Keeper (Matefinder Next Generation Book 1) (4 page)

“Come on, Mase! We’ll figure out a way to get you drunk another day,” I called back to him, snapping him out of his trance.

Vinnie, an Italian twenty-something werewolf in our pack nodded as we walked up. “Hey, guys. Glad you could make it out. Sick DJ tonight.”

Avery and I gave him a hug and the boys fist bumped as he opened the door and let us in without carding. Score. Werewolf perk. It’s not like we could get drunk anyway. The boys drank beer just to look cool and manly.

The barrage of smells that assaulted my sensitive werewolf nose were almost stress inducing. Vampire, werewolf, witch, human. I shook my head trying to make sense of it all. The humans who hung here did so knowing full well who we were. The stupid werewolf tattoo gave that away, and the vampires were easy to spot. Pale, gorgeous, and unbreathing. If there were vampires in here, it was only the nice kind, only ones who had alliances with my father. Vinnie wouldn’t let any others in. Since the downfall of the psycho bloodsuckers that shot humans up with heroin to get high and drink them to death, the remaining ones have been pretty chill. Asking for blood donations and keeping to themselves. I heard some even had willing relationships with human donors but nothing too crazy. The government and my dad kept them in check.

I saw that Brady was manning the bar, along with Amanda. He was a mid-level pack member who brewed his own beer. When he saw us, he tipped his head in respect. I wasn’t exactly royalty but being the Alpha’s daughter did get me a fair amount of special treatment.

“Want anything?” Brady asked.

Mason stepped up. “One glass of witches’ wine, please.”

We all busted out laughing and Brady looked confused.

“Never heard of it. How about a beer?”

Mason grumbled, “Fine.”

Mason was determined to get drunk at some point in his life.

The bar was packed, and as I turned to check out if my favorite video game was occupied, I froze. He was here. My breath stilled, heart hammering in my chest as I gazed upon the hottest guy I had ever seen. Ten feet from me, leaning up against my favorite Pac Man game, was the guy from my dream. He wore Converse shoes, dark worn jeans, and a tight blue t-shirt. His dark brown hair was wild and his green eyes pierced right through me as he held my gaze. My skin began to burn up, as I slowly panted. My wolf rose to the surface, the sounds in the bar faded away, and my body ached to get closer to him.

“What the?” Jax asked and followed my gaze.

‘Dream guy,’
I told him through the twin bond because I wasn’t sure I could speak. Something was happening inside of me, my wolf … she was … taking control.

Jax’s eyes bulged at my declaration. Dream guy finally lowered his eyes to my lips.

‘Let’s go talk to him.
’ Jax began walking and I followed, as if I was a magnet being pulled to my other half. Dream guy, and yep, he had dimples. Holy shit. Marry me now.

When we were two feet from him, a blonde girl stepped in front of me and hugged him.

“Hey, babe, sorry I’m late,” she purred.

Frickity frack. Of course he had a girlfriend.

I bit the inside of my cheek as Jax grabbed my hand and we took a sharp left to go outside. Weaving our way through the crowd we walked out onto the patio where everyone was smoking.

“Well, that was interesting,” Jax said. I could feel him scanning my emotions to see if I was okay.

“Whatever, he’s not my mate. He still might need help though. Should I call Mom?”

Jax frowned at my words and seemed to consider it. “No, she will get all helicopter mom and drive over here and kill our night. How about Mason and I go chat him up. Say we like his shoes or some shit.”

I nodded. Pretty brilliant. “When I was a few feet from him, before the blonde bitch cut me off, I smelled something.”

Jax creased his brow. “You think he’s a supe?”

Jax’s term for supernatural.

I shrugged. I hadn’t gotten close enough, but I did smell something weird.

Jax gave me a knowing smile. “Blonde bitch, eh? You sound jealous. I thought he wasn’t your mate?”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.” Was I? I didn’t even know this guy but
Gretchen’s words came back to me. Fate. He found me.

Avery and Mason came outside with beers. “Thanks for ditching us!” Avery groaned.

Jax kissed her cheek and whispered something in her ear, her eyes widened.

