After she was seated, all she could do was sit and wait. The front door was only a few feet from her, and she did glance at it several times, but with the pit bulls standing right beside her, she had no chance of escape.
God, it had been so long since she thought about actually making a run for it. Yes, she thought about leaving Rook every second of the day, but it had been two years since she actually thought of trying it again. The fear of what Rook would do to her if she was caught kept her fear a living entity inside her and made her the weak female she never wanted to become. After several minutes, there was movement behind her. Marek and Tank started talking softly, gesturing to a group of scantily clad females just a few feet away.
“Stay here.” And to her utter shock, they made their way over to those females. Although they were only a few feet from her, the fact that they’d given her any breathing room meant they were more focused on getting laid than following orders.
For long seconds, all she could do was stare at them. They didn’t turn their backs to her and glanced her way several times to make sure she was obeying but would always move their attention back to the women. Then a few moments passed, and the two did turn their backs to her.
If you want to live… this is how you do it.
She’d never get another chance like this again. Her heart was in her throat, and she heard her pulse pounding in her ears. Trying to keep her emotions in check, because the last thing she needed was them smelling her fear and the need to escape, she looked at the door again. A little voice inside her told her this was all too easy, maybe even a trap. But she kicked that voice in the balls.
If this was her only chance of escaping, she was going to try with her last breath, because there was no way she was going to go back to Rook alive.
3
Bram made his way back up the rickety stairs that led to the main part of Slater’s. The bar was an old, shitty combination of drunks, dirty shifters, and crack-addicted humans. It certainly wasn’t a place he frequented for the scenery, but anytime he wanted to get into a good old-fashioned fistfight or shifter brawl, Slater’s was the rundown place to go.
He stepped up to the scarred bar and rested his battered forearms on the dirty wood. The scent of stale beer, sweat, blood, and of course cheap sex filled the small interior and had him crinkling his nose in distaste. It was the smell of desperation, and Slater’s was always filled with it.
“Damn, Bram, looks like you nearly got your ass handed to you.” Whiskey, the roughened human who stood behind the bar, gave him a crooked smile. His teeth were a light shade of yellow from chain smoking and overlapped each other in an almost distracting way. He may be harsh on the eyes, what with his long, graying, and greasy hair and crow’s feet that were so deep it was like they were etched into his flesh, but he was one hell of a human.
“You should see the other guy.”
Whiskey chuckled and turned to pour Bram a shot of Crown. He slammed the chipped glass in front of Bram, tipped his chin forward, and went on to help a scantily clad female. Her tits were practically hanging out of her elastic top, but of course Whiskey zoned in on that immediately.
Bram threw the liquor back and hissed as some of the alcohol hit his split lip and dripped onto a set of claw marks on his chest. Turning and surveying the packed bar, he noticed a group of four human females. The scent of their arousal was thick and obvious, even in the cloying stench of the bar. They giggled and whispered to each other as they looked around. No doubt, they were trying to decide who they were going to let take them home.
The girls who played hard to get didn’t come to this establishment.
The scent of honey invaded his nose and pulled his thoughts away instantly. It was like an electric shock to his core. His body wasn’t his own from that one scent alone.
He instantly became hard, and his bear rose up as if it hadn’t just beaten the shit out of a lion shifter and was bone-tired.
Inhaling again, he turned around until the scent was directly in front of him, surrounded him, consumed every single inch of his being. He didn’t miss the underlying aroma of a male panther mixed with the sweet scent, and that had a growl leaving him on instinct.
He’d never in his life had this kind of reaction to a scent, let alone the aroma of a female.
He scanned the bar until he spotted her, where the scent came from. And everything else faded in the distance. There she stood amongst trash and decay, like a cool, fresh breeze.
Mine.
That realization slammed into him so powerfully he stumbled back, gripping onto the bar behind him for support. He was unable to concentrate on anything other than the small doe shifter with the large gray eyes and innocent expression.
She is ours! his bear roared out, trying to come forth again and go after what it really wanted, but for the first time in Bram’s life, he held the beast back.
He felt feral, lost… needing only her.
Her long honey-colored hair looked so soft, and he imagined the strands tangled in his hands. She was perfect, with hips that flared out, thighs that beckoned him, and breasts that would be more than a handful.
Christ.
His dick throbbed behind his fly, and his blood roared in his ears. He took a step closer, and although she was several feet away, he could
