Page 2 of Alpha Wolf’s Nanny (Silvermist Wolves #2)

“I still don’t agree that I need a night off,” Felix grumbled as Nicolas handed the bouncer a wad of notes that would probably be enough to rent out the teeming bar, let alone get them entry.

“Too bad,” Dane said with a lazy grin as he gave the bouncer a salute. “You don’t get a say in the matter.”

“Did we have to come to Portland?” Rick said, nose wrinkling slightly as they walked through the musty entrance, the corridor thick with bodies and the acrid scent of cheap spirits and cigarette ash. “Why couldn’t we have gone to one of Nick’s joints in New York?”

“'Cause everyone knows us in New York,” Dane rolled his eyes at Rick’s blatant snobbery. “The whole point of tonight is to let loose. Blow off some steam. No pack bullshit, no simpering kiss-ass humans, just four dudes havin’ some fun!”

Felix threw his head back and groaned, letting Nick and Dane lead him to one of the booths in the corner.

He had been right in the middle of some rather delicate treaty outlining when Dane had burst in, announcing that he’d had enough and they were all going out.

When he had agreed, he thought it meant a few drinks down the local dive bar. Not a fucking group trip to Portland.

“Let’s just humor him,” said Nick, rolling up the sleeves of his pristine Armani shirt. “After all, it has been a while.”

“Too long,” agreed Rick, his eyes narrowing as he scented the air. “I do wish Dane had brought us to a shifter bar, at least. This place is crawling with humans.”

“So?” Nicolas asked, watching Dane flirt with the bartender as she poured him an alarming number of shots.

“We’re not humans, Accardi. Mixing rarely ends well.”

Felix’s jaw tightened, but he ignored the jab. In truth, he wasn’t entirely sure he disagreed with Rick. Not with the way things were going with the Accords. Not after Sarah…

He shook his head. No, we wouldn’t be led down that path again.

He always got sentimental about his ex-wife around his twin sons’ birthday, but the reality was far harsher than his rose-tinted memories.

She had left them, left him , because he was a shifter and she was a human. An all-too-common occurrence.

Rick was right. They didn’t mix well.

“Come on then, boys,” Dane hollered, slamming down a tray of shots on the table, some of the dark, sticky liquid sloshing over the sides. “Let’s get these down us, yeah? Next round’s on you, Accardi, we all read that Forbes article!”

“Surprised you know what Forbes is,” Nicolas retorted, grimacing as he downed one shot, then another.

Dane’s grin widened. “How could I resist your handsome face on the cover?”

“Is this really the best stuff they have?” Rick grumbled as he, too, took a shot. “Christ, this is going to be a long night.”

Felix picked up a shot glass, the sour smell of cheap whiskey burning his nose.

“Come on, Alpha,” Dane coaxed. “Get it down ya!”

“You’re not going to leave me alone until I do, are you?”

“Not a chance!”

With a huff of acquiescence, Felix took the shot, shuddering as the liquid burned its way down his throat.

“Atta boy,” Dane whooped. “And just think, now that you’ve got that nanny starting, we can all go out way more often!”

“Do you think I’ve hired a nanny to babysit for me so I can go out drinking ?” Felix asked, his eyebrows raising. “Christ, Dane. I barely have enough time to eat, let alone try and keep up with you.”

“You used to be way more fun,” Dane said, sticking his bottom lip out and pouting, the effect somewhat ruined as he folded his enormous, tattooed arms across his chest. “After you took over, it was all party, party, party. Now it’s all work, work, work.”

“Party, party, party?” Rick rolled his eyes. “What a way with words you have, Dane.”

“In what world was it a party?” Nicolas added. “I think I forgot what the sun looked like with all those long nights.”

“You were setting up a business,” Dane shrugged. “It was party time for me and the boss here!”

Felix leaned back, narrowing his eyes. “In what way was hunting down my father’s mongrels a party? All those truce meetings with other packs that ended in flat-out brawls?”

“Clearly, we have different opinions on what a party is,” Dane muttered as he downed another shot, his eyes raking over the bar, no doubt in search of some woman or other to keep him entertained for the evening.

“That’s what your problem really is, Felix.

