Chapter 3

Derek grimaced as he turned away from Zane to look down at Maleki who was ten seconds from howling in ecstasy. If he did, the dancer would be his for life, human or not. And while the wolf’s choices shouldn’t matter to Derek, per se, he knew what it was like. His love didn’t know what she was saying, or how she was locked to his heart, but still she howled with him. Aislyn…

“Aislyn…” he heard her name the same time it rang through his thoughts.

That wasn’t real. He couldn’t have heard that, he told himself. 

Despite how he wanted to tell Maleki not to howl when he came, the opportunity slipped away from him. Derek turned to follow the continuance of the nearly one sided conversation between some woman and someone, he dutifully reminded himself, wasn’t his Aislyn. The woman went on and on about how she had this tonight. 

“It’s your music, hun. You’re the only one who knows how to move to it,” the woman implored. 

“I’m not a dancer.”

“Uh, have you seen the way you move?”

“That’s different. It’s… a connection.”

“A connection…”

“A connection,” Derek whispered to himself, echoing the woman still there with her.

“Then you understand why dancing isn’t the legitimate sex you’re selling out there,” she remarked.

Derek swallowed his tongue still entranced by hope. 

“You know it’s not as bad as it looks,” the woman replied.

Aislyn huffed. Derek could feel the corners of his lips quirk up at the sound of it. 

“Those dancers are completely sober and taking their business to the level they feel comfortable with,” she paused, adding, “You don’t have to do anything more than what you’re comfortable with but if you don’t dance tonight, you’ll be out.”

“What do you mean, I’ll be out?” Aislyn snapped back. “I’m the DJ.”

“And replaceable. Everyone is looking for work. Not just you,” the woman said apologetically. 

“If you fire me, my music comes with me.”

“Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Your contract is binding. Your work, everything you’ve ever mixed, even though you’ve saved us in hard times with the dope shit you brought in, will be ours.”

“I didn’t sign a contract for that…” 

“You did,” the woman recited the page number and all of the clauses. “Don’t make me remind you why you’re here or what you came from.”

Derek kept his eyes trained on the door beyond him, waiting for them to exit. If it was her, his Aislyn, he’d intervene. If not, he’d back off, Derek told himself, regardless of how hard it was to detach himself from the possibilities that it was her. But the pair didn’t, only one emerged, and it certainly wasn’t Aislyn. 

“Can I help you?” the woman’s voice cut through him. 

“I’m looking for the DJ,” he began, while he stared back into her guarded eyes. 

They almost looked injured after speaking to Aislyn as she did. The woman’s behavior was off, and as he came to notice her uniform was lacking, Derek realized then that she was just another dancer. 

“Are you her boyfriend?” she asked pensively. 

As much as he wanted to speak up about their relationship, he couldn’t. No one knew, not even her. And she didn’t deserve that kind of life, or to be called out for it. 

“Just a friend,” he replied carefully. 

It seemed like this one would know the difference whether he decided to lie to her or not. The rest of the staff looked less so and momentarily, he wished that it was anyone else than this short dancer before him. 

“Yeah, okay buddy,” she rolled her eyes at him and stalked off towards the main stage without another word. 

Derek lost her in the crowd thereafter. It shouldn’t have panicked him the way it did but there he was, holding onto a lifeline of a stranger that might know where his Aislyn had gone. It didn’t matter that he was a werewolf. He wouldn’t have been able to find her if she didn’t want him to. Unlike the stories that have circulated about them, even now, werewolves couldn’t just find whomever they wanted to. The most he had of her now smelled entirely like himself, that’s how long it’s been since he saw her last. And now, the hope of finding her again was dying just as he did inside all that time ago.

The bass in the room began to amplify again and was mildly disorienting, making him disband his thoughts altogether. If the DJ was his Aislyn and she needed this job to get by, Derek told himself he’d stay. Her prerecorded music gently came in and around him the way that she used to dance with his wolf. It weaved itself around him, through him, as if it was tethering him in place. All the while the light under his feet scorched the ground below him. It moved with her music and called out to those who were sitting to get up and move towards the mainstage in the middle of the room. 

Derek swallowed harder when the stage lit up with the same orange and red hues but she still was nowhere to be seen. Was she even still there? Did he even hear what he thought he did? Was he hallucinating? 

Maybe he was. Maybe he should have cared about what exactly was in his glass. Did Zane drink his? Derek couldn’t remember. Especially not as his eyes landed on where they hid the DJ booth, high above their setup. While everyone around him grumbled about there being no dancer, Derek swallowed his tongue as Aislyn emerged from it, toeing an unseen catwalk, high above them. 

Derek missed the way the light climbed up to her, leaving those on the floor in darkness once more. All the while she, too, disappeared from view. Her music released him to climb up within her space, pausing there, wherever it had reached, until her angelic lyrics claimed the rafters. Her message ricocheted above them and despite how she still wasn’t present, she had every man’s attention now.