by Bonnie Vanak
I’m here for her. Sienna. She’s the one I want. Dante stood in my way.
Two alpha weres squaring off for a smack down was not how I anticipated spending my night. Evenly matched, but I sensed I could win. Because I knew something out there was coming, and I knew what it was.
Dante did not and it made him afraid.
Fear weakens an alpha.
I’ve learned this the hard way. Never show fear.
Fortunately, a squeak came from the tiny portion of my brain ruled by common sense when my testosterone rises and the pursuit of a female pushes aside all else.
Dante’s bar. Dante’s turf. He’s going alpha protective.
The other shifters thought I was an alpha werewolf and it was an even match. They didn’t know about my secret.
The dark side I’d kept hidden from other shifters, except my trusted betas. Even my own pack didn’t know what I truly was, and the mixed blood that haunted me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nicolas and Stephan stand. Not coming over to assist, just waiting and watching. They would not interfere. Not unless I signaled to them.
Instead of responding to Dante’s growl, I turned to Sienna. “Am I hurting you?”
If I was, then I’d have dropped her hand instantly. I was there to protect her and keep her safe, not scare her.
Sienna shook her head. “I’m okay. But he’s going to turn you into shredded taco meat in a minute if you don’t release me. Please. I really am not into the sight of blood on my bar. Especially after I’ve just wiped it down.”
Grinning, I lifted her hand and brushed my mouth against her knuckles. I like the scent of sex and desire coming off her, and the way her fingers trembled with anticipation. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. I can handle myself.”
“We’ll see about that.” Dante growled again.
Sienna pulled her hand away. “Terrific. Not only is this a terrible night for tips, now I have two alphas going macho over me and I’ll have to clean up the mess.”
She turned to Cass. “Better fetch the mop and bucket now. Bleach, too. Blood is messy.”
I laughed. Maybe it was such a shocking sound that Dante’s growl ceased. He stared at me. They all did.
I didn’t care. My gaze centered on Sienna. So lovely, with her waterfall of dark hair now pulled back into a ponytail, held by a turquoise clip. Her gaze was direct and her figure lush.
The curves, her green eyes and enticing lushness was not fake. Her hair was, though. Hair dye to cover her white-gold locks hid the real Sienna McClair.
That wasn’t even her real name. I knew, because soon as I caught her scent six weeks ago, when I came here out of sheer boredom, I knew what she was. What she is desperately trying to hide.
What we had shared in our dreams.
And I’ve been visiting the bar since, trying to work out a way to coax her back to my pack.
We need her.
I’m not a subtle guy, with charm like Dante. I’m more a bulldozer. When I see a woman I want, I’m ruthless in pursuing her until she is caught. Later, when she’s purring with satisfaction in my bed, languid after the dozen orgasms I’ve delivered, she forgives my asshole side.
And ever since my dreams became much clearer to me a year ago, I have ceased sleeping with other women. Others hold no interest for me.
Only Sienna.
Stephan and Nicolas came over and hung at the bar, looking at me. We were tight, my betas and me. A single nod and they would be over at my side in a minute.
I shook my head ever so slightly, and they relaxed. This was an alpha matter and I didn’t want my guys getting into it with a cranked up alpha who was already on edge. Not that Stephan and Nick can’t hold their own against any male. But right now, I needed everyone to calm the fuck down.
Especially Dante.
Only one thing would pull Dante back from the edge. I mouthed a command to Stephan, the charmer, and he took off. A minute later, he returned with the one person who could turn Dante’s thermostat from volcanic to chill.
His mate.
As I expected, Dante’s expression turned mushy as soggy oatmeal as he caught sight of the lovely brunette. Her scent carried his, and her own – human, but psychic, with power of her own. Peyton, Dante’s mate.
“Honey, what are you doing? You promised no fighting tonight. Only sex.” She flashed him a smile and then mouthed “thanks” to Stephan.
The big alpha relaxed and slid an arm around her waist. “I was protecting my own.”
“I’m not yours, Dante.” Sienna flashed a smile at Peyton and a warning glare at Dante. “I only work here.”
