Page 18 of Alpha Chase

“So did you find him?” Serena asks, an amused glint in her blue eyes.

I swallow down the whiskey, wiping my mouth on a sleeve. “Yeah. He’s burying his dick in the town skank.”

Serena smirks. “Scoundrel.” She lifts her cup to her lips and I can smell the grape vodka from here. I don’t know how she can stomach that fruity shit, but I always keep it on hand for her. She swallows, licking her lips. “Hey, it’s my birthday next week. We’re going out to the bar in Stillwater to celebrate. You should come.”

“Sure, I’ll be there.” I turn to her, and the flash of a memory makes a grin come to my lips. “Will there be body shots?”

She smacks me across the chest with the back of her hand. “Haha. Very funny.”

The first night I met Serena, I was out celebrating my eighteenth birthday at the Stillwater Tap and nearly did a body shot off of her. Her mate, Reid, got all huffy and intervened before I could. I’m glad we can laugh about it now- and even after a start like that, we’ve become close. I might treat other women like shit, but Serena has the unique privilege of being my only female friend. My boys complain about it, say that I put her on a pedestal or some shit, but they know that if they so much as look at her sideways I’ll kick their asses.

“I should get back,” Serena breathes, finishing off her drink and leaning forward to set her cup on the coffee table. “If you see Liv, let her know I’m looking for her.”

“Will do,” I say, tipping the whiskey bottle in her direction.

Serena gives the guys a little wave, turning away and striding toward the door to head out. I take another pull from the bottle, the steady thump of the music ringing in my ears like a heartbeat.

“What’d you do to Stasia?” I hear Miles ask. “She came down here even more pissed off than usual. Practically dragged Levi away, not that he wasn’t willing.”

That’s the thing about Levi- he might hate Stasia’s guts, but he’s never one to turn down an easy lay, even after playing at being a gentleman all night with Vienna and acting like he gave a shit. That’s all it is, a fucking act. At the end of the night, he’ll resort to whatever’s available with a pussy and a pulse.

I roll my eyes, head falling back on the couch. “Nothing I haven’t done before.”

The bass beat continues thumping like a pulse as my eyes slide closed, my limbs heavy.This.This was what I wanted tonight. To get fucked up and zone out, not get all twisted up over some random chick. Yet even now, I’m thinking of those eyes. Those lips. Thatbite. It’s like she’s switched on something deep inside of me that was hidden and dangerous, and now that she has, I’m not sure I can turn it off again.

Even if I could, I’m not sure I want to.

CHAPTER NINE

Vienna

“IfeellikeIwas hit by a bus,” I groan, squeezing my eyes shut and dropping my head into my hands.

Nessa walks out of the storage room carrying a case of beer, shooting me a sympathetic look as she drops it on top of the bar. It lands with a thud, bottles clanking together, and the sound shoots a fresh wave of pain through my head like a bullet.

I wince, pressing my fingers to my temples. “What the hell was in that jungle juice?”

“Whatever it was, it was delicious,” Nessa quips as she rips the top of the case open, reaching inside to pull out bottles of beer. She looks up at me, slumped in a pitiful heap on a stool on the other side of the bar with my head still in my hands. “Though judging by how you look today, Levi wasn’t lying about it being strong. I’m glad I stopped at one.”

I groan, wincing again as she starts to load the beers into the cooler below the bar, every clank and clatter of the bottles making me flinch. She lifts the empty cardboard box when she’s finished, shooting me a pointed look. “You’ve gotta pull it together, girl, we open in an hour and I can’t stock these coolers by myself.” She heads back into the storage room behind the bar, returning a moment later. “Here.” I lift my head to blink up at Nessa as she thrusts a bottle of water in my direction. “Hydrate. Give that shifter healing of yours a boost.”

I take the water from her gratefully, cracking the lid and taking a sip. Nessa’s phone vibrates on top of the bar and from the sound it makes, it may as well be vibrating right against my skull. I watch as she reaches out to grab it, swiping the screen to unlock it and smiling down at whatever she sees. Sipping the water slowly, I work up the strength to slide off the stool, clutching the side of the bar to steady myself.

“Alright, what else needs to be stocked?” I ask, dragging my feet as I head around the bar toward the storage room.

“Everything,” she mumbles, still focused on her phone. Funny how one minute she’s giving me shit about not helping and the next she’s sucked into her phone, shirking her own responsibilities.

I retrieve another case of beer from the storage room, hauling it out to the bar and dropping it on the counter. Even when I tear it open and start to unload it, Nessa is still just standing there, smiling down at her phone as her thumbs move over the keyboard, typing a message. I finish unloading the entire case into the cooler before my curiosity gets the best of me and I swivel to face her, folding my arms across my chest.

“Okay, I’ve gotta know. Who’s making you smile like that?”

“What?” She lifts her gaze to me, eyes wide like a deer caught in the headlights. “No one.”

“Bullshit,” I laugh. “Who are you texting?”

Nessa looks down at her phone again, reading something on the screen that has a rosy blush forming on her cheeks. If my interest wasn’t piqued before, it definitely is now. I step toward her, reaching out in an attempt to snatch her phone from her hands. “Who is it?!”

She clutches her phone to her chest protectively, swiveling away so I can’t grab it. “Nobody!”

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