Scum (Book 1)

28. Safe

Liam’s POV

As soon as we entered the nightclub, Chey was immediately stolen by Phoebe who pulled her to an area that I can tell is VIP. She shoves a drink at the woman, but I quickly pull it away, downing it for myself because Chey doesn’t drink.

“Oh, come on!”

“It’s really okay Phoebe. I was going to reject it anyway. I’ve never had a drink before.” We watched Phoebe pour Chey’s drink, so there’s no question as to who prepared it, but there is the question of how a drunk Chey is going to behave.

“Your boyfriend will take care of you, and if he won’t, I will.”

Phoebe eventually gets called to take shots with a group of her friends, and in that time, Chey and I go sit in a corner where the girl looks miserable.

I don’t know what to do because typically, I’d be drinking and dancing with whatever woman I targeted for the night, but even if Chey wasn’t my pretend girlfriend, I’m unwilling to leave her side for a second.

Riker has been unusually quiet since he saw her, and even now, the man is stalking Chey with his eyes, likely looking for a chance to approach her without my interference.

“He’s still staring at us.” I’m not surprised that Chey picked up on the man’s actions, but I ease her worry quickly.

“Riker is a lot of things, but he’s not a creep. He thinks you're attractive and he’s probably trying to figure out how to steal your attention.”

“Why would he want to do that?” Chey has no idea how pretty she is, which only serves to make her more attractive to everyone around her.

“You’ve caught his eye, but trust me when I tell you that he does not feel a pull toward you.” the girl frowns, and for whatever reason, it makes me upset. “Do you like him?”

“I don’t even know him.” That’s a quality that makes Cheyenne unique. She’s more focused on Riker’s personality, when even I can admit that he’s a handsome man.

“Then why do you look sad?”

“I’m not sad. I just feel for him. If he had a mate, he wouldn’t be so desperate.” I stifle my laughter, realizing that Chey thinks Riker is the way he is because he’s lonely.

The man and I are really no different from one another when it comes to how we approach our youth, and if he finds out that Chey sees him as pitiable, he’s going to lose it, which makes telling him extremely tempting to me.

“Chey, having fun has nothing to do with waiting for a mate. Riker is just as old as I am, and we’re pretty solid in the idea that we don’t have a fated partner. We’re just enjoying our youth, and so should you.”

“Should I have accepted that drink then?”

“Now that I think about it, yes.” I get up, and order two drinks before bringing them to Chey who I’m lucky to have made it through the doors with.

She’s seventeen, and her features are quite young, but her body tends to take attention away from her face, which is why the bouncer let her, and my sister in without carding them.

Royce and I made sure to stay away from them as they entered, not wanting the girls to appear taken, even though they are, and by luck alone, Riker was outside waiting on the line with us, so he never got a chance to corner Chey the way I’m sure he hoped he would.

“What is that?”

“It's rum and coke. You’ll like it.” Chey doesn’t really look like she trusts me, so I drink from the straw first, wanting her to see that I would never give her anything that I wouldn’t take myself.

“What if I get drunk?”

“I won’t allow anything bad to happen to you.”

“But what if Porsha comes?” Chey looks down at her hands, but even then, I have no plans to leave the girl in an incapacitated state.

“It won’t change anything. I’ll still make sure that you get back safely.”

I wish that I’d considered my words carefully when speaking, but I meant what I said, only to later regret giving Chey the ‘okay’ on becoming the life of the party.

The girl dances just like her brother, bouncing up and down while flexing her muscles and reciting the lyrics to songs I didn’t even know she knew. People keep calling her name, egging her on as she raps, and honestly, I’m enjoying the fact that she’s enjoying herself as much as she is.

Not even Riker is daring to stop the girl from having fun because like me, he’s sipping on his drink and waiting to see what’s going to happen.

“Hypothetically speaking… If I challenge you for the right to mark her, it will be all for nothing, right?”

“Not only has she yet to experience her emergence, but she’s also waiting on her mate, so she’ll likely end up leaving me too.”

“How do you plan to cope? I mean… she’s… I’ve never met a girl like her.”

“Yes you have, you just don’t see her as a woman.”

