to do it. “What are you doing here?”

  “I ordered you pizza,” he said, shaking his slice in my direction, bits of sausage and bacon dropping off and hitting the linoleum. “Want some?”

  “I'm a vegetarian.” We'd dated for almost a year and he never remembered that I didn't eat meat.

  “You are?” His mouth twisted into a grimace. I liked that look better on him, because it made him less attractive. I needed every defense I could get. Sex with him was easy and fun, and I wasn't someone who liked to go too long without. “Since when?”

  “Since I was twelve. So, eleven years.”

  “Huh.” He shoved another bite of pizza in his mouth.

  “Why are you here?”

  “I missed you, baby,” he said, still chewing, a bit of food falling from his mouth. He caught it and shoved it back in. Table manners had never been one of his charms.

  “I'm not sleeping with you. We broke up. You need to leave.”

  He stalked toward me, his eyes heating as he got closer. “You know I'll give you pleasure.”

  “This isn't healthy,” I said. “We're over. You need to accept that.”

  He put his hands on my hips and pressed his body close to mine. “I've accepted we're over. But it doesn't mean we have to stop sleeping together.”

  “Yes, that's exactly what it means. Normal people stop sleeping together after they break up.” I may have slept with Rixton three or… Well, several times since we'd broken up, but he was getting way too comfortable, showing up at my place whenever he felt like it. I needed closure and he needed to leave. Except his hands had slid under my dress and were massaging my butt in a way that made my eyes roll back in my head.

  “We aren't normal people, baby. We're supernatural, we have different needs and different rules.”

  Gah. His words reminded me of Emily and the special needs of her vamp leeches. I jerked out of his arms and moved to the other side of the kitchen island. “You're a tenth faun, Rixton. You're mostly human.” The supernaturals in Aspens Whiten that I was aware of, except for the vamps and wolves, were half-bloods or less. I'd never met a real faun, but the lore was that they were pure hedonists, who had the magic of being able to float along in life with little effort and still manage to live well.

  “My blood might say I'm a tenth faun, but mentally I'm all faun.” He stalked toward me again and I knew, if he touched me, I'd give in. I was tired and he'd show me a good time, help me forget about the problems at the club and the look on Emily's face when she'd walked away. But if I gave in again, he'd be over here next week and the week after, and we'd fall into a rut. I'd forget all the reasons we were bad together and look up one day to find myself still stuck in Aspens Whiten, married to Rixton, and miserable.

  “Of course, you're all faun mentally. Who wouldn't want to be all faun? It's all fun all the time.”

  He grinned. “And you love every moment of it.”

  I backed away and bumped into one of the boxes I'd packed last week. I'd hoped packing boxes would get me closer to actually moving out and permanently changing my residence to Denver.

  Rixton took the opportunity of my stumble to grab me again and nuzzle my neck. “You keep packing boxes, but you never leave. You keep kicking me out, but you never say no when I come back. Just accept who you are, baby.”

  I shoved him off. I wasn't going to do this again. I needed to move on from him, from Aspens Whiten, and from vamps who wanted a piece of my business. I needed to do what I'd wanted to do from the time I was twelve and get out of this small-minded, small town. “This is not happening.”

  I'd never seen Rixton mad or even aggravated. His grin slipped a bit, but he just shrugged. He was a fun, kind guy, and there'd be other women if he wanted them. “Okay, Abs. I can take a hint. You doing okay? Everything okay at the club?”

  “Just more of the same.” I sank down onto the couch which was practically in the dining room, my condo was so tiny. “Not making enough money and dodging threats from vamps who want more than I can give.”

  He chewed and nodded. “This Leopold douche is a major buzzkill, from what I've heard. You should stay away from him.”

  I sighed. “Yeah, I'm doing my best.”

  “The girls doing alright?”

  I'd tried to correct him many, many times in the past. They weren't girls, they were women, employees of my business, but he was never going to change. “Emily came by tonight. She tried to convince me to give her money for the vamps.”

  His eyes popped wide. “They're using her for a messenger?”

  “I doubt it. She's probably trying to ingratiate herself with them, trying to move up the ranks.”

  He shook his head, his frown and his concern for Emily genuine. “You didn't give her any money, did you?”

  “If had any money. I'd be halfway to Denver. I'll be lucky to make rent this month.”

  “My couch is always available,” he said, with no innuendo in his tone, just a friendly offer. “But you know you don't need money to move to Denver. Gage would let you crash at his place until you find a job.”

