Althena

57. One For The Road

He grabs my wrist and spins me back to him. I land in his arms and his lips touch mine. He kisses me so gently. I could melt by his kiss.

He pulls back. "Don't be..."

I kiss him again and put my arms around his neck.

He lifts me and puts my ass on his desk.

I wrap my legs around his waist and pull him against me. He nibbles my bottom lip and takes his next kiss. My fingers find the short hair at the back of his neck. I love feeling that.

"Drogon."

We look at his dad standing in the doorway.

He shakes his head. "We have doors. Do you not know how to use them? I swear." He leaves and slams the door. Then he barges back in. "Never mind. She's too young. Go to dinner. Out."

Drogon lays his head on mine and closes his eyes. "Give us a second, dad. We're on our way."

"Fine."

I hear the door shut, and he's still standing against me. I don't know what to do. He's warm though. I rub the hair on the back of his head again.

He kisses me then stands me up. "I could stand here and kiss you all day. We had better find something to do."

"I can probably go back to Mystical Moon now. I'll text Mike."

"No. At least eat dinner first. They're probably cleaning up the mess. You'll end up missing another meal."

"I feel like I just had lunch."

"Same. Pick through dinner and we'll go do something." He walks over to the mirror and fixes his tie.

"Like what?" I fix the back of his collar.

"I'll figure out something." He puts his arm around me and leads me out.

Dinner is in a big dining room. There are probably 40 people here. I don't know any of them. I sit by Drogon and try to be invisible. Everyone makes small talk, and we get out fairly easily.

"Is it always like that?"

"Pretty much. There are a lot of staff. Then the pack ranks and their mates. It's not required for any of them to eat here, but most of the time, they do. It's easier."

"I guess if they're already here, that is easier."

"Yep. What do you want to do?"

"What do people normally do here?"

"What did you do in Crystal Falls?"

"I went to the beach with Chris a lot. The boys would take me shopping in the central district, sometimes. Cook for my shop and open it."

"You didn't go to school."

"Nope."

"They were your whole world."

I shrug my shoulders. "It was a nice world."

He opens a door. I step in and freeze. He laughs and kisses my cheek. "You're ok. This is my apartment. I need to hang my jacket up and get rid of the tie. Then we'll go do something. Relax."

I don't think Mike would want me here. This doesn't seem right.

He takes his jacket and tie off. Then he unbuttons the top of the shirt and rolls up his sleeves. "More casual but we're ok. Your dress isn't too fancy."

"Why does that matter?"

He smirks. "If you were dressed like a princess, I would keep the tie and jacket on. I can't let you stand out."

"Oh. I can change."

"You're fine." He opens the door for me.

I jump out and take a deep breath. Then let it out.

He cracks up laughing. "What was that about?"

"I didn't know about being in your apartment. It seems different. I don't want to get in trouble."

"You were 3 feet inside my living room for 2 minutes. I think you're safe. I didn't even get a kiss there. Can I have one now?"

I smile and throw my arms around his neck.

"This is better." He gives me a tender kiss. "You are so sweet. But don't ever go into any other man's apartment. That's not a good idea."

I shake my head and laugh.

He keeps his arm around me and takes me to a car. He drives us to a shop of some kind. The sign says, 'Surge Lounge.'

"What is this place?"

"Teenager hangout. I used to come here all the time after school."

My feet stop working, and my eyes fill with tears. I didn't know places like this exist. I could have met more people. People my own age. I could have...

He squeezes my hip. "Do you want to go somewhere else?"

I blink the tears away and shake my head.

It takes my eyes a second to adjust when we walk in. It's a lot darker in here. But everything is done in bright colors. Music plays from somewhere. They have some pool tables and other game tables. A couple of guys glance at us from their dart game on the back wall. But they go back to it. There are a bunch of arcade games in one area.

"Hey Drogon." A man stands behind a bar smiling at us. "Haven't seen you in a couple of months. How you been?"

"Doing good. Been dealing with some pack issues." Drogon pulls me over and shakes his hand.

"What can I get you? Other than quarters. She is eyeing the arcade."

He laughs. "Yea, a couple rolls of quarters and 2 sodas."

The man hands him 2 cans. "Tank has the VIP room. He'd probably be pissed if you didn't say hi."

"Alright. Thanks." He leads me to a door with a star on it. Then he takes my hand. I don't think I've ever held hands with someone. I like it.

"Oh s**t. Look who crawled out from under his rock." A man stands up from a couch and shakes Drogon's hand. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Pack bullshit. We needed to get out. Figured I would see who's here. What's been going on?"

"Same old s**t, man. Bullet, look who showed up."

Everyone in the room looks at us. There are only about 10 people, but still.

"Hey man. What's up?"

A girl smiles at him from the couch. "Hi Drogon." Then she sees me and rolls her eyes.

