“Why? You think that attending one of these things is going to be some transcendental experience? Think you’ll see the light or some shit?”
“Maybe I just want to get laid.” She shot him a scornful look. “But since you’re glued to my ass now, I guess that won’t happen.”
With a low, pumping growl that made her shiver, he said, “You got it, princess.”
Exasperated and frustrated, she focused on where they were. They were officially on campus now, the sidewalk choked with students all heading in the same direction she and Maddox were going. He was growling low in his throat—a low-level warning that nudged humans on a fundamental survival level to leave the dangerous animal alone.
Casey picked up the pace, figuring the sooner they got there, the sooner Maddox would give her some space.
She met Amy out the front of the frat house, hugging her. “Hey, you.”
“My God, you look amazing,” her friend said, stepping back and looking her over. “I wish I had your figure.”
Casey beamed. “I love your dress, too.” Amy’s eyes went over Casey’s shoulder, and she knew without looking that Maddox was looming. After the incident in the café, Casey had had to tell Amy that Maddox was there to look out for her at her brother’s request. When Oliver had watched her, he’d blended in enough to look like just another student, but Maddox was a force of his own—a bleeding, malicious shadow.
“Are you royalty or something?” Amy asked softly as they walked the path into the house where the music was blaring, and the smell of alcohol and sex was already thickening the air.
“No. Nothing like that, Amy. I just have… overprotective brothers. Plus, I was kidnapped once, and they don’t want it to happen again.”
“You were kidnapped?” The woman’s jaw unhinged. “I thought that only happened in the movies.”
Casey shook her head. “It’s like I’m living the movie Taken. Maddox is my Liam Neeson.”
Amy snuck a glance at the male. “Well, he certainly fits the brooding male character role.”
Yeah, he did. She looked at him over her shoulder, surprised when his gray eyes surged to green. Turning back, she looped her arm with Amy’s and walked the steps up to the door.
“Are you ready for this?” her friend asked.
Was she?
“Fuck yeah. Let’s do this.”
Stepping into the house was an all-out assault on her senses. Her wolf hated being confined in a space with so many people. The smells. The noise. The scent of sex coated the back of her tongue, and she had to wonder whether Maddox was having the same sort of reaction to the sensory overload.
Following Amy, she stepped into the living room and looked around, her bones and muscles absorbing the throbbing bass from the speakers placed on the floor. She sucked in a breath of that heated air, the press of the bodies around her making her twitchy. Maddox pressed in more closely, the heat of his body tight against her back.
He placed a possessive hand on her waist. Even through the fabric of her dress, his palm was a brand on her skin, causing her to shiver and her wolf to shift, to surge forward in her mind.
“Let’s get outside.” Maddox’s voice was low and tight in her ear, and Casey thought that was the best idea ever. She motioned to Amy where she wanted to go, and together they moved through the writhing bodies until they stepped through a set of French doors that led out into a side yard.
“Do you want a drink?” her friend asked once they were free.
“A beer?”
With a nod, she left, and Casey spun around and put her back against the fence that arched around the perimeter of the house. Maddox folded his arms and came to stand beside her, his gaze focused on everyone who was close by. He needn’t have bothered, though. With the vibes he was putting out, the humans had set up a no-fly-zone around him out of instinct—a five-yard semi-circle that nobody seemed to want to step into.
Heaving a heavy sigh, she folded her arms, mirroring his stance. “Are you always this much fun?” she asked over the sound of the music.
The muscles in his jaw jumped like he was working something between his molars. “When can we go?”
“When I say I’m done. How about that?” And she was so not done yet.
Turning his attention back to the partygoers, he got busy looking around again. Amy returned with two red Solo cups in her hand, and Casey grabbed one, draining what was in the cup in a couple of swallows.
“Wanna go dance?” she asked Amy. “I saw there was some sort of dance floor in the living room.”
“Sure.”
Holding her purse out to Maddox, she said, “Make yourself useful.”
He took the strap with a growl only she was able to hear. With a wink, she turned to Amy, grabbed her hand, and dragged her into the throng of writhing bodies.
The scent of lust hit her nose as soon as she stepped back inside, warring with underlying cologne, perfume, and sweat. They found a spot in the center of the room, and Casey started to move with the beat. Her hips swayed, loosening up with every thump of her heart. Raising her arms above her head, she closed her eyes and absorbed everything about this experience. This was what she craved—the freedom to dance, to drink, to go out whenever she wanted. Sure, she had an ill-tempered shadow following her, but at least he could follow orders.
Cracking her lids, she checked to see where he was—still outside, but he looked like someone had pissed on his shoes.
If it were her brother here, he wouldn’t have allowed her to come out tonight.
End of story.
She smiled when a guy came up behind Amy, pressing himself against her and placing his hands on her waist. Her friend spun around, wrapping her arms around his neck.
Casey tried not to watch them.
She couldn’t.
The pang of longing that went through her was almost unbearable.
Instead of getting sucked into the past, she shut her eyes and just felt.
Felt the bass climbing through her feet, up her legs, and into her chest.
Felt the way all the bodies crushed against hers.
