The Knight Prince

Chapter 9

    The dense crowd and the deafening drum of music weren’t a deterrent in a hunt. It was actually an asset. The best distraction, even. While everyone deadened their realities within the pounding beat, satisfying their lust for personal connections, drenched in drugs and alcohol, Adrian waded through the intoxicated mob, stalking his prey. In places like these, he moved with confidence, easily blending with the shadows because the darkness easily melded with him.

    It always had.

    The earpiece vibrated lightly as Link spoke, ‘I have eyes on our mark. East side under the DJ stage.’

    ‘On him,’ Adrian responded low. 

    He had been on him long before his teammate gave the heads up, watching the thirty-something, average looking guy with a receding hairline grind against a tall buxom woman with too much makeup and not enough clothes. No s**t, the thigh-high boots may have been the only article of clothing actually covering something on her body. The chump didn’t mind her scantily clad body, and not many guys would. She totally rocked the whole club rat appeal that screamed for attention, and he was listening.  And, having watched the guy for nearly twenty minutes now, Adrian discovered a pattern to the his taste in women, which was only choosing chicks with large t**s. Though, Adrian could respect that, he being a boob-guy himself.

    ‘He’s on his sixth drink and fifth dance partner’ Darcy added, who had been posted on the second floor, hidden behind the glass in one of the VIP rooms. ‘He’s bound to take a potty break anytime soon.’

    ‘We’ve been waiting too f*****g long for him to take a piss,” Adrian growled. ‘Audrey, I need you to take this one.’ The perks of having a female in the crew. No demon, devil, witch or bloodsucker could turn down a pretty face. And since their mark was into double Ds, Audrey was perfect.

    ‘Copy that, Boss,’ Audrey chimed in.

    Link growled, ‘I just love how you use my mate like some wind-up doll’

    ‘Relax, Déchue, it’s just part of the game,’ Adrian smirked. ‘Besides, Audrey is on the dance floor and Darcy is upstairs. She’s closer.’

    ‘Yeah, well payback’s a b***h, remember that, when you find yours,’ Link huffed, ‘and we have your kamará play this game, too.’

    Adrian’s jaw clenched at the mention of his mate, especially when his brain flashed an image of ocean blue eyes. Having spent the last two weeks trying to drain his thoughts of anything related to cupcake girl, he had been fairly successful since he had been in LA on business and swamped with meetings, negotiations, and forging new alliances. Yet, no matter how busy he had been during the day, there was nothing he could do when it came to the night when his mind was so obsessed with her, that his dreams were saturated with nothing but golden hair, pink pouty lips and amazing eyes.

    That scent… that touch…

    f**k!

    Adrian shook his head, sliding back into focus, conjuring up a laugh that sounded half-way legit. ‘Well, Lycan don’t find their mates for centuries, so you’ll be waiting a long time for that.’ Because there was just no f*****g way Ari was his mate. It wasn’t logical.

    ‘Well, luckily witches can keep up with a Lycan’s lifespan. So, I’ll be at your side for a long time, asshole, because your mate will be towing the line, too.’

    From the side, Adrian watched Audrey approach like a b***h in heat, swaying her hips and locking eyes with their mark like a voracious siren calling out to a sorry ass sailor headed for disaster. Just to mess with Link more, Adrian added, ‘Audrey, he’s a tit guy. Give him a show.’

    ‘f**k you, Aide,’ Link growled again. ‘I’m taking notes, remember. Payback.’

    Audrey shoved her chest out, hands running down the sides to showcase her remarkable body flashing in the tight silver dress. And just like that, their mark dropped the chick he was grinding and pulled her against him.

    ‘Ok, Aud, you’ve lured and hooked him. Reel that fish outta the water and net him quick,’ Adrian said.

    ‘There will be no ‘netting’ of anyone,’ Link whined.

    ‘For f**k’s sake, Link. She’s a knight. Let her do her f*****g job.’ Adrian graveled. ‘Maintenance hall is behind the stage. Door is on the left. We’ll meet you out there. Everyone start moving in.’

    Audrey leaned in and whispered something into the guy’s ear, adding a bit of tongue along the man’s lobe. The guy’s over-excited nod was a dead giveaway that her little erogenous act had the desired effect. Grabbing his lapel, she began leading him through the spirited crowd and to their rendezvous. Adrian smirked, pleased at her efficiency, though knew someone else in their squad probably wasn’t as impressed.

    'I f*****g hate you, Aide,’ Link muttered.

    Yep, he saw.

    Weaving through the dance floor without getting molested, coerced into a dance, or prying himself from someone’s drunk ass arms —men and women alike— was a feat all its own. And if he was at Grimoire for fun and not for work, he would have entertained many of these offers, but since he was on the clock, and nearly ready to bag the bad guy, there was no time to play right now. Adrian exhaled in relief when he made it to the lounge area, where the crowd thinned and it was easier to navigate.

