Chapter 21

Denny

Lauren seemed really relaxed after downing those two beers. I was glad I cut her off when I did. I knew she didn’t drink much, if at all, and she’d already had one back in the room.

I had never needed alcohol to have a good time. But I also didn’t mind partaking now and then. Over the years, I’d learned some lessons the hard way, and it had certainly taught me where my point of no return lay. I had no desire to get drunk and probably do something really stupid around my mate.

It wasn’t that I cared if she saw me at my worst. It was just that now was not the time to make a fool of myself. I still had to convince her not to return to New York. I certainly didn’t want to give her reasons to leave me.

We were growing closer. I could feel it. A lot of her initial fears and concerns were gone. More importantly, our bond was strengthening. I knew it and so did she.

So far, tonight was going great. I just hoped it would continue that way.

I kept her close to me as we weaved back through the living room and then downstairs to the bar and dance floor.

As I suspected, the room was overcrowded with heavily drunk people, and things were getting a little crazy.

What I hadn’t anticipated was the number of unmated males I did not know. They seemed to be everywhere, and my wolf was not happy about it.

I froze, trying to decide where best to hide Lauren from them.

My vision was clouding in a sea of red as I began to panic.

Something caught her attention, and she moved towards it so quickly that we lost contact.

My wolf roared in my head, and a feral growl erupted from me.

A few people dancing nearby stopped and backed away.

“Denny? Are you okay?” Oscar asked.

“Denny?” Kevin tried.

I heard them but couldn’t manage to respond.

I could no longer see my mate.

“Back off,” I warned them.

“One of you go get the brothers upstairs. Something’s wrong.”

“I’ll do it,” Will offered.

“I’ll come with you,” his twin brother added.

The two of them took off.

“Wasn’t Lauren with him?” Mark asked.

“Yeah, she’s over there,” Jett pointed.

My head whipped in that direction, and I relaxed just a fraction at the sight of her. But she was still too far away for my comfort.

Ignoring their protests, I pushed my way deeper into the room. I needed my mate.

A wave of anxiety felt as if it slapped me in the face. It wasn’t coming from me, but from Lauren.

I roared.

People began scurrying out of my way as I eyed my mate like prey and stalked her way.

“He’s over there,” someone yelled.

Somehow, I knew they meant me, but all I could see was her.

Caleb grabbed my arm, and I snapped at him.

“Calm down,” Pete insisted.

He waved others over. Chad and Tyler were suddenly there, too. The three of them pinned me between them. Remy and Braxton joined them. They all knew my wolf was more likely to submit to one of my elder brothers.

It pissed me off that they’d brought them into this.

I was fine.

That was a lie, but I’d take it to my grave.

“Get out of my way,” I said in a deep foreign voice.

“That’s his wolf speaking. Holy shit. His wolf is really close to the surface. This is not good.”

“Don’t make us call on psycho squirrel,” Tyler warned.

They all knew when Chad turned into psycho squirrel that I started giggling like a little schoolgirl. It was the funniest shit I’d ever seen. But not this time.

I shook my head in warning.

“We really need to get him out of here,” Pete said.

“Not without his mate. Are you insane? She has to be around here somewhere,” Sadie yelled over the noise of the music.

“Lauren,” I said.

“Right, Lauren,” Remy repeated after me.

“Where is she?” Braxton asked.

I growled in frustration.

“Shit! Everyone stand back,” Tyler yelled out.

“Turn the music down,” Kevin ordered.

“Is he going to wolf out?” Oscar asked.

“Maybe we should go back upstairs,” Jett suggested.

“And miss all the action?” Troy said. “No way.”

“Troy, maybe we should,” Will suggested, yet none of them made a move to leave.

I roared, and fur broke out on my arms.

Someone screamed, and people started moving real fast, understanding that this was not a joke.

“If you don’t get out of my way, I’m going to attack you,” I warned the guys.

It wasn’t something that I wanted to do, but if I didn’t get Lauren in my arms soon, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to stop my wolf from taking control.

“Where is she?” I roared.

“Yup, he’s wolfing out,” Oscar said.

“There she is. Over there,” Josh yelled, pointing somewhere behind me.

I turned just in time to see Lauren’s arms fly through the air as she yelled at her sister, completely oblivious to my distress.

She looked pissed.

The path between us seemed to part like the Red Sea

I watched in fascination as I approached them.

“ Where did you get that? ” Lauren demanded.

“Look around. It’s a party. Relax.”

“ Give me the drink. ”

“ No. ”

“ Give it to me, Kylie. ”

“ No. ”

Every sentence seemed bigger and more exaggerated than the last.

The last sentence I could make out came from Kylie. “ Stop ruining my life and go live your own. I can’t wait for you to go back to New York. I hate you! ”

Suddenly some guy I didn’t know stepped between them and got up in my mate’s face. I could feel her anguish combined with a new jolt of fear.

