Chapter 2 In which I learn to believe in love at first sight

Swift isn’t here. It really shouldn’t surprise me. He loses focus real fucking quick sometimes, and I’m sure this is one of those times. He’s probably dangling some guy who bumped into him too hard from a meat hook and running his knife over his skin.

Luca shifts next to me, draping his arm over my shoulders and tugging me into his chest. I take a deep breath of his spiced pear and brandy scent and let it settle me. “Don’t worry about it, baby. We can handle this,” Luca murmurs, just loud enough for me to hear him over the thumping music. His lips brush against my temple as I relax against him further.

We can handle it. I’m not really all that worried, but sometimes these assholes get it in their heads that just because Swift or Maddox aren’t here, they’re being disrespected, and that makes them act out.

I’d really love to get through the night with no bloodshed.

Though even if Swift were here, there’s no guarantee about that.

Especially if Swift were here, there’s no guarantee about that.

I love the guy. He’s one of the alphas in my pack, but he’s a certified psycho and has a problem with impulse control. If he wants to do a thing, he’ll do it. Sometimes that means ordering a three tiered wedding cake, just because he wanted a slice, and sometimes that means stabbing a knife through the hand of a business associate for taking the last cheese danish.

More often than not, interactions with Swift end in bloodshed.

Lots of it.

Still, I’d feel a hell of a lot better if he was here watching our backs. But we’d gotten a call from Maddox, our prime alpha, that he’d be tied up for the night with Duane Griggs, a low level flunky in our organization that was selling secrets to our enemies. Thankfully, nothing too incriminating, since he was so low on the totem pole, but enough to be a nuisance. Swift will be busy with him for the rest of the night.

Which means we’re on our own.

Next to me, Luca stiffens and stills, a predator who’s just sighted his prey for the night. At first I think it’s the men we’re here to meet, but when I follow the direction of his gaze and find a pair of gorgeous women. One of them is dressed down in leather looking leggings and a cropped band t-shirt, but the other is… well, she steals my breath in a tight black dress, short enough to let the tops of her diamond fence thigh highs peek out. Her light brown hair is in a messy bun at the back of her head, and her lips… those fucking plush lips are painted a bright cherry red that makes me want to bite them

She’s so fucking pretty it aches and something deep in me wakes up and snarls: mine.

That’s enough to startle me. I’m a beta and I’ve never had such a visceral alpha reaction to anything. But then… falling in love with someone at first sight isn’t necessarily a purely alpha thing.

Luca is watching her with the same intensity as I am, and my fingers automatically find my phone to pull up the list of VIPs for the night. This section of The Market can be accessed by invite only. Whether someone with access pulls you from the masses downstairs or you give a card at the door.

Since they came up alone and they have gold bracelets on their wrists, they must have received a paper invite. Which means they should be on the list.

But they aren’t.

Or at least, I don’t think they are.

Luca shifts closer, looking down at the screen with me. “Nothing?”

I shake my head. “Only names I recognize. And I sure as fuck don’t recognize her. I mean, them .” I correct with a wince, but Luca just chuckles.

Maybe we should be concerned that two unknowns just wandered into the VIP section of our club, but honestly, they look harmless, sitting at the bar chatting. They don’t look around all shifty like and they don’t seem to be trying to get our attention. Never mind that they have it. She has it.

It still could be a trap, though.

“I bet it was Swift,” Luca says, taking a sip of his drink. “I bet he saw them, thought they were pretty, and wanted to fuck them.” He’s using ‘they’ and ‘them’, but I know him well enough to know he means ‘she’ and ‘her ’.

It makes sense.

If I’m feeling a pull toward her, the alpha instincts of my pack mates are probably going crazy

Swift probably saw her and wanted to fuck her, just like Luca said. He gave her a pass to free booze because he thought he would be here. There’s a pleased laugh in Luca’s voice as he says, “He’s gonna be so fucking pissed when he finds out we fucked her tonight.”

My eyes flick to the girl again, to the bright red lipstick that would look so pretty smeared on my cock. She catches me looking and smiles, bold as you please. Not coy in the slightest. She caught me looking, and she likes it. Doesn’t mind that I caught her looking either.

So fucking sexy.