I try to let go of his hand, and he holds on tighter. He shakes a few people's hands, then things seem to die down around him.

The girl who doesn't like me, gets up and leaves with another girl.

Drogon pulls me down into a chair with him. It's an oversize chair, so we fit fine together. Then he puts his arm around me. I snuggle into his side and wonder if I'll get to play those games. There were lights flashing in that corner.

"Look what I got from my parents." A man pulls a bottle out of a bag.

He shoves it back in as the door opens. My 5 security guards walk in and sit randomly around the room. Then they read magazines.

"I think they stole the magazines out of your waiting room, Drogon."

"Yep." He nods and kisses my head. "Ignore them. They won't do anything unless you try to touch her."

"Good deal." The man gets the bottle out again. "I need a drink."

"So, you two are on the news again."

"Why now?"

A different guy turns on the tv. Then he changes the channel about 10 times. "It's not on here now. Something about her landing alone in your territory today. People are trying to figure out if you're an item or not."

The guy on the couch laughs. "Did she claim you, man? It looks like she did."

"Leave them alone." A guy hands me a drink. "It has alcohol in it. I'm not trying to hide that from you." I take the drink, and he puts his hands up for the security guards. They go back to their magazines.

The one girl that stayed grabs a drink. "I heard you're signed into a marriage contract."

Drogon laughs. "Her dad refuses to sign. There are no contracts."

"Oh that's right. You're not an adult." The man on the couch smiles at me. "Why won't your dad sign?"

"I want my soulmate." I take a drink and it burns. My eyes water and everything.

"Nothing wrong with that. What about you, Drogon?"

He pours some more soda into my drink. "Nothing I can do but hope I'm her soulmate."

The girl smiles. "Would you sign the contract?"

"Hell yea. She's amazing and fun. We need to go to another concert and dress for it again."

"That was so fun." I take a drink and nearly choke. "But you didn't let me show my boobs."

"Well, you can show them to me now." He drinks half my drink and fills it back up with soda. "f**k, man. Easy on the liquor."

They crack up laughing.

"What?" He rubs his eyes. "That was a lot for even me. Ain't no way she can handle that."

"You told her to show you her boobs."

Drogon stops and thinks about it. Then he smirks at me. "Yes, please do."

I roll my eyes and smack him. He takes my hand and kisses it.

"Boy, you got it bad." The girl laughs. "Let's play some pool."

They go back to doing what they were doing before we walked in. Drogon talks to a couple of guys. The alcohol man keeps our drinks full. The other girls come back and ignore us.

"So, what's going on with Alpha Judas in the docks?"

"He's an ass. He thinks he can charge Winter Moon more for importing, just because we have money. We pulled our ships out of their docks. We'll use the regular docks. It's not a big deal."

I wiggle around and put my legs over Drogon's. I'm hot. And it's hot being cuddled up with him in this chair.

"He's making it out to be a big deal."

He rubs my thigh. "Maybe it is for them. We pulled our ships out of their docks. They're not making any money from us anymore. I don't know if any other packs followed us or not."

"They did."

"That wasn't our intention. We're not going to pay double for our ships to dock there instead of 5 miles away at the regular docks. There's no point. We secure our own shipments and transports. They weren't doing anything like that. There was no reason for the price hike."

"I get it. My alpha was asking if I heard anything about it from you. He couldn't figure out why people were pulling away from Judas."

"If he's giving your alpha a good deal, tell him to stay put. But nobody should be charged double what the public docks are charging."

"Yea, that's bullshit."

I stand up and nearly fall over. Drogon grabs my hips. "Where you going?"

"I'm hot. Then my shoe fell off."

The man on the couch points to a vent. "Stand under that. You'll cool off."

"Thank you." I leave my shoes and stand under the vent. It blows cold air on me. It feels so nice. I don't know why I'm so hot.

Alcohol man hands me a drink. "Doing ok?"

"You are very nice."

He laughs and trips over nothing. My security guard catches him from slamming into the floor. Then he puts him in a chair.

Suddenly, I'm very cold. I run over and snuggle with Drogon.

"Now you feel like a damn ice cube."

"I'm cold."

"I'll warm you up." He puts me on his lap.

He's so sexy. I give him a kiss. Then I nibble his lip.

"Or maybe you'll warm me up." He rubs my thigh again.

I kiss his neck. "I like warming you up."

He hugs me as best as he can. I'm sitting on him sideways.

"You're being summoned to the palace. A helicopter is incoming."

I jump clear off him and the guard catches me from falling on the table. I guess I forgot where we were.

Drogon sits up and fixes his shirt. "Who?"

"Both of you."

"This should be interesting." He fixes my dress. It was kind of riding up.

Alcohol man cracks up laughing. "Take one for the road."

He's so friendly.