Chapter 6

Eliana POV

When Enzo suggested a night on the town, I turned him down, hoping to bury my sorrows in the chocolate stashed in the hotel minibar instead. I understood that he was trying to get my head off of my brother and the lies I was going to have to tell my mom, but I didn’t really feel like partying. I knew that Elijah was alive - call it intuition or “twin-telepathy”, I could feel it in my bones that he was somewhere out there, alive. It took all I had in me not to break out of the penthouse suite and hunt him down, but the doors to the elevator were guarded by werewolves who looked like they were related to the Hulk, and abseiling to the ground from the balcony was a definite “no” from me. 

Enzo kept nagging though, saying it would be good for me to get out. I eventually caved, knowing that Enzo’s team were searching for Eli and that they had the man-power and skill I could never match. I had to believe that it would be alright, I had to trust him - even though it was extremely hard to trust anyone who wasn’t my family. I had to make an exception this time. 

However, when I finally agreed to Enzo's suggestion of a night on the town, I certainly wasn't expecting to spend the evening at a strip club.

"So, what do you think?" He grinned at me, as if he was showing me Paris or Tokyo. 

"It's… different," I admitted as we slipped into the booth which the hostess showed us to. 

I rolled my eyes at Enzo whose eyes were glued to her chest as she asked him what we'd like to drink. "Brandy and coke for me, and get my friend over here a girlie drink," he ordered without asking me what I'd prefer. 

I bit down on my lip to stop myself from saying anything, still unsure of how far I can push my boundaries with these people. Better to be silent than sorry. 

The woman smiled and nodded before she went and fetched our drinks, brushing her breasts purposefully against Enzo’s arm as she leant forward and set the two glasses down. I have no clue what I was drinking, but it was pink, served in a cocktail glass, and was utterly delicious. 

"Slow down there, tiger,"Enzo laughed, watching with wide eyes as I took a large sip. “I'm going to the bathroom. Don't move a muscle until I get back.” 

I blushed slightly, feeling the effects of the alcohol immediately - I'm not usually the partying kind of person. I used to go to pubs whenever Eli played a gig there, but I usually sat in the corner trying to avoid the drunkards, drinking bottled water. 

Enzo stood up and disappeared into the darkness of the room. I felt someone staring at me, and somehow I knew who it was - the alpha, my ex-mate, my master. One brief glance toward a booth on the opposite side of the darkened room and I knew my feelings were right. Even though I couldn't really see him, I knew he was there. I knew that he was looking my way, even with the semi naked Barbie hanging upside down on the pole in front of him. 

A manicured hand slapped the table in front of me, drawing my eyes from where Luca sat to the tall, slender woman beside me. 

“What are you doing here? Who said you were allowed to be let out of the cage you belong in?” Nina growled, her eyes narrowed. 

“I… I came with Enzo,” I stammered, taken aback by the malice in her voice. 

She sneered and tapped her long nails against the table, the sound audible even over the loud music in the club. 

“Of course you came with Enzo,” she said his name as if she was disgusted by it. “Luca would never agree to you being here. He would lock you away if he had the choice, like the mangy dog you are. Your kind should be put down. You serve no purpose in the werewolf world, you're just a disgrace to the rest of us who work and train hard to keep the dignity of werewolves in tact. I bet you can't even fight off a single rogue.” 

I felt the blood from my face drain as the memory of the rogue attack played in my mind. Nina probably noticed as she continued her attack. “No wonder your brother is dead in a ditch somewhere. You couldn't even defend him.” 

I wished I could run away from her assault, but I knew she was right. I'd failed because I hadn't learned how to fight. Neither Elijah or I had felt it important to learn. I wanted to shrink, to go and hide in the bathroom until she went away, but Nina was blocking my escape.

Nina lifted her wine glass, swirling the red liquid slightly before she moved to pour it over me.

I closed my eyes subconsciously and opened them again until I heard Nina's screams. 

 Enzo slapped at the glass and knocked it toward Nina, the wine pouring down her white and gold jumpsuit like blood. Aghast, she looked down at her outfit in horror before Nina turned to see Enzo glaring at her.

“Like you'd do much better?” Enzo asked Nina with a laugh. “You can't even fight off a pup, so I can't see how you'd manage to fight off a rogue. You'd probably have sold us all out if you'd been in the same position as Eliana, so shut your nasty mouth and move along.”

