The Demon and His Plaything

7| To the ball

Tracy spoke non-stop on the way to the ball. Derek knew it was nerves so he let her have at it for as long as he could stand. Derek and his friend Tom were driving them to the ball, the two men sat up front with the girls in the backseat. His eye was frequently drawn to his revision mirror that caught the reflection of the left side of Samantha's face. They were all already dressed for the ball, the mirror also just catching the pillowy top of her left breast where they were pushed up by her dress.

“Tracy,” Derek interrupted, not able to sit quietly anymore. “Take a breath, sis. Look, don’t get your hopes up. And be warned, people usually find their mates in the first half hour of this thing–those that don't go a bit wild. It can get a bit…” he looked at his friend for just a second, ever the good driver and not taking his eyes off the road for too long.

“Of a total f**k fest.” Tom completed the sentence.

“Goddess…” Derek shook his head at his friend's turn of phrase. Returning to speak to the backseat, “Just keep it in mind that every able-bodied wolf will be trying their best lines on every she-wolf in there once they realise they aren’t getting marked and mated tonight. If you don’t find your mate, stick with us and we can ride the night out together.”

"Unless I find myself a delicious morsel, 'cause I will dump all y'all for a better offer."

"Thanks, Tom." Derek rolled his eyes.

Derek had been to two other balls, not attending each one he could. He felt torn about the prospect of finding his mate. The offer to marry Samantha and take over as Alpha appealed to him. More than appealed to him. He’d always been a bit sweet on her and as they got older his little crush had turned into something a lot bigger.

They hadn't spent much time together after he graduated high school, but now that she was around his resolve that she was who he wanted was being set. The last couple of weeks he had been able to start to get to know her again. Slowly. The way she had taken charge at the marathon. The way she'd made it into a competition once she was sure they had first won as a team had been so sexy. Everything she did was sexy to him though.

He had had a girlfriend in high school but ended the relationship just before he turned eighteen, knowing once his wolf spirit was awakened he could find his mate. She found her mate six months later in any case so the break had been the right thing in the end. He remember the week leading up to his wolf's awakening, holding out hope Samantha would be his fated mate. But it wasn't to be. His only solace was that no one else in their pack was her mate either. When his father approached him with the idea of becoming betrothed Derek had been over the moon, dampening his enthusiasm as that was many years away and anything could happen before then.

He couldn't tell what Samantha thought of the arrangement. She was just so quiet and reserved. He never knew where he stood with her. And he felt uncertain about making a move himself. He was sure he'd seen her look at him. Maybe even starting to see him now too.

That day they had sparred he had thought maybe she felt something for him. He recalled her scent. And he had been so shocked with that last move of hers like she was teasing him. It had shown a side of her he didn’t know was there–and maybe it wasn’t. He kept thinking over those two seconds, the way she trailed her finger over her skin–that sexy way she curled her tongue at him. Maybe he was just remembering it wrong.

There was one thing for certain though. He didn't want her to find her mate.

“A f**k fest, huh?” Tracy asked. Derek frowned at her repeating Tom's words.

Tom twisted in his seat to address the two women. “There's a reason why they have so many cabins around, but don’t be surprised if you don’t just come across people f*****g everywhere.”

Tracy made a noise. “No way. Derek, is that true?”

Derek shrugged. “It’s not like it’s a mass orgy or anything, but yeah there are usually a few… uh public displays.”

“Sheesh,” Samantha mumbled.

“Well, I won't be doing that,” Tracy said smugly.

Tom shrugged and faced forward. “I’ll take it where I can get it.”

“Of course you will, Tom.” Samantha quipped. “You're the definition of d**k dog.”

Both Tom and Tracy laughed. Derek glanced up in his rearview mirror and caught Samantha's eye. His breath caught in his throat. He was sure there was a glint in her eye–a hint of playfulness–but she glanced away immediately and he was left wondering if he'd imagined it as well.