Felt the worries that weighed down her shoulders lift off.
Warm hands suddenly circled her waist, and her eyes flew open. Peering over her shoulder, some frat boy gave her a drunken smile. Stepping free of his embrace, she moved to the other side of the room. She didn’t want to be touched by another man. It felt like too much of a betrayal even though Saxon had been dead for almost seven years.
The guy couldn’t take a hint, though.
He came up behind her again, his warm breath feathering over the back of her neck. The smell of beer, pungent and malty, invaded her senses, making her wolf’s hackles rise.
Shrugging out of the embrace, she moved to another section of the dance floor, but the guy kept following her. This time, his hands landed on her ass.
With a growl, she spun around to face him…
… then blinked at the rage in Maddox’s eyes as he wrapped his hand around the frat boy’s throat.
Chapter Four
Maddox had been watching Casey move on the dance floor, her body looking sinfully good in a silver dress that hugged her breasts and hips. She was still a fucking princess, though, dumping her shit on him like she was used to having someone waiting on her hand and foot.
Fuck that.
He was here because it was his job…
Scanning the party, he looked at each and every single one of the motherfuckers in Casey’s vicinity and wanted to gut them with a rusty spoon. They were all too close to her, but it was unavoidable on a dance floor the size of a postage stamp.
Some asshole with a stupid-ass smile on his face stepped up behind Casey, grabbing hold of her waist. Maddox’s back straightened, then he relaxed when Casey stepped away, moving to another part of the dance floor.
At least she was smart.
Too bad he couldn’t say the same thing for the guy.
When he glided his hands over her shoul
ders, squeezing the muscles gently, Maddox’s anger reared its head, ready to take his frustrations out on the guy. When Casey stepped away again, and the dumb-ass followed, Maddox felt his self-control snap. He moved without conscious thought, reaching for the guy’s neck as the frat boy reached for Casey again.
With a snarl, he hauled the POS human up against the closest wall, getting their faces nice and close.
“She’s off-limits, asshole.” His words were warped with the living, breathing beast of his rage trapped inside him. Sliding his thumb to the base of the guy’s throat, he pressed, cutting off his air supply. A little higher and a little more pressure, he’d crush the esophagus, and the bastard would die of asphyxiation.
Good times. Good times.
“Maddox,” Casey said softly, coming up to his shoulder.
He peered at her, expecting to find fear or anger…
… but all he saw was understanding.
“Let him go. Take me home.”
His hands released without his brain giving the okay, and he stepped back. The kid fell to the floor, coming to rest on his hands and knees like the dog he was. With a smile, Maddox watched the guy suck in huge drags of air, filling out his lung capacity again. Leaning down, he took him by the shoulder, squeezing until there was a whimper of pain. “You touch another woman like that, and she makes it clear she’s not interested, you walk away.”
The kid lifted his head, his blue eyes defiant. “She wanted it,” he rasped out.
The rage inside Maddox went nuclear––just a mushroom cloud of oh-shit-is-about-to-get-fucked-up. As a whole, everyone in that room took a step back, giving him space. Hauling the shitheel up, Maddox cracked him in the jaw hard enough to break the bone. He felt it give way beneath his fist, and with sickening greed, he wanted to do it again and again.
Fighting.
This is what he knew.
Maddox wound his arm back again, aiming for his nose this time when Casey touched him on the shoulder. Time shunted to a stop as the feel of her hand on his body felt like a moment in time he should cherish.
“Let’s go. Please.”
With one more look at the kid, he stepped off and placed his hand on the small of Casey’s back.
“My purse?” she asked.
Fuck. “It’s back outside.”
He flashed a warning smile at the guy who’d gotten intimate with his fists. He was still on the floor, bleating like a fucking sheep about his jaw being broken.
Why, yes, yes, it is broken, he thought with perverse pleasure.
And he would’ve done some more damage had he had more time and privacy. Hell, who was he kidding? He would’ve put the kid in the ground if he’d had any more private time with him. He guided Casey back through the dance floor, happy that people were giving him a wide berth. They should. He was jacked up and ready to fight some more, but his duty was to Casey first and foremost.
Just as he reached the other side of the dance floor, three guys blocked their way. He looked them over with disinterest, wondering what they thought they could do to him.
“You broke Jeremy’s jaw,” one of them said. By his stance and slurred words, this was a drunk football player.
“He’s lucky. I was going to break his nose, too. Maybe his occipital lobe next, then who knows?” He laughed. “So, like I said, lucky.”
“We’ll make you pay for this,” another one of the guys said.
Maddox took a moment to look them all over. If it weren’t for Casey standing beside him, he’d be swinging right now, but he had a job to do, didn’t he?
“Whatever, gentlemen. I’m out.” Keeping Casey close, he moved around the wall of meatheads, stepped out the back door, and grabbed Casey’s purse where he’d left it. She took it with a smile, looping the strap over her chest.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded, but then her eyes widened. Spinning around, he found those same three guys standing there with their arms folded across their barreled chests.
“Casey, keep your back to the fence and stay out of the fucking way,” he said under his breath. He prayed she listened instead of fighting him on the order, and he let out a breath when she did as he asked. Knowing she was as safe as she could possibly be, he focused his energy and aggression on the humans who were messing with his chi.