You don’t enjoy the parts of being a shifter that make it worth the effort. ”

A grin spread over Dane’s face, his nostrils flaring as he caught sight of something he liked, and with a waggle of his brows, he turned towards the crowd. “Speaking of things that make it worth it, I’m boutta show this human girl what kinda heat alphas pack. I’ll be back, keep him drinking!”

“He has a point,” Rick said, catching the wrist of a passing waitress and placing an order for some horrifically expensive bourbon. “You do rather shy away from the more…traditional elements of being a shifter.”

Nicolas snorted. “Hunting, fucking, and blood sport?”

“Broadly speaking,” Rick said with an elegant shrug. “Spend too much time around humans, and it can get easy to let their morals pervade. Forget what it means to be one of us.”

“ One of us ,” Felix repeated, downing another shot, the beginnings of a headache already forming at the front of his skull. “What does that even mean anymore? The humans are—”

“Hey,” said Nicolas with a warning tone, “we agreed no work tonight! Let’s kick back, have a bit of fun. Why don’t you go talk to someone?”

Felix narrowed his eyes. “Talk to someone?”

“Do you need me to spell it out for you?” Nicolas replied. “You need to get laid, Felix. You’re way too pent-up. You need to release some of that tension before you start taking it out on the pack.”

Rick chuckled, settling back into his seat, his gaze landing on Dane grinding up against a human in the dancing throng of bodies. “I think some pack members might deserve it.”

“Seriously, when was the last time you hooked up with someone?” Nicolas asked, ignoring Rick, “There’s a bar full of beautiful young women here. Pick one and go and talk to her.”

“ Human women,” Felix replied with a scowl. “You know I don’t go with human women.”

Nicolas and Rick exchanged a glance, and Rick leaned forward cautiously.

“Normally, I’d agree with you there. But let’s face it, you’re the alpha of one of the largest, most powerful packs in North America.

If you sleep with a shifter from our pack, it causes problems. You sleep with a shifter from another pack; it raises questions.

You sleep with a rogue or a nomad, people will call you out on it. Your position is…complicated.”

“Complicated,” Felix repeated, rubbing his forehead. “You don’t say.”

“A one-night thing with a human woman won’t kill you, Felix,” Rick said. “Just try it out, and if you hate it, you can go back to being a monk, and we’ll all suffer for it. Agreed?”

Felix eyed them both—Nicolas with his earnest, worried intensity and Rick with his laid-back yet somewhat conniving eyes—and threw his hands up in the air. “Alright. Fine. You win. I’ll talk to someone. But I can’t promise I’ll actually go home with them.”

“Perish the thought,” Rick murmured, pulling a shiny plastic hotel key card out of the pocket of his jacket. “Which is why I booked you a room.”

***

After accepting a few more drinks and enjoying a laugh with his friends, Felix finally stood to meander over to the bar.

A few women brushed against him as he went, their eyes narrow with attraction, biting their painted lips at him, but he ignored them.

That sort was not his type and never had been.

At the bar, he ordered a gin and struck up a conversation with a couple of young loggers home for the weekend.

They were a boisterous group, but had some interesting stories to tell, plus enough experience dealing with shifters not to bat an eye at Felix’s presence.

The same couldn’t be said for other human men in the bar; he’d gotten more than one dirty look that he’d diplomatically ignored.

One of the loggers was just regaling the group with a story about his supposed encounter with a malevolent tree spirit when Felix happened to glance over at the other end of the bar.

A noisy group of friends was leaning over the marble, shouting their orders and teasing each other for their drink choices.

But one woman wasn’t. She hung back slightly, her arms around her middle as she cast a wary eye over the crowd.

While her dark green dress hung beautifully from her slight curves and her round face was pleasingly pretty under a rudimentary sweep of makeup, Felix got the distinct impression that she wasn’t used to being in places like this, dressed up as she was.

One of her friends looked back and said something to her, handing her a cocktail, and instantly her face forced itself into a mask of happy indifference.

Felix cocked his head, watching as she lifted the glass of alarmingly fluorescent liquid to her lips, her nose scrunching slightly at the taste.

He decided then that his earlier appraisal was wrong.

She didn’t look pretty. She was gorgeous.

And just like him, she had likely been dragged out by her friends to a trendy club she had no interest in being in.

And that made her, at the very least, an ally of sorts.

