Tasting The Enemy

Elaine POV

I hated obeying him after he stormed off like that but he was right I couldn’t walk out with his scent stuck to me. I could still feel his lips on my chest. I squeezed my legs shut and moaned.

Fighting the mate bond was harder than I thought and we hadn’t been mates a month yet.

“Hey, you okay?” Opal asked, cradling a martini.

“Yeah, why?” I asked.

“You disappeared.”

I pushed my hair over my shoulder. “Bathroom. Dress malfunction.”

She lifted a shoulder. “Thought you caught a body.”

I felt eyes on me when I looked behind me I noticed Neel sitting on a table with my Father and his, along with my brothers and Alpha families from other packs. I shuddered and looped my arms with Opal.

“Where are those martinis coming from?” I asked.

Opal and I hid at the bar in the corner of the room. It was empty because the drinks were flowing so freely.

“You too seem like two fine young women!” An elderly woman said wedging herself between us.

She was two feet shorter than me and her smile spelled trouble.

“Are you single?” She practically bounced as she spoke.

“It’s complicated,” Opal laughed.

Complicated, I thought. She hasn’t told me about anyone in her life.

“No,” I sighed. “I’m technically engaged.” A foul taste formed in my mouth when I admitted that.

The woman’s smile disappeared. “How awful! I have a son who really should be married by now. In case you’re not engaged anymore, he’s really good at playing the guitar and he’s very handsome.”

I laughed at how her eyes sparkled. Her son might not be happy about this.

“Mom…” a guy hissed.

He wrapped his arm around the woman’s shoulders and pulled her from our duo.

“What? You all knew I would be doing this.”

Hazel eyes stared at me. The striking resemblance took me off guard and his grimace made me put it back up.

“Don’t bother. They’re Black Claw pack,” he said.

“What’s your point?” His Mom asked.

Alpha Richmond frowned at her. “Considering what happened you think this is wise?”

I straightened my spine and looped my arm through Opal’s again.

“Whatever happened. I can assure you, Opal and I had nothing to do with it.”

I yanked her forward and she stumbled and spilled her drink.

“I think I’ve had one too many.”

“Are you okay?”

She shook her head. “I might hurl and I don’t want to do it on your dress.”

I cringed. “Let’s go outside.”

As carefully but as swiftly as we could we made it to the car. I thought the fresh air would be good for her. She held the car and panted heavily before she puked her guts out.

I grabbed her coat from the backseat to cover her with when she finished vomiting. Heat rushed to my face when I realized I must have looked like this in front of Azaire at Dom’s party.

“I feel like shit,” Opal panted.

I opened the passenger door and covered her with the coat.

“Let’s call it a night,” I said.

“You haven’t caught a body yet,” she mumbled.

“I don’t need one, Opal.”

I only wanted Azaire but he was upset I was engaged to a man I didn’t love let alone care for. I grabbed her bag and rummaged through it for the car keys.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Neel barked.

I froze. I smelled his scent too late.

“I’m driving Opal home,” I said.

He snatched the bag.

“Hey!”

“Who told you that you could leave?” He prowled closer making me back into the car.

“I don’t need anyone’s permission to leave, Neel.”

He tossed Opal’s bag away. I gasped and seconds later his hand circled my neck. I winced as my body hit the car.

“Leave… her…” Opal protested weakly.

He grabbed my right hand and pinned it against the car too. He reeked heavily of alcohol, despite that this was the man Neel was. Possessive controlling and deadly.

I used my free hand to claw his arm but it was useless.

“I’ll teach you to respect me! One way or another.”

I took advantage of his body moving slightly to jam my knee into his gut. Neel buckled. His bewildered face upped the heat of my rage. I stepped back and slammed my palm against his face. My nails dragged against his cheek and drew blood.

Oh shit, I thought.

Neel cradled his bleeding cheek and stared at me.

“What did you do?” he asked slowly and menacingly.

I couldn’t run and leave Opal. Before I could think up a plan, Neel flew forward. I jumped out of the way as he hit the back of another vehicle.