~*~

They had booked two cabins, one for the guys and one for Tracy and Samantha. After dropping their bags they made their way to the building where the dance was being held. Samantha got the red dress in the end and she noticed a few men checking her out. So far she hadn’t scented anything enticing. She kept glancing at Tracy–the other woman's face was so intense.

Immediately they could see people connecting, finding their mates. It was a full-on scene. It looked like mates were finding each other before they even got into the building.

“I don’t smell anything,” Tracy whispered.

Samantha glanced at Derek, he had a frown on his face–he too didn’t want a sad Tracy on their hands all night. Samantha put her arm around her friend.

“It’s okay Trace. You only just turned eighteen. There’s plenty of time. Let's get drunk. I heard they have wolf-strength booze here.”

Tom started to prattle off his favourite drinks, already making plans for the order they would drink them in.

The two men deposited them at the side of the room and went to get their beverages. It was pretty busy, even with the official start time only just passing. This was not a fashionably late type of affair.

Tracy was becoming visibly upset with every minute she wasn’t finding her mate.

Samantha patted her hand absently. “Look, let’s have a dance and a drink and then we’ll steal a bottle of whisky and hang back at the cabin.”

Tracy just nodded, her gaze and nose scanning.

Samantha waved at a few people she knew. A couple of people from her pack as well as neighbouring ones were part of the leader's household.

Tom and Derek returned with two drinks for each of them, the first a sparkling wine and the other a tall dark drink.

They set the dark drinks down and handed out the sparkling. They clinked their glasses together, all trying to make things fun and light while Tracy started to spiral. Tom was a saint and dragged her out on the dancefloor, doing stupid moves to make her laugh.

Derek and Samantha took a seat, finishing the wine. Samantha raised an eyebrow at Derek as she picked up the dark drink.

"It's called a long island ice tea. It's practically straight alcohol so take it easy."

She couldn't help but grin as she looked away from him. He was such a boy scout–though that was the facade she put on as well. Could he be more than meets the eye too?

She glanced at him to find he was looking around the room passively. A surprised noise left her as the sweet boozy taste hit her tongue. "That tastes too good to be just alcohol.”

Derek smiled at her and for the first time, she thought there was something behind it. Hmmm. Conscious of staring, she faced back towards the dancefloor searching for her friends.

A commotion from the entrance drew her eye, seeing the moment as a man came rushing into the room. He was very tall and had blonde hair. She could tell immediately he was searching for what had set his nose off. She glanced back to the dancefloor and saw Tracy run out of it.

Samantha's breath caught as she saw the look on her friend's face as she found her mate. They didn't even hesitate, flying into each other's arms and kissing passionately.

Discordant tinkling of dangerously teetering champagne glasses, clinked as Derek bumped the table in his haste to stand. He waited until it was obvious the two of them were not going to stop and walked towards them. Samantha quickly caught up with him. They needed to get these two to a cabin, stat.

She saw Derek was about to just grab the guy so she caught his arm. He looked back at her shocked. "He's likely to just snap, Derek."

People were giving them a wide berth but weren't giving it much attention. Thank goddess, Tracy would be mortified later.

Samantha called out to Tracy as she approached them. She saw how Tracy's head started to turn to her before swivelling back into the kiss. Her legs were wrapped around his waist grinding down on him.

"Tracy!" She used her alpha aura to get her attention. Tracy looked at her while her mate just continued to paw at her and started kissing her neck. s**t, he'll mark her right here.

"Stop," she ordered him. That order was broad and a few people behind them stopped what they were doing as well.

His mad kissing and groping petered out, but the two of them had feral eyes.

"Let's get you to the cabin," Samantha spoke slowly and made it clear she was not going to be disobeyed.

The stranger let Tracy's feet touch the ground but kept a firm arm around her.

The four of them left the dance and walked to the cabins. Derek interrogated the man on the way. His name was Daniel. He was from the pack that bordered theirs. They knew that was a good one.

He was the second son of the pack Delta. Maybe not the rank level that Tracy hoped for but by the look on her face she didn't care.