Felix said goodbye to the loggers, wishing them luck on their next expedition north, and picked his way through the crowded room towards her.

As he approached, her friends were pulling her hands, trying to cajole her onto the dance floor, but she was looking at the mass of bodies with something akin to pure horror.

“No, really, guys,” she pleaded. Her voice was low and melodious, despite the desperation. “You go on ahead of me. I’ll just…wait here by the bar.”

Her friends groaned and whined, but she wasn’t to be deterred, and eventually they relented, letting her settle back against the marble of the bar, clutching her drink.

Felix leaned on the bar next to her, casting his eye over her form.

He supposed that for a human woman, she would be considered somewhat tall, but compared to him, she was still tiny.

A small crease had formed between her eyebrows as she watched her friends, and this close to Felix, she could see that her nose had a smattering of freckles.

“Not a fan of dancing?” he said.

She looked up suddenly, stepping back from him, her eyes widening.

Felix gave her his best easy-going smile, shoving his hands in his pockets and trying to make himself a bit smaller. As much as being physically large and intimidating was useful as an alpha, in situations like these, it was more of a hindrance, really.

“Hi, I’m Felix,” he said.

“Cassie,” she replied, still sort of guarded. “And no, not a fan of dancing. Not in a place like this, anyway.”

“What are you doing here, then?” Felix asked, smiling as she huffed and rolled her eyes.

“I got a new job. My…friends think we need to celebrate.”

“A new job deserves celebration,” Felix said with a wink. “How about I buy you a drink? You don’t seem too keen on whatever that godawful fluorescent nightmare is.”

Cassie glanced down at the cocktail in her hands, a slight blush spreading over her cheeks as she peeked back up at him through her lashes. “Not really,” she admitted, a hesitant smile spreading across her face. “In fact, it’s horrible.”

“What will it be, then?” Felix asked, gesturing at the bartender. “You strike me as a whiskey kind of girl.”

Cassie tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “A whiskey kind of girl,” she repeated, her smile growing warm. “I like the sound of that.”

***

Cassie was beautiful, there was no doubt about it, but there was something else about her.

A fire, a wildness, an energy for life and everything in it that was completely infectious.

As she told stories of a childhood spent amongst the great redwood trees, Felix found himself longing for the wilds of California.

As she spun tales of cross-state travel through Texan deserts, Felix fancied he could taste the hot, arid air and smoky residue of wild campfires.

In her bright-eyed retellings, small-town diners became stages for mysterious dealings and enigmatic characters.

Somewhere halfway through her first whiskey, Cassie had decided she liked him, her muscles relaxing and her scent settling into a pleasing, sweet, woodsy smell, like spring rain over a ripe fig tree.

Her hand brushed over his arm as he told her about the woods near Silvermist, her eyes widening with guileless surprise as he told her about the pack.

Felix had decided that he really quite liked her, too.

Her youthful excitement made him forget about his own stresses, and even if it was only temporary, he was content in this moment.

At some point, he kissed her, leaning forward, sweeping his thumb over her jaw.

Her breathing hitched, and she let him pull her closer, her cheeks stained red.

From there, the conversation became loaded, the air sparking between them.

Cassie seemed relatively new to the game, but her hopeful flirting and hesitant touches only made Felix want her more.

She was something real. Something genuine.

Entirely herself, where others might have shied away.

Her eyes were bright, her kisses addictive, her energy magnetic. She was exactly the sort of girl Felix had needed to meet. Someone who brought him out of his shell reminded him that fun still existed in the world, and he was allowed to join in every now and again.

When she peered at the dance floor, commenting with no venom that her friends seemed to have left, Felix asked her if she would like to come back to his hotel with him; otherwise, he would be happy to arrange a cab for her to get home safely.

She considered his offer, biting her lip, looking him up and down with uncanny intensity.

But eventually, she nodded, taking his proffered arm.

He led her through the crowd, all thoughts of his own friends gone, and once outside, laid his jacket around her shoulders. She pulled it closer around her, a small, secretive smile playing on her lips as she nestled into his side. He opened the door of the cab for her, helping her inside.

“The Nines Hotel, please,” he said to the driver as he slid in next to Cassie. She glanced at him, her warm whiskey eyes bright, and he knew he would be happy to lose himself in them for the night.