“Don’t you ever dress like a normal person?”
I decided not to point out the obvious, that I was not a normal person, and instead took a good look in the mirror. Smiling to myself, I thought it looked as if I’d taken a page out of Bade’s book that night. Black vinyl pants hugged my thighs like a lover’s embrace. I wore a form fitting top, so sheer it was nearly transparent, and so deeply red, it was nearly black. The sleeves were short and split over the shoulder, and my red bra was clearly visible underneath.
Just below the shirt, you could see the belt that rode low on my hips, glinting in the light. The buckle was solid silver, carved into the shape of a running wolf. My makeup was tasteful, but I’d gone heavier with the eyeliner than usual, giving my hazel eyes a dark, smoky look. I never wore more than powder as a foundation. I was blessed with an even complexion, but I’m fond of earthy brown lipstick and black eyeliner.
Finally, I answered Kat’s question as I slipped into my black vinyl boots. “I’ve got a vendetta against the fashion police. Remember?”
Kat was still giving me that questioning look when I clipped the silver thumb cuffs to the belt loop at my hip.
“Thumb cuffs?”
I let my smile reveal some of my wicked thoughts as I replied, “It goes with the outfit.”
Kat wore another sensible but chic black dress, and I noticed as we got in the car that she could easily fit in anywhere. On the other hand, I would stand out in most crowds, but that wasn’t exactly anything new. As usual, we didn’t stay anywhere long, and Kat got as drunk as she had the time before. I suppose having a friend along who is half werewolf and practically immune to alcohol would make most people let their guard down. Who needs a bouncer or a bodyguard when they’ve got me?
As we approached club Red, I felt my pulse begin to quicken. Before we entered, I pulled Kat aside and handed her a small silver phial with a spray nozzle attached to the top.
“If I leave and someone tries anything, don’t hesitate to use this.”
She squinted at the bottle. “Werewolf mace?”
“Close enough.” I shrugged.
“What is it?”
“Silver nitrate.”
Kat smiled and swerved slightly as she said, a bit too loudly, “So, you gonna talk to The Big Bad Wolf about that whole killing his girlfriend thing?”
“Ssh,” I said, pulling her past some people who were now staring and pointing in our direction.
“Oh, I get it,” she replied, still not exactly whispering. “You want me to turn a blind eye so you can bump and grind with the bad guy.”
As I led Kat closer to the door, I felt a familiar prickle along my skin. It was the unmistakable feel of power that radiated from the most dominant alphas.
“Hello, Red,” Marco’s rough sexy voice said from behind me.
Kat smiled from ear to ear as I turned toward where Marco stood, draped casually against the doorway. I took my time, letting my hungry eyes take in the sight of him. Marco was definitely eye candy, and I’d always liked sweets. He wore dark red leather pants, so dark they were nearly black, but closer to a deep cherry, with a matching shirt that looked to be satin. The shirt hung open to reveal his natural golden tan as well as the trail of dark hair that spread across his chest, down the rigid curves of his abs to disappear below his belt. I felt him watching me as I traced that trail of hair with my eyes.
“I knew you’d come,” he said.
Kat staggered forward and giggled. “So, do you like to huff and puff, or just blow things down?”
To my surprise, Marco laughed. He flashed her a smile of nice even white teeth as he replied, “I don’t see anything wrong with a little huffing and puffing now and then.” He put his arms around us both as he added, “Please, come in.”
When he stepped close, I breathed in his scent and felt my eyes roll to the back of my head. If someone could bottle Marco’s scent they could sell it as a form of Ecstasy.
Marco led us past the dance floor and up a flight of stairs. There were several booths and tables there that were separated from the rest by wrought iron railing, but had an excellent and elevated view of the dance floor. The air was so thick with the scent of sex and werewolves that even I wanted to howl. Perhaps visiting Marco so close to the full moon was a mistake. The music thumped in my chest like a second heartbeat as I felt Marco press himself against my back. He wrapped his arm around my waist, carefully avoiding the silver belt buckle.
