Talons

Chapter 112: The Enchanted

Rhea’s POV

Mandy and Holly are having too much fun posting photos of me, and I’m starting to feel left out. Mike started to follow me immediately after Brent did, and now he is tagging me in every photo we have together, which is quite a few. He always liked to take pictures, even though I wasn’t all that fond of having my image taken.

“Wow, you dated a professional athlete.”

“No, I ‘dated’ a college student, and I’m not sure you can call what he and I did dating.”

“So, like friends with benefits?” I scoff as I shake my head at Holly. “No need to be embarrassed. We are all adults here.”

“I’m not embarrassed; he and I shared a kiss once in two years,” I correct.

“His balls must have been as blue as the sky.” I snort with my laughter, but then I tell the girls that Mike was never really waiting for me. 

“To be honest, losing my virginity has always been something foreign to me. The one time I thought I was ready; my heart was broken.”

“Wait a minute,” Holly interjects loudly before looking around and lowering her voice. “You’re a virgin?” she asks, pitching her voice higher at the end of her question. I shrug and Holly just about loses it. “How did you resist your urges? I mean, you must be having them even up to now.”

“I actually haven’t experienced anything close to what anyone else describes. I went through a period where I was extremely interested in one man, but then he started to pursue my sister, so it fizzled out.”

“Are you sure you're just plain?” She asks. “I don’t know if anyone has told you, but you smell… not entirely normal.”

“I was an omega for a while,” I add, and when Holly’s face becomes confused, I explain it to her.

“No wonder you hate him; sh*t, I hate him for you.” I chuckle, and Mandy, who has been feverishly typing into Holly's phone finally joins the conversation.

“Let’s play darts,” she says, and we all head to where the boards are.

Holly offered to buy me a drink but the one time I drank, I ended up fated to Colton, so I hit her with a hard ‘no’ that made her and Mandy chuckle. 

As we are playing, the girls get distracted by the phone again, so I continue by myself. I’m not good at it, but it’s fun.

“Excuse me? Would you mind if I join you? All the other boards are taken.” I scan the room and then the man who just approached me. I can’t smell him, so I don’t know what he is, but he’s probably not human. I hand him a cup of darts and we start taking turns throwing them at the board. “Your release is wrong,” he says, and he demonstrates for me.

I try to duplicate the action, and fail, drawing a laugh from the man that makes me scowl. He apologizes and then asks permission to position my hand in the right form. He starts explaining that I should release the dart from my fingertips, without moving my wrist. 

I didn’t even notice he had moved closer to me until I could feel his breath on my ear, but I wasn’t immediately put off since he was still angling my arm in the proper position. When I finally release the dart, I hit the target and give the man a high five.

“My name is Adrian, what's yours?”

“B,” I reply.

“Just B? That's unique.” Adrian steps away from me before continuing, which is relieving. “You don't belong here B; and before you ask, that isn’t a threat.” I look around to see if I don’t fit into the crowd, but there is nothing that sets me apart from anyone else, so I don’t know what Adrian means by his statement. 

Without clarification, he goes back to throwing darts at the board, showing off a little as he hits the center twice in a row.

"I get it, you come here often." Adrian laughs and comes closer to me again. He repositions my arm, telling me that I can do the same thing with the right technique. 

It doesn’t immediately work for me, and part of the reason is that I can feel Adrian breathing on my neck, and I can’t entirely say it's by accident, but before I get too worried, he steps away again. 

I glance over at the women I came with, and they don’t seem concerned as they stare at the phone screen. I shake my head at them, and when I turn back, I’m startled to see Adrian standing close to me again.

“Sorry,” he says. “I just thought of another technique that might be simpler for you.” He positions my arm and body again, using his body to ensure my posture doesn’t change, but just as I’m about to release the dart the most sinister and evil growl I have ever heard shakes the entire bar.

I turn to see Colton standing in the doorway, his green eyes so dark they look black. He is staring right at me, and I know his wolf has taken control. 

