“They’re all in the hotel bar, waiting for you. Where’s your mask?”
I snatched the mask off the end of the bed just as his phone started ringing. I caught his smile before he put the phone to his ear.
“Hey. You ready for this? No, no, you’ll be fine. They can’t eat you. It’s a rule.” Slade laughed, and I snarled. He was talking to her.
“Let’s go,” I growled, and then stalked toward the door and flung it open, not caring if he followed me or not. I knew my way to the damn hotel bar. I’d tried to drown her out of my mind there last night and woke up feeling like hell as a result. For someone who couldn’t get hangovers, I’d sure had my share of them over the last two months.
I slapped the down button by the elevator and prayed the doors would open before Slade caught up with me. I closed my eyes when I heard him laugh again. I didn’t know why I thought my luck would change now. My luck had been gone since I’d lost my memory. I couldn’t win a hand to save my life now.
“So, what are you wearing?” Slade said.
I couldn’t help myself. My head whipped around and I glared at him, but he wasn’t looking at me. He was too caught up flirting with her to pay me any mind.
He chuckled. “No, I mean what does your dress look like? What color is it? I want to ask for the first dance before any other lucky bastard gets to you, so I need to know what your dress looks like.” He chuckled again, and I hit the button with my fist. “Well, if that’s the case, I’ll dress to match you. I’ll just leave my clothes in the limo before I come in—”
Before I knew what I was doing, I had Slade shoved up against the far wall, with my forearm pressed against his neck. “You like flirting with my wife?” I shouted in his face, but he only laughed at me and held the phone up.
“She hung up before I left the room, Ace.”
I pushed myself off him and stared down at the floor, my fingers clenching in, releasing, and then clenching again. Damn, I wanted to hit him, but for what? Playing a joke on me? “I want you to stop talking to her,” I said as my head raised and we made eye contact.
Slade shook his head. “Never gonna happen. She’s my Alpha, and you can’t give me a direct order to stop talking to her.”
I pointed to my chest, and roared, “I’m your Alpha!”
“She is, too, Ace! You’re mated to her! You just called her your fucking wife ten seconds ago, so at least you’re finally admitting it!” Slade inhaled deeply then let the exhale out in a hard huff. “I haven’t been flirting with her, Ace. We’ve only been talking about pack and pride stuff this whole time. The times you thought I was flirting with her, she’d already hung up. I just needed you to realize what everyone else already knows: that she still means everything to you.”
The elevator took that moment to open up, and I turned and stomped inside. Slade followed me, and then he tapped the button for the ground floor. I waited until the elevator car started its descent before I responded.
“I can’t stop thinking about her, and it’s driving me crazy, because I don’t even know her.”
“Ever stop and think that maybe she’s thinking of you just as much?” he said, without looking at me.
My head whipped around on my neck. “Did she say that?”
Slade shook his head. “Nope. She doesn’t say anything about you, but I can tell she wants to when she grows quiet over the phone. I’m not going to be the middle man between the two of you. She fell in love with you once, Ace. She will do it again—that is, if you’ll stop being such a jackass. She hasn’t changed, but you have. Get your head out of your ass and be the guy she fell in love with the first time.”
“The bond—”
That head went to shaking again. “No, Andra didn’t want anything to do with you until you used meditation and blocked the bond. Once she saw the real you, that’s when she fell in love. That was all on you, brother, not the bond. So, get that chip that you’ve been carrying around for over two months off your shoulder and ask her to dance tonight. And keep your eyes on Justice. He may still be gunning for your girl.”
I only nodded, because I didn’t know what to say. He was right. Guess I could have said that, but the elevator doors parted and Slade walked out to meet the rest of our party.
Chapter 62
Saturday, May 2nd 2015 7:12 p.m. CST
St. Louis, Missouri
Peabody Opera House
Ace
With my mask in place, and Slade and the rest of my crew who came with me flanking my sides, I walked through the double doors of one of the grand ballrooms of the Peabody Opera House and immediately started scanning the crowd for a female with dark hair.