“Would you like to dance first, or get straight to business?”
As I considered the question, I turned to face him. “Are you planning to kill me?” I asked.
“Why, are you planning to kill me?”
I reached out and found whatever it was I’d found that night with Bade. A fever warm and sinuous flowed through my veins as I responded silkily, “Not tonight.”
I watched as the pulse in his throat beat faster at the sound of my voice. He was fighting to control his reaction, but he felt it. Whatever it was, he felt it. Kat took a few shaky steps forward and rested her head against Marco’s arm.
“He smells really good.” She spoke to me as if he wasn’t standing there.
Marco put his arm around her shoulders to prevent her from toppling over the railing in front of us. I had been sadly mistaken on how much alcohol she’d managed to keep down. I had never seen Kat that drunk before.
“I think you may be wrong,” she continued directing her comments to me, as she leaned on Marco for support. When I noticed she wasn’t taking the opportunity to cop a feel, I decided it was time to take Kat home, she wasn’t herself anymore.
“About what?”
“Bad guys don’t smell this good,” she half whispered to me as if she were revealing some secret of the universe.
The grin on Marco’s face could not have been more devilish if he’d had horns. “It’s werewolf pheromones, Kat. Don’t be fooled.” I glanced back at Marco as I added, “He may smell good enough to eat, but trust me when I say, you don’t want hair in your food.”
“Maybe we could get him to wax,” she suggested, running her hand up the front of his bare chest.
This succeeded not only in making me laugh, but I felt some of the sexy power drain from my voice. However, when Marco looked as if that didn’t sound like a bad idea, I pulled her hand, roaming ever lower, from Marco’s body. Kat looked like it was Christmas, and I’d just stolen her present, but Marco laughed and suggested, “Perhaps your friend would like to retire to one of the VIP rooms upstairs, alone.” He added the last part in response to the look I gave him. “She could sleep it off a bit.”
“I don’t need to sleep anything off,” Kat insisted with as much dignity as she could muster. “Can’t a woman make a pass at someone without being considered sloshed?”
“Well, then perhaps I could find someone to accompany her,” he directed the suggestion to me.
“You want me to leave my friend alone with one of your wolves? I don’t think so.”
“Would it matter if I said that I trusted him?”
“No, it wouldn’t.”
“Is he good-looking?” Kat asked hopefully.
Marco smiled. “I think so,” he teased.
Kat leaned forward and whispered, “What do you think? I’ve still got the mace.”
I just shook my head. Marco was listening to our every word. It does no good to whisper in front of a werewolf.
She smiled up at him and replied with more discernment than I thought her capable of at the time, “Why don’t you have him join me at that table over there?”
Marco looked to me before responding. “All right.” He snapped his fingers at a waiter as he said, “Send me Luther.”
Without hesitation, the young man turned and went back past the tables to disappear behind a red door. A moment later a tall man with long white blond hair emerged, looking like he’d stepped off the pages of a dirty magazine. He wore an outfit similar to Marco’s except that it was completely black, making his h
air look all the more white, and his skin was more a darker shade of pale than tan. As he approached, I saw that his eyes were a nice clear blue and despite his, at first, creepy impression, he had a pleasant smile.
There was something about him that was very familiar to me, though I couldn’t quite place it until he spoke. “Lilith,” he said. “Don’t you remember me?”
“Oh my God, Luther.” I stepped forward and embraced one of my childhood friends whom I’d not seen in nearly ten years. We had been in drama class together. I couldn’t believe how much he’d changed. His voice and his smile were the only remnants of the boy I had once known. Luther had never been this sexy in high school. I was certain of it.
“How’ve you been?” he asked, looking down at me. Luther was about six-foot-two, but to me, even in heels, that required looking up to answer him.
I motioned around at our surroundings as I said, “About as good as you’ve been, it seems.”
