MIKAH

The werewolf was kissing me. His lips were warm and firm against mine, gently urging me to reciprocate. He tipped my chin up ever so slightly, his fingertips pressing against my jaw as he continued to kiss me.

It… wasn’t terrible.

His body pushed forcefully against me, creating a long line of warm pressure from my chest to where our hips met. I’d instinctively grabbed onto his shoulder to steady myself when he’d shoved me against the wall, and now part of me wanted to use that grip on his shirt to pull him closer, to move my lips against his, to taste his mouth. The uncomfortable memory of our time in Vancouver so long ago came suddenly to mind. I hadn’t thought about that in…well, it wasn’t a memory I often wanted to revisit for a number of reasons, but Gabriel wasn’t one of those reasons.

He didn’t smell like a wet dog anymore. Even though his heart was pounding—his blood practically singing at me from where it coursed through his veins—the scent of his circulatory system had changed to something spicy and masculine with a hint of musk. I didn’t know what it was. I’d never smelled it before.

But it made my mouth water.

Gabe nipped my full bottom lip, the bite just a tiny bit painful, and a groan crawled up my throat. The sound seemed to trigger something in the wolf, and he kissed me harder, with more urgency than he had before. Blood rushed to my face where our lips were joined, and… elsewhere. I instinctively canted my hips against his, my mouth adjusting to the shape of his lips, ready to move against them, to taste him, to drink him in—

My eyes snapped open, and I pulled my mouth away from his with a wet smacking sound.

What the fuck?

I was breathless, staring into Gabe’s eyes. His pupils were blown so wide that his eyes looked almost black, and his lips were slightly swollen, red, and just a little shiny from our kiss.

He looked gorgeous.

Those sinful lips drew up into a sly, lazy smile. “Well, that was unexpected.” His voice was rough and low, and something about it made my heart trip over itself.

What had just happened? One minute I was mentally preparing to eviscerate a demon, the next… Fresh memories of the kiss rushed through my mind, and I felt that same inconvenient heat race through me again, my heart skipping up into a new rhythm. I couldn’t quite catch my breath, couldn’t focus on anything besides the delicious scent of Gabe all around me, the hunger to pull him back in for more, to find out what kind of noises I could get him to make—

Footsteps sounded closer to us. Shit. The demon. My head snapped to the side so I could return my focus to the threat from which I’d been so successfully distracted.

Gabe, of course, didn’t seem to give a shit. He turned to the demon with that same lazy grin. “You want in on this? I don’t mind.” He glanced at me and winked. “Sucking blood’s not the only thing this guy’s good at.”

What. The. Fuck?

The demon snarled at us in reply. “You’re not supposed to be down here!”

“Isn’t this the lust floor?” Gabe asked, his head cocked to the side. His body was still pressed up against mine, caging me in against the wall. Even though he’d just practically volunteered me to service this demon, my idiot body was still on-board with whatever Gabe threw at it.

“No!” the demon snapped. “That’s three floors up! Now get the hell out of here!” He stalked away, presumably heading back to his place by the portal.

The stairwell was empty now, just Gabe and me, our bodies still unnervingly close. When he fixed his eyes on me, my stomach flip-flopped.

“Guess that demon wasn’t a succubus,” Gabe shrugged.

My stupid, lust-frozen body finally remembered how to move, and I sheathed my switchblade, grabbed Gabe by the front of his shirt, and slammed him against the opposite wall—harder than I’d intended. But my brain felt like it was on the verge of cracking, flipping from rage to disgust to hunger to wanting to thinking about dragging my lips down his neck and—

Fuck! I snarled, my fangs flashing right in Gabe’s face, and it was then that I realized I’d just reversed our positions. I was pinning him to the wall by his shoulders, holding him there with my frame pressing against his, and I jumped back like he’d just burned me. “You went too far!” I snapped.

Where did he get off kissing me like that? I didn’t even like him, like, as a person. He was a repugnant murderer who killed for fun and took absolutely nothing seriously. Not to mention the fact that he was a werewolf—our kinds didn’t mix. Ever. We could barely be civil on a good day, much less become physically intimate. I was breathing so hard that I was almost panting, and Gabe’s smile only widened.

Shit. I needed to get myself together. Stop acting like a simple kiss was enough to turn my world upside-down.

“Ah. I guess we’re actually on the wrath floor, huh?” he joked, his eyes soft.

It was a lifeline, one I wasn’t too proud to take. Despite myself, I felt my lips twitch into an almost smile, and some of the raw tension eased from my body.

“Oh!” Gabe perked up. “The statue almost smiles. How about that? Must be my lucky day.”

The surprising gentleness in his gaze, the out he gave me through his joke, trying to ease whatever chain reaction he’d set off inside me… it made a new emotion rush through me, and I turned away. I couldn’t trust myself right now. Not around Gabe, at least.

“We should get out of here,” I suggested. “Find somewhere else to meet the pack when they get here.”

“Let’s go upstairs to the lust floor,” Gabe said. “We told the guard that was where we were going, and he might have already told the others. Gotta blend in, you know.”

He took the lead, and I followed him up the stairs. The sights, sounds, and scents of each floor we passed were mixing into one overwhelming glut of sensation, and I breathed deeply to find some semblance of calm.

We stepped onto the lust floor, and a whole host of new scents rushed toward me. Sex and sweat, leather and whiskey. And… something else. Something familiar that I couldn’t quite put my finger on after the sensory overload between traversing floors and Gabe kissing me.

The scent belonged to someone I knew. I just couldn’t quite place who.

The lust floor itself looked like a Fae-run nightclub, with a dance floor, a stocked and staffed bar, and Fae servers flitting around. Bodies clung to each other on the dance floor, gyrating to a fast, deep beat that made my head throb. There were plenty of couches and chairs situated on the edges of the dance floor for people who preferred to sit—or indulge—rather than dance. Couples, thruples, and more were clustered on the furniture, not the least bit ashamed to be going at in public.

There were a few hallways leading away from the dance floor, and I’d bet anything they led to private rooms, or maybe further into the labyrinth.

Gabe grabbed my hand. “Let’s dance.”

I tugged my hand out of his grip. “You’re an idiot if you think I’m going to dance with you.” He was going to get us both killed.

“So I’m an idiot. Doesn’t mean I can’t dance.” He grabbed my arm and tugged me onto the packed dance floor. The crowd pushed us toward each other too closely for my liking, but he took it a step further and pressed his body against mine as he danced. “Come on, try to blend in.”

I stood stiff as a board as he danced against me. I could feel the music thrumming in my veins, the Fae magic on this floor leaving me aching and hungry in a way that could only be sexual, but I did my best to ignore it.

I shifted my body ever so slightly, the closest thing to a dance I’d allow myself, and glanced around to locate the source of that scent. Was the mysterious person a friend or a foe? Had this job just gotten a hell of a lot more complicated?

Using my abilities and being this close to Gabe had me feeling like I was right on the edge of control, ready to teeter off into bloodlust and chaos at any second. Gabe didn’t seem to notice my volatile state. He just kept dancing against me, his heart racing, and his blood singing at me again.

I could still taste his blood on my tongue, and the thought of drinking from him again almost made me moan. He’d tasted amazing, so much better than I thought a werewolf could taste. My eyes flashed red. What was it about Gabe that put a small crack in my tight control?

I felt like I was about to spiral—maybe like I did with that police officer—but this was different. I’d never had this problem before, but now? My fangs ached in my mouth. He was so close to me—now all I could think about was biting him again. Now.