  Gage was the previous owner of The Booty Carousel. He'd hired me as a dancer when I was seventeen and desperate, encouraged me to get my degree online, and sold me the club for next to nothing when he left town. I knew he'd let me crash on his couch, but I wanted to go to Denver without anyone's help. I wanted to make my own way. “I know. I'll get there,” I said. “I just need to find the right buyer for the club, make sure no one will lose her job.”

  “You're a good person, Abs,” he said, arms crossed over his chest, pizza forgotten. “But you can't take care of e
veryone. You deserve to have the life you want.”

  I dropped my head back on the couch, too tired for this conversation. Rixton was so different from me, he couldn't understand my choices, couldn't understand my obligations. “I just have to do right by them,” I said. “I'm exhausted. Think we could pick this conversation up another time?”

  “'Course we can, Abs. I'm here whenever you need anything.” He grabbed his pizza box, but stopped before he'd reached the door. “You have any trouble with Leopold, you call me, okay? I know people.” Before I could respond or laugh in his face, he'd pressed a quick kiss to my forehead and left. As soon as the door closed behind him, I pulled out my phone and clicked over to his contact information. My finger hovered over the delete key, but I didn't press it. I turned my phone off, annoyed with myself.

  I considered going to bed, but I got caught up looking at the framed pictures covering my walls, all the places I'd never been. The red sand arches of Arches National Park. The redwoods in California. The Eiffel tower, the Taj Mahal, the Sydney opera house. I was never going to get to any one of those places by lying around feeling sorry for myself.

  Instead of making tea and going to bed, I pulled out another box and packed up my dishes. I’d never been to Denver, but it was the closest big city and I had a friend there in Gage. I might have big dreams, but I was a small-town girl at heart and the idea of going to a city where I knew no one scared me. Plus, my grandmother had lived there when she was young and she’d told me the most wonderful stories about the place. Wonderful or not, I was getting out of this town and out of this rut, no matter what it took.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “Hey, boss,” Lizzie said after knocking once on my office door and poking her head in. “You're on in ten.”

  I smiled at Lizzie, a twenty-five-year-old dancer who'd struggled with drugs, but who'd gotten clean and was healthier and happier than ever. She might be a couple years older than me, but I'd advised her to have an exit plan for dancing and she was over halfway to her goal of saving money and becoming a personal trainer. “Great. I'll be right out.”

  She shut the door and I glanced at the piles of paperwork on my desk. I had a couple messages from the realtor about people interested in buying my building. I'd tried selling The Booty Carousel to someone who'd be interested in keeping it a strip club, but I'd only gotten a few bites and those bites had been pervy, inexperienced, idiotic, or all the above.

  I sighed and stood. I'd find a solution and, until I did, I'd dance.

  In the locker room, there was a flurry of activity, laughter, and chatting. I could have changed in my office, but I liked hanging with the dancers. It was the best place to find out what was going on in their lives and make sure they were okay. It might seem strange for a boss to take such an interest in her employees, but Gage had done the same for me once and he'd saved my life. I was paying it forward the only way I knew how.

  “Hey, boss,” Alice said. “One of your old beaus is out front.” Since my list of exes was shorter than my skirt, I didn't worry too much about awkward run-ins.

  “Rixton?”

  “Nope,” Alice said, shimmying up next to me and wiggling her eyebrows, suggestively. “The hot wolf who had that reality show. Think he's bored with the wife?”

  “Don't even joke,” Zara said. “He would never cheat on Julie Jacobs.”

  “Yeah,” Roxy said. “She'd kick his ass all over the mountain, and probably take over his pack.”

  “And he's head over heels in love with her,” Zara said, her lips pressed tight together while Carly painted a butterfly mask on her face.

  “Axel and I have been over since forever,” I said. “He's not here for me.”

  “See if you can hook me up with one of his friends, anyway,” Alice said. “They are H.O.T. hot and I am desperate for some fresh meat.” She poked me in the ribs and cackled. “If you know what I mean.”

  I smiled and slipped into my four-inch heels. “I'll see what I can do.”

  I hurried to the backstage area to wait for my turn to dance. I stepped out onto the stage to a few hoots and a smattering of applause. It was Monday and the club was on life support. I pushed worries about the money we wouldn't make that night aside and focused on my dance, trying to drum up some excitement.

  The first wave of lust rolled over me as I started to dance and it helped. It fueled me with energy and happiness. Not much, since the club was nearly empty, but enough. I moved to Adrenalize Me by In This Moment, shut out the audience, and just had some fun.

  My parents had been good, loving people, but they'd never made much money and they couldn't afford to pay for dance lessons. I'd danced in my bedroom, watching online videos to learn some skills. Skills I still used, which was more than I could say for Geometry.