“Who? Phoebe? If she even thought for one second that I thought about her in any way other than another alpha, she’ll go straight to my father and threaten to end our pack’s alliance.” I chuckle at the man who goes into how much respect he has for the woman as an equal.

It’s not a joke for him; Phoebe likes having fun, but she takes her position and rank seriously. Among our group, she’s one of the most successful, and rumor has it that she runs her father’s outside business on her own.

“What rank does Chey hold?” I’m not about to dignify that question with an answer because it shouldn’t matter, but Riker gets distracted by a woman wearing an almost identical dress to the one I made Cheyenne change. “Glad I’m not you,” he says, downing his drink to follow the woman who clearly wanted our attention, and now, I can fully focus on Chey who looks about done for the night.

This is the first time that I have ended my night early for someone, but I didn’t want to risk getting drunk, being unable to drive back to the hotel, or having to call a taxi while simultaneously having to watch out for Cheyenne.

Human, supernatural, male, female; so far not a species I’m familiar with has been able to resist the girl’s natural charm, not that I mind, I’m just surprised that she hasn’t had a reaction to anyone, not even me.

However, seeing that Phoebe’s hands are getting a little loose, I stand to ‘save’ Chey from the, also very drunk, woman, but the response I get almost makes me run away.

Cheyenne wrapped her arms around my neck, giggling in my face about some incoherent thought she’s having, then she pushes me away and clings onto my back, grinding against me the way other people have been dancing.

I make brief eye contact with Royce, who’s dying of laughter while my sister tries to remain composed in the situation, knowing that Chey is embarrassing the f*ck out of me right now.

“Why aren’t you dancing?” Chey asks, peeking around my shoulder with a pout that I reply to with a glare. “Are you mad at me?”

“No, but this isn’t the way ‘couples’ dance.”

“It’s not?” Chey releases me and looks around before pointing out several examples, but she’s missing the point.

“Chey, I should be dancing behind you.”

“Oh… Okay!” The woman literally wraps my arms around her body and starts to bounce to the beat of the music, but I refuse to move.

“I’ll dance with you if he doesn’t want to,” some random male says, and based on his scent he’s a clueless human.

“I think he’s mad at me for something,” Chey replies, releasing my arms to move away from me, but I snatch her back, wanting the i***t who approached to know that I’m not going anywhere.

I whisper a whole lot of nothing in Chey’s ear, making her lean in closer to me thinking that she’s unable to hear properly, but I’m just trying to give the appearance that she and I are about to start making out.

“Are you messing with me on purpose?” Chey’s withdrawn her face from my mouth, but she’s still close enough for me to feel the heat of her breath, which oddly enough, isn’t disgusting to me. “Do you want to dance or not?”

I don’t know what to do because almost everyone here knows that not only do I dance, but I rather enjoy it, so if I deny Chey now, it will make our relationship look as fake as it is.

“Just dance with her bro.” Royce’s mind-link was all the permission I needed, but I still restrain myself.

Chey is either wearing a thong or no underwear at all, because I can feel the crack of her ass against my d*ck, and it's at that moment that I decide to end the night, knowing that no good can come of where my mind is going.

Chey’s POV

I lost count of how many drinks I’ve had, but I’m having such a good time that I don’t care. I’m dancing, jumping, shouting, laughing, and just really letting go, all because I know that alpha Liam is going to protect me.

I don’t have to worry about someone trying anything, slipping me anything, or doing something stupid because he’s been watching me the entire night, making me feel safe.

At some point, he and I start dancing the way I’ve seen other couples dance, but he’s not happy about being in front of me, so we switch positions until he abruptly pushes me away.

“We should leave.” I don’t know what happened, but at this point, I’m staggering, so alpha Liam is probably just trying to get me back to the hotel before I make a fool of myself.

I don’t know how I got from point A to point B, but when I opened my eyes, I was in our hotel room, and I’m so uncomfortable that I start to remove my dress.

“Chey… wait… don’t!” Liam jumps on me, holding me down with his body weight. “I don’t know what you’re wearing underneath. Please, please don’t do this to me.”

“I’m hot.” Liam releases me, telling me that he’ll get me a shirt, but as soon as he lets me go, I strip my dress off and turn onto my stomach, going back to sleep because I trust him.