“Azaire!” I exclaimed.

Azaire marched in front of Neel, grabbed the front of his shirt and slammed his fist into his jaw.

“That’s enough.”

I grabbed Azaire from behind but it was like trying to push a brick wall. Azaire’s hand was stained with Neel’s blood.

“Stop this is going to start a fight with my pack and we don’t need that.”

“He shouldn’t have touched you,” Azaire snapped, his voice raspy and tight.

“No one cares about that-”

“I care!” He blasted.

I swallowed. His eyes carried more than fire. They harboured emotions for me.

I dragged my fingers down his face and he leaned into them.

“I’ll kill him,” Azaire rasped.

I shook my head. “We don’t need a war.”

“We’re already in one, Elaine.”

Azaire looked over me and his arms slipped from my body.

“They’re coming.”

“They shouldn’t see us like this,” I said and stepped back.

As Alpha Keegan and Nik appeared on the scene I pretended to care for Opal.

“What the hell happened here?” Alpha Keegan demanded.

Neel had passed out minutes ago. Mostly from the alcohol.

“We got into a fight,” Azaire said casually.

A man in a dark suit emerged from a bush. Both sides of his head were shaved while the middle formed a low man bun.

“What’s going on?” he demanded as he stood beside Azaire.

“Fight about what? You don’t have a scratch on you,” Nik barked.

Azaire adjusted his shirt but didn’t dare look at me as not to raise suspicions.

Nik turned to me. “Elaine! What happened?” Nik snapped.

Shoot. I forgot I was here.

“Uhm… Neel attacked Azaire.”

“What?” Keegan gasped. “How?”

All eyes were on me, including Azaire.

“Well… Neel’s drunk out of his mind. I think he mistook Azaire for someone else. He had to defend himself.”

Keegan rubbed his forehead and sighed.

“What are you doing out here?” Nik narrowed his eyes at me.

“Taking Opal home. That’s how I saw everything.”

“How humiliating,” Keegan mumbled.

Other betas came to help Neel up. I breathed a sigh of relief as Neel was dragged away but now I had to find where Neel through Opal’s bag. Instead, Nik strolled to the passenger seat where Opal had passed out.

“She okay?” He asked.

“She’s just drunk.”

He nodded. “Are you okay to drive her?”

I saw genuine concern on Nik’s face for Opal but we would be fine.

“Yeah, go back to the party.”

He nodded before painfully pulling his eyes away from Opal. When he was gone I went to the task of finding the car keys. I was buzzing from all the excitement. I felt good but enraged that Neel would try to hurt me. He could do serious damage, what would happen if he cornered me again?”

“There it is.”

I found the denim bag between two SUVs. I searched through it until I found the keys. A hand gripped my wrist but I didn’t startle. My wolf settled into ease at his touch. I met his hazel eyes and stern face. He was a mature version of all his brothers.

“Are you okay?” He asked gently.

“I am.”

We stood together.

“Good. But he attacked me? Really?”

“I couldn’t think of anything else that made sense.”

He scowled. “He’s an idiot so it might not be that hard to believe.”

“How did you know he attacked me? You weren’t stalking me were you?” I asked.

He raised a brow. “This is why being mates is so difficult. I constantly need to know where you are if you’re not with me. I can feel your pain and I can’t stop it.”

“It’s not easy for me either. The sudden heat at night not being able to even call you because of our packs. We can’t even get to know each other because our packs hate one another.”

“Sudden bursts of heat?” Azaire stepped forward, bringing me into his arms. “How are you taking care of it?”

Heat rushed to my face. I turned to the side and blinked rapidly.

“Well, I… you don’t need to know!”

He chuckled. “I won’t stop thinking about that but we need to figure this out.”

I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.

“Not here.”

“I know. Tomorrow, I’ll be in touch, okay?”

I nodded. He stroked my bottom lip. I wanted him to kiss me badly but there had to be eyes on us and getting caught wasn’t in our plans. I watched him leave helplessly.