Healed by the Alpha

Midnight at Club 7th

A buzzing, neon sign sits above 7th Street that gives a hot magenta glow to people lined up on the concrete sidewalk beneath it, corralled towards the wall by red, velvet ropes. The gas-filled tubes are curved and pieced together in carefully written cursive: Club 7th.

My eyes reflect the letters to Josie, who turns to face me with a half-forced smile. "We're gonna have fun, right?" She asks. Her hands grab the hem of her mid-thigh-length party dress, and she pulls it down with a slight wiggle. "Forget about that asshole. Maybe we'll run into some hotties tonight."

"Josie," I say with a sigh, adjusting the grip I have on my clutch. "I actually cheated on him first, remember?"

Josie's blue eyes light up. "Oh! Scratch the regular hotties. I will absolutely lose it if you find Kade Callahan's hands all over you again."

Josie Baker has never been one to turn her nose away from drama. She's actually one to shove her nose straight into the pot, and has even been caught stirring it a time or two. When it comes to me, Ella Loveless — her best friend — Josie keeps that mouth of hers drawn so tight you'd need the Jaws of Life to open it. So, when I told her about what happened with Lance and the realization that I pulled the trigger first, she looked at me with a brow raised and thought it was crazy that I didn't remember.

I eye the door acting as the entrance to the club, where two burly men in tight, black T-shirts stand guard. I watch them for a moment as they scrutinize each ID handed to them with a UV penlight before scanning it. The scanner screen lights up green with each passing ID, and the patron is allowed to go inside. After a younger girl and her three friends get kicked out of line for fake IDs, I look away, back to Josie.

"Do you think he's in there?" I wonder out loud.

Josie follows my gaze to the door, then looks back at me with a grin so wide it makes my own cheeks hurt. “God, I hope so.”

I huff out a quiet laugh, but it doesn’t have heart behind it. My stomach twists and nerves coil tight beneath my ribs. “Considering he inadvertently led to the downfall of my relationship, I don’t even know if I want him to be.”

Josie gives me a pointed look. “Ella, I think that’s the biggest lie you’ve ever told me.”

My eyes narrow at her, hating that she’s right. There was something about Kade that night. Something beyond the alcohol buzzing through my veins or the music vibrating through my bones. It wasn’t the pull of him being a hot as hell celebrity. Aside from what I know of from pictures, I can barely even remember his face clearly.

But I remember the feeling. The way my skin had lit up wherever he touched me. The way his voice wrapped around me, low and smooth, like a secret meant only for my ears. Like our souls had known each other for years.

“Ella.” Josie nudges me lightly with her elbow. I focus on her, noticing the line had moved. “You’re doing that thing.”

“What thing?” I ask, stepping forward to close the distance between us and the group in front of us.

“The staring-off-into-the-distance-like-you’re-in-a-romance-movie thing.”

I snort. “This is not a romance movie. This is another bad decision waiting to happen.”

The slow smirk that crawls onto Josie’s face lights a giddy fire in my stomach. “Even better.”

The line inches forward, and soon we’re standing a few people back from the entrance. The bass from inside Club 7th pulses through the walls, a steady and intoxicating rhythm that seems to sync with my heart. It calms me, in a weird way, but only just.

Bad idea or not, maybe I need this more than I realize. And I do. I need something that isn’t the image of Lance tangled up with someone else. Or to shake the degrading realization that I had lit the match first.

The bouncer waves the next group through, and then it’s us.

Josie practically vibrates with excitement beside me as we step up. I hand over my ID, forcing my expression into something neutral as the guard shines his UV pen light over it, then scans it on the reader. A beat passes.

Damn, I should’ve taken a pre-game shot. Or four.

The light on the reader lights up green and the bouncer hands me back my card before waving me through.

The second I cross the threshold, the sights and sounds of the club hit me. The heat of the bodies, music thumping through the speakers. Club 7th is alive with neon lights slicing through the darkness. Bodies movie together in a chaotic rhythm, their laughter and voices barely audible over the pounding bass. The air smells like expensive perfume, alcohol, and something electric I can’t name.

Josie grabs my wrist and pulls me toward the bar. “First round is on you. Emotional damage tax.”

“Emotional damage tax?” I question, letting her drag me along. “I’m the one emotionally damaged right now!”

“You owe me for this slow burn romance between you and Kade Callahan!”

I shake my head. “You are unbelievable.”

“What! It’s emotionally damaging!”

We squeeze our way up to the bar, and within minutes, drinks are in our hands. I don’t bother to question what random concoction Josie had ordered for me. I just take a long sip from the straw, welcoming the burn as it slides down my throat. The initial taste is sweet, but the aftertaste makes me wince.

“Okay,” Josie says, turning to face me fully. She leans in, nearly having to shout for me to hear her. “The only rule for tonight: no thinking!”

“Josie, that’s a terrible rule.”

She flashes me a cheshire grin. “But yet the drinks all agree!” She raises her glass to me in a mock toast.

I open my mouth to argue, but the words die on my tongue before they can form. Suddenly, I feel it. A shift in the air that’s subtle at first as a prickle on the back of my neck like I’m being watched. My grip tightens around my glass. My gaze drifts across the crowded room. It lands on the darker edge of the club, where shadows cling a little heavier around the VIP section.

There, I see him. The tall outline of broad shoulders. Dressed in black like the darkness bends around him. His face is partially obscured, but I can feel his eyes on me from across the room. My breath catches and I shiver, whispers of the night with Kade fluttering across my skin.

“Ella?” Josie’s voice cuts through faintly. “What is it?”

I don’t answer right away. I can’t. That same electric pull I felt with Kade slams into me all over again, but this time, it’s stronger and sharper. It’s like a hook sinking into something deep inside my chest.

My heart stutters the second our eyes meet. He tilts his head, studying me from his place in the shadows.

“He’s here,” I tell Josie, taking another long sip from my drink. I hope the liquid courage will help me make whatever terrible decisions Josie wants me to make. “Kade’s here tonight.”

Josie’s eyes light up brighter than I ever thought possible. Her grin only grows wider. “Well,” she drawls, taking a pull of her drink, “then I’ll just have to go get lost into the arms of my own hunk and pretend I’m not dying to know how things with Kade are going.” She gives me a wink before turning away.

I watch as she disappears into the crowd, shaking my head in exasperation, before my gaze slides back to where Kade had been hiding in the shadows. My heart skips a beat when I see that he’s no longer there.