Chapter 6

The high of the show still buzzes through my body as the roar of the crowd chants for another encore. "Tattered Souls, Tattered Souls, Tattered Souls"

"That was fucking amazing!" Griffin screams before bursting into laughter, the high from the cocaine he snorted in between sets still racing through his system.

"It really fucking was." I laugh, bumping his shoulder playfully.

Zane follows behind, dripping with sweat. Dude looks seconds away from passing out.

Worry laces my veins as we head back to the green room. "You okay?" I ask Zane as we plop down onto the couch.

"Fan-fucking-tastic," he grumbles, grabbing the bottle of water I snatched from the mini fridge on the way in and cracking it open, downing almost half of it.

He's been like this for almost the past month. I know it will pass; he's always like this during this time of the year, but it doesn't make it any easier to see him hurting.

It's been three weeks since Jade's twenty-second birthday. And every night since then, Zane has been drunk as hell. It took both me and Griffin babysitting him for the past twenty-four hours to make sure he was sober enough to do this show.

"Boys," Gianna, our manager, purrs as she walks into the green room. "Amazing show, as always."

"Thanks, Gigi." Griffin winks.

"So, what"s the plan tonight? You guys headed back to the tour bus? Maybe we could all go out to eat to celebrate."

"No way we're staying in tonight," Griffin scoffs. "We're in Vegas, baby. We should be drinking and gambling."

"As fun as that sounds," Gianna crinkles her nose. "I don't think that's a good idea. We're working on keeping you out of the public eye in any kind of negative way. We're still recovering from the last incident."

"Look, I was high, I didn't think I'd make it to a bathroom," Griffin grumbles, crossing his arms as he leans back into the couch.

"You pissed against a tree," I snicker.

"So? People pee on trees all the time."

"Dude, it was one of those trees that are planted on the street, a few feet away from the red carpet," Zane sighs, scrubbing his face with his hand. I know he's wishing that the water bottle in his hands was a bottle of rum. I'm proud of him for not drinking so far tonight. Can't promise what the rest of the night will bring, though.

"Whatever." Griffin flips Zane off, making Zane smile and chuckle.

"Speaking of high, Griff... I thought we talked about taking drugs before going on stage," Gianna sighs.

"Gigi, babe, did you see that crowd? I needed that bit of pick-me-up. And we played amazing. You can't deny that."

Gianna practically swoons at Griffin calling her babe. She's a pretty woman, I can't deny that. With her only being a few years older than us—making her twenty-six—her blonde hair, blue eyes, and a body that has men doing double-takes, she is a knockout.

But in the six years since we signed on with Boom Voice Records, we've never taken it past a professional relationship. Much to Gianna's disappointment.

Don't get me wrong, we're not some rock star virgins or anything, we have our fun here and there, but we're not ones to mix business with pleasure.

"No more drugs, Griffin. You worked too hard to become a rock star cliché."

"Fine," he sighs. "Whatever you say, Mom."

"Don't make me out to be the bad guy." She crosses her arms. "I'm only doing my job."

"We know," I tell her. "And don't worry, I'll make sure he behaves."

She smiles. "I know you will. You always do." She wasn't wrong. Over the years, I've become the head alpha of the pack. You would think it would have been Zane. He was always the take charge one of our group, the protector, the one to make sure everyone was okay.

All that changed a long time ago.

Now, we each have our own ways to cope when things become too much, and sadly, in this life we live, it's more often than not. It's a very demanding job, but at the end of the day, it's worth it. We love what we do, we love our fans. We just wish we had her to share it with.

Griffin uses drugs to cope, mostly weed, but he uses something harder on occasion.

Zane uses alcohol or benzos, sometimes at the same time. The effects of that are not always pretty.

If Jade saw what the guys were doing, she would be so disappointed. Jade lost her parents due to overdose. She always despised drugs and wasn't the biggest fan of excessive consumption of alcohol. Whenever we would sneak away and drink in the treehouse, she would become a little mother hen, making sure we were okay and that we didn't drink too much.

Coming home to a drunk foster father every night didn't exactly help.

A part of me couldn't bring myself to do either, at least not on the level the others use their crutches. I have the occasional drink or smoke a blunt here and there, but that"s about it.

My form of escape is sex. A lot of it. I can't go a day without it. I'm pretty sure I'm in denial of being a sex addict, but it's the lesser evil of the three.

Not that Griffin or Zane seem to mind. They are always willing to bend me over any surface to fuck me until I'm screaming their name and dripping with their cum.

