Page 5

Chapter

Five

The club had a line that wrapped around the block, so I was thankful for my celebrity status as Princess of the Hybrids allowing me to be driven right up to the door and let in.

Cameras flashed and people called out to me, some trying to get me to sign things.

I waved and smiled to everyone, but continued my walk up to the door with Maya at my side.

Ezio bumped fists with the bouncer, who dipped his head to me as we walked in.

Another bouncer met us inside and led us to the VIP section, where we got a large table with a plush couch around it roped off from the rest of the club. All eyes turned to us as we walked in and sat down.

Maya preened under the attention, looking for her first dance partner. “Maybe I should start with a non-alpha to switch things up a bit?”

I rolled my eyes, but before I could respond, our waiter approached.

He was a handsome elf with slightly pointed ears, blonde hair so light it was almost white, and a sharp jawline and cheekbones. “Good evening, Your Highness,” he greeted me with a deep bow. “I am Tony and I’ll be taking care of you tonight.”

Immediately, my excitement over him was doused with his name being the same as my brother’s. Giving him a kind smile, I said, “It’s nice to meet you, Tony. Can you bring us a bottle of your best sparkling wine and a cup of cherries?”

He bowed. “I shall return quickly, but please do not wait for me. You are free to explore the club and I will bring your drinks and ensure no one enters your booth.”

“We are here with Ezio of the Werewolves,” I said quickly. “He is our guard for the night.”

He nodded. “I know Ezio, so I will be sure to allow him entrance.”

He turned to Maya. “Is there anything else you would like, Maya?”

She flushed and said, “Some waters would be great, too.”

He bowed with a grand flourish. “I shall bring you both waters with lemon, light ice, as you prefer.”

After he left the area, I grabbed her arm and said, “You’ve been holding out on me, wench! How does he know what your preferred water is?”

“I met him while you were gone,” she whispered. “We went on two dates and then I got busy with work.”

“And why are you not dating that handsome elf now?” I asked, mouth open in disbelief. He was one hundred percent her type!

“I get nervous when I’m with him because he’s so hot!” she shouted and puffed her cheeks out. “There, are you happy?”

“You’re going to ask him out on a date before we leave tonight,” I said without room for rebuttal.

She smirked. “Well, twist my arm, why don’t you?”

Ezio circled the room, getting a feel for everyone in the club and for anyone who might be trouble. He had a keen sense for malice, something that came in really useful when he’d been my guard.

We had to wait until he finished his route before we could go to the dance floor. I didn’t mind waiting. Honestly, a drink first would be nice anyway.

Looking around the club, I was relieved to not see anyone that I knew. Even though everyone knew who I was, most would be too intimidated to come talk to me, so tonight would hopefully be a relatively uneventful and fun night.

Tony returned with our bottle of sparkling wine, two flute glasses, a cup of cherries, and two water glasses with lemon and just a little bit of ice. “Here are your drinks and the cherries as requested. Is there anything else I can get you lovely ladies?”

“How about a date for tomorrow?” I asked with a smile. “My friend here happens to be free about six o’clock.”

Her face turned as red as her hair.

He looked at Maya and said, “I work until six, but could pick you up at seven for dinner.”

Her eyes widened and she nodded. “Okay.”

Smiling, he said, “Great. I’ll text you after my shift tonight so we can finalize the details.” He turned, winked at me, and mouthed, “thank you,” before he walked to the back of our area in the shadowy part to wait for us to need him again.

Maya put two cherries in each of the flute glasses, poured the sparkling wine in, and handed me one of the glasses. “Drink up, bitch!”

I clinked my glass against hers, took a drink, and moaned. “So tasty.”

We watched the people dancing while we finished our drink and I poured us a second one. This time, I looked at the other VIP areas. My eyes widened at the sight of some of my second cousins in somewhat compromising positions. I would never act that way in a public setting where anyone could take pictures. They should know better!

“Okay, this is the plan,” Maya said as she looked out over the dancers, snagging my attention. “You and I are going to go dance in the center and let those who are confident enough come try to dance with us.”

“I like this plan,” I agreed with a nod.

Ezio gave us a thumbs up before moving to the shadows next to Tony.

