Arriving outside the club, we bypass the huge line of people leading around the wide building. As soon as they notice us, the chatter stops, and they all turn our way.
“Why are they all staring?”
The look in their eyes is filled with fear or awe, or a mixture of both.
“They know better than to disrespect their alphas,” Jax says, smirking down at me.
Making our way to the top of the line, the bouncer’s eyes widen when he sees us coming, moving the people at the door back so we can walk straight in.
The bouncer bows his head as we pass. “Alphas.”
Kai tilts his head once, not replying as we walk on through.
If I thought the eyes of the supes outside were bad, it’s even worse inside the club when everyone closest to us stops what they’re doing to look at us.
“I’ll go check everything out.” Rion shares a look with Luka before heading farther into the club without a word. Luka gives me a smile before following him.
I give Kai a questioning look.
“They’re just making sure nothing is tampered with. No one would be foolish enough to try anything, but after everything you just went through, we don’t want to take any risks.”
“You know I can’t die.”
Kai moves closer to me, placing a hand to my face. “And as we’ve said before, that still doesn’t change the fact that you can be hurt, and anything that causes you pain shouldn’t be taken lightly.”
He leans in and kisses my head before taking my hand. “We’re going to protect you from everything we can—every pain, whether it’s physical or mental. We’ll never let anything hurt you again.”
“Kai…”
A short bulky man with buzz-cut blonde hair comes up to us, interrupting the moment. Dipping his head before he speaks, he glances at Kai and then Axel.
“May I have a word?”
Axel sighs. Leaning down, he places a kiss on the side of my head before sharing a look with Kai. “I’ve got it.”
“What’s that about?” I ask the others.
“Just work stuff.” Jax nods his head in the direction of the man and Axel, just as they disappear into the crowd. “That was Alameer. He helps oversee the dragon shifters that live here. Axel will update us later about what he wants.”
I knew the guys were alphas. I had heard rumors about their vicious natures and how they came to challenge and win over Manhattan, but these were my guys, and somehow, I never really thought of the two together. I only ever really saw the lovable, protective guys I grew up with.
Seeing first-hand how people react to them, whether in fear or reverence, was beyond strange. I don’t think I’ll get used to it any time soon.
Jax and Kai chuckle at the expression on my face.
“What did you think we did all day? Sit back and let everyone else do all the work?” Jax asks, smiling at me.
“Pretty much. But also sitting in your penthouse calling on your butler to carry out your every whim,” I tell them with a smirk.
“We’ve worked our asses off to get to where we are now. We still never take anything for granted, and we always put family first, no matter what,” Jax tells me, sharing a look with Kai.
“I know. It’s just strange. I still see you as being my guys, not some big shot alphas.”
Kai shakes his head at me, smiling. “We’re still your guys. Nothing about that has changed, nor will it ever.”
Jax moves closer to us. “What he said. I’m yours, and you are most definitely mine.” I can feel the glare Kai gives him right before Jax rolls his eyes. “Fine, ours.”
Kai tugs on my hand. “Let’s go see if our table is ready.”
We start to move when a woman with short blonde hair and a tight green dress walks up to us. Her gaze finds Kai immediately. It narrows on our hands before she plasters on a wide smile.
“Alphas. I didn’t realize you would be coming tonight.” She raises a hand, waving to someone behind her. “I’ll have the girls set up for you.”
Girls…
My eye twitches as I glance at the blonde bombshell. She is fucking gorgeous. But if the guys brought me to one of the clubs they frequently visited to have a good time, someone was getting their ass kicked.
I try to pull my hand out of Kai’s, but his grip tightens. “Like we’ve told you before, Olivia, we’re not interested in spending time with you or any of your girls.”
Kai glances down at me, giving me a warning look not to try to pull away from him again.
I ignore him, focusing on Olivia. Her gaze swings to me, and her expression turns calculating as she looks me over.
“Forgive me, I heard about the recent attacks and just wanted to ensure you had an enjoyable time tonight,” Olivia says with an innocent look.
“They won’t ever require your type of services here, or anywhere else, for that matter,” I tell her before narrowing my eyes on each of the guys.
They both smirk at me. Dicks.
I turn back to Olivia just as her gaze veers right to me; her calculating eyes remind me so much of the people back in King’s hotel. “Ivy never told me she was bringing in another girl.” She sneers at me before glancing at Kai. “I promise you, we have better stock here.”
