Chapter1: Prowl

Liquor coursed through her veins, pumping her up like liquid cocaine. Color and music flowed together and through her, sending nerves to their synaptic ends, each one exploding in systematic ecstasy as she pulsed on the dance floor. The slender arms of her current partner in crime tightened around her, bringing their bodies to the point of grinding.

Piercing green orbs narrowed in the glow of the overhead multi-colored lights, giving them a most predatory gleam. The petite young woman never stood a chance as Jaxx Lorient swept her from the dance floor and into a more discreet corner of the club where they became a twisted singularity of wandering hands and slick mouths.

Thirty minutes later, and the muscular, yet lean form of Jaxx parted the dance floor once more. This time she was notably solo, a lipstick stain on her neck the only reminder of the encounter between her and the stranger before.

Thirsty from the heat of ecstasy, she wasted no time heading straight for the bar. A nod to the bartender, a short and stocky masculine woman with spiked black hair, and a glass half filled with amber liquid was slid into her awaiting grasp.

Jaxx knocked the drink back in one gulp as she spun around and leaned against the bar. It was this moment her eyes caught sight of a particular male making his way through a sea of women.

He was older but muscular and handsome, dressed in black jeans and a tight fitted shirt. Someone she knew quite well but was never entirely pleased to see. A ragged sigh passed through Jaxx’s lips, and her eyes rolled.

“Richard,” she said with a grimace as the man came to her side and leaned one arm against the bar top.

“I thought I would find you here,” his gruff voice rang over the thudding dance music.

“And here I thought I could enjoy myself unaccompanied this evening.”

“Ah, sorry about that,” Richard said with a laugh as he threw a hand up toward the bartender to get her attention. She was much less attentive to his request than she had been for Jaxx’s. “Can I get a whiskey neat, please?”

She gave an uninterested nod and tended to a few other patrons before lazily filling a glass and placing it in front of Richard.

“Why do you always have to come to the clubs where the women couldn’t give a damn about me being here?” he asked as he took a healthy swig.

“Well,” Jaxx began. “That’s the thing about lesbian bars, Richard. None of us quite want men getting in the way. Besides, don’t you have a loving wife at home waiting on you?”

“Mm,” Richard mused behind the rim of his glass as he sucked down another sip. “One I would much rather be in bed with, yet somehow I keep having to retrieve you.”

“Let me guess,” Jaxx said while adjusting her tight tank top over the buckle of her belt. “My father sent you?”

“You know he doesn’t like when you run off to the city.”

“And I don’t much care for the babysitter act he makes you play.”

“Perhaps he wouldn’t make me play that role if you would…” Richard stopped mid-sentence when he saw the brow on Jaxx’s forehead rise. “You know what? Never mind. The point remains, you are the only child of the Alpha. He’s not going to just let you wander unattended, lest something happen to you.”

“I bet if I had a dick,” Jaxx started but stopped when Richard waved a hand and shook his head.

“Please,” he said. “I don’t need those images in my head. Let’s just agree, I don’t like babysitting you, and you don’t like being babysat and leave it at that.”

“Fine.” Jaxx said with a huff before slamming down her glass. “You just better not cramp my style.”

“Exactly how long do you plan on making me stay here?”

Jaxx grinned, ignoring his question as she made her way back on the dance floor. Richard sighed heavy and long while he brought a hand to his stubbled chin and rubbed it warily.

“I better call Lucille,” he said to himself as he reached into his back pocket and retrieved his cell phone. It looked to be a long night, and it had already been several in a row. Being Beta to an Alpha had its advantages, but the disadvantages were always understated.

**

Jaxx moved with finesse through the sea of undulating bodies on the overcrowded dance floor, eyes darting this way and that in search of another interesting partner for the evening. One woman was never enough to satiate her seemingly never-ending zest for companionship. Some said she was a womanizer; others believed that she was just unnecessarily promiscuous, but Jaxx didn’t bother to linger on those opinions.

She was herself, and it had been a long road to finding that self. Now, if only she could find someone to share that with.

“Freaking Richard,” she muttered under her breath, suddenly irritated that her mood had been altered by his arrival.

As quickly as it came, all irritation suddenly vanished as Jaxx’s eyes fell upon a most exquisite female specimen that had previously not been within her purview. A luscious body draped in a black cat suit moving through the crowd, all eyes following as she advanced, and for a moment it seemed as if she moved directly toward Jaxx.

Jaxx’s lips parted, her tongue prepared to formulate some random pickup line that so easily swayed the heartstrings of most…Until that is, the beautiful vixen strayed right past her and onward to the bar.

It was as if someone had slapped her unduly across the face. A hard rejection. That hadn’t been the case but might as well have.

Jaxx’s mouth clamped shut and an unfamiliar feeling knotted in her stomach. Not so much as a look? Not even a sideways glance from this new woman on the block? Well. Jaxx decided there and then that the feeling she was experiencing wasn’t something she could simply swallow. With that, she made her way to the bar as well.

“Buy you a drink?” she posed coolly as she took up post beside the unfamiliar woman. The look of surprise and then indifference from this stranger sent a ripple of unwarranted annoyance through Jaxx’s core.

“Sure,” the woman said with a shrug of her delicate shoulders.

It irritated Jaxx that this woman could be so falsely uninterested and yet have such a silky-smooth voice that tickled her ears like a discordant note. Regardless, Jaxx waved down the bartender and ordered two whiskeys’ neat.

“Oh,” the woman said with a glance toward the glass as it slid her way. “I should have said, I don’t drink brown liquor.”

And with that, she cast a quick smile toward Jaxx and took her leave. It only took a second and she was lost in the crowd.

“Oof, that was harsh,” a familiar voice sounded from beside her. “On that note, guess we should head out?”

Jaxx cocked her head toward Richard who had sidled up beside her. For the second time this evening her eyes rolled, and she heaved a hard sigh.

**

The Queen-sized bed seemed smaller than usual, and no matter how she tossed and turned, Jaxx felt smothered. With a huff she shoved off the blankets and sat upright, staring out into the darkness of her bedroom.

Her brain felt heavy, a common occurrence when she overindulged, but it wasn’t the alcohol keeping her awake tonight. It was that woman in the catsuit and her sweet little voice playing on a loop inside of Jaxx’s mind.

“I don’t drink brown liquor,” Jaxx repeated the words as she grabbed a bottle of melatonin from the bedside table. “What a line.”

She gulped down the pill, chugged some water, and fell backward onto the bed. With one arm over her face and the other over her midsection, she closed her eyes and once again tried to fall asleep.

Maybe, just maybe, she wouldn’t dream about her too.