Chapter 2: Forbidden kiss

Calina

He pointed a finger at me and shot me a stern look. “Get those drinks on the table! We don’t want Mr Vander to wait for anything!” he continued, now pointing at a tray in the corner with a few fizzy drinks on it.

“Y-yes chef!” I said, trying with every fibre of my being, to muster up a fake smile. I then walked quickly to the tray, eager to stop exposing my eyes to the sickening sight of Mason’s face.

“Louis… what the fuck did you do?” I whispered harshly under my breath.

There was a moment or so of silence before Louis drew in a sharp breath and then tried to explain himself. “Listen Calina… I know you hate him, but he was the only person willing to join you on your mission. He also knows the owner of the restaurant. I couldn’t afford to let our hatred for him cost us this bounty.”

I knew he was right, but I didn’t want to acknowledge or accept it. For me, there was too much of hatred and the stink of Mason’s cologne only made it worse.

I snickered bitterly before saying, “This is exactly why I work alone.”

And with that, I took my earpiece out of my ear and dumped it into the sink full of dirty dishwater. The feeling of betrayal and anger lingered in my heart. But I tried to ignore it and instead focussed on my mission again. I removed the Wolfsbane drops from my bra, checked my surroundings quickly and then dropped them into every single glass on the tray. They’d take a minute or so to work, but the moment they did, Alpha Vander would have no choice but to visit the restroom with the rest of his friends. That’s when I’d capture him.

I placed the drops back into my bra and then picked the tray up carefully before exiting the kitchen. The place was relatively empty and the table belonging to Alpha Vander was a sight for sore eyes. It was a large, round table located on the second level of the restaurant. The table was decorated beautifully with fairy lights in the middle, scattered between vases of beautiful white roses. Right in the centre, carved out on a square piece of wood was the name “Mr Vander”. Already a few of his other guests had arrived and made themselves comfortable at the table, chatting away like old friends. I neared the table and smiled at everyone before placing the drinks down.

“Good evening. My name is Shelly Williams. I will be one of your waitresses this evening,” I said politely before smiling.

One of the guests returned my smile and then glanced at something right next to me. I didn’t even have to look. The scent of his cheap cologne and aftershave was enough.

“I don’t mean to pry, but the kitchen staff is a little overwhelmed. Do you know when Mr Vander will be arriving?” Mason asked politely with a wide, charming smile. Even the look in his deep blue eyes seemed to be genuine and friendly. Mason was a master of deception, and it seemed the werewolf guest he was speaking to fell for his smiling trap.

“He should be here any moment. You can tell the staff to bring out the food so long.”

Mason smiled and nodded, letting his blond wavy locks bounce in his face. Then, he gently tapped at my elbow and tilted his head slightly, signalling that we should leave the table.

I bowed my head slightly before I walked in front of Mason, moving my elbow away from the palm of his hand as soon as we were away from the prying eyes of the table. Then, once I was certain we were far enough for the wolves not to hear us, I turned around to face him.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I asked venomously.

Mason looked taken aback for a moment and a frown emerged on his face. “Helping? What does it look like?”

“I don’t need your help, Mason. I’m perfectly capable of handling this by myself.”

He rolled his eyes and shook his head before trying to turn away from me. I could see a look of annoyance forming on his face.

“What?” I asked.

He shook his head once more, clenched his jaw and then looked me dead in the eye. “This is exactly why we broke up Calina. You never want to accept help. You always want to do everything by yourself and your way. You’re so fucking stubborn it’s impossible to get through to you… or love you.”

The moment these words left his lips I felt a sour sting at my jaw and a sore lump form at the back of my throat. My chest ached too, and I feared my heart would stop altogether. This was exactly why I didn’t want Mason near me.

“You and I both know why we broke up. And me being stubborn had absolutely nothing to do with it. So why don’t you take that bullshit you just tried to sell me and sell it to your new girlfriend instead, you fucking asshole.”