Such independence. Admirable. Some males might get turned off by that. Insecure, wimpy males who didn’t appreciate a woman who could hold her own. Not me. It only cranked up my arousal.
Of course, I’m an alpha in the bedroom. Or the ground, or the woods, wherever I have sex. I have to dominate. Sienna represented a challenge I hadn’t had in a long time.
Her prickly, stand away attitude made Sienna almost untouchable. Almost. I needed her too much.
“You’re my employee, Sienna. And I take care of everyone under my roof.” Dante pulled Peyton a little closer, his gaze hard as he glanced at me.
The hard stare of a blatant challenge had vanished.
His mate smiled at Sienna, a woman to woman secret smile I’ve seen before. “Once an alpha, always an alpha wolf. Sienna, since Dante is closing early, do you need a hand cleaning up?”
“That’s sweet of you, Peyton. But I’ll be fine.” Sienna waved a hand, a smile on her beautiful mouth. “Go home with Dante, have a good night.”
Two women, powerful in their own right, taking over the situation. I could applaud their cleverness in diffusing the tension.
Stephan and Nicolas joined me at the bar. “Hey Sienna, don’t ever refuse an offer to clean up. We never hear such generosity at our place.” Stephan told her. “Especially when you live with this guy.”
He punched Nicolas in the arm.
“I clean up,” Nicolas protested. “When I don’t cook.”
Sienna blinked her lovely eyes. “You both cook and clean? Most guys I knew would consider that women’s work.”
Peyton snorted. “In a fair pack, everyone has responsibilities.”
“Right,” Dante echoed.
Sienna glanced at me, her expression filled with curiosity. “What about you, Grayson? What’s your responsibility when it comes to dinnertime?”
“Eating it,” I said and everyone laughed.
It was good to see the tension die in the room, except the heaviness in the air grew. Got closer.
I knew what it was. Fae. Not just any Fae.
Fionn Fae.
That damn Fae that had been at the bar earlier found Sienna, and told her enemy. And now he headed in this direction. The malevolent stench wasn’t here yet, but soon, it would creep through the front door. Surround the bar like smoke from a wildfire.
I murmured to Stephan and Nicolas. He’s coming. Get ready.
Both of them tensed, all signs of relaxation gone.
Dante’s nostrils flared. He drew away from his mate. “We’re closing. Now.”
Alarm filled Sienna’s expression. She paused in rinsing out a glass. Her beautiful eyes grew darker, the pupils enlarging, like a wolf taking on night vision. “It’s not safe out there.”
The whisper was threadbare, but Dante heard it. Werewolves have great hearing. I heard it as well. Despite her efforts to conceal it, the magick wriggled out of Sienna.
I slid off the stool, gestured to Dante. “Sienna’s right. No one can leave now. It’s too late.”
Dante scowled, but beneath it, I sensed anxiety. He gestured to Guy, the bouncer. “Set the perimeter security system.”
The alpha’s natural authority taking charge. Maybe Dante and I weren’t friends, but he needed help.
“Perimeter security won’t help.” I went to him and took care not to get into his face. The shifter w
as already spooked enough and needed to listen to reason. “That’s like trying to stop a breaking dam with a bucket and a mop.”
A gasp from Peyton. Fear radiated off her in waves. I could read that fear as easily as I could smell it. Dante reached for her hand. “Peyton, I’ll have Guy take you home.” He glanced at Cass and Sienna. “You as well.”
And then the stench slammed into my nostrils. I ran to the door. White mist seeped from underneath it.
Hands wrapped around my throat, squeezing with dread. I knew it was coming, and what it wanted.
Sienna for dinner. And then me…as dessert.
Sienna pointed to the door and spoke in that same, flat monotone as before. “No, Dante. It’s too late. It’s already here.”
Chapter 5
We were all screwed. If only Dante had hustled everyone out earlier, the bar would be closed and all of us safe.
Or at least on our way home, and that monster out there would find a locked door and empty bar.
Now we were trapped.
It was evil and sent shivers down my spine. I couldn’t quite identify the individual, but it was certainly Fionn Fae. One of my people.
