Chapter Four
Gabe
While the revelry was a far cry from what I’d expect to find at Siren’s, Club Glow’s clientele was plenty salacious enough in its own right. Although, at least here, everyone was human.
Everyone danced lewdly and with reckless abandon on the dance floor—if you could call that dancing. It was more like shameless writhing, grinding on each other with mouths and other limbs entwined, swaying to the rhythm of the pulsating bass. By the thrust of some men’s hips and the twisted faces of their women, several people were engaging in far more sinful acts than dancing. The whole place reeked of sin—one big cesspit that would’ve had me begging the heavens for forgiveness for entering such a place were I a better angel.
“There you two are. Finally!” Jess’ voice surged above the music as she leapt from a booth and waved us over. Despite the pep which she wore well, the little blonde looked exhausted, with dark circles under her eyes.
Mel and Jess hugged. Mel pulled back and beamed at her friend, surveying her tight, sequined purple dress and black pumps.
“You look so sexy!”
“Don’t lie. I look tired,” Jess joked through a thin smile as we all took our seats at the table with her sitting beside Mel.
“Well, you look great for the nurse slash daughter of the year slash wonder woman that you are, girl.”
Jess laughed. “Wow, that’s quite the award. What do I win?”
Mel pursed her plush lips in thought as she stroked an imaginary beard. “Hmm… A nap and a cosmopolitan.”
Our friend exhaled on an anguished groan, then sagged back into the seat of the booth. “Fuck me, that sounds better than sex. I can’t remember the last time I had anap.”
Mel frowned. “You work too hard, Jess. Between the hospital and your dad…”
“Speaking of which, Imightbe called back to the hospital tonight. So just one drink for me tonight, I hate to say. But I’ll still savor every drop, girl, because it’s your birthday!”
Jess turned in my direction, batting her eyelashes in that fake puppy dog expression she did when she was about to ask for something. “Gabe, can you make a run to the bar? I’d say booze is on me, but you’re rich, right, Mister Software Developer?” She winked.
Chuckling, I said nothing to that and got up to head to the bar.
My being a software developer and owning my own business wasn’t a lie. I’d actually gone to college and got a degree right alongside Mel. Computer science fascinated me because there was nothing of the sort where I came from. But my business wasn’t as lucrative as Mel and Jess thought. Most of my money came from upstairs, a stipend all guardian class angels received. Bonuses were given out every month to the top guardians who kept their ward from getting harmed. The longer your ward went with no accidents, the bigger the bonus.
So I was rolling in it.
Not that I really cared about earthly pleasures. At least not the kind money could buy.
My gaze went to Mel as I waited for the girls’ cosmos.
Their heads were bowed to the point that their foreheads were almost touching, whispering. Without this stupid bone-rattling bass pounded in my skull, I would’ve been able to pick up on every word of their conversation. But it didn’t take acute guardian senses to know what they were talking about. The frequently stolen glances in my direction were telling enough.
They were talking about me.
I strode across the dance floor with drinks in hand and elbowed my way through the crush. By some miracle, perhaps of my own making, none of the cosmos spilled. When I got back to the table, Jess raised her voice purposefully so I could hear. The nurse was about as subtle as a passing train.
“So, what happened with that guy at your office, Mel? The one that asked you out last week? I thought you might bring him along tonight.”
That ugly, possessive part of my celestial beast, buried deep inside, rustled upon hearing that Mel’s co-workers were hitting on her again. Not that it was a surprise. The twenty-six-year-old accountant was a bombshell, and her charming, good-natured personality just sweetened the pot. Guys swarmed her like flies to honey.
It wasn’t my place to stop her from dating other guys. Paradise wouldn’t like me getting in the way of that.
Since the dawn of time, they’d always denied the fact that our people were shifters. It disgusted them to think we were in the same category as mortal shifters, animals who stuck their claim on a mate, marking them and serving them until their dying days. But angels weren’t so different. The only difference was that our fated were chosen for us. It was just a bitter-sweet miracle that my chosen ward also ended up being my true mate.
So it was pure torture even thinking about Melanie being with another.
She felt that bond between us, too, even if she didn’t understand it like I did.
The shifter male part of my brain was happy for it, while the duty-bound guardian part hung heavy with guilt. Would Melanie deny herself any romantic relationships for her entire life because of our bond? Would she always be a virgin because she knew deep inside she was meant for me?