    With eyes glued to the door labeled Employees Only in bold red letters, Adrian hustled as much as he could through the labyrinth of people and tables, knowing Audrey was out there with their target, most likely still alone with him. If their investigations were correct, this was their gold ticket with information that would lead them to who was killing off the Knights, so there was no way this guy was going to get away.

    Although all of that, the mission, the urgency to get the witch back to HQ and interrogate the s**t out of him, the need to make sure Audrey was ok… all of it… fled from his mind the second he came within fifteen feet of the door. All because of a rush of gardenia immediately invaded his nose and conquered any sort of wayward thought that wasn’t connected to it.

    “f**k,” he muttered, his shoulders feathering as he tried to get his senses under control. Immediately, his eyes bled over the area around him, searching for... her.

    ‘What? What’s wrong?’ Link asked frantically. ‘Is Aud ok? I’m almost there!’

    Adrian didn’t answer him, his attention completely zoning on one thing. And when he caught sight of the waterfall of blonde hair, his breath caught immediately, the thrashing in his chest pounding louder than the music behind him.

    What is she doing here?

    He tried to break away, tried to get his head back into the game. After all, it would be easy right now. Ari hadn’t seen him; she was turned away, standing at a high table, talking to her cousin Kiki and the other roommate, Jewel. Well, he assumed the girl was the roommate because she fit the profile on the investigation he had opened on Ariana. After what happened in the café, he had to figure out who the hell she was and pushed for the probe, not that he was stalking her or anything.

    But he was stalking her now. His beast writhed inside him to get closer, to soak in her scent.

    Prowling, his eyes glued onto his new target, attention caught immediately within the thirst-trap, raking over the curves of her body, the gorgeous sun-kissed legs tucked within f**k-me heels, the way the blue dress hugged her taut ass. His beast growled, delirious to touch her.

    Standing directly behind Ari, he dipped his head, his nose diving into her hair, dragging slowly upward as he inhaled. As if getting a drug fix, his body trembled, her scent resonating through every cell of his body. And he wanted more.

    When he prepped to make another pull, he caught sight of Kiki and Jewel staring at him wide-eyed, shortly before Ari jerked around to face him. Immediately, he was struck with her amazing eyes, slamming him hard in the chest. He had to remember to breathe.

    “Adrian?” she whispered.

    f**k- don’t say my name… please say my name again.

    Both her shocked expression and the way her roommates were staring at him was like a bucket of cold water, shaking him to his senses. He had to reel this in, quick. Pushing his beast into the furthest part of his mind, Adrian blinked a few times as he dialed it back. Hopefully he hadn’t already f****d things up here. But s**t, it looked like he did. The girl was looking at him all doe eyed. He couldn’t do this with her… Ari and him didn’t make sense. 

    An eyebrow rose, “Hmm. I didn’t know we were on a first name basis?” Realizing he was still a little too close, kissable close, he took a step backward. An odd wrenching burned in his chest when he did so, as if his body did not want to get too far away. To keep his hands from doing something stupid, he folded them in front of him. “I don’t even think we’re friends?”

    Ari’s chin tilted upward, her lips thinning. “Well, sorry, I got a little confused there. I figured if you’re back to sniffing me, then we could at least be on a first name basis?”

    “I wasn’t… sniffing you.” I was totally sniffing you. s**t. What is this girl doing to me?  As he sorted through what in the actual f**k he was still doing here, talking to this girl who was confusing the hell out of him, his eyes fell on Kiki and Jewel. They had yet to look away from him, gawking as if he had two heads.  With his steely glare, they quickly grabbed their drinks from the table and excused themselves, ushering away toward the bar. His eyes flicked to Ari. “You heard wrong. Again.” But s**t, she smelled good. What perfume company had managed to capture the scent so perfectly?

    “Uh, no. You aren’t weaseling out of this again.” Ari crossed her arms over her chest, mimicking his stance, inadvertently staging a delicious display of breasts that immediately caught his eye. “I totally heard you sniffing.”

    “And I told you. I have allergies.” His eyes fought to remain on her face, but dammit her cleavage was calling his name. Trying to keep his s**t together, he forced himself to totally turn away from Ari, looking at the raging dance floor.

    He needed to get away from her. He didn’t want to leave her.

    f**k.

    Ari had said something more to him while his earpiece buzzed to life, so he missed whatever she had said as he focused in on Darcy’s voice, ‘We’re with Audrey. We’ve cuffed and detained the guy.’

    Link barked, ‘Adrian, where the hell are you? You ok?’

    Audrey asked, ‘Who are you with? Are you talking to someone?’

    s**t! Yeah. Where the hell was his head? He wasn’t here to get his d**k wet but had managed to let it distract him from the job.