A menacing growl sounded, and it took a second for me to realize it was coming from me. The whole room stilled, and the music paused.

“Get away from her,” I yelled.

The asshole didn’t even seem to hear me.

“Shit.”

“Someone get me some chips.”

“Dude, you have to calm down.”

I vaguely recognized various voices of my brothers, but when the guy reached out to put hands on Lauren, all I saw was red.

I shifted on the spot.

Screams filled the room as people ran back upstairs.

But I stalked towards the one that had the audacity to touch my girl.

“Oh shit,” Autumn said. “Kylie, come on.”

Those with them turned to look at me. The boy paled.

As I lunged for him, multiple arms wrapped around me, tackling me to the ground.

“Get out of here,” Monte yelled.

I tried to shake them off, but combined, they were too strong for me.

Still, I made a little progress when I shook Pete loose.

“Stop it,” Sadie cried.

There was no longer a threat to my mate, yet I still couldn’t seem to calm myself down.

She stared at me in surprise.

My tail wagged when recognition dawned in her eyes, and she slowly approached us.

I whimpered.

“Get off him! You’re hurting him,” she yelled.

Lauren ran to my side, ripping my brothers away from me one by one. Until she sank to her knees and buried her face in my fur.

“Show’s over. Get out,” Remy yelled.

The lights came on and my anger began to slowly subside.

With a shiver, I shifted back to my skin.

Lauren had tears in her eyes as she threw her arms around me.

“I’m sorry,” I said in a hoarse voice.

“It’s not you. Kylie’s drinking and hanging all over some guy she just met.”

“We were keeping an eye on her. She was okay,” Oscar insisted.

“Yeah, we won’t let anything bad happen to her,” Mark tried to assure her.

“I knew this was a mistake coming here,” she said.

It felt like a dagger had just stabbed me in the heart.

“I have to get some clothes,” I said.

With my mate back within reach, the fight in me fled. I was naked and embarrassed by my outburst now.

“Sorry guys. I didn’t mean to break up the party like that.”

“Oh please. Like we haven’t seen worse from a mating brother before. We’ve got your back,” Monte insisted.

“Always,” Remy agreed.

I stood up and pulled Lauren into my arms. I couldn’t stop myself from kissing her.

“Please stay within arm’s reach. You promised, remember?”

“I’m sorry. I saw Kylie drinking and swaying a bit, and I just lost it. She’s vulnerable enough without being drunk, too.”

Jett snorted. “She’s tougher than you give her credit for, Lauren.”

“Yeah, there was another asshole hitting on her earlier. Before we could intervene, she kneed him in the groin and he took off crying,” Mark explained.

“She did?” Lauren asked.

“Yeah. She knows how to handle herself,” Oscar agreed. “But we were still watching her anyway.”

Several of the others nodded.

“Thanks, guys. Lauren just worries,” I told them.

“I’ve never had help like this before. It’s all sort of new to me. No one ever looks after her but me.”

“The DOGs stick together,” Braxton told her. “We’re family. That makes you and Kylie family now, too.”

My heart swelled with pride. My boys would watch after my girl and her sister even without being asked to.

“Well, the party is officially over,” Kevin informed us. “I told everyone to go home.”

“Sorry,” I muttered, feeling bad about how I’d reacted.

“Don’t sweat it. I was ready to leave anyway. Ember just texted me that she got back in town from visiting her parents. And we all know the party would have ended when I left anyway,” Chad teased.

I nodded my thanks to him for trying to take some of the heat off of me.

“We can stay and help clean up,” one of the freshmen offered.

“I’ll show you the cleaning supplies,” Caleb said. “If you guys are going to stick around here and rush, you might as well get used to it. We aren’t your stereotypical frat house. We like things clean.”

I didn’t miss the was Oscar’s face cringed, but he stuck around and helped anyway. Maybe there was hope for him after all.

“He likes things cleaned,” Tyler corrected. “This place used to smell awful down here.”

“We’ve evolved,” Caleb insisted. “If you want to live in a barnyard, go join Lambda Beta Pi with the farm animal shifters.”

Lauren helped me up, apologizing again.

I clung to her, needing her touch to soothe my wolf some more .

We left the guys in the basement and walked upstairs to my room. I kept my head down, not wanting to speak to anyone left who might have witnessed my moment of insanity.

Even back in my room, the sudden turn of events had me too shaken to relax. I just dressed and tried to calm myself down.

“What can I do?” Lauren asked. She hadn’t left my side since.

“Just be near me, okay? I’m still a bit on edge.”

“I know. I can feel it.”

“How about a walk? Sometimes nature helps relax my wolf when she tries to freak out.”

I appreciated her attempt to help.

“Yeah, okay. That sounds nice.”