Colton's POV

Jack calling my mate despite knowing we are fated is absolutely unforgivable. The next time I see him, I will not hold back, but then something dawns on me.

Rhea is out, and Jack said he wants to see her, what if they somehow manage to be at the same place and what are the odds that he would be calling when I’m conveniently not around her.

“What is it?” Carter asks. My beta and gamma must have noticed my agitation, and they know it’s not just from Jack’s phone call.

I try reaching out to Mandy, but she has her block up, and because we aren’t close, I can’t break through it, which is odd. Her bond with me and my rank should allow for communication to go through but for some reason it isn’t.

I then try reaching Holly, but she too has her block up, and I begin to panic.

“Try linking Mandy,” I order, and Carter immediately follows direction, looking up at me in confusion when he can’t.

“What’s going on?” Trey asks, and Carter explains that he can’t reach his mate.

“They are having a ladies’ night, right? Maybe they don’t want to be bothered.”

“Mandy wouldn’t do that, we have a pup together, and she knows better.” Trey's face grows worried, and Carter and I exchange glances that we know could mean trouble. 

If we show up and the girls are just sitting down, talking, and having a few drinks, then we look like as*holes who couldn’t give them a moment's peace. However, if they need our help, then we look like heroes and I’m in desperate need of brownie points with Rhea right now.

We made the decision together, leaving Trey with Carly, who was asleep on a cot in my office. Normally, Crystal or her sister would help us babysit, but Rhea made the girl go to bed, and she took it as a command from her luna.

We climb into my car, both silently praying we aren’t making the wrong decision.

Mandy’s POV

Holly and I are stuck staring at her phone screen, but neither of us wants to be doing that. We are being compelled to look at the device, and so far, B hasn’t caught on.

If we weren’t so engrossed in the phone earlier, she would definitely have known that something was wrong, but she just thinks we are having fun with her new social media account.

I try linking Carter, but I can’t get through, so I try linking Holly, but again, I’m blocked out.

I choose to listen closely to my surroundings, taking in the sounds around, and despite the bar being pretty crowded, only one voice stands out to me.

A male has joined B in her darts game, and although I can't pull my eyes away from the screen, I can smell that a warlock and an incubus are nearby. Their magic is crude, and they haven’t deviated from the way of the past the way wolves have.

They are driven by s****l desire, and while their species has dwindled in number, there are still enough of them around to be considered a threat. 

I’m almost positive that the person speaking to B right now is the incubus, and my Rose is telling me he may be a warlock hybrid, which is why he’s been able to enchant us.

Usually, incubi don’t wait long before pushing a woman into s*x with them, but for some reason, he is taking his time with B, and if I didn’t know any better, I would say that he was having trouble with her.

I can smell his arousal, which is an irritant to a marked female like me, but even that isn’t enough to break the compulsion. Holly and I can do nothing but sit there and listen to B being seduced, and if Colt doesn’t die from the infidelity, he will surely kill us for not being able to protect our luna.

Colton’s POV

Earlier in the night, Mandy texted Carter about a change in plans due to Rhea’s age, and she sent him her GPS coordinates in a text. That was so he could know where she was in the event of an emergency, not so that he could just show up like we were planning to do.

I, however, was not informed that they would be going to a supernatural bar. I was told that they were going to a human place, which is undoubtedly safer, but apparently, my mate wouldn’t have been able to get into a human run establishment.

Sometimes, I forget that our age gap is rare, especially because we were in the same grade. Fated partners are typically no more than two years apart from one another.

No one knows why, but it's believed that it's because fated mates tend to have similar life spans. It would be sad if someone had a mate ten years their junior, died young, and took his mate with him. 

Spontaneous death can happen, just like with humans, only it's much rarer in our case, since our bodies tend to heal rapidly once our wolves emerge. 

Setting aside my annoyance, I input the address into my device, and my heart starts to throb. They are at the same place I frequently encountered Jack, and now Orlin is convinced the timing of his phone call wasn’t a mere coincidence. 

I’m so frightened I can’t even think straight, and the only thing I want is Rhea.