“The fuck?” Luca growls, drawing my attention to the alpha who just put his hand on the other woman’s shoulder. Our girl moves in a flash, putting herself between the two of them, pushing back on his chest to make him keep his distance. Luca’s on his feet in an instant, moving through the tables with intent. I’m right on his heels, only… It doesn’t look like they actually need our help.

I grab his arm and glance around, checking to see if anyone has noticed the swell of alpharomones trying to taint the air before the scent blockers can neutralize it. It’s not exactly good for business to have the owner flooding the space with a scent that will make everyone in their right minds fearful.

“Luca,” I hiss. “Wait. Watch.”

He glares at me, but then swings his attention back to the trio at the bar. The man releases the woman with a sheepish look on his face, and runs his hands through his hair in an aw, shucks manner.

Our girl doesn’t move from where she is, pressed against her friend’s front like a suit of armor, ready to go to battle for her if necessary. It won’t be. We’ll step in before that happens. But it’s fucking hot to see the fierce look on her face.

Her friend catches us watching, waiting to pull this asshole away from them if necessary, and she gives the slightest shake of her head. Seeing that, I tug Luca back a step, or I try to. But he doesn’t go anywhere, eyes focused on the woman with the bright red lips.

My gaze slides between the two of them, taking in his brows arched in question and her smirk and shrug like what can you do?

All the tension drains out of my alpha when the blond man finally leaves the two women alone and they return to their stools. I follow the long line of her stocking covered legs as she crosses one over the other, flashing a fair amount of creamy upper thigh.

“Find out who that was,” Luca growls at me, and I tip my head in acknowledgment, fingers already working over the screen of my phone. It doesn’t take me long. By the time we’ve made it back to our stools, I have his picture pulled up.

“Connor Bilkes. Lone alpha. He was raised adjacent to the younger Werth pack. There was some speculation over whether or not they would ask him to pack up.”

Luca’s brows lower even further. “She put herself in front of a lone alpha? One that could be bordering on feral?”

My gaze cuts to him sharply. I know alphas have a fair amount of instincts involved in a lot of what they experience, but I’m not sure I’ve seen him this protective over someone who isn’t pack. Hell, he doesn’t get this worked up over his brother… but then I guess they don’t really talk anymore.

Yet here’s this little slip of a thing making all his protective, possessive instincts climb to the surface. He’s never reacted to a woman like that in all the years I’ve known him.

But then, I haven’t either.

Something about her draws and keeps my attention. I want to go over to her right now and bury my face in her neck, get a whiff of her scent and see if it makes my cock hard, like I suspect it will. I want to lay her out on a bed with her light brown hair spread out around her and see what kind of noises she makes while I eat her out. Fuck. I want to devour this girl. And I haven’t even said a word to her.

Is this what love at first sight is like? This all-consuming, all-encompassing need to get close to her, to know everything about her, to use all five of my sense to figure her out and worship her?

“It’s possible she didn’t know that.” I slide my hand onto his thigh and squeezing gently to remind him to remain calm. Or calm-ish. “She’s fine. She would have been fine even if he tried anything, because we were right here, Luca. We wouldn’t have let anything happen to her.”

He relaxes in increments, his anger fading until it’s nothing. Finally he nods. “You’re right. We would have stepped in before he could have hurt her. Doesn’t change the fact that it’s idiotic for her to put herself between them like that. She’s so small.”

She is so small, but her friend is smaller and obviously an omega. I think it’s admirable that her first instinct is to protect her friend. I can’t tell if our red lipped temptress is an omega or a beta, only that she’s definitely not an alpha, despite her bold attitude. If I had to guess, I would say she’s a beta, one that doesn’t let anyone push her around.

Omegas are usually more submissive than she seems to be.

Either way, I want her. I know Luca does too.

The girls down the rest of their drinks and hop off the stools, our woman guiding her friend to the stairs that lead to the dancefloor, her hips already swaying to the beat. It takes everything in me to stay where I am.

We have a job to do tonight, and we’re supposed to be right here to do it.

Thank god our table overlooks the dancefloor so we can keep an eye on her, otherwise I’m pretty sure Luca would have gone full alpha and stalked down there, slung her over his shoulder and dragged her to one of the private rooms at the back of the club.

Not that I mind that idea. We just… have to take care of a little business first.