Nina turned her fury on Enzo, and I could almost see the froth building in her mouth. 

“At least I'm not so desperate for attention that I have to try and fuck my brother's castoffs. You can have her though,” Nina looked at me down her slender nose, “Luca rejected her for a reason. She's not good enough for him, or the pack.” 

Enzo laughed loudly and sank into the booth across from me dismissively. 

“Oh, Nina. You think Luca will make you his Luna just because you suck his dick? If it were that easy, half of Europe would be Luna by now. You're just another pipe cleaner in a long line, and as long as you keep bending over and keeping your mouth shut, he will keep you around.” 

Nina's face turned red at his words and she opened her mouth to retort, but was stopped in her tracks by Enzo's next words. 

“At the end of the day, you're replaceable. Eliana isn't. He may have rejected her, but she is still Luca’s true mate, and her talent at a laptop is incomparable. You'll never be able to reach her level of importance.” 

Nina's lips disappeared into a thin line before she let out a shriek of anger and turned away, slinking back into the darkness of the club. 

With a chuckle, Enzo lifted his drink to me in a toast… only I'd somehow managed to finish my drink without even noticing. Enzo was about to say something when his phone vibrated on the table and he frowned when he looked at the caller ID.

"Go get yourself something more to drink while I take this," he instructed me, slipping me some money and pointing toward the bar. 

I picked up my glass and took it with me, years of being a waitress hard to shake off. "Can I please get a refill," I asked the shirtless barman as he dried a glass with a cloth, his muscles flexing with every movement. 

"Yeah, sure. What's your poison?" He asked, taking my glass from me. 

I felt myself blush again, "I don't know what the name of the drink I had is." 

He smiled warmly and winked at me. "I'll make you something special then, your perfect drink. A drink so perfect for you that you won't want to drink anything else."

"Oh really?" I said with a laugh, sitting down on one of the bar stools. 

"But first you'll have to answer some questions for me to get your perfect drink right," he smiled, leaning against the bar. 

I leant forward, elbows resting on the bar and a slight smile tugging at the corner of my mouth at his confidence. 

"Alright, ask away." 

"Are you here with a boyfriend?" 

"Nope, I don't have a boyfriend, he's just a friend." I replied, blurring the lines of my relationship quite significantly. 

"You live around here?"

I shook my head in response and he smiled again before he resumed his questions. "Pink or blue?"

"Ooh, that's a hard one. Can I choose purple instead?"  

He laughed loudly, drawing the attention of a couple at the nearby booth. "Alright, purple it is then." 

Only, the drink he made me wasn't purple. It looked like what would result from sexy-time between a rainbow and an iceberg. And it had an umbrella and a twisty straw stabbed into it. It was so ridiculous, I couldn't help but laugh as he passed it to me.

"What on earth is this?" I giggled, looking at it sceptically.

"Don't judge it until you try it, I promise it will knock your socks off." 

I dragged the glass closer, playing with the straw for a few seconds until I lowered my lips to it. 

"Don't," a rough voice commanded in my ear as a hand wrapped around mine and removed it from the glass, forcing me to abandon the drink. 

"Hey man, what are you doing?" The bartender was clearly angry with Luca for taking my drink from me. 

Luca radiated power as he leant forward, still holding my hand in his. "I don't like it when people try to drug women, especially those who answer to me." 

Drug? The bartender was trying to drug me? 

"You don't know what the hell you're talking about, so why don't you run back to your table and mind your own business," the bartender threw back, flexing his muscles slightly and almost daring Luca to react. 

Luca didn't need much provocation. Within a blink of an eye, he reached out over the bar and grabbed the shirtless barman by the hair, slamming the man's face into the marble bar top with impressively controlled strength. I couldn't help but be turned on by his display of raw masculinity.

"What the fuck! She said she didn't have a boyfriend," the bartender spat out furiously as he clutched his broken nose, blood streaming over his lips.

"She doesn't, but she's mine," Luca replied calmly. 

This seemed to make the bartender even more angry, and he jumped over the bar, lashing out with his fists. A blow landed against Luca's cheek, barely leaving a mark but it was enough to make the alpha snap. With a speed no human could ever emulate, he had the man by the neck and lifted him off the ground.