“Alright! Let’s get this party started!” I said, downed the rest of my drink, ate my cherries, and headed towards the rope and the bouncer stationed there.

The bouncer, a werewolf Great Grandpa Dan took on a lot of missions, bowed his head to me. “Princess,” he greeted.

“We’re going to go dance,” I informed him. “Ezio is here.”

He nodded. “I sensed and saw him.” Unhooking the rope, he pulled it back so we could step down. “Just call out if you need anything.”

“Thanks,” I chirped as I skipped by him with Maya right on my heels.

“Maybe I should look for a werewolf. They seem to be the more polite of all the races towards women,” she whispered.

Focusing on the powers of those around me, I searched for the most powerful beings in the room. There were several really strong alphas along the edges of the room, the guards like Ezio, but interspersed throughout the dancefloor were a handful as well. In the middle, I spotted a handsome, tall man with dark, wavy hair dancing while talking to a man next to him, who was not as powerful, but definitely still an alpha.

Bingo. “Follow me,” I ordered Maya and started dancing my way through the crowd to get closer to them. When I was a few people away, I grabbed Maya and we danced together, waiting for them to take notice of us.

It didn’t take long and, unsurprisingly, the slightly weaker alpha came over to dance with Maya first. In my experience, they liked to send in their wingman first before making their move.

The tall, dark-haired alpha approached me. He danced around me, smiling, and clearly having a good time. My smile mirrored his as we danced together, the song fast and fun.

“I didn’t expect to have a dance with royalty tonight,” he said in my ear as we danced.

“I guess it’s just your lucky day,” I teased and spun in a circle.

His warm hands rested on my stomach as he moved closer behind me. “You’re even more beautiful in person than on TV,” he said, his warm breath blowing across the shell of my ear and making me shiver.

“I’m at a disadvantage,” I said. “You know my name, but I don’t know yours.”

“Unimportant,” a deep, rumbling voice said as the man I’d been dancing with was pulled away from me suddenly.

Heart hammering, I spun around to see Mason glaring at the guy I had been dancing with.

“Who are you?” the guy asked and looked at me. “I know she’s unmated.”

“Beat it,” Mason growled. “You’re not worthy of breathing the same air as her.”

My eyes widened. Was that a compliment? Was Mason saying something nice about me in public where others could hear him?

Maya slowly backed her and her dance partner away to avoid the fall out.

“What are you doing, Mason?”

“Me? What are you doing?” he snapped.

“Until you showed up, I was enjoying myself,” I snapped back. My hair started to glow as the rage awakened within me.

Mason’s eyes darted to my hair before he scowled and said, “You’re ignoring us, but you’re dancing with a loser like this?”

“What’d you call me?” the guy asked and took a step closer to Mason, his chest puffed up.

I raised one of my hands straight up into the air.

Within seconds, Ezio was there. “Let’s take a breath,” Ezio said to the guy. “Let me tell you that fighting is not the way to the princess’s heart, and you really do not want to fight Mason.”

Situation under control thanks to Ezio, I turned and headed towards our booth. I groaned when I saw Trey and Kayden in the booth, sipping on my sparkling wine.

I glanced at the werewolf bouncer, who shrugged and said, “You try to keep them out of somewhere.”

Patting his arm as I walked by, I said, “No worries, I know they’re stubborn jerks on the best of days.”

He snickered, but quickly stopped and resumed looking stoic as he clipped the rope behind me.

Stomping up to the booth, I folded my arms across my chest and asked, “What do you want? I was enjoying my night out until you lot showed up.”

“This is my father’s club,” Trey reminded me. “Did you think word wouldn’t reach me that you were here?”

Sitting down, I picked up the bottle and drank straight from it. “Why do you care if I’m here or not? We haven’t spoken in years.”

“And whose fault is that?” Kayden asked and glared at me.

My hair was glowing so brightly that our dark area was bright as noon instead. “Fine, you don’t want me dancing here, I’ll go somewhere else,” I said and stood.

“You can keep avoiding us, but eventually, we’re going to talk,” Trey said calmly, his leg crossed over the other as he leaned back, looking regal and confident. “We know where you live and we have plenty of people around the city who will update us on your location.”

