Page 1 of Heroes & Hitmen (Windy City Wolfpack #1)

Ares

I’ll be waking up tomorrow with a headache, hazy memories, and a thousand-mile road trip ahead of me.

But tonight ? I’m going out with a bang.

The Stillwater Tap is buzzing like a hornet’s nest, filled with half-drunk friends and packmates here to send me off. I’m not surprised that my going away party is so well attended, nor am I shocked when a tray of shots lands in front of me, courtesy of my friend Avery.

“Hey, Raines,” she purrs as she turns a smirk on me, resting an elbow on the edge of the table and cocking a brow. “Can I interest you in a whiskey shot?”

“Why not?” I reply, reaching out to pluck one off the tray. It is my party, after all.

Avery’s mate shoulders his way through the crowd, coming up behind her and banding a possessive arm around her waist. “This place is fuckin’ crazy tonight,” he grumbles, tugging her body backwards into his.

“What can I say?” I chuckle as I sweep a glance over the sea of bodies crammed inside the bar. “I’ve got a lot of fans who want to see me off.”

Avery rolls her eyes as she tips her head back to rest against her mate’s shoulder. “Ugh, do you have to leave?” she whines, pouting her lower lip at me.

“A deal’s a deal,” I reply with a wink, tipping my shot to her and knocking it back .

About five years ago, our alliance of shifter packs– dubbed the six pack , for the number of packs aligned– was targeted by hunters and needed firearms to fight back.

The shifter pack in Chicago deals in all kinds of shady shit, so they had guns.

Money changed hands, but the Alpha there prefers to trade in favors, so the deal had a catch– one year of service from a highly skilled marksman, to be cashed in whenever he deemed necessary in the future.

The asshole finally called to collect.

At the time the bargain was struck, my older brother Archer volunteered to fulfill our end of it.

He’s got the requisite firearms skills, and so long as our father was still holding onto the Alpha rank in our pack, a year away didn’t seem like a big deal.

Dad retired last spring, though, and Archer assumed leadership.

He found his fated mate shortly after. Suffice to say, he’s no longer in any position to up and leave for a year, so I volunteered to take his place.

I’m an expert sharpshooter myself, and I don’t have a pack to lead or a mate to look after.

I help train and run our alliance’s security squad, but there are plenty of other squad leaders available to pick up the slack in my absence.

And sure, I’ll miss my family and friends here in Colorado, but there’s no reason I can’t come back to visit every couple months.

A year is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

The whiskey burns my throat as I swallow it down, slamming my empty shot glass back on the table. “Try not to miss me too much,” I tell Avery as I wipe my mouth off on a forearm, lifting my gaze to aim a smirk at her mate. “Take good care of my girl while I’m gone, eh?”

He frowns back at me, his grip around Avery’s waist tightening.

I swear, he makes it way too easy to get under his skin, especially when I derive so much joy out of pushing his buttons.

It’s not as if he’s got any reason to be salty.

Everybody knows I used to have it bad for Avery Kessler, but he’s the lucky bastard who landed her.

“Everyone just play nice and grab a shot,” Avery huffs, reaching out to swipe one off the tray.

I follow suit, more of our friends reaching in from around the table to claim their own. Avery glances around once we’ve all got our glasses up, grinning as she prepares to deliver one of her infamous raunchy toasts.

“May the liquor burn and your partner go down, and not the other way around,” she declares, earning appreciative chuckles from the rest of us as we clink our shots together.

This one’s rougher than the last, the whiskey scalding my throat before settling warmly in my belly. I stifle a cough, knocking a fist against my chest.

“Keep that up and you’re not gonna be able to walk outta here at the end of the night,” my friend Iver comments as he shoulders in beside me, clapping one hand against my back and reaching in with the other to steal a shot off the tray.

“Maybe that’s the point,” I reply, helping myself to another right along with him.

Iver’s expression turns somber. “If you wanna stay, we could probably get you out of it, you know.”

“And make an enemy of a pack that size?” I scoff. “Nah, it’s no big deal. I’m actually looking forward to the change of scenery.”

He snorts a laugh. “You mean you’re looking forward to scamming on some new she-wolves.”

“That too,” I smirk, clinking my glass against his and throwing back the shot.

Yeah, the prospect of sinking into some city girl pussy definitely sweetens the deal.

Not that the girls around here don’t do it for me, but fishing in the same pond gets old after a while.

With a reputation like mine, I tend to attract a certain type– women who are down for a good time, but not a long time.

It’s all fun while it lasts, but when you’re always surrounded by the same faces, even the thrill of the chase starts to feel like a rerun.

Stillwater’s been my home for twenty-five years, and lately, that familiarity feels more suffocating than comforting.

My closest friends are all settling down and starting families, our nights at the bar becoming fewer and farther between.

I’m not opposed to settling down someday and doing the whole domestic bliss thing myself, but only if the right woman comes along.

Until then, I’ll just keep searching for something that feels fresh– and what better way to do that than starting over in a new city?

“Will’s looking forward to meeting you,” my friend Nash comments from across the table, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Yeah, thanks again for hooking that up,” I reply, grateful for the connection.

Nash has family in Chicago– he even spent a couple years living out there a while back– and his cousin Will just so happens to be a single dude in his mid-twenties who likes to party.

With so much in common, I’m sure we’ll hit it off.

“I told him he’d better take good care of you while you’re out there, show you the ropes,” Nash adds, his tone shifting as he gives me a pointed look. “And don’t forget what we discussed.”

I smirk back at him. “You mean the warning about pissing off the Alpha?”