I open my mouth to reply when Kai loses it. “She’s our mate.” His tone is sharp. The muscles and veins in his neck strain against his skin as his eye pulse red.
Stepping back, a flash of fear crosses her face before she covers it, feigning shock. “My apologies, you look so much like the girls we normally hire for our alphas, I assumed—”
Kai’s hand tightens on mine. I give it a squeeze, trying to comfort him. I was used to people like Olivia, but she was nothing compared to some of the supes I came across. She was definitely not someone I needed protection from.
“Let’s get one thing straight. We’ve never used any of your services, nor will we, and if you ever disrespect our mate again, it won’t just be a job you’re missing,” Kai tells her, releasing some of his alpha power.
I feel it as it seeps out around us, but I lean into it instead of away, feeling drawn to it. Kai notices and starts rubbing his thumb along my hand.
Olivia cowers back, her face turning pale, but she isn’t the only one who turns fearful. The supes near us quickly move away.
She looks to Jax as if he’ll save her, but the vicious smile that spreads across his face tells her he’d do anything but that.
“Leave,” Kai orders.
Jax chuckles under his breath. “Yes, run along.”
She takes a stumbling step back, bowing slightly before scurrying away.
“So… How about we go get something to drink?” Jax says, quickly changing the subject, but I wasn’t done with this topic yet. The thought of being in a club where they had fucked other girls makes my skin crawl.
“I get that you’ve been with other girls before… us… this. I understand that. It’s not like I’ve been celibate either, so I’m not judging any of you. But if you brought me to one of the clubs where you—”
Kai turns me to him, cutting off my sentence. “No, we didn’t bring you to a club we used for pleasure, nor would we ever. We love you, Kiarra. We would never disrespect you like that.” His eyes turn soft, pleading with me to trust him.
I nod at him as the tight knot in my stomach starts to unravel.
Jax’s eyes narrow in the direction she went. “The bitch was stirring up shit and will be dealt with.”
He looks back at me, giving me his whole focus. “Now that that’s sorted, tell me who?” Jax raises a brow, expecting an answer, but I don’t have a clue what he’s talking about.
“Who, what?” I ask.
“Who fucking touched you before us? Because when I find them, they’re going to wish they never laid their eyes on you, let alone fucking touched you.” Jax’s eyes are murderous as they scan the club before coming back to me.
“You know you sound crazy right now? You’ve basically just admitted that you also had girls before me, but it’s not okay for me to do the same? Fuck that.”
Jax clenches his hands before scrubbing a hand down his face. “That was different.”
“How did you come to that idiotic assumption?” I ask, furious that he thinks he’s allowed to have a past, but I’m not.
“Because they didn’t fucking matter. None of them did.” He raises his voice as he begins to unravel in front of me.
“Well, neither did any of mine,” I tell him, like it should be obvious.
Jax’s eyes grow wide. “There was more than fucking one!?” He clenches his jaw, walking a couple of steps away before turning back to me.
“Just give me their names, and I’ll be back in an hour or two, depending on how fucking pissed I am and how much I want to make them pay. I might let them live…” He narrows his eyes as if rethinking something. “Slash that. Either way, they’re dead. Just give me their fucking names.”
I glance at Kai, hoping he’ll talk some sense into him, but his whole body is as stiff as a board, his eyes pulsing red.
“Are you both serious right now?” I glance between them. “So, no one’s allowed to touch me now?” I didn’t mean it in a sexual way, but it seems the guys didn’t see it that way as Jax’s and Kai’s eyes narrow on me.
Jax steps in front of me. “Anyone touches you, and I’ll start severing pieces until they have nothing left to touch with. No one gets to touch you but us. No one gets to even fucking look at you. They do and they’re already dead.”
“I didn’t mean it in a sexual way.”
“Neither do we. But anyone, and I mean anyone, touches you or looks at you the wrong way and they’re dead.”
I laugh, but no one else joins me. Jax’s jaw clenches as he stares right at me. The dark look in his eyes makes everything inside me heat up.
“You can’t go around hacking people up.”
“You have no idea the lengths I’ll go to or how depraved my mind really is. Don’t push me.”
“Or what?” There was nothing about Jax or any of the guys that scared me, and they knew that. Just like I knew they’d never hurt me.