We're all unofficially together, but we're too fucked up over the girl from our past to give it a title. We know we're pack, we know we would die for one another, we're family, and we love each other; that"s all that matters to us.

That doesn't mean we don't bring a female into the mix every now and again. Only betas, though, never omegas.

There was a time a few years ago when we were all having anger-management issues. We were moody, frustrated, and starting fistfights with each other, arguing over every little thing. It was messing with our job. So Gianna made us go see a therapist. After talking to him, he told us we were repressed.

When we asked what the fuck he meant by that, he said we've been keeping our alpha instincts bottled up. And you know what his plan of treatment was? Bringing an omega into the mix.

After a lot of fighting, we tried it. The omega was nice enough, reacted to us just how an omega would an alpha, needy and aching to be fucked and filled by our knots.

But Zane was so lost and high from the omegas pheromones that he called the omega by the wrong name. He called her Jade, and when the omega corrected him, he lost it. He told her to get the fuck out before he stormed away too.

Safe to say we have never brought in another omega since then.

"If we're worried about being in the public eye, there is a place we can go to." Griffin digs out a pack of smokes from his jeans pocket and pulls one free, lighting it up.

"Where?" Zane asks, plucking one from the pack and doing the same.

Griffin takes a deep inhale, holding it for a second before blowing it up toward the roof. "The High Roller."

"What?" Gianna blurts. "Why on earth would you want to go there?" We all look her way. My brows furrow at her reaction. "I just mean..." her cheeks turn red. "I thought you guys hated omegas."

"We don't hate omegas," Griffin drawls. "We just don't fuck them."

"But that"s what that club is. A sex club where all their girls are omegas."

"They also have dancing, drinking, and gambling," Zane points out. "It would be the best place because it's very low-key. We wouldn't have to worry about someone catching us doing some stupid shit in there and selling the proof to the highest bidder."

"Then it"s settled!" Griffin whoops. "Let's go piss away our money and watch some sexy women dance."

AN HOUR AND A HALFlater, we're pulling up to a big building with golden doors. Two knights in armor stand guard on either side of the entrance.

I'm starting to regret coming. My cock has been fucking stiff since Zane got out of the shower. He didn't bother to wrap up in a towel either, walking around the hotel suite naked, which had my fucking mouth-watering. He shot me a damn wink like he knew what he was doing to me and then left me with a stiffy. Asshole.

"Don't we need to have a membership for this place?" I ask, looking out the window of the rented black SUV. "We should just go back to the hotel. We had a long night."

Zane grabs my chin, forcing my head to turn and face his. "Be a good boy tonight, Rett, and..." he murmurs in a low, husky tone that has my cock leaking. I'm not sure if I want to growl or whimper at the look in his eyes.

He knows I love praise, and he's using it against me right now. "I'll fuck that pretty little hole while Griffin sucks you dry."

"Fucking hell," Griffin groans. "Now I'm hard."

Zane just chuckles. "All we gotta do is name drop."

"Fine," I huff.

"I'll never get tired of you being a greedy little cock slut, Everett." Zane chuckles as he gets out of the SUV.

Sighing, I tell my cock to chill the fuck out and follow them to the door. A tall, buff as hell alpha with a bald head answers the door.

"Name?" he asks, eyeing us up with suspicion.

"We're guests of Mr. Grant," Zane tells him.

"Names," he demands again.

Zane glares at the guy as if this man can't kick our asses. "Zane Holt. This is Griffin Graves and Everett Hallowell."

The guy does something on his phone and puts it to his ear. "Yeah, Travis. We got some guests of Mr. Grant." He listens for a few seconds, making a few grunting noises, and then sighs. "Alright."

He hangs up the phone and gives us a displeased look. "Come on in, pretty boys." The guy follows us in. I've barely had a chance to take in the scene around me when an omega greets us. She's tall with big tits and blonde hair. She's hot. but I'm not into older women.

"Hey, boys."

"Hey, Leisha, Travis said to send these three up to get them to sign some papers," the door guy says.

"Thanks, Roger." She smiles at the scary man. "Follow me, boys."

As we follow her up the stairs, I can hear a mix of mellow music and the hum of conversation. This place is nothing like what we're used to.

Leisha leads us up to the manager's office. We're in and out after signing some NDAs and heading back down to the club before we know it.

"Have fun, boys. And behave." Leisha winks before sauntering away.

"Alright, where do we begin?"

After we spend a bit of time exploring the luxurious club, we all kind of part ways. Griffin hits up the poker table, no surprise there.