“Does this mean that you’ll leave him alone with your friend?” Marco asked. Truthfully, I’d forgotten he was still standing there. I was so shocked, not only to see Luther again, but to know that he was a werewolf. We had never been intimate, but we were relatively close in school, and for a minute, I didn’t feel quite so alone. But I remembered he was a werewolf and I was something in between so, technically, I was still alone.
“Yes,” I said, still looking at Luther. “I trust him. Now, it’s her I’m worried about.” I smiled at Kat. “Don’t attack the man in public, all right?”
Kat pretended to pout but couldn’t stop smiling as she replied, “Don’t worry, I’ll behave myself.” I watched as she and Luther took a seat at a booth in the corner and appeared to start telling dirty jokes. Maybe he hadn’t changed as much as I’d thought.
“Well?” Marco asked, turning my attention back to him. “What will it be, business, or pleasure?”
I looked him up and down once more, lingering longer than was polite across the front of his tight leather pants. Looking at Marco was like reading a really good book. You just wanted to take your time. As I stepped closer to him again, I breathed in his scent and could no longer keep my hands to myself.
Pulling his shirt open, I placed both my hands against his chest, just as they had been in my drawing. For many sleepless nights, I had longed to run my hands over Marco’s body. His skin was hot, feverish to the touch and I felt the hot sexual power flow over me again as I touched him. My voice became sex as I leaned in to whisper, “You’re hot.”
He gasped in response. Apparently touching his bare skin made it harder to resist the power in my voice.
“Full moon,” he said, his voice growing deeper with desire.
“What about it?” I leaned close enough to breathe in the scent along his collar bone.
“It’s in three days,” he said, swallowing hard.
“Mmm, do you always run a fever so close to transformation?” I pressed my lips to his throat.
“Always,” he breathed.
People at the tables around us were staring, Kat included. Marco and I were beginning to draw our own crowd.
“Maybe dancing isn’t such a good idea,” I said, pulling back from him slightly. It took all I could do not to rip off his clothes and throw him on a table top as it was. If I had danced with him, the audience might have gotten more than a display of my dancing skills.
“Would you like a drink?” he offered, trying to regain his composure. “We could take it in my office.”
“You have an office?”
“Of course.” He smiled, some of his natural wickedness returning as he took me by the arm. “Right this way.”
He led me beyond the red door that Luther had entered through earlier. There was a long corridor with many different rooms off to the side. We went straight down and took a right. All the way at the end of the hall there was another red door that led to Marco’s office. Not only was I surprised at the how well the size of the building was concealed from the outside, but I was impressed with his office, as well. I’m not exactly sure what I had expected, but it certainly wasn’t what I saw. A large mahogany desk stood near the back of the room. Behind the desk and along one wall were rows upon rows of law books from both planets and history books detailing different wars.
To my left, sat a large tan leather sofa, with dark suede pillows nearly covering it from view. Against the opposite wall was a matching chair and ottoman with a deep crimson blanket flung across it that reflected in the highly polished wood of the floor. The chair was pulled alongside a black marble fireplace that, due to the heat, was not blazing at the moment, but it definitely added to the atmosphere of the place.
“Nice,” I said, as my heels made clicking sounds across the shiny floor.
“I’m glad you like it.”
He motioned for me to sit and I chose the straight backed red chair in front of his desk. It was tall and Victorian in style, with ornately clawed golden feet. Yes, the sofa looked much more inviting, but I didn’t want to get too comfortable.
Marco propped against the desk in front of me and I watched in fascination as the muscles along his torso rippled beneath the skin.
“What would you like to drink?”
I got the impression that he was deliberately wasting time. “Is there something you’re avoiding?”
“Is there something that you’re rushing, Red?” There was sex in his voice. Even if he didn’t possess the same power that I had, it was unmistakable. Marco had one of those voices that are normally afforded to hard drinking, chain smoking, blues singers. But, he didn’t drink enough, or smoke enough to have damaged his vocal cords that much. It was just the way he sounded. I wished I had spoken to him more.