“That’s the one,” he sighs. “Just keep your head down and do your job. Trust me, you don’t want to get on his bad side.”

“I’ll try my hardest,” I promise, though I know full well that keeping a low profile might not be as easy as it sounds. I never go looking for trouble, but it has a way of finding me anyways.

I’m not the only one– my sister Andie is proof that more than just excellent marksmanship runs in the Raines family.

She snickers a laugh as she swipes a shot off the tray, plopping down into Nash’s lap and hopping right into our conversation.

“Try not to tarnish the family name, either,” she teases, tossing back the whiskey with a wink.

I furrow my brow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“To keep it in your pants?” another of my friends suggests.

Andie barks a laugh. “I meant he should brush up at the range when he gets there so he doesn’t look like an amateur, but that , too.”

I roll my eyes, waving her off. “Whatever, my skills are plenty sharp. Better than Archer’s, anyways.”

“Which is why I agreed to let you go in my place,” our older brother cuts in.

“Sure, it has nothing to do with your mate,” I snort, shifting my gaze to the pretty brunette perched in his lap.

“Hey, don’t blame me,” she chuckles, looking up at Archer with hearts in her eyes. “Blame fate.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I sigh, raking a hand through my auburn hair as I turn to sweep a glance over the crowd on the dance floor.

There’s no shortage of sweaty bodies grinding up against each other, but that’s not what snags my attention– it’s the girl posted up at the bar beyond them, eye fucking the shit out of me from her perch on a barstool.

Yeah, it’s probably about that time .

The party is winding down, and I’m definitely not spending my last night here alone.

Excusing myself under the guise of needing a drink, I work my way across the packed dance floor to get to the bar on the other side, shoulder-barging through the swarm of people and refocusing on my prey when I emerge.

Melody Crane is dressed to kill tonight in a skimpy black dress that leaves little to the imagination.

Her honey-blonde hair is pulled back in a high ponytail, silver eyeshadow dusting her lids and her lips painted a deep pink.

I slowly rake my gaze up her body as I approach, knowing exactly how she looks naked but suddenly eager to refresh my memory.

“Hey, Mel,” I drawl, sliding in beside her to lean an elbow against the bar top.

“Ares,” she replies with a coy smile. “So, you’re finally getting outta here, huh?”

“Eh, only for a year,” I shrug.

She gazes at me thoughtfully, reaching over to set her empty glass down on the bar. “Still counts. I haven’t forgotten how you used to say you wanted to experience more than just this little corner of the world. I hope it’s everything you want it to be.”

“Eh, it probably won’t be that different from here,” I mutter, carding my fingers through my hair.

A smirk pulls at her lips. “So you’ll just be drinking and fucking in a new setting, then?”

“Pretty much,” I chuckle, my gaze unabashedly dropping to her cleavage. “And speaking of fucking…”

“What, you want a proper send-off?” she laughs.

I roll my lower lip between my teeth as my eyes return to hers. “You offering?”

Not gonna lie, part of me hoped I’d run into Melody tonight.

Things between us are comfortable, uncomplicated, and purely physical– we swiped each other’s v-cards when we were sixteen, and we’ve hooked up countless times since.

A little no-strings-attached fun with Mel sounds perfect for my last night at home.

“Sure, why not,” she quips, hopping down off her barstool and slapping a hand against my chest. “One more for old time’s sake.”

Fuck yes.

Her green eyes sparkle with deviant intent as she spins on a heel, strutting off toward the exit. Naturally, I hang back to scope her round ass for a few seconds before catching up in a couple long strides.

“Wait, why just one ?” I question as I fall into step beside her.

“By the time you get back I could be mated,” she muses, glancing over at me slyly as we approach the exit door. “Or you could be.”

“Yeah right,” I snort, reaching past Mel to push the door open. The cool night air smacks us in the face the moment we step outside, the last dredges of winter hanging on even as the spring days are getting warmer.

“Why not?” she asks as the door bangs shut behind us, but her question doesn’t even register. I’m too busy weighing my options, eyeing my truck in the parking lot and trying to decide whether I’m in any condition to get behind the wheel.

We could just fuck in the back seat. Then again, that always sounds like a good idea until you’re all pretzeled up in the cramped space, bashing your head against the roof when you try to switch positions.

Car sex is great in theory, but terrible in practice– though it’ll do in a pinch, even with the risk of concussion.

No matter where we wind up, I think I’ll start by putting her in reverse cowgirl so I can watch that ass bounce…

“Ares,” Mel laughs as she nudges me in the ribs with an elbow, pulling me back from my filthy stream of thoughts about where and how I’m going to fuck her.

“Huh?” I ask, snapping my head in her direction.

“Why don’t you think you could come back with a mate?”

“Eh, just doesn’t seem likely for someone like me,” I sigh, reaching down to pull at the front of jeans since they’re currently suffocating my boner. “Pretty sure fate passed me up a long time ago.”

Mel snorts softly, but she doesn’t argue. She knows me too well for that.

“Walk to the packhouse?” I suggest, tipping my head in that direction.

She nods, and the two of us start across the parking lot, her heels clicking against the pavement and the cool night air brushing against our skin.

The bar noise fades behind us, replaced by the quiet pulse of crickets and the rustle of leaves in the nearby forest. Stillwater might be small, but even silence has a hum here.

Tomorrow, I’ll leave this place behind for a new city, new rules, and new chances to screw everything up– or maybe finally figure out what the hell I’m actually doing with my life– but tonight?

Tonight, I’m not thinking about fate, or the future, or whether I’ll ever settle down and find a mate.

Tonight, I’m giving this town one last reason to miss me.