There were over three hundred Alphas in the United States, and each one of them had five guests with them, so, yep, this was going to be like finding a needle in a haystack.
“Do you see her?” I muttered as Slade walked up beside me.
“She’s wearing a shimmering, midnight-blue evening gown, with a low neckline. It crisscrosses on her back,” he said, but refused to make eye contact with me when I turned my head to look at him. “Don’t get your panties in a wad. Mena told me what her gown looked like before I left the room. There was no flirting. She just wanted me to be able to find her in this crowd. She doesn’t know anybody except the people she brought with her.”
When I looked away, the muscles around my jaw flexed as I clenched my teeth together. Slade was really starting to rub me wrong. It should have been me she told what her gown looked like. “Why’d you call her Mena?”
“She doesn’t go by Andra anymore. Andromeda is still her wolf’s name, but she wants to be called Mena.”
Something occurred to me, and I voiced it before thinking. “Is it because she doesn’t want my last name?”
“She doesn’t know you, Ace. Of course she doesn’t want your last name.”
“We’re going to mingle and find the alcohol,” Sinna said as she left, with Hollis and Karma trailing behind her.
“I’m going with them,” Kai said. “You know, for the alcohol.”
“Which one is he screwing?” I said as I shoved my hands in the front pockets of my trousers.
Slade grabbed two shots of whiskey off the tray a waiter was carrying and handed one to me. “All of them, though I think Sinna is only there for Hollis and Karma,” he said, and then he threw the shot back. “Why do you think we only needed two rooms?”
I shook my head in disbelief. “I really have been out of it, huh? Didn’t know the boy had that much stamina.”
Slade grabbed two more drinks from another passing tray and put one in my free hand, before tossing his second back. “Better drink up. You’re going to need the courage. I see Roel. That means Mena isn’t far. Wait… yep. There she is.” He grinned when I tipped the first shot in my mouth, swallowed, and then immediately chased it with the second one. “Need another?”
I nodded as I scanned the area he’d been looking toward, but I didn’t see a dark blue dress. And then I did. It was quite possible the world stopped spinning.
“—know that, right?” Slade said.
I leaned my head toward him, but didn’t take my eyes off her. “Huh? I didn’t hear what you said.”
All of a sudden someone was blocking my view of her, and I frowned when I realized the guy with shaggy, blond hair who was blocking my view was glaring right at me.
Slade chuckled. “I said… Roel is going to be a dick to you. You know that, right? He’s the one murdering you with his eyes right now. He’s Mena’s Beta. Want to go over and talk to her?”
I shook my head and grabbed two more whiskeys from a tray. Slade held out his hand, but I tossed them both back, one after the other. “I can’t talk to her right now.”
“Hey, isn’t that…”
When he didn’t say anything more, I turned my head to look at him, but his eyes were on the blond-haired waitress who was walking away from us. Her hair was in a ponytail, but I never saw her face. To me, she looked like a
hundred girls I’d banged before. “Not sure I know her,” I said.
He shrugged as he brought his eyes back to me, but I could tell he was still thinking about that girl and where he knew her from. “I’m going over to talk to Mena.”
“What?” My eyes bugged out. “No, don’t leave me here.”
He put his hand on my shoulder and turned his back to the crowd. “Calm your tits, Ace. You’re being a pussy. You’re a ladies’ man, a party animal and a crowd pleaser. Go be you and relax. She’s probably just as nervous as you are. Just don’t get too shitfaced and forget your number one enemy is here somewhere. The music is about to start. I’m going over. She’s expecting me to ask for the first dance.”
I cocked my head to the side as my eyes narrowed on him. “You were still talking to her back at the elevator, weren’t you?”
Slade gave me a big, cheesy smile as he winked. “She has a great sense of humor, Ace. You’re going to love her… again.”
“She heard me call her my wife, asshole,” I whisper-shouted.
