Page 36 of Blood and Trouble

Lycan hugged me tighter, the sound of his chuckle vibrating through my chest.

CHAPTER 7

Poe

Bow met me at Copenhagen Airport with a friendly hug and a quick handshake. I didn’t typically go around sniffing my packmates, but when I got close to him, something heavenly and delightful assaulted my nose.

Mango. Vanilla. Coconut.

“It’s good to see you, you broody son of a bitch,” Bow said, nodding toward the car.

“You, too.” I walked to the passenger seat. “Did you get a new cologne? It smells great.”

“What?” Bow laughed and climbed into the driver’s side. “No.”

He chatted most of the ride to the hotel while I tried not to dwell on coming face-to-face with the love of my life for the first time in months. Yeah, I’d seen him around the homestead. He’d started working out more, and he’d cut off all his curly blond hair, making him seem more serious somehow—like he balanced his checkbook or invested in the stock market or some adult shit like that. Lycan had never taken anything seriously in his life. Not me, not his finances. Nothing.

Knowing he looked good didn’t make this journey any easier for me. My stomach twisted into angry knots, and my leg wouldn’t stop bouncing. I tried to focus on the Danish skyline, but with each passing minute that I got closer to being in his vicinity, my lungs grew tighter, and my wolf whined louder.

He always knew how to reel me in, how to make me submit, how to take what little willpower I cultivated for myself, wrap it firmly around his fist, and yank. Fuck if I wouldn’t be on my knees in less than a week.

That scent billowed off Bow again, tugging me from the depths of my depravity. It was hypnotizing, making me want to jump my securely hetero buddy.

“Are you sure you’re not wearing anything?” I turned toward him and inhaled deeply. “Or maybe…were you with someone earlier?”

“Oh.” Bow laughed as understanding dawned on him. “It’s Ava.”

I blinked. “Ava Vanderbilt?”

Bow nodded. “She went into her transition a few days ago.”

I took a deep breath through my mouth, tasting that mouthwatering array of pheromones, and cursed the beast inside me that wanted to bottle it up and wear it around his neck like a collar.

No.

No, we’re not going there.

It’s just a female in transition. That’s all. That’s the appeal.

“I’m surprised you can smell it,” Bow said as he pulled up in front of a huge luxury hotel. “It ended earlier today, and I’ve showered like five times since then, trying to get the scent off.”

I stilled at the information and tried not to read into it. Again, it meant nothing. Ava was a powerful shifter from a line of powerful shifters. Of course her hormones would go buck-wild when she transitioned. The fact that it left me half hard the entire ride was just a side note, nothing to worry about.

Mine, my wolf growled. Find. Take. Claim. Mine.

I winced and rubbed my forehead.

Shut the fuck up. I sneered at the idiot beast. What exactly did he think was going to happen? That I would walk in there, sweep her off her rich little feet, claim her as my mate, and ride off into the sunset with her?

She’d spent the last month and a half with Lycan. He’d helped her through her transition. If they weren’t fucking before, they certainly were now. And I’d be the outsider, the unnecessary bystander. I’d be the one they asked to throw them the cum-towel and close the door on my way out.

Despite how delicious her scent might be, Ava and Lycan were both off-limits, and this was going to be six weeks sent straight from my own personal hell.

The rush of Ava’s scent bombarded me as soon as we stepped inside the hotel’s foyer. The place screamed luxury, and there were probably marble columns and a harpist in the corner or whatever else these rich assholes thought they needed at the entrance to a hotel. I noticed none of it.

I focused on my breathing, on inhaling and exhaling through my mouth to keep from going rabid as her scent grew stronger, more potent, reaching inside of me to wrap around my heart and bang the pathetic thing against my rib cage until I could barely walk.

We took the elevator to the penthouse floor, and I nearly keeled over when the doors opened. The inviting bouquet of citrus hit me in the face, mixing with Lycan’s toxic blend of leather and cedar and man. The combination sent me into a tailspin, and I clutched the handle on the side of the wall to stay upright.