by R. E. Butler
“I don’t know,” Alyssa said between bites of her sandwich.
“It’s pretty cool. The crowds are always pumped up, and it’s awesome to know someone that’s fighting and really get to root for him.” He prayed he wasn’t pushing her. Dante had been adamant that they not try to move things fast. The man clearly had an iron will, though. Just being around Alyssa made everything in his body go tight, like his skin was pinched in a vise. It wasn’t just straight sex appeal. It was the mating pull. He knew it.
She mused silently for a few moments and then said, “Well, I guess it would be nice to have something to do this weekend.”
Not exactly the enthusiastic answer he’d been hoping for, but it was good enough for now. He just knew that spending a few hours away from the gym would go a long way toward helping her overcome whatever was making her want to hold back. Once more, he felt his beast want to completely destroy the wolves that had hurt her.
“Good. I’ll pick you up at six.”
Thrilled didn’t even begin to describe his reaction. When she finished her lunch and went back to sit at the front desk, he couldn’t get over how happy he was feeling. This was his in, he just knew it. Spending time with her alone was exactly what he needed to tip the scales in their favor.
As his day wound down, he stopped at the desk to say goodbye. She smiled sweetly, and he had such an urge to kiss her that he had to dig his fingers into his palms to keep from pulling her into his arms. Cairo was equally thrilled with the news, also certain that the time alone would help to warm her up. Dante wasn’t planning to go to the fight. Sometimes he did, but he felt that being there this first time with her might make her feel like they were trying to overwhelm her.
He drove his Escalade to her apartment to pick her up on Saturday night. She hadn’t balked at being picked up, and he was glad for that. He didn’t want her wandering alone around the arena. There were too many people with questionable pasts hanging around for a sweetheart like her to be unguarded.
He hadn’t been this nervous in ages. He had dressed carefully in slacks and a black silk dress shirt. It had taken him a while, but he’d even managed to tame his curly hair back into a sleek ponytail.
Grabbing the single white rose he had purchased for her on the way to the apartment, he walked down the sidewalk and knocked on her front door. A vision in a short black dress greeted his eyes as she opened the door with a tentative smile.
“Wow, Lys, you look fantastic.”
She blushed. “Thanks, Mason.”
Remembering he had a rose for her, he handed it to her and then followed her into the apartment while she found a narrow vase for it in one of the kitchen cupboards.
“How do you like your apartment?” He glanced around and noticed she hadn’t put anything personal up. No pictures of family or friends, no knick-knacks. A pang of sadness hit him like a dart. Was she really all alone?
“It’s great. Thanks for helping me find it.” She set the clear vase on the kitchen counter and smiled at it before turning her sweet smile to him.
“I’m glad you like it.” And he was, although he really hoped she wouldn’t be staying there very long.
He escorted her to his SUV and held the door open for her, grinding his teeth and swallowing the groan in his throat when she sat down and he caught a tantalizing glimpse of her upper thigh. All day he’d worked out conversation topics in his head so that he could keep her talking and get to know her. She seemed content to keep them all at arm’s length, but his patience was quickly wearing thin.
He avoided what seemed to be her hot buttons by not asking about the pack or her life back in Havers. Instead, he asked her what felt like ridiculously inane questions about her favorite movies and books, her hobbies, and her favorite foods. As long as he kept the conversation light, she seemed at ease, bantering with him and challenging him with the same questions. By the time he flashed his special parking pass at the gate and parked, he’d learned a lot about her, but it wasn’t exactly the kind of stuff he wanted to know. He desperately wanted to ask her if she would come home with him tonight, if for nothing else than to take his bed so he would know that she was safe and taken care of. He didn’t dare ask, though, instead happily accepting her hand as they left the SUV and walked towards the arena where Cairo was going to fight.
When they finally reached their seats, he had never been more proud in his life than he was to have her with him. If he hadn’t already known that she was meant to be their mate, he would have been sure at that moment. Every touch of her hand was branded in his soul. He wanted her forever, wanted to revel in her love with his brothers and treat her like the queen she was meant to be.
Now, he just had to convince her that she was the right woman for them.
Chapter 7
The last two weeks of working at the gym had been an exercise in self-control for Alyssa. Not only were they gorgeous, but the three owners oozed sexuality like most men wore cologne. It had taken her a while to realize that they smelled so good to her because they were turned on by her. She was used to men reacting to her when she acted like a slut, but at the gym she was just being her real self, and they still wanted her. It was like a miracle. But a miracle she didn’t want.
