Page 5 of Alpha Wolf's Nanny
“Hey,” said Nicolas with a warning tone, “we agreed no work tonight! Let’s kick back, have a bit of fun. Why don’t you go talk to someone?”
Felix narrowed his eyes. “Talk to someone?”
“Do you need me to spell it out for you?” Nicolas replied. “You need to get laid, Felix. You’re way too pent-up. You need to release some of that tension before you start taking it out on the pack.”
Rick chuckled, settling back into his seat, his gaze landing on Dane grinding up against a human in the dancing throng of bodies. “I think some pack members might deserve it.”
“Seriously, when was the last time you hooked up with someone?” Nicolas asked, ignoring Rick, “There’s a bar full of beautiful young women here. Pick one and go and talk to her.”
“Humanwomen,” Felix replied with a scowl. “You know I don’t go with human women.”
Nicolas and Rick exchanged a glance, and Rick leaned forward cautiously. “Normally, I’d agree with you there. But let’s face it, you’re the alpha of one of the largest, most powerful packs in North America. If you sleep with a shifter from our pack, it causes problems. You sleep with a shifter from another pack; it raises questions. You sleep with a rogue or a nomad, people will call you out on it. Your position is…complicated.”
“Complicated,” Felix repeated, rubbing his forehead. “You don’t say.”
“A one-night thing with a human woman won’t kill you, Felix,” Rick said. “Just try it out, and if you hate it, you can go back to being a monk, and we’ll all suffer for it. Agreed?”
Felix eyed them both—Nicolas with his earnest, worried intensity and Rick with his laid-back yet somewhat conniving eyes—and threw his hands up in the air. “Alright. Fine. You win. I’ll talk to someone. But I can’t promise I’ll actually go home with them.”
“Perish the thought,” Rick murmured, pulling a shiny plastic hotel key card out of the pocket of his jacket. “Which is why I booked you a room.”
***
After accepting a few more drinks and enjoying a laugh with his friends, Felix finally stood to meander over to the bar. A few women brushed against him as he went, their eyes narrow with attraction, biting their painted lips at him, but he ignored them. That sort was not his type and never had been.
At the bar, he ordered a gin and struck up a conversation with a couple of young loggers home for the weekend. They were a boisterous group, but had some interesting stories to tell, plus enough experience dealing with shifters not to bat an eyeat Felix’s presence. The same couldn’t be said for other human men in the bar; he’d gotten more than one dirty look that he’d diplomatically ignored.
One of the loggers was just regaling the group with a story about his supposed encounter with a malevolent tree spirit when Felix happened to glance over at the other end of the bar. A noisy group of friends was leaning over the marble, shouting their orders and teasing each other for their drink choices.
But one woman wasn’t. She hung back slightly, her arms around her middle as she cast a wary eye over the crowd. While her dark green dress hung beautifully from her slight curves and her round face was pleasingly pretty under a rudimentary sweep of makeup, Felix got the distinct impression that she wasn’t used to being in places like this, dressed up as she was. One of her friends looked back and said something to her, handing her a cocktail, and instantly her face forced itself into a mask of happy indifference.
Felix cocked his head, watching as she lifted the glass of alarmingly fluorescent liquid to her lips, her nose scrunching slightly at the taste. He decided then that his earlier appraisal was wrong. She didn’t look pretty. She was gorgeous. And just like him, she had likely been dragged out by her friends to a trendy club she had no interest in being in. And that made her, at the very least, an ally of sorts.
Felix said goodbye to the loggers, wishing them luck on their next expedition north, and picked his way through the crowded room towards her. As he approached, her friends were pulling her hands, trying to cajole her onto the dance floor, but she was looking at the mass of bodies with something akin to pure horror.
“No, really, guys,” she pleaded. Her voice was low and melodious, despite the desperation. “You go on ahead of me. I’ll just…wait here by the bar.”
Her friends groaned and whined, but she wasn’t to be deterred, and eventually they relented, letting her settle back against the marble of the bar, clutching her drink. Felix leaned on the bar next to her, casting his eye over her form. He supposed that for a human woman, she would be considered somewhat tall, but compared to him, she was still tiny. A small crease had formed between her eyebrows as she watched her friends, and this close to Felix, she could see that her nose had a smattering of freckles.
“Not a fan of dancing?” he said.
She looked up suddenly, stepping back from him, her eyes widening.
Felix gave her his best easy-going smile, shoving his hands in his pockets and trying to make himself a bit smaller. As much as being physically large and intimidating was useful as an alpha, in situations like these, it was more of a hindrance, really.
“Hi, I’m Felix,” he said.
“Cassie,” she replied, still sort of guarded. “And no, not a fan of dancing. Not in a place like this, anyway.”
“What are you doing here, then?” Felix asked, smiling as she huffed and rolled her eyes.
“I got a new job. My…friends think we need to celebrate.”
“A new job deserves celebration,” Felix said with a wink. “How about I buy you a drink? You don’t seem too keen on whatever that godawful fluorescent nightmare is.”
Cassie glanced down at the cocktail in her hands, a slight blush spreading over her cheeks as she peeked back up at himthrough her lashes. “Not really,” she admitted, a hesitant smile spreading across her face. “In fact, it’s horrible.”
“What will it be, then?” Felix asked, gesturing at the bartender. “You strike me as a whiskey kind of girl.”
