AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My teeth pull back into a growl as I shove him lightly. He chuckles but doesn’t stop me, dramatically rocking to the side as though I actually used my strength on him.
“Well, if she wants a problem, she’s got one,” I declare, straightening my clothes and hair in a feeble attempt to make it look like I hadn’t just been about to have sex in my office. “Take her over to one of the booths, and I’ll be out in a minute. I don’t need someone thinking we have any ties with them, not after what her grandmother said today.”
“Probably for the best,” Seline says, reaching for the doorknob. “She won’t want to make a scene in public … hopefully.”
Seline opens the door and walks out into the hallway, leaving Arsenio and me alone as the door closes behind her.
“Are you ready for this?” I ask, grinning as I glance at Arsenio.
“Oh, I was born ready, firecracker,” he drawls, wrapping a hand around my waist. He tugs me over to face him, a mischievous look gleaming in his eyes.
“Perfect, let’s let her sweat a bit first.” I lean up on my toes and press my lips against his in a soft, tantalizing kiss.
The witch can wait.
AriaHart.Myeyeslock onto her the moment I open the door, analyzing her before I check over the rest of the club. Opal Moon is usually a hot spot for shifters, but more and more witches and warlocks have been frequenting the club recently. I take stock of who’s here, cataloging the familiar faces. Striding across the dance floor, my gait confident and sure, I sweep my alpha presence over the crowd in warning.
Heads turn, some in fascination, some in shock, as I walk past them and straight to the heir to the Hart coven.
Let them know I’m speaking with the witch heir and that her presence isn’t important enough to warrant a meeting in private—at least not yet.
I can feel her eyes on me, that same blue-green as her grandmother, sparking my fury from earlier with just that look. Her long caramel-brown hair cascades around her bare shoulders, her strapless black dress hugging her curves.
I sense a flutter of hesitation, but it’s gone in an instant, a facade of calm washing over her expression as I slide into the booth across from her. Arsenio stands beside me, angling himself, so he can see both of us and the crowd behind us. Despite the tactical position, he feigns a casual nonchalance as he leans against the booth and flicks open his lighter. The flames dance before his face, casting a sinister red and orange hue over his features, making his hair look ablaze.
He’s so fucking hot.
I push down the heat rising in my chest and turn an unimpressed look on Aria. “What is the heir to the Hart coven doing in my club?”
“Are witches not allowed in here?” she snaps, her brow lifting as though she’s caught me.
Seline wasn’t wrong about the attitude.
“Oh no, everyone is allowed in. I just figured you might harbor the same feeling towards shifters as your grandmother,” I say, my lip curling in disgust.
Arsenio lets loose a chuckle, his glee flickering through the bond.
“I don’t,” she declares, the vehemence in her tone drawing my attention back to her. “I’m nothing like her.”
“So what is it that you want?” I lean back slightly, my fingers tapping a steady staccato on my knee, my mind already formulating a plan if what she says is true.
“Do you not know what’s happened? About the attack on the academy?”
Academy? I sense confusion through the bond, confirming neither of us knows what the hell she’s talking about. I know of the academy, of course—the bears weren’t the only supernaturals excluded from the town. But these creatures are a much bigger threat, so much so that we agreed to each enroll our top candidates in the elite monster hunter academy to keep both us and the humans outside our borders safe.
“That’s monster hunter business,” I reply coolly, not wanting to show my cards. “I let my hunters handle that.”
That isn’t a lie. My father didn’t have much contact with those who followed that path, but the truth is, with everything happening with the bears, I haven’t had a chance to follow up on all the Draven pack affairs yet.
“Well, one of your own was fighting to defend the school, and he was taken back to the monster realm,” she says, anger permeating her words.
“A wolf?” I ask, unsure of what she’s trying to get at. Was he pack?
I internally chastise myself for letting that confusion show, but it almost seems to calm her, as though my ignorance of her plight somehow convinces her she can trust me.
“Yes, and he’s from your pack—Greyson Caine.”
I wince as the name echoes in my mind. I don’t know him, but I know the Caines, know that they have a son just a few years younger than me. Perhaps I would’ve gotten to know him if I hadn’t been sent away all those years ago.
