The pounding bass of music vibrates through the stone, growing louder with each step. I recognize it immediately—the distinctive rhythm that pumps through the Pandora's Box. The place where I first learned to survive in this wasteland. The place where I earned my freedom.
I catch Geo's arm, surprised by my own boldness. "Geo?—"
Before he can respond, he comes to an abrupt halt at the entrance, cursing under his breath. "There's your girl."
I follow his gaze and nearly choke.
The main stage is dominated by a figure in burgundy silk. Cosima moves like liquid silver around the pole, her hair catching the stage lights as she spins. The dress—the one I picked for her—is hiked up, revealing her thick thighs as she executes a perfect spiral down the pole.
It's as far from the kind of behavior you'd expect from a woman who's practically Reinmichian royalty, and my mouth goes dry in an instant.
Goodgods, she's lethal.
The crowd roars its approval, a sea of hungry eyes fixed on her every movement. A possessive growl builds in my throat before I can stop it. The sight of all those grimy alphas and betas salivating over her like wolves surrounding prey makes my blood fucking boil.
I want to claw their eyes out.
But I force it down. She doesn't need that right now. She doesn't need another alpha trying to stake a claim, to control her.
But I imprint every last slimy grin to memory so I can torture and murder them all later. I may not be a typical alpha, but I'm no saint either.
"That's quite the spectacle," I manage to say, my voice strained.
Geo snorts. "She's going to start a fucking riot."
He's not wrong. I can already see the tension building in the room, several alphas pushing closer to the stage than the bouncers typically allow. Their aggressive hormones saturate the air, a sour scent that makes my skin crawl. And this is the effect she has on our kind while on suppressants.
As we push through the crowd, I note with grim amusement that even Geo's eye lingers on her longer than strictly necessary.
The hypocrisy isn't lost on me.
But he's already lost the one eye, so I suppose I can spare the other in the bloodbath to come.
We reach the edge of the stage as Cosima completes another turn around the pole. Up close, I can see the flush on her cheeks, the slightly unfocused quality of her violet eyes. She's drunk.Verydrunk.
"Cosima," I call up to her, keeping my voice gentle despite the chaos around us. "Time to go, love."
She spots me and her face lights up with a smile that steals my breath. "Raven," she purrs, drawing out my name. "Come dance with me!"
"That's not gonna happen," Geo growls beside me. "Now get down from there before your boy toys go caveman and start a fight in my fucking tunnels." He gestures vaguely in my direction. "And yes, that includes this fop."
I shoot him a withering glare before turning back to Cosima. Not helping. "Geo's right, this really isn't safe. Why don't we go back to the apartment and I'll make you a nice cup of tea?"
For a moment, I think she might concede. Then an an alpha by the stage who apparently has a death wish tries to grab drunkenly at her when she gets too close to him. "Get outta my way," he bellows at me. "I need a piece of that juicy ass."
Before I can consciously process the movement, my boot knife ends up in his windpipe. Curious.
I watch the shock on the neanderthal's face as the violence registers and then wrench the knife out, a spray of blood arcing across my brand new shirt.
Worth it.
I'm cleaning the blade off before he hits the ground with a thud and two guards come over to drag him off. Just another Monday in the club.
"Now," I say, turning back to Cosima as I sheath my knife back into my boot holster. "What were we?—"
Cosima's shriek of indignation splits the air just in time for me to see Geo grabbing her off the stage and flinging her over one broad shoulder. She claws at his back with her pointed nails, but he remains stone-faced as he lumbers through a crowd that's hasty enough to part after my little demonstration.
"Put me down, you… barbarian mafia pirate!" she hisses, followed by a slew of the most obscene Vrissian I've ever heard in my life, including a few words I've yet to encounter but can nonetheless decipher the gist of.