  I finished my dance and hopped off stage. I dressed quickly in the shadows and walked into the crowd, greeting people and dodging gropes. I might know everyone in town, but that didn't mean everyone respected me. In fact, there were more than a few people who'd like nothing more than to humiliate me and shut my club down.

  A familiar face at a far table made me smile. I waved to Axel, alpha of the Mule Springs pack, and made my way over to his table. when Gage had still been owner, Axel had created the metal sign that hung over The Booty Carousel's door. Axel and I'd hit it off, had enjoyed a short, but steamy fling, and remained friends. Whenever he had business in Aspens Whiten, he stopped in and said hello.

  Axel was on his feet by the time I got to the table. He wrapped me up in a warm hug. “Hey, stranger,” he said. He released me and stepped back. “The way you talked last time I saw you, I figured you'd be living in Denver by now.”

  I shrugged, hating my big mouth. “I'm still working on it. Been watching you on T.V., congratulations on your marriage.”

  He grinned. “Thanks. You should stop by sometime and meet her. I think you two would hit it off.”

  Leave it to a man not to consider that introducing his wife to an ex-lover might be awkward. “Sure,” I said, with absolutely no intention of following through. I wasn't about to put his wife in an uncomfortable situation, not to mention she could totally kick my ass. “You have everything you need over here?”

  “Your staff has been taking good care of us,” he said. “As always. I'd invite you to sit, but we're waiting to meet some guys to discuss business.”

  There were two more enormous, good-looking guys, likely also wolves, sitting at his table. “The kind of business that's going to start a brawl in my club?” I asked. Axel was a pacifist and most of the members of his pack followed his philosophy and avoided violence, but that didn’t mean whoever they were meeting wouldn’t start trouble. Pacifist or not, wolves were still wolves and would defend themselves if necessary.

  “'Course not,” he said, but he'd glanced over my shoulder like he was watching Lizzie on stage. I knew him well enough to know he'd have no interest in another woman, no matter how naked, now that he was married. Avoiding my eyes meant he was lying, or fudging the truth.

  I poked him in a firm pectoral muscle. “What's going on? Who're you meeting?”

  He swallowed hard. “I'm being so rude. I haven't introduced you to everyone.” He turned to the table, and pointed to each guy in turn as he spouted off their names, Paulie and Zane.

  I glanced at the guys, waved hello because it paid to be polite, and poked Axel again. “Who are you meeting?”

  “Just a few vamps. We had some trouble with them last year and we want to make sure it's done.”

  “Which vamps?”

  Cold hands gripped my hips from behind. “Your favorite vamp, baby.”

  On instinct, I twisted my way out of the vamp's grip and turned to face him. Leopold Vandermeer stood in all his douchey glory, wearing ripped jeans, a mesh shirt, and a sideways ball cap. He was thin and stood with an elegant command of the room despite his vulgar outfit, his eyes were a brilliant green, his nose aquiline. I'd offer him fashion advice if he wasn't capable of b
reaking my neck with one hand. Behind him were two tall, lithe, cold women I could only guess were also vampires. They hung on him like they were there for his pleasure and not the business about to be discussed. “Leopold,” I said, plastering on a fake smile. “It's lovely to see you. Please let me know if I can get you anything.”

  Leopold licked his lips in a gesture that was pure lasciviousness. “Oh, baby, when I want something, I will most definitely come to you first.”

  I clenched my jaw not to shudder at his words and the innuendo behind them. I held my smile, nodded at everyone, and hurried back to my office. I texted the bartenders and the bouncers to watch out for trouble and tried to focus on paperwork.

  ***

  There'd been enough fights in my club that I recognized what was happening as soon as I heard the angry shouts and the crash of wood against linoleum. Crapola. I knew vamps and wolves meeting in my club was a bad idea. If I was smart, I would've stayed in my office. I wasn't a fighter and had no chance of subduing wolves or vamps, but I wasn't going to hide while my club was destroyed. Most of my staff was human and had no idea what they were up against. I needed to get everyone out before someone got seriously hurt.

  I ran to the locker rooms first. I got Alice, Zara, and Roxy to dress and get the hell out. They were pissed about missing a night's worth of money, but I'd likely have no choice but to close after the fight was ended. Judging from the roars and growls from the club, more than one of Axel's friends had shifted to wolf.

  I ran into the club and almost broke down in sobs at the sight. Tables and chairs were broken, curtains were ripped, glasses and bottles were broken. The only saving grace was that the patrons weren't stupid and were making their way to the exits quickly. Zed was helping people get out, and Lizzie waved from the stage as she hurried toward the back. Carly, our bartender for the night, was already little more than a shadow racing down the back hallway.