By the end of the second week she was entirely enamored with them and she knew just how dangerous that was for everyone. Dante, who carried the world on his shoulders, watched her from his office when he thought she didn’t know. But she always knew. Cairo, who took his training so seriously, but was never too busy to stop what he was doing and help a client, or even her. The day before, she’d been struggling to get a drawer open in the reception desk and he’d suddenly been there, his large hand pushing hers aside as he gripped the small handle. With a tug that looked like it took no effort at all, the drawer popped open with a snap, indicating that a thick wooden ruler had been stuck at an angle and stopping the drawer from opening. He gave her a smile when she thanked him and it was all she could do to sit down and squeeze her hands together to stop from grabbing him and doing...something. And then Mason — he was the sweetest, kindest man she’d ever known. He was purposely silly, going out of his way to make her laugh, and their shared mealtimes had become something she looked forward to.
But the truth of things was that while she was attracted to the three men, they were all attracted to her, too, and that spelled trouble. Once, back before she had been so willing to play toy to the pack, there had been two brothers who sought her attention. She liked both of them, but decided to date the youngest of the two.
When she had sex with him after a date, the other brother showed up afterwards and demanded equal attention. When she refused, he cracked her across the mouth with the back of his hand, calling her a slut and a whore. The one she had been with hadn’t defended her or tried to stop his brother from hurting her. At school the next day, both of them spread vicious rumors about her. She asked them to stop the lies, to just leave her alone, but they grew more vicious. Being betrayed so easily by those who had professed to care about her just days earlier had burned her deeply. It was afterwards that she started to lose her zest for relationships and love. She’d been foolish at the time, when she slept with the one brother, to believe that he would support her against the other, but she was young and naive. Now she was neither of those things.
As she dressed for the boxing match, she reminded herself that no matter how she felt about the guys, they were her bosses, and slowly becoming her friends. If she crossed the line, she’d tear them apart. Or she’d get branded as a whore again, and lose her job and the little self respect she’d managed to cultivate since leaving the pack. There was a part of her that wanted to just fall into their arms and let them choose who could have her, because she cared about them more than she wanted to admit out loud and she would be one lucky woman to have one of them actually love her. But love was made of soft things, and although Alyssa might look soft on the outside, her insides were black and hard, rough-edged from years of sh
oving tender feelings away and trying hard not to let anyone know about the things that hurt her.
When Mason came to the door that night to take her to the fight, holding a perfect white rose, she had needed to take a moment in the kitchen to collect herself. She knew enough about alpha males to know that if she tried to have a relationship with one of the brothers, the others would be angry. They were such a close family, she would hate for one of them to lose his brothers because of her. Or worse, that one of them might leave his family for her and realize later that she wasn’t worth it. Being left alone was her greatest fear, even though she was so very good at pushing everyone away.
Mason drove a sleek black Escalade, and when he shut her door for her, she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. For tonight, she was going to let go of her fears and insecurities and just be there as a friend to them. She needed friends more than she needed a lay.
“Are you sure this outfit is okay?” She held Mason’s arm while they waited for an usher to take them to their seats in the boxing arena. It was a small arena, holding five thousand seats, but the matches were off the grid, which meant the whole thing was illegal. It made her nervous for Cairo, even though she was excited to see him box.
“You look fantastic, baby, I promise.” Mason looked down at her and she felt confident in his words. She didn’t think Mason ever lied. It just didn’t seem like it was in his character.
Their seats were in the fifth row, on the aisle. Mason let her take the second seat in. Her black mini-dress hugged her curves without being slutty, and she’d paired it with a pair of black kitten heels. Mason was wearing black dress pants and a black silk dress shirt. He looked fantastic.
Fisting the program, he said, “Afterwards, you want to grab something to eat?”
“Sure.”
While the first match was getting ready to start, he asked, “So is there anything that you need for the full moon next week?”
“Uh, just a place to hunt.”
“You should come to our place. We’ve got fifty acres of woods around our house and you can bunk in the guest room if you’d like.”
She gave him a non-committal, “The hunting sounds great, we’ll see about the other part.”
The first match started. She’d never seen boxing in real life before. She’d watched it on TV on occasion but that certainly didn’t do it justice. The sounds of fists hitting flesh, the grunts of pain, and even the smells of blood welling under the skin, mixed with heat and sweat, made the whole thing a feast for the senses. If you could get over the fact that two grown men were beating each other senseless.
Mason knew almost all the fighters because Cairo had been boxing since before he did his six-year stint in the army and then joined the underground set. “Why can’t he box legally? He’s good enough, right?” she said into Mason’s ear.
“Because he’s a were. Only humans can box on the professional circuits.”
“So these are all weres, then?” She hadn’t been able to scent any other weres, but there were so many conflicting smells she probably wouldn’t have been able to pick out anything even if she was trying.
“Not necessarily. Some, yes, but most are just banned from the pro circuit or don’t have the right contacts to get into it. This is boxing with loose rules.”
