Page 7 of The Bear, the Eagle, and their Wombat Omega (Omegas of Animals: SD #14)

Bruno

I’d visited Animals before. The one here and the one in Arizona in fact.

But Arkyn hadn’t, and I looked forward to showing it to him.

The clubs, along with Crossroads in New Orleans and another one being planned were the property of Warren Ursa, his mate, Karma, and I thought they had a partner in NOLA. A vampire if the rumors were correct.

Even from outside, it was impressive.

“This place is amazing. Is it true that they allow not just shifters but all the other paras and even humans in here?”

“As long as they mind their manners, yes. They even allow shifting indoors—once again, for those who can behave themselves. The Animals staff takes pride in keeping things nice, so if a gorilla rips down a light fixture or a bear scratches his butt up against the wall, they’re out the door.”

“A bear would do that?” He tried to sound outraged, but his quirking lips gave him away.

“Some might, yes.” I lifted my chin and strove for dignity. “But nobody in my sleuth. My grandfather would have their hides if they did.”

As always, in my experience, there was a line outside, but even that was entertaining because of the clientele.

We were behind a trio of witches who were complaining about the no brooms rule.

Or at least they weren’t allowed to ride them.

They seemed to think that it was unfair that shifters could take their fur indoors but they couldn’t go for a ride.

“Do you know why they have that rule?” Arkyn whispered when the trio was arguing their case with the bouncer at the front door. “They seem determined.”

“Not for sure, but I think they had some witches go out of control and cause some damage here or at one of the other clubs and Karma was very annoyed.”

“Karma? As in what goes around comes around?”

“Karma as in Warren Ursa’s mate. The owners here.”

“Ursa is a bear name, isn’t it?” He shifted from foot to foot, probably as ready as I was to get into the club.

“Yes, and I think he’s a distant cousin, but I’ve never been good at figuring out all those relationships. Karma is…human.”

“You say that with less confidence than I’d expect.”

The witches finally checked their brooms at the door and entered, still grumbling about unfair policies, and we could finally enter.

Unlike some other clubs I’d been to while traveling, Warren’s bouncers were not there to decide who was cool enough to enter.

From my observations, they were just making sure nobody seemed likely to be too rowdy, and keeping things under fire-marshal limits.

Fortunately, even after our evening at the beach, we were early enough to be admitted without having to wait for other guests to leave.

Stepping inside, we found ourselves in a river of people flowing toward the main floor area. Arkyn grabbed hold of my arm, and I pulled him close to my side to keep from losing him in the crowd. I didn’t mind the touch at all. “You doing okay, Arkyn?”

“How many people do you think are here?” He tightened his grip on my arm. “Sorry, it’s just kind of overwhelming.”

Bear Run was not a big town, and Arkyn had always lived there, even gone to college there. He would not be used to this. “Maybe we should go back to the hotel and relax? It’s been a long day.” I moved to turn back, but he held tight.

“No way. I just got here, and I plan to have fun.”

Lucky, because I wasn’t sure I could manage to go anywhere but where we were being pushed and towed. Finally, we were in the main room, and I drew in a deep breath, prepared to ask what he thought of the whole experience so far. And then I stopped, exhaled, and breathed in again through my nose.

“What is that?” Arkyn stopped, or tried to, although we were still part of the flow into the main room. Ahead of us, the dance floor came into sight, and there was a live band on the stage tonight, everything very noisy. “That scent?”

Mates. My bear was on full alert, but he wasn’t just responding to the fragrance that tickled my nose from somewhere in the room, but also one much closer.

All the years of controlling my attraction to Arkyn, my comfort at staying in the same room with him without trying to get us both naked, all of it disappeared from my mind and my body as I turned to face my assistant. “Arkyn.”

“Boss.” His face was inches from mine, his lips parted, chest rising and falling quickly. “What’s happening?”

“I’m not sure.” But I did know, on some level. “May I kiss you?”

“Yes, please.” His arms came around my neck, mine around his waist, and our lips crashed together hard, fast, harsh, but a homecoming nonetheless.

People moved past us, jostled us, but we clung to one another, an island in the flow of patrons.

I held him against me, lips parting to welcome his tongue inside in an exploration too long in coming.

I could have stood there forever, but eventually we parted just enough to get some air before going in again, making up for lost time, starved for one another.

“Excuse me, sirs, but you’re going to have to take this to a corner or outside. You’re blocking traffic.”

We broke our kiss, laughing, breathless, and turned to find one of the security staff standing, keeping those moving past us from bumping into us.

“I’m sorry,” I told him. “Well, not about kissing this magnificent eagle, but sorry to inconvenience you.” I released my arms from Arkyn’s waist and took his hand. “We need to go find someone anyway.”

Cutting away from where we’d stood, we darted toward the dance floor, searching for someone whose scent had reached us right after we entered, but who we’d never seen before and didn’t know what they looked like.

Was he tall? Short? He was omega, for sure, but beyond that, we had to follow the scent. Whoever he was, we had to find him right away.

Was he among the gathering at the bar? Dancing on the dance floor? Did he work here, maybe as a server or security or in the band? We didn’t know, but we were not leaving this place without finding out. When my bear cried out mates , he wanted me to find our third. And I was all in for that.