“Why do you care?” I shouted. “Why are you interrupting me trying to enjoy myself? Why do you care if I dance with a random alpha or date or anything? You haven’t cared the last four years!”

“Because you made a promise,” Kayden said. “And I know you haven’t forgotten, even if you are pretending you didn’t read our letter.”

I shook my head. “I read your letter and knew you were all just going to laugh at me if I brought it up, knowing you weren’t serious. Knowing that you were just doing something to ruffle my scales like you always used to.”

Trey sat up, his face completely serious as he said, “On the contrary, Princess, we are very serious about following up on our promise. On making you our mate.”

My eyes widened at the sincerity in his voice. Were they serious? No, they couldn’t be. And yet, I hadn’t sensed a lie when he had spoken just now.

Laughing, I shook my head. “You almost got me, Trey. You’ve always had the best poker face.” Taking another drink of the bottle of sparkling wine, I set it down, stood, and turned away from them. “Have a good evening.”

Kayden grabbed my wrist, stopping me. “Lily, what did we do? Why have you been ignoring us all these years?”

“You really want to know?” I asked softly. The fury within me grew, my hair glowing the brightest it ever had. Fury at their games. Fury at the pain I’d felt from the message that caused the rift between us. Fury at still caring about them.

“Yes, that’s why we asked,” Trey said calmly.

“Because I realized that I had been completely wrong about how you felt about me. That you didn’t care about me like you claimed!” I shouted.

Kayden’s eyes widened at my hostility.

I jerked my wrist free of his grasp and continued, “I thought we were best friends. I thought you cared, but you told me, ‘I never considered you my sister!’”

Ezio and Maya had returned and at my statement, Ezio moved closer, eyes wide.

Kayden’s brows rose. “ That’s what caused you to stop talking to us? Because I admitted I never considered you my sister?” He stared at me a second, then threw his head back and laughed.

The asshole actually laughed at me.

Trey and Mason also joined in on the laughter. Trey shook his head as he laughed at me.

“Fuck you, Kayden. Fuck all of you!” My anger was so strong that it was palpable and electricity began to zap around me. Spinning on my heel, I headed towards the exit. “I’m going home.”

“Lily,” Kayden said around his laughs, “wait.”

“Enough,” Ezio growled. “What is wrong with you? Why are you treating her like this?”

“You don’t understand,” Kayden began, but I made my way out of the club so I didn’t have to hear anymore.

Maya walked at my side, glancing at me nervously. “I love you, Lil.”

“I need to kill something,” I hissed, my tongue shifting into my snake’s forked form.

“Okay,” she said with a nod. “Let’s go hunting.”

With Ezio dealing with Kayden, we didn’t have a driver, so we needed a cab. The bouncer at the entrance looked behind me and frowned when he didn’t see Ezio.

“Cab, please,” I said through clenched teeth.

He nodded, raised his arm, and bowed to me as the cab pulled up. “Thank you for visiting our establishment, Princess. I hope to see you again.”

“Thank you,” I said, trying to be as civil as I could when nothing but fury flowed through me. My skin itched, wanting to shift.

He opened the backdoor of the cab and closed it after Maya and I were inside, continuing to bow.

Maya gave the driver the address, since it was becoming more and more difficult to speak. My body ached as I held back from shifting. I knew the driver wouldn’t be too happy with a twenty-foot snake in his car, which meant shifting was out of the question.

“Almost there,” Maya whispered and smiled. “Almost, Lil.”

How could he laugh at me? I finally admitted what they said that had hurt my feelings and they had laughed.

Scales rippled along my skin and my jaw ached as it tried to shift.

Maya ordered the cab to stop in the middle of the road a mile from the house, but along the edge of our clan’s property. She opened the door and waved me out.

The driver sped away as soon as I was out of the car. Running through the wards, I headed into the woods, searching for an animal to hunt.

Maya shifted into her bird form, but kept her fire minimal, and flew overhead, using her eyesight to help my search.

Movement to my left.

Shifting into my full snake form, I moved silently along the ground until I found just what I needed. A badger ripe for eating. With a quick strike, I bit down on it and coiled around him as tightly as I could.