“You might not like what happens.” His voice turns husky as he looks into my eyes. He can feel the air change around us and knows none of what he’s saying is scaring me, but rather turning me on.
“Maybe, I will.” I bite my lip as the heat in my core expands.
Stepping forward, he grabs my chin, his eyes pulsing gold. “Mm… maybe you will,” he murmurs, licking his lips.
Jax will always be the one to start a party or try something crazy that could tempt his mortality, but there was another side to him that was starting to show itself. A darker side that called to my own.
And I couldn’t wait until the two clashed.
“What about you?” I turn to Kai, wondering what he means.
He raises a brow at me. “If other girls looked at or touched us, how would you feel?”
Not only does my skin crawl, but I feel the haze of red as it crosses my vision, and it must show on my face.
Jax’s chuckle is low and throaty when he sees it. “Guess you’re just as crazy as the rest of us.”
Kai and Jax share a knowing smirk as I roll my eyes at them but smile to myself, knowing they’re right. “Whatever. Let’s go get that drink.”
Jax’s chuckle grows louder before cutting off as he narrows his eyes on me. “I still want those names. Have them to me by tonight.”
I open my mouth to tell them exactly what he can do tonight when he’s alone in his room when Rion and Luka appear. “Our table is ready.”
I narrow my eyes on Jax’s back as we move around the edges of the club, trying to avoid most of the crowds and people. Not that it matters much, as their eyes follow us everywhere we go.
We make our way to the VIP section where Axel sits, a drink in his hand and a tray full of them in front of him.
Rion helps me take off my coat, heading over and getting a drink off the tray. He hands it to me first before getting himself one. I smile a thanks, taking a seat beside Luka.
“Everything okay?” I ask him.
“All good. Don’t worry, there’s nobody in here who will harm you.”
“I’m not worried about that, but thank you. I was asking about you. You never told me what was bothering you.”
Luka gives me a sad smile. “I just needed you back with us, and now that you are, I’m fine.”
But I see it in his eyes. He’s not fine. Something is bothering him. I open my mouth to ask him when he leans in and kisses me. He quickly pulls back before I can even taste him on my lips.
He smiles at my narrowed look. “Let’s just have fun tonight, okay?”
I nod, seeing that he needs this night, too. “Okay.”
“How about a little game?” Jax asks us but stares right at me.
“What type of game?” I haven’t played any type of games in years unless it was called “see how long you can hide from King before he finds you.”
“How about truth or dare?” Jax smirks at me while the others groan around him.
I smile, remembering when we played it as kids. “Like when we were kids, and you always chose dare, because you wanted to prove you weren’t afraid of anything?”
I expect Jax to laugh, but instead, he gives me a serious look. “I wasn’t afraid of anything… not until I lost you. And losing you not once, but twice, damn near destroyed me.” He looks at the guys. “Destroyed all of us.”
“Jax… Guys…”
“How about we stick with truth for tonight? That way, we can keep the body count down for anyone who pisses us off,” Kai tells him, taking a large gulp of his drink.
“Good idea. I’ll go first.” Jax leans forward.
“Is it true that you… like me more than the rest of your mates?” Jax gives me a hopeful look.
“No.”
Luka gets up to go over to him, probably to smack him upside his head, but Jax nods his head like it was the answer he was expecting. “Good, that was a trick question, and you passed.”
Luka sits back down while Jax continues to look the picture of innocence.
Axel takes the next turn. “Kiarra.” I roll my eyes, starting to see a pattern with both of them picking me.
“What is something you want to tell us but are too afraid to?” He raises a brow as if challenging me, but I know the sneak is just trying to get me to talk about what happened while I was gone without outright asking me.
“That’s a question, not a truth,” I tell him, trying to buy myself some time to think.
Axel shrugs. “Semantics.”
My stomach twists and turns as I think over what I want to tell them, but worried about how they’ll react.
“If there’s nothing—”
“There is…”
The guys all give me their full attention.
Taking a large swig of my drink, I glance down at it, not really seeing it. “I don’t remember much of when King moved me around, not before that place I was in. But when I was there… something… something happened…” Images of the inky dark power as it poured out of me flashes before me.
“You can tell us anything,” Luka says, urging me to continue, but nerves take hold of me, making me want to change the subject.
“What if it’s bad?” I ask them, wondering if they’ll start looking at me differently once they find out.
“Nothing you could tell us would change the way we feel about you,” Kai says.
