Page 42 of Fenrir

“Like I said, it’s a private party,” the bartender called.

“It’s fine. I won’t interrupt.”

The bartender looked like he might say something more, but instead, he licked his lips and walked to a phone.

Fenrir didn’t have much time before Odin got wind of him being there. He jogged across the room to a back hallway lined with doors. One of the doors opened, and a waitress wearing little more than a bikini exited. She smiled at him as they passed each other, and he continued down the hall. His gut clenched tight, and his beast growled, thinking of Grace wearing something like that in front of other men. Or anyone, really. Male or female.

He stopped outside the large party room and stared at the door, listening and sniffing the air. A dozen men, several women, and Grace were beyond. His beast paced.

He just needed to see her. To talk to her. To explain. That’s it. He just needed to see her. If she turned him away, it was no more than he deserved. Even so, he needed her to hear him out at best, and at worst, he needed to make sure she was really okay.

* * *

Grace placedanother round of beers on the oval table one by one as the dancers at the front of the room moved in time with the music. She didn’t judge them for what they did. They seemed to thoroughly enjoy the attention and dancing with hardly anything on. She personally would never be able to do something like that for an audience. Well… maybe she could for an audience of one. Just one.

She set the glass of beer down a little too hard as she thought of Fenrir, and the stein cracked, and beer flowed out. The man in the seat jumped backward to avoid being spilled on.

“I’m so sorry,” said Grace. “Sometimes I don’t know my own strength.”

The group of vampires had been relatively well-behaved for the last two hours. Sure, some of them had gotten a bit handsy at one point or another, but that was par for the course. Grace had laughed it off both times and teased them about not wanting to upset her boyfriend, a big bad shifter. Luckily for her, they hadn’t known whether or not to believe her, so they’d opted for settling down instead of pushing her.

Grace set down her tray, pulled the towel from her apron, and began wiping furiously at the spilled beer.

“Damn, Woman,” said the vampire. “How freaking strong are you? I thought those things were pretty much indestructible.”

Grace chuckled, mopped the rest of the beer onto her tray, and set the cracked mug on there. “I’m so sorry. I’ll get you another free beer.”

“Dammit! You got it on me,” said the vampire next to her.

Grace looked over to see several small spots on the male’s shirt.

“I am sorry.” Grace attempted to wipe his shirt.

He pushed her away. “Do you know how much this shirt cost?”

Grace growled and forced a smile on her face as the vampire swayed slightly. She’d tried to keep her distance from the moment she’d laid eyes on him. Something about him had been wrong from the moment she’d walked into the room and asked to take their orders.

“Again, I am so sorry. Let me get some soda water to clean it out. And a free round for everyone.”

The rest of the group whooped and cheered.

Grace turned to go, but the man grabbed her wrist. Her spirit self snarled.

“No,” he said. “You’re gonna either buy me a new shirt or pay me some other way.”

The man who’d stood laughed. “Come on, Jershon, let the girl go. She didn’t mean to.”

The man’s eyes turned red, and his fangs descended into his mouth. “What’s it going to be, sweetheart? Are you going to pay in cash or blood?”

Laughter sounded around the table, and Grace looked at the dancers, who glanced at each other nervously. One of them slid out a hidden panel in the back of the room.

Grace was in no mood to be messed with. She’d lost her virginity two days prior, and since then, she’d not heard a peep from the immortal god who was supposed to be her mate. The ache in her core had grown from dull to almost full-blown cramps in the past twenty-four hours. And she was pretty sure that if she didn’t have real sex with Fenrir sometime soon, her entire uterus would explode.

Even so, Grace continued to keep her smile and voice even. “I won’t give you anything unless you let go of me.”

His grip tightened on her wrist further. “I’ll let go when I say it’s time to let go. And you will give me what I tell you to give me when I tell you to give it to me.”

He jerked her in close, and her tray crashed to the ground.

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