His eyebrows rose as he nodded. “Yeah, but to be fair, you thought she was on the phone when you shoved me into that wall and said it.” Slade held up his hands as he backed away. “Take credit.”
I rolled my eyes as he was swallowed into the crowd of people. “How the fuck are you going to explain that one to her, Ace?” I muttered as I went in search of Kai and the girls. “Hi. I’m Ace Keller, your husband. Nice shoes. Wanna fuck?”
Saturday, May 2nd 2015 7:28 p.m. CST
St. Louis, Missouri
Slade
Two steps before Slade got to Mena, he was intercepted by Mr. Pissed Off himself.
Roel’s lips thinned as he shook his head. “This is so not happening tonight, Slade. You and your Alpha need to stay away from her. She’s trying to get her life and her pack organized—”
“Slade!” Mena said excitedly as she rose up on her tip-toes to kiss his cheek. “I almost didn’t recognize you with the tux and mask on.” Mena’s mask was stunning, the deep blue and silver of it matching her dress while the bright green in it complemented her eyes.
The band began to play, and Slade held out his hand to her as he grinned. “May I have this dance, my Queen?”
Roel stiffened by her side when she placed her hand in Slade’s, and then he led her to the middle of the dance floor, without a second thought about that overprotective wolf cub. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her that shouldn’t happen to her.
Other dancers joined them, but as Slade scanned the crowd, he knew that most of the eyes in the room were on her. He assumed most had figured out who she was already just by the way she carried herself. He’d lied to Ace. She had changed. From the Andra he’d met when Ace brought her home from Montgomery, to the Mena he met when he’d told her who she was, and now to the powerful woman in his arms as they danced, she had changed a lot, but he could tell it had all been a process she needed to go through to get to be the Alpha she needed to be. She seemed so much stronger, like she would go through hell and back for someone she cared about, and he knew she cared about her pack and Ace’s pride.
She’d asked about the pride each time he’d talked to her, wanting to know about everyone, how each of them were doing and the mechanics of how the pride was ran. She had been extra careful not to ask anything about Ace, but he hadn’t lied to Ace about that in the elevator; Slade could tell she wanted to talk about Ace. He was going to let her make the first move on that one.
“Is he here?” she said quietly.
Slade nodded as a slow smile stretched his mouth out. “He’s here somewhere.” He pulled back and looked down at her nervous eyes. “Want to meet him?”
She pressed her red lips together, and then shook her head a little. “Not yet. I don’t know what to say to him.”
Slade chuckled lightly. “He doesn’t know what to say, either. Did you hear what he said at the end of our conversation earlier?”
She grinned shyly, and then her cheeks blushed pink. “I didn’t think he wanted anything to do with me. It was sort of a shock to hear that.”
“Oh, he definitely wants something to do with you, Mena. He’s just a little hardheaded and it takes him longer to figure things out. He’s been going through hell the last two months, but he won’t talk to me about it. He hasn’t talked to anyone except Jack Daniels and Chaos.”
She giggled. “The dog?”
Slade nodded. “Chaos is a good listener, and he loves you.”
She sighed. “I wish I remembered Chaos. I wish I remembered everyone, including Ace. I could tell by the video that we had something special. Now that the bond is gone, and I’m different, I’m not sure I would feel the same about him.”
Slade shrugged. “Just be you. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, well, it’s not the end of the world. You’ll still be an amazing Alpha and he will still be a grade-A asshole who will never settle down. You were his one and only. You still are. He’s just too stubborn to admit it. Don’t mind him, though. You’re going to do great things. Don’t let anyone hold you back from that.”
Mena shook her head. “I never will again.”
Slade leaned in and whispered in her ear. “How’s the vampire?”
Taking a deep breath, she smiled sadly and shook her head. “I wouldn’t know. I ended things with him the evening after you showed up to tell me about Andra and Ace. It wasn’t because of Ace that I did it. I just couldn’t be lied to anymore, and Phoenix was good at it. He also tried to make my decisions for me, not realizing that doing it was hurting my status as an Alpha. I think Roel is still seeing Lea, Phoenix’s assistant, but none of my pack are allowed to talk to him anymore. I gave them a direct order not to. He made his bed, and now he has to lie in it.”
