2. Quentin
1130 Words
2
Quentin
Dominic couldn’t stop staring at his little human mate. My lips pressed down at the thought. A human mate. If it was meant to be for him then great, but I would rather take a dog as a mate. Humans were far too fragile. Of course, no one would be as protected as the mate of the great dragon-shifter Dominic.
Lucas kept flirting with the waitress who replaced Mazy. I gripped the seat as I thought about his gaze roaming her full figure. She was certainly something to see. Wide hips flared in the right way, her ample chest, on display for the whole bar to see.
I shut down the growl creeping from the back of my throat and tried to calm the beast inside me. I had come here as a favor to Dominic. He had stolen his mate from a powerful bear clan who hadn’t taken it well. Eden had explained her adoptive father was okay with it now, but it didn’t stop some idiots. We had come to witness their official mating ceremony. Eyeing my old … friend … I couldn’t quite believe the giant was getting married. Dominic, Lucas, and I were all mercenaries. Dominic was not the marrying type. In our profession, few attempted a real relationship. We gained a lot of enemies over our time. Our job meant we chose what jobs to take. People rarely forgot.
And yet, here Dominic was, about to get married. Both the shifter way and the human way. He had been the last one in our little trio I’d ever have guessed would get married. Lucas was a ladies’ man for sure, but he would settle like he was supposed to. I was expected by my family to carry on my genes and family name. Eventually, the right breed would come along.
The short, sensual waitress made her way back to us. A hand shot out and grabbed her ass. I saw red for a second and stood, making the table lurch forward. I felt Lucas’s and Dominic’s gazes on me, but I couldn’t look away from her. Not even for a second. What about this woman had my animal in a frenzy? He demanded blood for the insult to her person.
Without missing a beat, she twisted on her foot, getting the man’s hand off her sweet behind. She leaned down, the tray with our drinks staying high in the air. I c****d my head, listening to what she had to say over the drone of the club.
“Sugar, next time you touch my ass, I will have your ass kicked out. It’s for viewing, not touching.” She said it all with a smile.
I sat back down.
“You plannin’ on a murder?” Dominic snickered.
“Some man just touched your mate,” I said.
Dominic’s face turned murderous as he looked toward Eden dancing with her bear-shifter friend who had been her bodyguard before Dominic and she got together. No men danced close to them; most of the patrons were shifters. They knew when someone had been mated, and they stayed away. Out of respect, but also from survival instinct.
“f*****g hilarious.”
I lifted one shoulder, indifferent. The waitress made her way back to us. Handing us each our drinks and flashing both Dominic and Lucas a smile, she gave me a frown and questioning glance instead. I took in her scent again. Diluted with those of all the people she had waited on and the smells of the bar, I couldn’t pin it down.
What kind of shifter was she?
“Chérie, you never told us your name.”
“Didn’t know if you wanted me sticking around. I’m sure Mazy takes excellent care of y’all.” She wasn’t southern, just spoke lazily. The idea irked me for some reason. My eyes skated over to Lucas at the mention of Mazy. He never flirted with her like he did this waitress. I sort of wanted to demand Mazy back, just so Lucas would keep his paws to himself.
“Well, seems like we got you …?”
“Winnie.”
“Short for?” I didn’t like nicknames.
Her tawny-brown eyes flicked in my direction. “Winnie.”
“It must be short for something.”
“Winnie.” Her jaw set, but I was stubborn, too.
“I demand to know what it is short for.”
“How do you not know it’s long for something?” she asked with a graceful c**k of her head. When she set the empty tray to her side, her weight shifted, drawing my attention to her curvy hip.
My gaze traveled the length of her body so she felt every second of my exploration. Her chest pushed out with her deepened breaths. The valley of milky skin from the neck to the top of her breasts had me shifting in my seat. Her lips had parted, and I focused on their soft fullness until she huffed and twisted them into an unpleasant frown. Her eyes reflected anger her body wasn’t feeling.
“You were saying?” I couldn’t resist pushing the issue, enjoying her unease.
“It’s long for Win.”
Dominic’s boisterous laugh ended with him slamming his hand down on the table. Lucas’s eyes glinted with approval. I, on the other hand, fantasized of taking her in the back and slapping my hand wide over her ass. The thought had my traitorous body perking up in all the wrong spots. Never had a woman managed to both arouse me and piss me off at the same time.
“Maybe you should learn your place.” Mate, my animal added. I shook away the thought. She was not my mate. My stupid beast pined because Dominic had found his mate. I didn’t want to settle down yet.
“And where would that be? Not the bottom. I like the top better.”
Her teasing caused a problem for me. Already painfully tight in my pants, and now she had to go and make me seem like a teenager who hadn’t learned how to masturbate yet.
“You boys call me over if you need anything else. I will be back in a while to check up on you.” Winnie, who wouldn’t tell me her full name, started to leave. I had the sudden urge to grab on to her wrist and keep her near. I didn’t like the idea of others talking to her. Not with the mouth she had on her. Instead, I kept my hands to myself, and she headed straight to the bar.
“My, my, that was certainly entertainin’.”
“It was nothing.”
“She caught your eye.”
“No, she didn’t.”
“Then stop staring at her.”
I turned back in my seat to stare at Dominic instead. I wanted to beat away his sly smile. I fought differently, though. He believed in using his claws. I preferred a more elegant fight, knives and guns. Swords were what I lived for but, since the end of the 19th century, those were uncommon. I had trained with them since childhood and knew how to handle them, but had expertise in weapons of all kinds. Most people pegged me for a businessman, but the two men in front of me knew me the best.
My nose started to tingle with the residue of a scent. A scent that caught my animal’s interest.
- Writer
