Page 1 of Marked by the Pack (Crooked Point #2)

Tuesday

Zoey

Ten years ago, my best friend Emma and I went to a party that changed our lives forever. She fell head over heels in love with an older man. And I…filmed a sex tape with a few guys from our rival school’s soccer team.

Yes, that party changed our lives in very different ways. But both changes were momentous.

Emma was off right now spending the night with the love of her life, Callum.

Hopefully not asking a bunch of unnecessary questions about his past and freaking herself out.

Because her man absolutely had a long, sordid past. After all, Callum was a vampire.

For real. I couldn’t make this up even if I tried.

My best friend was dating an actual vampire.

And I was all alone finishing a bottle of wine, hoping Emma would be back soon so I could hear all about her night. But while I was waiting, I couldn’t stop thinking about that night ten years ago. And that sex tape.

The momentous part wasn’t the sex tape itself. I mean, it was fun and all. But really just a pretty normal night. It wasn’t my first sex tape, which I’m still very grateful for. It wasn’t even the first time I’d agreed to film a tape with a soccer player. I’d always had a thing for hot goalies .

The momentous part was that…the guys leaked it a few weeks later.

At first I’d been mortified.

I hadn’t told a soul about it, hoping that it would magically just go away. But if anything, it did the opposite. The views on it kept going up and up and up. And before long it wasn’t on just one illicit site, but dozens.

The more it grew, the more I freaked out. My face was all over the internet. My naked body was on every porn site imaginable.

I saw all the comments, the good and the bad.

It was mostly good. And I tried to ignore the bad.

Really, I did my best. But somehow I’d stopped scrolling on one that said I had a butter face.

Of course I had to Google what a butter face was.

I thought my face looked greasy in the video or something, which would have been tragic.

Nope. It means that a person has a banging body but a not-so-great face.

Everything But. Her. Face. Excuse you? The guy that said it was probably a nerd jerking off to the video in his mother’s basement.

But. Your. Personality. Dick. Internet trolls are the worst.

Anyway, after I read the butter face thing, I promised myself I’d stop looking. It wasn’t worth my time. My sex tape had gotten leaked. Oh well. It happens. Life goes on. I had school to focus on.

But then someone slid into my DMs on Instagram and asked how much I charged for a topless photo. Someone had found me. My name wasn’t attached to the video in any way, but the more the video spread, the more messages I got requesting things.

Mostly weird stuff.

But some of the requests were kind of hot .

Either way, it gave me an idea. I could just…do what the guys wanted. Send them the pictures and videos they were requesting. What? College is expensive AF.

So I signed up for a MyFanatics account.

And while Emma was getting well rested before exams and doing other things to take college seriously… I was up late flirting with clients and filming some wild stuff. Oh, and making six figures doing it.

Ten years later, I have one of the top 20 MyFanatics accounts. The only difference is that now I wear a mask. Not because of the butter face comment. Asshole. I wear a mask so I can live my life in this cute little town without anyone judging me for what I do to actually make money.

Speaking of which, it was time to log on.

I finished my glass of wine and hurried upstairs. My lingerie drawer was still open from my last session. I grabbed a red, lacy number and pulled on a pair of matching heels.

Ten years ago, I would have stopped right there.

But I wasn’t an amateur anymore. So I grabbed my jet black wig and pulled it over my blonde hair.

And to top it all off, I strapped my black leather bunny mask over my eyes.

It concealed the top half of my face, leaving my cheeks and lips exposed.

Which was important for what I was about to do.

I walked over to my desk and turned on my computer and large monitor, my microphones, my webcam, my other two cameras with alternate angles, and switched on my ring light and my new LED tube light that I was still getting used to.

I adjusted the brightness just a bit before grabbing my remote that controlled everything .

And then I grabbed my second laptop and sat down in the middle of my bed.

I logged in to the site and looked back at my big monitor to see the different angles. I played around on my remote to zoom in and out a bit on each camera. Perfect. I arched my back a little and hit the LIVE button.

There were three men I always talked to whenever I logged on.

