Page 1 of The Reluctant Wolf and His Fated Mate
Chapter 1
Damon
Damon stared at the gargoyle statues flanking the sides of the club and ground his teeth. Traveling here had been a mistake.
He didn’t care if the venue attracted shifters.
An unsettling sensation had prickled the back of his neck the moment his pack’s alpha had suggested the excursion three nights ago.
“There’s an underground club on the Massachusetts coast,” Rafe had said after a pack meeting. “Let’s head down for the weekend.” He’d motioned to Damon, one of the pack’s enforcers, and Grayson, their beta. “We might have a better chance at finding our mates, since we’re not having any luck here.”
That was just fine with Damon. Mates were nothing but trouble. Just ask his father.
Impossible. His father was long gone.
Damon groaned to himself. All because of that so-called magical bond with a mate. More like a suicidal noose.
He attempted to push his unease about this club aside and followed Rafe and Grayson inside. They navigated down a dark passageway lit by electric sconces. Damon had to force his feet forward. He couldn’t wait to return to the solitude of his cabin back on Franconia Mountain. He could ski by day and hunt for prey in wolf form come dusk. If he wanted a female companion, there were plenty of snow bunnies that came for short-term visits, which made it easier to avoid relationships. But as a pack enforcer, his loyalty and protection remained with his alpha. If Rafe wanted to go on some mad mission to find his mate, Damon would go at his command.
That didn’t mean he had to agree to seek out a potential mate himself.
They reached a door guarded by a human male with dark skin and muscular biceps that strained the sleeves of his black shirt. While Grayson handled the financial transaction, Damon read the sign mounted on the door:
“Abandon hope all ye who enter here.”
The creepy decor is a little over the top,he communicated telepathically to Rafe.
What did you expect from a club that attracts supes—rainbows and unicorns?
The bouncer let them enter. Before Damon even stepped across the threshold, a remix of a familiar song with a sinister vibe slithered under his skin. He rolled his neck to ease the returning discomfort. Still, he walked inside.
His senses were assaulted at once—not only by the music that seemed to fuse inside his body and echo in his ears, but by the bright lights and the scents. It was human perspiration mixed with desire.
As his vision adjusted to the red, purple, and white lights that traveled overhead, he scanned from one end of the club to the other. Gargoyle statues were mounted like stone sentries from perches both near the ceiling and down at ground level. They were the only things standing still. People moved constantly, from those walking to those dancing, moving like serpents under strobe lights.
Damon blew out a rough breath. “I need a drink.”
Grayson nodded and motioned to the bar with rows of bottles lit under crimson lights. “Come on.”
Once they ordered drinks from a pink-haired bartender, Rafe led the trio as they walked single file along the edge of the dance floor. They stood at least half a head above most of the men nearby. Rafe scoped out the dancers, likely eying the women in black outfits that revealed plenty of skin. Damon forced himself to take deep, slow breaths to ward off the claustrophobic vibe.
He gulped his mojito. “I’m not going to dance.”
Grayson chuckled. “Won’t or can’t?”
Damon scowled.
“I don’t care if you stand as still as one of the gargoyles,” Rafe added. “It’s good for you to experience something different. Besides, you know why we’re here.”
Right. Alpha’s call: find mates.
Rafe had been growing increasingly restless as the years passed. Being a billionaire in his thirties and owning a successful ski resort in the White Mountains wasn’t enough for him. He wanted a mate at his side.
Not Damon.
Mates could make you lose reason. Lose everything.
Lose your mind.