She nodded and focused on the matches. Now that she knew some of them might be weres, she paid closer attention. Four matches later, she’d watched what she was pretty certain was a bear fight a human and win, and a wolf against a human, who lost. It reminded her of a story she’d overheard once about an alpha that made his pack fight for him in MMA matches. If they lost, he would punish them cruelly, and he’d even permanently maimed some of his fighters. Shivering, she was once again thankful to be gone from pack life.
“Excuse me, Miss Morgan?” A man wearing a black satin jacket with the word trainer embroidered on the front knelt next to Mason on the aisle. “Mr. Stone would like you to visit him in the locker room before his fight.”
“Oh. Okay.”
Mason squeezed her hand. “See you in a few minutes.”
She nodded and scooted past him to follow the trainer down into the bowels of the arena. Double doors swung open to reveal a wide area with lockers on all the walls and another set of double doors on the far side. The trainer who had brought her down moved away to join another trainer nearby. Cairo grinned when she walked in.
“Damn, you look really great.”
She blushed. “Thanks. Are you nervous?”
“What? Hell no,” he scoffed with a smile. “I don’t plan to lose and embarrass myself in front of you.”
One of the trainers brought Cairo a tall plastic cup and walked away from them. She looked up at Cairo, who was at least a foot taller than her, and smiled at him. Then she frowned.
“Wait.” She put her hand on the cup. “That smells funny.”
Chapter 8
“What do you mean it smells funny?” Cairo asked.
She pulled the cup from his hand and took a deep breath over the contents. “Holy shit, that’s ressaraweed. Did you drink anything else?” she demanded in a hushed voice.
“What? No, I haven’t had anything to drink since I left the house tonight. What’s ressaraweed?”
She dropped the cup and moved so fast he didn’t see her until she had one of the trainers pinned by the throat against the far wall near the door. The other trainer had slipped through the doors. She hefted the large man by his throat, slamming him against the concrete wall.
“Who told you to drug my Cairo?”
Cairo moved to her side quickly and tried to ignore the thrill in his heart at her calling him “my Cairo”.
Her voice edged deeper and he saw claws break out from her fingertips. She slammed the man against the wall again. “Answer me, you pathetic fuck!”
The man pissed himself, shaking in fear, and Cairo said smugly and with great pride, “I’d answer her, man, or I’ll let her tear you to pieces. It’s nearly the full moon; you know how unpredictable wolves can be.”
A trembling growl spilled from her beautiful mouth and a hint of fangs peeked from under her lush lips. He let out a shaky gasp and clawed at her hands futilely before choking out, “Don’t let her kill me!”
Her growl deepened and he saw her arms flex as she tightened her hold on his neck. The man sucked in a short breath before his eyes rolled back in his head. Dropping him to the floor, she stepped back and huffed, “As if I would want to be picking has-been lowlife out of my teeth.”
Cairo pulled her into his arms, away from the unconscious man, and hugged her. She stiffened for a moment and then relaxed and began to tremble. He felt something hot and wet on his chest and he looked down to see her crying. “Hey, sweetheart, it’s okay.”
She blinked and more tears spilled down her cheeks. Overcome by both her show of strength in protecting him and her vulnerability now that the danger had passed, he pressed his mouth to hers.
Her nails dug into his sides and she moaned softly, letting his tongue slide into her hot mouth to dance with hers. He tasted the salt of her tears and didn’t ever want her crying again. The doors swung open and he knew it was Mason. Breaking the kiss, even though that was the very last thing he wanted to do, he looked at Mason’s shocked face, unsure if he was shocked about the kiss or about the unconscious man on the floor.
She moved away from him and wiped shaking fingers under her eyes. “What the hell happened?” Mason asked, coming to stand next to her.
Cairo knelt down to look at the unconscious trainer. He was breathing but out cold. Giving a quick version of the story, he looked up at Alyssa. “What did you say was in the cup?”
“Ressaraweed. You can’t smell it?”
Cairo went to the cup on the floor; a few tablespoons remained in the bottom. He took a deep breath of it, even opening his mouth to scent deeper, and smelled nothing but water and plastic. She took the cup and dipped her finger inside and rubbed a drop against his botto
m lip. Immediately it started to tingle.
“What is it?” Mason asked as she wiped the drop away.
“Ressaraweed is an herb. It was used as an old folk remedy for sickness. My grandmother didn’t like modern medicine and she used to grow it behind her house. Mixed right, it’s like a sleep agent and fever reducer. Mixed wrong — like this stuff, it’s far too strong — it can make you blind temporarily, make you disoriented, feverish. It can put you into a coma or even kill you. You’re sure that you didn’t drink anything at all, Cairo?”
Her concern for him warmed through his body like hot chocolate on a winter’s night. “I’m sure, sweetheart. I would have drunk the whole glass if you hadn’t come when you did. That must have been what happened when I fought Ivan a couple weeks back. I had a few of those same symptoms.”