GamerGrudge69 aka Grudge – a gamer in his early twenties with blue hair.

He always wore a bandana around his forehead and his t-shirts were classically wrinkled.

I was pretty sure he lived on his computer.

He was probably the closest thing I had to a friend, other than Emma, of course.

He was a tech genius that had helped me with my cam set up.

Then there was Elias12492 – aka Elias. He was the only one that gave his real name.

And I was pretty sure the numbers after his username were just his birthday.

He had dark hair and always wore a suit and glasses like he’d just come from work.

And he acted nerdy and shy. But I couldn’t tell if it was just a game or not, because he was smoking hot.

I couldn’t figure out what he was up to, because he never wanted me to do anything sexy.

He always just wanted to talk. Which was fine, because he was fascinating.

He knew a lot about everything. And I loved asking him questions that I hoped would stump him.

I never had. And now I was wondering if his name was even really Elias and if he was born on January 24 th , 1992.

Grudge and Elias both showed their faces. So did most of the other guys I spoke to.

But then there was KingOfTheDead aka King – a billionaire with unruly hair who wore a black and gold Egyptian Anubis mask.

That was all I knew about him. And the billionaire thing was just a guess based on how much he paid me.

Also the fact that he wore a mask. He wanted his privacy too.

I was completely and utterly fascinated by him.

A few hundred people were viewing my livestream tonight.

I saw Elias’ username appear in the corner.

I arched my back more as I reached into my bowl of fruit and grabbed a banana.

I slowly peeled it. And then I proceeded to put the whole thing in my mouth.

The whole thing. All the way into my throat.

I wore a bunny mask and ate phallic fruit. It was my signature thing.

My private message icon started blinking faster. I’d pick a few random lucky guys to talk to later. But first I really needed to speak to Elias.

I clicked on his name and a video of him flooded my screen, taking me out of the group chat.

“Hey, Zoey,” he said.

Yes, I used my real name. Zoey just sounded like a porn star name to me.

I was born to do this. “Hey, Elias.” I got out of my arched back pose and lay down on my mattress with my heels in the air.

It gave him a gorgeous camera angle of my ass, but I didn’t think he cared.

He just wanted to talk. And tonight I was ready with my questions.

“Do you believe that vampires are real?” I asked. When Emma and her boyfriend Callum were in the same room as me, everything made sense. But when I was alone? All this doubt started to creep in.

Elias pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Vampires? Really?” He smiled like it was the silliest thing he’d heard .

I’d thought it was silly too. But now that I’d met one?

I believed. I just wanted more information.

Because as happy as I was for Emma…I was still worried.

What if Callum bit her again? What if he turned her into a vampire too?

What if he accidentally just ate her? But I’d also promised not to tell anyone Callum’s secret. So…

I cleared my throat. “I was reading this book recently. And this girl falls for this guy. He’s all secretive. Yadda yadda. And eventually she finds out that he’s like 300 years old and is a vampire. That can actually happen, right? Scientifically speaking?”

“Um…”

“Scratch that. I know it’s real. That’s not my question. In the show he confesses to it and everything. What I really need to know is if vampires can control themselves?” I didn’t want Emma to get hurt.

He raised his eyebrow at me. “I thought you said it was a book?”

“What?”

“You said you were reading about this in a book. And then you changed it and said it was a show.”

“Did I?” I laughed. “That’s because it was a book made into a show. I read and watched both because it was so good.”

“What was it called?”

Damn it, Elias, stop being so inquisitive! “I don’t remember.”

He smiled. “You read it and watched it and can’t stop thinking about. Yet you don’t remember what it was called? ”

I snapped my fingers. “It was because the book and show had different names. Don’t you hate when that happens?”

“Mhm.” He leaned back in his chair and loosened his tie.

For just a second, I stared at his Adam’s apple rising and falling. Why did he never take his clothes off? Why did he only ever want to talk? What was he hiding?

“Zoey?”

“Yes?”

“You look beautiful tonight.”

I felt my cheeks flush. He always did that too.

Complimented me. Really…what kind of game was he playing?