“Too much foreplay will lose my attention,” I warned silkily as I stretched my legs forward to prop my boots beside where he rested against the desk.
He raised an eyebrow at my boots, but didn’t comment. “Would you like a cigar?”
“Now you’re just stalling.” I smiled.
As I rose to step near him, he offered me a box of Cuban cigars, vanilla flavored to be exact. I loved a good cigar, but like a good man, they’re difficult to find.
“You do realize that these are completely illegal?”
“Of course.” He flashed me those lovely white teeth as he smiled.
“In that case, I’ll have some pineapple juice and rum,” I said, selecting a cigar from the box.
He gave me that questioning raised eyebrow look again and I explained, “It goes with the vanilla flavor.”
Marco pressed a button on his phone and ordered our drinks, making his the same as mine. He smiled and said, “I’ll take your word.”
“Surely you don’t mean to smoke these in here?” I motioned around the office. “The smell will never come out of the leather.”
“No,” he said, “I thought we’d go out on the fire escape.”
“You’ve already got me alone. Is the fire escape really necessary, or is that just to keep out the smoke?”
The look he gave me was very serious as he replied, “What I have to say to you is private.”
Since I was unsure of how I should respond, I remained quiet until our drinks arrived a few minutes later. Marco opened the window and motioned for me to go first. The breeze felt nice as I climbed out onto the fire escape. I was surprised to find a small chair in the corner. Obviously, this was where Marco went to be alone.
He stood, looking out over the city, but I decided to sit down. I watched as he lit his cigar, took a few puffs, and offered it to me. He hadn’t spoken for several minutes now, and I was becoming anxious, but I took the cigar and gave him the one I was carrying. This one he kept for himself, but still he didn’t speak.
“You’ve heard about the hearing?” he said at last, making it a question.
“Yes.”
“And after your encounter with Bade, I’m sure you know what he’s up to.”
“I have an idea.”
“I need t
he loyalty of the pack again,” he said, turning to me.
“I thought you said it was Bade’s idea to form packs, like animals, you said.”
He smiled slightly, but not like he was amused. “That’s not exactly what I meant.”
“But, it’s what you said.”
“Give me a break, Red. You were straddling my lap for God’s sake.”
“Fine, what did you mean?”
“What do you know of the pack?” he asked.
“I know that its exact workings are kept secret and normally only shared within the pack itself.”
“That’s right. But, what do you know about the leader of the pack?”
“He’s the alpha,” I said simply.
“Yes, the alpha. However in some instances, there is more than one alpha male. In such cases, they must fight to determine which will lead the pack. To a certain extent, we are animals. But what I meant was, Bade doesn’t want us to be recognized as being even partially human. He wants us to form packs, apart from the normal structure. His methods are brutal. Where my pack has Omega wolves, the lowest ranking within the pack, his would allow for the alpha and beta wolves to have slaves.”
“He was once your beta wolf?”
“Yes, my second in command. But now, he’s split off, formed his own pack and challenged my power.”
“This is all fascinating, but what has it got to do with me?” I asked. I wasn’t rude, just to the point.
“You killed my alpha female,” he answered, but there was no anger in his voice, he was merely stating a fact.
“She was with Bade,” I interrupted.
“Yes, but only because she was blinded by her hatred for you. She would have gone along with any plan as long as hurting you was involved.”
“I see.”
“No, you don’t.”
He stepped closer to me. The smoke from the cigar curled around him like a misplaced halo as he towered above me, but I refused to stand. I’m sure it was a sign of disrespect, but I didn’t care. Just hearing about that woman was making me angry.
“Many of my pack are calling for your death,” he said, “but I won’t allow it. I am still alpha and it is my place to avenge my mate if I choose to, or to order it to be done.”
Lilith Mercury, Werewolf Hunter Series (Boxed Set, Books 1-3) Page 17