“I don’t think you heard us. I said you’re going to pay for what you did to our wide receiver,” one of them said.
Maddox’s brows rose. “That guy is your wide receiver? Man, was everyone else unavailable that day?”
Anticipation pumped through his blood, his heart churning through that stuff like the O2 was coke and he needed the high. Anger, aggression, rage, and anticipation sat heavily in the air. Three on one? Fuck yeah, Maddox liked those odds. He ducked as the first punch was thrown, slamming his fist into Meathead #1’s stomach. His knuckles met solid muscle, so he threw a couple of hooks and pounded on the guy’s kidneys.
When the first of them went down, Meatheads #2 and #3 took up position, flanking him. Together, they lined up their punches. Maddox dodged to the side and watched as they both slammed their fists into the fence he’d been standing in front of. When they heard him laughing, they both spun around to face him.
“Coach is going to be pissed off with you guys,” he taunted, before hitting one guy in the face with his fist while nailing the other in the chest with a kick to the sternum. The guy who was kicked fell to the ground, clutching at his ribs and gasping for air. Maddox had heard a pop as his foot connected, so he figured the guy was dealing with hypoxia right now, thanks to a broken rib and a punctured lung.
Sucked to be him.
The second of the meatheads was still up and swaying. Maddox didn’t have time to lay him out like he wanted to, so he ended it quickly and efficiently. In a combination of jabs, hooks, and finally an uppercut, he laid out that guy too.
Before the groaning could start, he motioned for Casey’s hand, taking a moment to give her a visual once-over.
“I’m all right,” she panted under her breath. “Are you—”
“Fine,” he cut her off before any kindness and compassion came his way. That was something he just couldn’t deal with. “Let’s go.”
* * *
When they arrived back at the apartment, Casey went straight into her bedroom and shut the door. Maddox cursed himself when he kept glancing at the damn thing, wondering if he should go and speak to her about what had happened. He wasn’t an asshole. He’d sensed her shock, but he and emotions were not friends, a hysterical female—even if she was his body to protect—wasn’t something he could deal with. He had the emotional capacity of a sea sponge.
With his anger battering his self-control like a Category 5 hurricane, he half expected some catastrophic damage of his gray matter to occur. This much rage caged within one body wasn’t conducive to calm cerebral waters and beautifully balanced beaches but more like he was the fucking shark terrorizing the swimmers.
His wolf—the sick bastard that he was––was pacing inside Maddox’s head, scratching at the inside of his ribs, metaphoric blood dripping from between his jaws.
Yeah, the bastard was juiced from the fight, and as a result, Maddox felt like he was vibrating from the inside out.
He needed to numb-out.
Breaking away from his pacing and waiting outside Casey’s door, he stalked into the kitchen. He grabbed a clean glass and the bottle of Grey Goose from the cupboard, then planted his ass on the couch and cracked open the cap. Three inches later, and he was a happy male. He settled into the soft embrace of the cushions and sipped at the Goose.
Fumbling around for the remote, he clicked the TV on to SportsCenter and just let his thoughts drift. He needed this downtime. Being on fucking high alert all fucking day wore on a person. He turned his head when he heard Casey’s bedroom door open. Gone was the silver dress. In its place was a pair of flannel pajama bottoms and a matching shirt. They were a deep blue, the contrast to her hair stark and c
ompletely fucking tantalizing. He averted his eyes, switching them back to the news about a recent controversy concerning one of the top football teams.
He listened to her move through the apartment, going into the kitchen. A glass. Some water. Then silence as she drank it.
He cleared his throat. “What do you have planned for tomorrow?” Fuck, all he wanted to do was stay in. It was easier that way. He wouldn’t get into any fights, and she couldn’t drive him nuts with her stupid on-a-whim shit.
“Nothing planned,” she eventually said. “Just watch Netflix, I guess.”
He glanced over his shoulder, getting a proper look at her. With all the makeup gone, and her hair loose, she looked a lot younger than she had, and he found he preferred her that way.
Not that he preferred her anyway, but he couldn’t stand it when females made themselves look different. It wasn’t natural.
“All right.”
He expected her to walk away, so she shocked the shit out of him when she sat down on the couch. Pressed into the other side, she tucked her legs up underneath her body and stared at the screen. He held out the bottle of Goose to her, but she shook her head.
“Did you break that guy’s jaw?”
Which one was what he wanted to say. Instead, he shrugged. “Most likely.”
“Why?”
His head swiveled in her direction. “Seriously? You’re asking me why?”
She pegged him with a hard stare, her green eyes fierce. “Yes. Why did you do that?”
“Because you clearly weren’t interested, and he wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
Plus, he hadn’t liked seeing that guy’s hands all over her. He wanted them to be his hands, and how fucked up was that? She wasn’t his type at all. He didn’t want some fucking diva princess or a high-maintenance bimbo who only wanted to know how high his credit limit was. Having a female––taking a mate––just wasn’t on his radar.
The Helheim Wolf Pack Novellas: The Complete Collection Page 31