Dante, who seldom let anything rattle him, kept shoving an agitated hand through his hair, as if trying to figure out a plan.
I could help fight this.
But if things backfired, people would get hurt.
My spine tingled, warning of powerful and dark magick. Every cell in my body itched to release my power and fight. But caution was essential. I hadn’t survived three years on my own by acting like Superwoman.
I remained quiet, waiting for instruction. All the while my hands burned with power.
To my surprise, Grayson cracked his knuckles, nodded at Dante.
“Where do you need me?”
For one alpha werewolf to ask another for direction was shocking enough. Dante sized up Grayson and pointed to the door.
“Guard that, while I get the women in the back.”
Peyton and the two strippers who’d come out front turned to retreat. Dante crooked his finger at me.
I held up a hand. “I’m not hiding.”
Cass scowled. “Me either.”
Dante growled at Cass, and she paled, hurried from behind the bar to join Peyton. Cass was wolf. One alpha growl motivated her.
Not me.
Dante eyed me. “You’re not armed, Sienna. Nor do you have power.”
I took the empty bottle of Stoli vodka from the bin and smashed it against the counter. Glass shattered. Holding up the jagged remains of the liquor bottle, I met not Dante’s gaze, but Grayson’s.
“Now I am.”
Dante was already hustling the women toward the back, Guy at his side. I joined Grayson at the door, bottle in hand.
“You ready for this?” I asked.
He went to the bar, grabbed the quarter-filled bottle of whiskey and downed it. Then he smashed the empty against the counter as I had.
Grayson rejoined me at the door. “Now I am.”
Gripping the bottle in my right hand, I grinned. “You have fangs. I don’t.”
“No, but you have something more powerful than a broken bottle, lass,” he said softly.
My throat squeezed hard in sudden fear, not from the cold mist seeping beneath the door, but the lurking threat in Grayson’s voice. He couldn’t know what I was.
What power I held.
No one did. I’d worked too long and kept moving from town to town before anyone suspected.
Denial was best. “I have psychic ability that tells me these broken bottles won’t do much to stop whatever is coming.”
“They won’t. But I will not let anything harm you, lass. Count on that.”
Grayson seemed too calm. Controlled. As if he knew what we faced, which was impossible, because only those with Fionn Fae blood could accurately pinpoint their scent.
Suede jacket hanging on his muscled body, cords hugging his lean hips and long legs, he looked sexy and athletic, not at all like a werewolf with his handsome face and deep blue eyes. I kept having the feeling we’d met before, and it unnerved me.
“I can handle myself.”
He didn’t answer, only held the broken bottle in one steady hand. And then Dante returned, and before I could even blink, Grayson dropped his bottle, removed the bottle from my hands, tossed it aside and lifted me up, throwing me over one shoulder in a fireman’s hold. As he jogging toward the back rooms, I lifted my head and saw Dante at the door, nodding as if in agreement.
Damn these alpha shifters! Thought they could toss me back here as if I were a weak, helpless female to be protected? I tried wriggling free, but he was far too strong, his grip on me unbreakable.
“Grayson, put me down.”
“No.”
Finally, he set me on my feet in the back storeroom, touched my face almost tenderly. “Stay here and be safe. You’re too important.”
Then he left, slamming the door behind him. Guy blocked it with his big body and folded his arms.
I looked around at Peyton, Cass and the two strippers – Kelly and Steph. “So we’re supposed to stay here while they get mangled by that thing outside? Whatever happened to equal rights?”
“Not in the shifter world, Sienna.” Steph laughed. She plucked at her G-string and shivered. “Hard to fight in an outfit like this. Wish I’d had time to dress.”
Guy leveled a look at Steph, who gulped. He strode over to her, shrugged out of his long leather coat and draped it over her naked shoulders. A clear mark of possession.
Would be nice to have a guy care that much about me.
Then again, I didn’t want a guy caring, and then getting hurt. Or worse, I hurt him accidentally.
Or even worse – he tried to kill me.