“So, you don’t care if I go on a killing rampage?” I ask them, trying to find the humor in it all.
“Nope.” Jax’s quick answer and the surety in his voice makes me smile.
Glancing at them all, I see the resolve in their eyes.
“What if I wanted to burn the entire city down?” This was their home, after all.
“Then we’ll help you light the fucking match.” Jax’s eyes dilate, turned on by the idea. I could see it in his eyes that he meant every word, too. He wouldn’t care if I destroyed this entire city and everyone in it once he was there with me, and even though it sounded crazy as hell, it warmed something inside, easing my turbulent thoughts.
“We’re in, all in. Whatever way you decide this is going to go, we’re following you in this world and every other that exists. We’ll follow you to the end and then beyond that,” Kai tells me.
The others nod their agreement.
“I—”
“Gentlemen, may we join you? We have something we’d like to discuss.” Two men in gray suits approach us, with two bodyguards in black trailing behind them.
One man is shorter, with a curly mope of brown hair, the other one is taller with shades of gray sprinkled throughout his jet-black hair. Both are built but look small next to my guys.
“It’s fine.” I squeeze Kai’s hand. “We can talk later.” Maybe it was better to talk to them back at the penthouse instead of out in the open, anyway.
“Kiarra.” Kai looks at me, but I shake my head.
“I promise.” And I would tell them everything. It was time to start opening up to them more and to stop trying to deal with it all by myself.
“No. You come first, always,” Kai grits out, making my chest warm.
“I know and I love that you think that, but it’s probably better to talk about it back home.”
He gives me a soft smile. “Home?”
I nod my head, realizing that even though it’s only been a few days, this is now my home, and I don’t want to be anywhere else. “Home.”
Kai shares a look with me, and then the guys, before nodding his head to the men.
I go to move off him, but his grip tightens. “Stay.”
The men look wary but approach Kai and the others like they would a vicious beast. His two bodyguards span out around them. The one closest to me assesses the room, frowning at each of the guys before landing on me. His eyes travel down my body, reminding me of the men back at King’s tower.
“When you’re finished with her, can I take her off your hands?” He licks his lips, making my body turn stiff.
The temperature in the room suddenly drops as each of the guys turns a murderous glare on him. Seconds is all it takes for Kai to place me in Luka’s lap and have the bodyguard up against the wall by his throat.
What’s with everyone thinking I’m an escort for hire? I glance down at my dress, wondering if it really is see-through and maybe I missed it.
“Kai. It doesn’t matter.” I was used to much worse from the men back in King’s Tower.
“No one gets to make you feel uncomfortable, baby. No one,” Jax tells me, moving closer to Kai and the guard.
Scales slide down Axel’s right hand as he rolls his shoulders back, standing up. Flames engulf his hand, his eyes pulsing gold as he makes his way over to Kai and the guard.
“Looks like we’re having a barbecue.”
“Guys.” But they ignore me. Even the men and fellow bodyguard stay quiet as Kai slowly drains the life from him.
“Luka, do someth—” I glance down at Luka, finding his shadows rising off his skin like black flames. His body is stiff, and his hands are fisted at his side.
“She’s… just… a stupid… whore… Why—” the guard wheezes out.
I wince, hearing a deep growl. Turning back to Kai, I watch him snap the guard’s neck, just as Axel’s flames burns his body. It happens in seconds, leaving behind nothing but ash.
“Guess you’re going to need another guard,” Jax tells the men with a smile. “I’d suggest getting one who knows when to keep his mouth shut,” he adds with a nod, making him look fucking crazy.
“Leave. Now.” Kai’s voice is guttural, sounding barely human.
“Of course. We’ll… discuss the issue another time. Apologies to your…”
“Mate. She’s our fucking mate,” Luka tells him, clenching his jaw.
The men’s eyes widen before they back out of the room slowly, keeping their eyes down.
Luka closes his eyes, taking a couple of deep breaths before looking at me. “Go to him. He needs you right now.”
I run my hands down the side of his face. “What about you?”
“I’m fine. Kai needs you more.”
I kiss Luka’s cheek and get up to go over to Kai. His back is to me, his muscles bunched with the rise and fall of his harsh and uneven breaths.
“I’m not going to apologize, Kiarra. No one gets to talk to or about you or look at you like that. Ever.”