This mission was a failure before it had even begun. I wanted, more than anything, to salvage it. But I needed a moment to get my head right. It swarmed and flooded with Mason’s words and flashed back to the day we broke up, with every step away from Mason that I took.

And then my body collided with something. It was sturdy and hard and smelled… intoxicatingly addictive. The moment the scent invaded my nose, my mouth began to salivate, and a strange craving overtook me.

“I’m sorry, are you alri−”

He was absolutely stunning; tall, well-built and his muscles practically bulged out of his black button-up shirt. His smooth, blemishless skin was a gorgeous warm, brown tone. His dark hair was slicked back, and a few strands hung into his face. A look of surprise and slight confusion decorated his almond shaped, dark brown eyes and his full lips were pulled into a slight frown.

And as our eyes met, I felt an incredibly forceful and intense attraction towards him. It was almost feral. In that moment, I lost all sense and reason as my eyes took a quick gaze towards Mason. He was heading towards me with that look of sympathy and regret all over his face. The last thing I wanted was to hear his voice again. And so, I grabbed the handsome stranger in front of me and placed my lips against his. That was perhaps one of the biggest mistakes I’d made that night. Because the moment I kissed him, some sort of lust-driven frenzy overtook me. Maybe it was the softness or the heat of his lips against mine. Maybe it was the way his tongue roamed my mouth. Or maybe it was the fact that his hands had wrapped around me, pulling me closer to him and pressing my body against his.

Whatever it was, it was passionate enough that by the time we pulled away, Mason had disappeared. I was relieved and just about ready to apologise when the stranger’s lips found mine again. I almost immediately moaned into his mouth and didn’t even refuse him when I felt him lead me down the passageway. Suddenly, I was in a dark room that had the faint scent of cleaning products. But I didn’t care at all. As much as I tried to will myself to stop and focus on the actual task at hand, I couldn’t. It felt too good, and my body was way too mesmerised by his. I hadn’t felt anything this heart racing in a long while and every part of me guiltily revelled in it.

His hands soon roamed my body with his fingertips tracing the exposed skin of my neck, down to my collar bones, teasingly against my chest, around my waist and then they finally rested on my hips. That was when he pulled me closer to him and a little yelp left my lips. But he silenced it with the softness of his lips again. Every touch of his was pure electrifying ecstasy and my mind could no longer even think of reprimanding me for enjoying the moment.

His lips then left mine and moved to my neck where they sucked at my skin. I shivered and clutched onto his body tighter. And as his tongue and lips continued to explore my neck, his hands began to take a more aggressive approach to touching me. His fingers carefully undid the buttons to my shirt and then moved to completely remove them.

That was when I remembered the rope.

I was just about to warn him about it and explain, when his fingers grabbed at my body, touching the rope in the process. The moment they did, he let out a low hiss before immediately retracting his hand. Suddenly, time stopped for me, and realisation wasted no time in hitting me hard in the stomach, knocking the wind of passionate excitement right out of me and replacing it with dread and panic.

Then, the colour of his eyes changed. There was no way I could miss them because they glowed a bright, luminous red in the dark.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” I whispered under my breath. Out of all of the fuck-ups I’d gotten myself into, this was perhaps the worst.

“I was just about to say the same thing. A hunter. Now that’s a big problem,” I heard the red-eyed stranger say with a chuckle.

“You’re telling me. I came here to kill a wolf. Not make out with one.”

In the darkness I saw him cock a brow. “Kill a wolf huh? And who did you come to kill exactly?”

And just as I was about to verbalise my refusal to answer his question, the door suddenly opened. Light came cascading into the storeroom and I realised that my buttons were still undone.

“Calina, what the hell is going on here?” It was Mason who stood at the door, staring at my exposed skin in some sort of disappointment.

“You! Get the fuck away from her!” he said, pointing angrily at the werewolf in front of me. But before Mason could even make another move, his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fell to the ground, revealing a woman standing behind him with an enclosed fist.

“Alpha Vander, I’m afraid we’ve been compromised by hunters.”