Derek seemed to be about to enter the cabin with them when Samantha grabbed his arm again. "Let them go, Derek."

He nodded and followed her back across the quad to where the dance was being held.

"Thank you for that."

Samantha smiled at him over her shoulder, definitely seeing a softening in his eyes when he looked at her. "I guess I'll have to bunk with you guys tonight, you know in hindsight–" she was cut off by the sight of Tom practically carrying a man back towards the other cabin. It looked beyond just a simple hook-up. Both Derek and Samantha let out a big breath in unison.

"Well, s**t," Derek exhaled.

"Indeed." They stood there for a minute before making eye contact and laughing.

"I guess we'll have to find a nice patch of ground for the night," she joked. "Unless we both get lucky."

He didn't laugh at that, just followed her back. They passed a few couples copulating. She liked how red he got and the speed he propelled her passed the sight.

The pair got themselves new drinks, keeping the two each going and found a corner to sit in. After a couple of hours there didn't seem to be any more matebonds found so people were just getting rowdy.

They chatted affably about their independent training. Even if he didn't become Alpha he was the next obvious Beta. Unless her mate was an alpha wolf and would bring in his own–either way he'd have a fairly senior position in the pack for sure.

"You guys train all day?" She asked incredulously.

"Physical training twice a day and then drill and strategy games in between. I also have to do guard duty three nights a week."

She whistled low. "No wonder you're so buff."

He laughed at that. Their drinks were empty again so he went to get them more.

She had a few guys come up to her when she was alone but as soon as Derek came back they skedaddled. She had seen a few she wolves try him out when he had been getting them drinks, but he gave no sign of any interest.

She was feeling pretty tipsy so decided to call him up on it. "You know, you don't have to babysit me all night. If you find a warm bed for the night, I won't hold a grudge."

He just shook his head. "I'm not into one night stands."

She looked at him dubiously. She could have sworn he blushed.

He leaned forward so he could whisper in her ear, his breath hot as it tickled her neck. "We could be mated, Sam."

She was surprised by the arousal she felt but his words and proximity. His closeness was nice. She hadn't really had nice. She hadn't done the highschool boyfriend thing. A few heavy make out sessions with some wolves from other packs–times when she had gone with her parents to visit allied packs for events. It was easier that way, she could experiment and then she wouldn't see them very often if ever again. She also explored her own body. Lots of toys. She tried imagined Derek doing what Godrick did for her.

"You should try to find your mate," Samantha said softly.

Derek sat back and took her hand. His strong fingers massaged hers. "I don't want to."

Samantha bit her lip. How was this happening? He shouldn't want her. Not when she was like this.

"Do you want your mate?" He asked.

She frowned in thought. "I'd like to experience the feeling, but really it seems a dumb reason to spend your life with someone. What if you don't actually like them?"

He smiled softly. "Do you like me?"

Shit. How drunk is he? She thought. How drunk am I?

"We don't really know each other." She glanced at the time on her phone, seeing that there was a message. f**k, she thought. When did that come in? She had been so engrossed in conversation she hadn't even noticed any alerts.

Derek's fingers interlaced tighter with hers. "Let's get to know each other then."

"Let's talk about this when we're sober, okay?"

He begrudgingly agreed.

"I'm just going to the rest rooms and then I'll get us some water." She stood up without waiting for his response and made a beeline across the room. She teetered in her heels, feeling her level of drunkenness now that she had walked a bit. She headed to the last cubicle, reaching a hand out to steady herself.

There were twenty messages. Samantha's hand fluttered to her lips.

Godrick had started messaging her hours ago. Her lower lip trembled as she read through them. She had never taken so long to respond to him. His messages went from playful to worried over a few hours, with a spin down into anger within the last half hour. She sat heavily when she came to the last image he had sent. It was him with a woman in his lap.

She closed her eyes. She had almost seen his face in the picture.

Heart hammering, she typed up a message with shaking fingers. Her mind whirled with the implication of what he had just sent her. She felt rage. And absolute terror.

~*~