The storage room was in the back of the building. I could see why Dante chose this room for the women to hide, because a steel exit door had been built into the wall. It wasn’t obvious, but made for a quick exit.
“Are you planning to hustle us out of here?” Kelly demanded of Guy.
“Soon as Alex and Gabriel and the limo driver get here.” He locked gazes with Peyton.
But Dante’s mate shook her head. “Don’t. Call them and tell them to avoid this place, Guy. I have a real bad feeling about this. The colors are all wrong. They’re bleeding under the door crack and through the windows. Something out there has more power than ten alpha werewolves.”
“No. They’re under direct orders from Dante to head here and take you home.”
“Call them.” Peyton’s voice carried a hard edge of command.
Guy snarled, but took out his phone and dialed. “I’m going to get all of you out of there, limo or not. You’re not remaining while a fight goes down.”
He spoke rapidly into the phone and then hung up. “Stay here,” he ordered all of us. “I’m going out there to get Dante’s keys.”
The bouncer closed and locked the door behind us. The women relaxed a little. They upturned plastic crates and sat on them. I hated waiting. But there were worse things.
“So, what was all that about?” I asked Peyton.
Peyton’s mouth thinned. “You don’t know this, Sienna, because you’re new, but I can read auras. See the colors in them and determine what a person is feeling or if they’re dangerous.”
Damn. Wish I would have known before I’d filled out that job application. Could she tell I was Fae? “Oh? What color am I?”
Dante’s mate frowned. “You’re gray. You’ve been gray as long as I’ve known you, Sienna. Muted. You’re good at hiding emotion.”
Good at hiding other things as well. “Not anymore. What the hell is out there and how can we defeat it?”
“Does anyone have a weapon?” This from Cass.
“I’ve got fangs, when I shift.” Steph gave a growl, which sounded more cute than ferocious.
Cass growled even deeper. “Me too.”
“I’ve got these.” Kelly twirled the tassels on her nipp
les.
“Yeah, that will really help in a fight.” I pointed to the storeroom. “Look around for knives, anything we can use.”
As the others searched the vast storeroom, I felt a sense of futility. Knives and anything else wouldn’t work against a Fionn Fae. In my travels since my family died and my world collapsed, I’d encountered a hell of lot of people, but no Fionn Fae.
Now it seemed my past finally caught up with me. I wish I had left long ago and avoided putting these people into danger.
Kelly came to me, a white jar in hand. She uncapped it. “How about this?”
My nose wrinkled. “Lard? You going to slime it to death?”
She shrugged, but I could read the panic in her eyes. “I have a kid at home I need to get to, Sienna. I should have left an hour ago.”
“Put a cap on that thing. It smells worse than gym socks.” I patted her arm. “You’ll be fine.”
That thing out there is not coming for you.
Kelly sniffed the oil. “Whatever smells isn’t this.”
A stench filled the room, dark and foul as anything I’d ever smelled. Racing to the back door, I bolted past a startled Peyton and Cass, who were examining a set of fillet knives.
At the door, I ground to a halt, staring at the floor. Gray mist began to seep from under the outside back door. The door that was sealed so nothing could penetrate it.
Yet the Fae was creeping inside. And I knew it wanted me, and wouldn’t hesitate to slaughter the other women to get to me. They didn’t deserve my fate. They were innocent.
I ran to the door, jiggled the knob. Locked.
“Let us out!” Kelly pounded on the door. “Please! Guy! Dante! It’s coming for us!”
Chapter 6
Grayson
Something pounded at the locked front door. A high-pitched howl screeched through the air. Dante and I winced.
I knew what it was – trying to get in. Eventually he would. And when he did, he would find Sienna.
Kallan, who wanted to destroy her – and myself as well.
My bike was parked behind the dumpster, safely hidden, but too far to make a run for it with Sienna. Same spot Nicolas and Stephan had parked. My friends and betas were never far away when I ventured out. Like me, they rode sleek, gleaming Kawasaki Ninja H2Rs, one of the fastest bikes in the world, clocked at 249 mph. Last week on a joyride, Stephan, the more daring, had pushed his up to 255 mph.