    Adrian spoke low, ‘Give me a sec.’ before tapping his earpiece, turning off the device, before addressing Ari. He was about to say something to continue their conversation, but then shook his head, shaking some sense into his obvious one-track mind. Or maybe, one-track d**k. He didn’t have time to chit-chat with her, for many reasons. For one, his team was waiting for him to head back to HQ. Secondly, he shouldn’t be leading her on. Because it was leading himself on to this obvious wrong direction. 

    “See you around, Cupcake,” he winked, turning around to find the maintenance doorway once again. Though he had only taken a few steps before he felt her fingers wrapping his hand.

    If this were a normal woman touching him, he could have shaken it off, yanked himself free. But when the buzzing electricity pumped through him with her simple touch, his fingers contracted, latching onto her as the rippling wave pulsed over his hand and shot up his arm.

    “f*****g s**t!” he convoluted.

His head whipped back, his beast rushing close to the surface once more, challenging him for control. How did this human affect him like this? Confused at how his mind answered that question, angry with how his heart reacted to the answer, he ripped his hand away from hers. 

    ‘There is no f*****g way she’s my kamará!’ he seethed inwardly. ‘She’s a child. A human child!’ 

    “Don’t ever touch me again!” he barked at her. ‘If she didn’t touch me, it meant it wasn’t real, right?’ When Ari took a step back, when he saw the immediate hurt flush her eyes, a clench of regret burned through his chest. Those blue eyes shouldn’t ever look that sad.  Adrian fought against the empathy that nipped at him. Calmer, “What? What is it?”

    “I— I was just trying to tell you that I made you a treat at the café—”

    His heart thumped harder, anxious to bleed for her. No! He couldn’t let this go further!

    “--- and I told you before that I wasn’t interested. Not in you. Not you f*****g desserts.” He aimed to kill this craving that was anxiously trying to tether itself between them, annihilate these feelings as quickly as possible.  

    When he saw the tears build in her eyes, watched as she backed further away from him to the point of pushing her way past the crowd and rush toward the hallway that led to the restrooms, he realized he hit his mark.

    Halle-f*****g-lujah Goodbye! Though his celebration felt hollow. The way her lips quivered into a frown. The way her eyes blurred with sadness. Why was his heart shredding at the thought of that little girl in pain? Pain that he inflicted! f**k!

    Before he understood it himself, Adrian pushed quickly through the mass of bodies, chasing after her. Just as she grabbed onto the restroom’s door handle, he clasped her upper arm, pulling her away from it, and dragged her further down the hallway.  Although the area was dark except for the humming black light running the floorboards and up along the crown molding, he could still see her clearly with his Lycan sight. And what he saw wrenched him even more. The tear-soaked, heavenly eyes, the trembling lips, he couldn’t help himself on what he did next.

    After pushing her against the wall, she tried to squirm free. But that wasn’t happening! No f*****g way. Adrian’s fingers raced through her hair, nearly falling into heaven with its softness, bracing her head before his lips slammed onto hers, violently kissing her. When she stopped struggling, when her hands stopped pushing at his chest and slid around his body, he pressed himself fully against her, trapping her in place.

    “f**k… Ari…” he could hardly speak before driving his mouth against her once more.

    After lips weren’t enough anymore, Adrian teased her mouth with his tongue before darting inside. Flames burst inside his gut, racing throughout his body, threatening to consume him, urging him to kiss her deeper, harder, but it wasn’t enough to sate the insatiable need.

    “Adrian,” she said against his lips, sending him into a tailspin.

    He groaned as Ari powered into his kiss, her lips just as hungry, driving him even more insane. He needed all of her! Adrian’s hands dropped from her face, rushing down her body, coddling her breasts, kneading her waist before bracing her firmly against him, grinding his hardened length against her core so she could feel how much he wanted her.

    When his lips began to trail, leaving her mouth to worship her jaw, worship the exposed skin of her upper chest, then between her breasts, Adrian kissed and caressed his way to the soft flesh of her neck. Relentlessly, his mouth sucked on her throat, lost in the heady scent of gardenia, groaning as he relished in lust.

    Rapt within her raging heartbeat that he heard with perfect clarity, Adrian’s excitement mounted. Without warning, his canines lengthened, his beast compelling him to sink his teeth within her neck, which had already reddened due to his ruthless lips, and claim her. And his teeth went as far as pinching against her throat before the shock of what he was about to do set off loud enough alarms in his head that he jerked himself a few feet away from her.

    “No!” He bellowed. No, this can’t happen. No, this isn’t right. No, she isn’t the one to bear his mark! Ari pinned herself to the wall, confused eyes and bruised lips within a halo of gold hair trying to make sense of his actions.

    Adrian’s chest racked as he panted, his hands running through his hair as he tried to figure out what the hell he just allowed himself to do. What his beast nearly made him do! If he had mate-marked this girl, this human… s**t! Without another word, Adrian raced down the hall, needing to put as much distance between him and this… mistake… as quickly as possible.