Zane goes straight to the bar, sadly, that's also not a surprise.

And I take a seat in one of the plush chairs in front of the stage. There's an omega up there dressed in sexy red lingerie, swaying her hips to the sensual sound of the music and capturing the attention of every man in front of her. Her long black hair flows down her back, almost becoming a part of the dance with the way it sways with the movement.

"Hey there." I look over to see a pretty little blonde omega dressed in a sexy red dress. "Can I get you a drink?"

"Yeah." I give her a friendly smile. "That would be nice. A rum and coke, please."

"Coming right up." She looks to be a little nervous, not quite confident in her job. I'm going to assume she's new around here.

I continue to watch the girl on the stage. My mind starts to drift, imagining someone else up there. The black hair turns to a bright copper, her brown eyes turning to an emerald green.

"Jade..." I find myself whispering. But when I blink, she's gone, the pretty black-haired omega still on stage dancing.

"Here you go." The pretty blonde says, coming back with my drink.

"Thanks." I hand her a hundred.

She takes it eagerly, making me chuckle. I wonder what their stories are. This place is high-end, only the best, but everyone has a past. What made them choose this life?

I end up ordering two more drinks before I start to feel a little fuzzy, a nice buzz thrumming through me. The downside of hardly ever drinking is I'm a fucking lightweight.

It doesn't take me long before I need to piss. Getting to my feet, I stumble a little before heading off to find a bathroom.

Afterward, I'm going to search for the others. I'm already done with this place. It's nice enough, but not my scene. I'd rather be back at the hotel, lost in sweaty limbs and hungry mouths.

"Hey, big boy," Leisha says. "You good?"

I give her a smile. "I'm more than good." I chuckle. "You wouldn't mind pointing me toward the bathroom, would you?"

She smirks. "We have some upstairs." She points behind her. "But if you want to avoid heading all the way upstairs, we have some across the club."

"Too far," I groan, and she gives me a soft chuckle.

"Good luck."

I make my way toward the stairs in the direction she pointed. I'm almost to the bottom of the step when I stumble to a stop. My eyes widen, and my heart starts hammering in my chest as a wave of nausea punches me in the gut. I feel like all the air in the room gets sucked out.

A woman with bright copper hair stands at the top of the stairs, adjusting her black form-fitting dress. My eyes slowly travel up her body and stop at her face. Those eyes. I'd know those eyes anywhere.

There's no fucking way. I must be a lot drunker than I thought. I quickly rub at my eyes, but when I look again, the image hasn't changed. There she is.

"Jade?" I whisper in utter disbelief, like I'm seeing a ghost from my past. Because I fucking am.

An omega with brown hair, dressed in a similar black dress as Jade's, comes over to her. Jade gives her a smile that stops my heart, and when she tips her head back to laugh, I fucking flatline. And maybe cum in my pants a little.

She nods to the woman and starts to walk toward me. I break out into a nervous sweat, my body paralyzed on the spot. She doesn't notice me as she walks past. I open my mouth, trying to will her name to come out of me, but nothing happens.

My nose twitches, getting a whiff of her scent. Sex. She smells like fucking sex. Was she just upstairs fucking someone?

A murderous rage starts to grow inside me, but it comes to a screeching halt when I get a hit of something else. Peaches and cream.

Everything around me slows to an almost dead stop as I'm hit with a million emotions. It's like my whole body's DNA shifts. The overwhelming need to go over there and kill anyone who looks at her, along with how my mouth waters and my cock stiffens, lets me know that my whole life just changed.

Everything snaps into place again, making me stagger to the side like I've been punched in the face.

Holy fuck. Holy-mother-fucking-fuck. I need to find the guys.

Looking around desperately, I try to find Jade, but I don't see her in the sea of people. But my eyes easily find Zane over at the bar. I'm not drunk anymore, that shock of a lifetime sobered me up real fast.

"Zane!" I practically shout, grabbing onto his shoulders.

"Shit, Rett," he growls. "You made me spill my drink."

"Fuck the drink," I snap frantically.

His brows furrow. "Everett, are you okay?"

"Okay?" I laugh manically. "Yes? No? I-I-I don't fucking know."

He grips my face. "What is going on?" he snarls demandingly.

"It's Jade," I whisper, blinking at him.

His whole body stills, a deadly storm passing over his eyes.

"What about her?" His voice is low and dangerous like he's ready to strike.

"Zane, we found her. Our girl... she's here."