“Come on, Mason,” Jax said and Mason followed him, beer in hand, leaving us girls to talk.

“Dream guy is here?” Avery whisper shouted as her eyes widened in shock.

I chewed my lip. “Yeah, super-hot, and super-taken by some other chick.”

She frowned. “Hmm.”

Yeah, I didn’t really want to talk about it. What kind of messed up higher power thought sending me a vision of some gorgeous guy who was already taken, was a good idea? That didn’t happen with mates. When my mom got visions, both of the people were single and the timing was perfect. Damn, I was acting jealous and I didn’t even know him. So stupid.

“Let’s go play games. Screw this dream guy.” I grabbed her hand and she trailed after me. Let Jaxon figure out what was up with this guy. I would be out having a fun night and hoping my heated connection to this guy vanished after tonight.

Crossing through the entrance back into the bar, I hurried inside and turned the corner hoping to avoid getting an eyeful of hottie dream guy.

“Oouf!” I slammed into someone.

Looking up, I saw that it was him. Just my luck. He had his hands on my upper arms to steady me as we stared into each other’s eyes. I felt mine go yellow.
‘Mate.’
My inner wolf claimed him. What? No! I had to tamp her down so I didn’t scare him. His gaze roamed over my face to my neck tattoo. A slightest amount of fear flashed in his eyes but then it was gone. I inhaled deeply. What the hell? Not a vamp, not a warlock, not a werewolf, but not exactly human. Some special scent lingered on his skin, sage, and sandalwood, supernatural.

“You look familiar,” he stated as his eyes scanned my face again. His warm, rich voice made my stomach heat up and I swear to God I was two seconds from shifting.

‘Mine,’
my wolf claimed. Oh, shit. What was going on? Stop it!

“You look familiar as well.” I tried to play it cool, but my voice cracked and his hands finally dropped to his sides after he realized he was still holding me.

Avery was watching us in fascination.

“I’m Avery.” She extended her hand to him. Thank God she was at least trying to bait him into normal conversation. What the hell was I doing? Staring at him like an idiot and trying to keep my wolf from humping his leg.

“Gavin.” He shook her hand but was still looking at me. Avery quickly pulled her hand away.

“You’re burning up,” Avery exclaimed.

He paled, looking embarrassed but recovered swiftly. “Yeah, haven’t been feeling well lately.”

“I’m Anya.” I spit out. Stupid. I was acting too eager. Chill out.

He gave me a dimple-loaded smile. “Anya. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

I could only nod; the way he said my name was making my wolf rise up again.

“You know, Anya hasn’t been feeling well lately either,” Avery said as I stepped on her toe to quiet her.

Gavin’s eyes roamed over my vintage Pac Man t-shirt and skin-tight black jeans with worn holes at the knees and then finally to my faded pink Converse shoes. He gave the barest hint of a smile before his eyes locked on mine once more, his gaze flicked again to my neck tattoo.

“I’m a werewolf,” I blurted. Jesus! Was I twelve around this guy? It was like that awkward stage in middle school all over again.

He smiled. “I figured.”

After an uncomfortably long stretch of silence, he put his hands in his pockets. “Okay, well, it was nice to meet you. I’ll see you around?”

The heat flushed my body and all of a sudden I was burning up, feeling faint. I could only nod as he walked away and back into the crowded bar. My wolf raged inside of me, pushing me to go after him. To turn around and scream his name, but I shook the feelings off.

Avery grabbed my arm. “You said he was hot. THAT is not hot, that’s … that’s ...”

I nodded. “I know. He’s too beautiful, barely real. Way out of my league.”

‘Mate,’
my wolf said again, but I shut her up with a growl.

Avery frowned, her eyebrows scrunching. “What’s going on with you?”

I shook my head. “Nothing, let’s find the boys.”

It took a few minutes of searching, but we found Jax leaning against a zombie pinball machine talking to Gavin and his girlfriend. Great. We had to go through this crap again. Mason had his arm around a human girl. He was such a sucker for humans, loved that damsel in distress thing.