“Thanks.” I put my chin in my hand and stared back at him.

“But really, Elias, can a vampire control himself? I need to know.” I’d pushed Emma toward Callum.

I needed to know that I hadn’t made a terrible mistake.

If I wasn’t wearing heels, I probably would have started pacing.

“I honestly haven’t read much about vampires.”

This was the first and only time I’d stumped him, and I was desperate to know the truth. “Oh.”

“Don’t sound so disappointed. I’ll do some research, okay? And get back to you?”

“That would be great.”

I wanted him to ask me to take off my bra. I wanted him to ask me to roll over and touch myself, imagining it was his cock deep inside of me instead of my fingers. I wanted him to at least ask me to hit the side of my face with an eggplant or something.

But he didn’t. It just made me want it even more. I never got rejected. Ever.

Actually, that wasn’t quite true .

There were these guys at the local bank.

I’d set Emma up on a date with one of them when she first got here, but then her vampire showed up and swept her off her feet.

Which I’d hoped meant I’d have a shot with Bennett.

But…nope. He’d totally friend zoned me. And he’d told me that the other four guys at the bank weren’t interested in me either.

It was devastating. Because they were definitely the hottest guys in Crooked Point. Bennett, Titan, Otto, Ace, and Huxley. Each one as handsome as the last. And they didn’t think about me at all. I frowned. Was I off my game or something? I bit my lip.

Elias’ eyes fell to where my teeth had just sunk into my lip.

I wasn’t off my game. Elias was just up to something.

Some game I didn’t know the rules to. But I’d figure it out soon enough.

And Bennett and his friends were up to something too.

Something bad. Emma had warned me about them several times.

She said they were dangerous and that I should stay away from them.

Callum said they were thieves. I didn’t know if it was true or not.

I was pretty sure Callum just didn’t want Emma anywhere near other men.

But everything I learned about Bennett and his friends just made me want to get closer to them. Seriously, why did they keep rejecting my advances?

Elias pushed his glasses up again.

“So you don’t know that much about vampires,” I said. “But do you know what vampires might be scared of? Or…threatened by?” I knew Callum didn’t like Bennett. It all had to be related somehow.

Elias shrugged. “A vampire hunter? ”

“You’re a genius!” Why hadn’t I thought of that? “Of course they’re vampire hunters.”

“Who?” Elias asked.

“Oh.” I laughed. “The guys in the movie.”

“It’s a movie now?”

“Isn’t that what I said before?” I smiled at him. “Don’t tell me you’re jealous.” Maybe that was his game. He needed to be jealous to get hard.

“Of a fictional character in a book, or show, or movie?” He smiled. “No. I’m not jealous.”

Gah. I lowered my shoulder so my strap would slip. It slid down my bicep, exposing more of the top of my breasts.

But I’d already caught him ogling my lips earlier, and he knew it. So his eyes stayed firmly glued to my face.

He cleared his throat. “I should go. It was great talking to you, Zoey. Have sweet dreams.”

It was like he thought I was going to immediately end my livestream and go to sleep. Wait… is that what he thought? That I only spoke to him? “I will. After I talk to a dozen more guys.” I was just poking at him. Hoping he’d react.

He did not. He just reached out his hand to ex out of the feed.

“Wait. I’ll see you tomorrow, right, Elias? And you’ll let me know about the vampire thing?”

“Of course. Goodnight.” His face disappeared from my screen and the balance on my account went up a couple hundred dollars.

I could wait a day for answers. Emma had been alone with Callum before and lived to tell the tale. Surely she was fine tonight too .

But I was worried that Elias didn’t know more. He knew about everything. Maybe there wasn’t much known because vampires always killed anyone who found out…

My stomach churned. God, this was bad. I could just go over to Callum’s house and check on her. But I also didn’t want to interfere.

What I needed was a distraction. By someone who actually liked my body.

There was no better distraction then being told exactly what to do.

I knew virtually nothing about my secretive billionaire.

Plus someone whose username was KingOfTheDead might know a thing or two about vampires.

Maybe he’d finally answer a few questions if I played my cards right.