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None of them are looking at the crowd. They’re looking at us.
I glance at my girls. Jessie’s staring straight up at that balcony with her bottom lip caught in her teeth. Kaylie’s grinning like she knows a secret. Avery’s cheeks are so red she looks sunburned. None of them say a word about it, and I don’t either. That’s our other new rule.
Nik’s in his office on the other side of the balcony, behind the big black mirror that faces the dance floor. He kissed me at the elevator before I came down, slow and deep, his hand wrapped around the back of my neck right over my mark.
“Have fun with your girls,” he said. “I’ll be watching.”
“You’re always watching.”
“Yes.” He grinned. “Now go dance before I change my mind and take you upstairs instead, baby.”
So we dance.
The DJ drops my song, and I scream. All four of us scream. We grab each other’s hands and push our way into the middle of the dance floor, and we don’t stop. We dance like we used to in my dorm room with the music too loud, except now we’re in a club full of celebrities, dripping in diamonds, with no idea what time it is and no reason to give a damn. I’m sweaty. My feet hurt. My hair’s coming out of its bun. I’m laughing so hard I can barely breathe.
It’s the best night of my life. Well, the second best. The first was a few weeks ago, right upstairs.
That’s when the frat boy shows up.
I smell him before I see him. He’s an alpha, and he smells like cheap body spray and too much beer. He slides right in behind me, close enough that I can feel the heat of him on my back.
“Damn, girl.” His breath hits my neck. “You here alone?”
I step away and turn around. He’s a big guy, blond, wearing a polo with a popped collar and the kind of smile men wear when they’ve never once heard the word no.
“I’m with my friends.” I keep dancing, turning my back on him. “And I’m taken.”
“Taken?” He laughs and moves right back in behind me. “I don’t see him anywhere.”
“Oh, he sees you. Trust me.”
“Sure he does.” His hand lands on my hip.
I knock it off. “Don’t fucking touch me.”
Jessie’s eyes go huge. Kaylie stops dancing. Avery grabs my wrist and tries to pull me toward her. The frat boy doesn’t move. He just grins wider, like this is a game, like me saying no just made it more fun for him.
“Come on, don’t be like that,” he says. “One dance.”
“No.”
“Just one.”
“I said no.”
He’s an alpha. I’m an omega. I can feel him trying to push down on me with his scent, the way alphas do when they want an omega to stop arguing, but it slides right off me. All I can smell is Nik on my skin, night air and snow, and it’s a wall between me and this guy.
The frat boy smells it too. I watch his nostrils flare. I watch his eyes drop to the mark on my neck. And I watch him decide he doesn’t care.
“That bite doesn’t mean shit,” he says. “Not if he’s not here to back it up.”
This motherfucker.
Then he grabs my arm. His fingers dig in right above my elbow, hard enough to bruise, and he yanks me toward him.
I should be scared. I should be screaming for help. But I’m not even looking at him. I’m looking past his shoulder, up at the black mirror on the far side of the balcony. I can’t see through it. I don’t need to.
I can feel Nik in my chest, right where the bond lives. A second ago, he was calm, warm, lazy, and pleased, watching me dance. Now he isn’t calm at all. Now it feels like something enormous just woke up.