Jax sensed me through our twin bond and turned. “Hey, sis.” He called me over.

I scanned Gavin’s girlfriend up and down. Girl was hot. She had it going on. Long blonde hair, perfect skin, light make-up and good style. A light growl ripped from my throat, but I disguised it with a cough. Avery and Jax looked at me with concern. This was not like me; I didn’t get jealous, I was confident, until now.

Gavin eyed my shoes again and smiled. Yeah, our shoes matched, but it didn’t make us mates. My wolf needed to calm the hell down. I was seriously worried she was going to hump his leg if I didn’t get some fresh air.

I was about to suggest to my group that we go home, when an ear-splitting shattering noise thundered throughout the bar. I instinctively stepped to the side to be closer to Gavin and threw him to the ground, lying over him as glass rained down on top of us. The humans were screaming as the bar filled with smoke canisters. My eyes met Jaxon’s as the realization washed over us. We were being attacked! Oh, hell no. I couldn’t stay human if I tried. Not with danger present and a guy that my wolf thought was her mate. The music skidded to a stop and the dense smoke had completely filled the bar, leaving everyone coughing. I jumped up, throwing off my clothes. “Shift! Protect the humans!” I shouted to my pack over the screaming and coughing. My dad was Alpha, my mother was his second. In a time like this, everyone took orders from me. Whoever was messing with us was about to die. I heard cracking bones and growls as the pack shifted around me. Then, a girl screamed and … was that a gun shot? What the hell was going on?

The smoke dissipated as I stood on all fours. Looking behind me, I saw Gavin, wide-eyed, staring right at me. I expected to see fear but instead his eyes were full of wonder and lust.

Jaxon’s wolf form moved next to me and I saw that the entire front glass wall of the bar that faced the street was completely blown out. Humans in black military gear, with guns and Tasers, grabbed Brady who was mid-shift, trying to fight them off.

I gave a low growl and prepared to pounce when one of the humans pointed a gun right at me. Screw you. I was part witch, silver didn’t do shit to me like it did my shifter family. But as I prepared to leap and fight for Brady, my wolf froze. Gavin was right behind me, a stray bullet could kill him.
Mate.
I stood there on all fours, frozen, trying to decide whether to rip this military guy’s throat out and help Brady or protect Gavin. My wolf decided for us as I backed up and positioned myself in front of Gavin, head low, a growl rumbling in my chest.

Luckily Jax wasn’t having a problem deciding what to do. He leaped high up into the air and came down hard on the guy who was pointing his gun at me. They tumbled on the floor and the humans took that distraction to shove Brady into a van and drive off with screeching tires. Two of the human hunters stayed back, keeping us hostage with their high-powered guns. They shared a look and then sprayed some bullets into a few wolves nearest them before jumping onto motorcycles and taking off. Shit!

‘Avery! Help the wounded.’
Avery was right next to me, even in my peripheral vision I noticed her reddish fur with white spots. She was studying to be the next pack doctor, now was her chance to put her knowledge into real-life practice. She shifted, tossed on clothes, and ran to the wounded, barking orders to others around her.

‘Dad, we’ve got some trouble downtown at Pixels. Humans kidnapped one of our wolves,’
I told him.

I was about to turn around when I felt a warm, strong hand caress my fur. It was intimate and caught me off guard. It was him.
Mate.

Turning, I saw Gavin, hand frozen in the air, chest heaving.

“What are you doing?” his girlfriend screeched next to him, looking at his hand in horror.

Did his eyes just flash yellow? What the? No, it was a trick of the light. They were green
.

This blonde bitch was turning my wolf into a jealous twelve year old and I was trying to keep my wolf from attacking her. I had never been at odds with my wolf, we were one. Never her and I, just me. But I wanted to rip her face off for the way she held onto my mate. The way she was touching his hard biceps made my wolf furious. Oh my God, what was happening to me? He wasn’t my mate, right?

Jax’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

“Shift. We’ve got some injured humans,” Jax told me. Mate or not, I was the Alpha’s daughter and I would be expected to lead by example in a situation like this.