Slade nodded. “I understand. But why didn’t you tell me this before?”
Mena looked at him with those big, green eyes. “It wasn’t important. He hurt me, but that’s what made me realize that he was the one holding me back from being the leader I needed to be for my pack.”
The song ended and Slade backed away and bowed to her. Mena curtsied, with a smile, and then he started to lead her off the dance floor.
“Line up, ladies and gentlemen. It’s time for the Broken Tango,” the announcer said.
“I love the Broken Tango,” Mena said, and tugged Slade back onto the floor.
“Wait… Mena,” Slade said as he pulled her to a stop. “You go ahead. I don’t know how to tango.”
“Okay, I’ll catch up with you later,” she said, and then ran to line up with the row of women in fancy dresses and masks.
“Where did Mena go?” Roel demanded.
Slade pointed to the group of people lining up for the dance. “She’s right there, Roel. Chill, man. Mena is fine. She just went to tango. Nothing is going to happen to her out there in front of all these people.”
Saturday, May 2nd 2015 7:45 p.m. CST
St. Louis, Missouri
Mena
She stared at the row of men fifteen feet across the room, none of them recognizable to her, and started to feel uneasy as the music began to play.
She didn’t want to be uncomfortable here. These were all just people—people just like her. It didn’t matter that some of them had been leaders or shifters for centuries. She was one of them now, just as good or bad as any of them, and she embraced that as she brought the courage of her wolf to the surface, reveling in the energy the beast gave her.
A smile played on her lips as she started forward, toward the first male she would tango with. He was about the same height as her in heels, and he had a Mohawk the color of polished rubies, but his blue eyes were on her as he stalked toward her, each step long and on beat to the swaying tango music.
They stopped a foot before they reached each other, bowing their heads and lifting them to the beat, and then Mena ran her hand across the top of her chest and they circled each other, his movements mimicking hers as if they were dancing around a mirror a
nd she looked like him, and he like her.
He embraced her in the style of the dance and led her across the floor, her leg moving back as his came forward, his head turning left as hers went in the opposite direction, and then he twirled her, she lifted her leg high up then he dipped her down the other way.
Her eyes were shining and full of amusement as he pulled her back up and spun her into the arms of her second partner.
A little dizzy from the spinning, she clung to the man’s strong arms for balance for a moment. He held her with great care, seeming to know she was unsteady on her feet. He was tall, so tall and solid, and she instantly felt safe and sure that he wouldn’t let her fall on her face in front of all these people. Wouldn’t that be a story for the shifter history books? First female Alpha falls on her ass while doing the Broken Tango. Way to make a first impression.
Mena snickered to herself, and then she glanced up and looked into amber-colored eyes. Her heart stuttered as the smile faded from her face.
“Something funny?” he said, and his voice was even more perfect than she remembered in his songs or in the video that she had watched at least a million times over the last nine weeks. “Don’t worry. I won’t let you fall.”
Falling was definitely going to be a problem, but it didn’t have anything to do with a physical action. Did he know who she was?
Those beautiful lips turned up and parted, revealing a perfect set of pearly whites. Her wolf jumped to attention and encouraged her to move closer into him. She obliged her beast, and snuggled a bit closer, allowing the wolf inside her to reconnect with the lion underneath his skin. He tensed a little, but she didn’t pull away. He was still smiling, and she really wanted to be this close to a stranger who was not a stranger at all. “Shall we dance?” he whispered.
Without waiting for an answer, his hand took hers and he pushed their arms out straight to the side and guided her to imitate his steps across the floor. She fell back into the easy glide of the dance, turning her head left, right and then finally center, so that she could look at him again. She was dancing. Her movements were flawless, but she had a feeling it was his leading that made it so easy, because her mind definitely wasn’t on the steps or what she should do with her hands or feet next.
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