I walk around to his front. His eyes are squeezed shut. I lift my hand to his face just as he opens them. They’re nearly completely black with a red iris. Instead of being afraid like I think he expects, I feel drawn to them, as though it calls to something inside me.
Just like Jax, my own darkness wants to reach out to his.
He waits to see what I will do, how I will react to this side of him. I step into him, wrapping my arms around his body. His body shudders before relaxing into my embrace.
Maybe it’s the years of torture with King that desensitized me to the gruesome death, but seeing Kai upset becomes my focus instead of the dead guard.
He wraps his arms around my back and nuzzles into me.
After a moment, I pull back and look into his eyes, now back to their normal brown but no less beautiful than the other version.
Jax rubs his hands together. “Right. How about some dancing?” He walks over, trying to pull me from Kai, but Kai tightens his hold on me, giving Jax a sharp look.
Jax rolls his eyes at him, crossing his arms. He stands there waiting impatiently.
I laugh at his expression, and he sends me a wink.
Kai sighs, leaning back to look at me. He searches my face, nodding to himself before letting me go.
Jax yanks me to him, twirling me around before tilting me backwards. A laugh escapes my lips, breaking the last of the tension.
We head out to the floor as Kai, Axel, and Rion find a table right beside us. The crowd gives us a wide berth, leaving half the dance floor to just the three of us.
A song comes on that I recognize, making me smile. Pulling my twins out to the floor, I start to move, feeling the slow beat before it starts to pick up. Jax moves behind me as Luka steps in front of me, each of them caging me in, but I don’t feel trapped.
Their dark eyes follow my every move as I let go.
With Jax and Luka surrounding me, I feel safe. This time, I enjoy myself instead of trying to escape into my mind.
Closing my eyes, I feel arms slide around my waist as the scent of Jax wraps around me, and we start to move together.
Opening my eyes, I find Luka’s gaze just as he leans in and brushes his lips against mine. His kisses are soft at first before he deepens them.
I feel his hands slide up to my face just as another pair slide down my sides.
Soft lips brush along my neck, making me shiver. I’m lost to my senses. Every slight brush and touch from Luka and Jax makes me want to go somewhere a little more private and finish what we’ve just started.
Just as one song blends into another, we hear a scream breaking us apart. It’s followed by a crash, cutting off the music. We glance around when more screams sound out just as a chair flies over Jax’s head.
“What the fuck?”
Jax aims a murderous glare in the direction of where the chair was thrown, but there’s too many people to see who it came from.
That is until a large demon rushes in with a familiar purple horn and skin.
“Malik?”
“What the hell is he doing?” Jax asks.
We watch on as he starts trashing the place. Tables and chairs get picked up and thrown across the room, and anyone who gets in his way bears the brunt of his anger.
Axel comes over, his flames coming to life when I put a hand out, telling him to stop. “He can’t control it.”
“What do you mean?” His gaze whips to mine, a frown on his face.
“King did something to him… experimented on him. He can’t control his demon side.”
His eyes widen. “And you’re only telling us this now?”
“It wasn’t exactly on the top of my mind with everything that went on, and I thought he’d tell you himself, or at least Draven or Jazmyn would.”
“Fuck.” Axel sighs, releasing the hold on his flames. He turns to the others, looking for an answer, but I already know what I have to do.
If the guys didn’t already know about my new ability, they were about to find out about it firsthand.
I reach down, gathering the darkness from within and pulling it up. A mass of inky darkness seeps out of me just as a table heads straight for me. The black mass whips out, catching it and throwing it to the other side of the room before it gets the chance to touch us.
“What the—” I hear Jax whisper, but stay focused on Malik, pulling on that spark of a connection I felt before.
Once I find it, I yank it hard, letting my darkness guide me to what I need to do.
“Malik, stop.”
He immediately stops, turning to look at me as if waiting for his next command.
“Damn.” Jax whistles, looking from Malik’s demon to me.
The guys come closer, but a part of me worries they might fear me after seeing this side of me.
Just before they reach me, I feel another spark and the shadow beast appears, glancing from me to the guys.
The guys stop their advance, their focus now on the large black shadow beast beside me. People from all over the club whisper around us from a distance, most with fear in their eyes.
The guys notice the growing crowd and pause, debating which to protect me from first, the crowd or the shadow beast.
I give them a wary smile, letting them know I’m fine. “I guess I forgot to tell you about my shadow beast.”
