I stepped in the bar for my night shift. The air reeked with the stench of stale beer, exhaust fumes, and the unmistakable musk of alpha pheromones. My heart pounded like a trapped bird against my ribs, nerves frayed from the clandestine escape I'd pulled off earlier that afternoon.
Elias's penthouse security was tight, but I'd slipped out during a delivery window, hailing a cab to the bus stop with the few crumpled bills I'd stashed away. Freedom tasted like ash, bitter and fleeting but I needed this. Needed work, money, a way out from under his thumb. The contract bound me legally, but it didn't chain my spirit.
Pushing open the scarred wooden door, I was hit by a wall of noise—raucous laughter, clinking glasses, the thump of bass from a jukebox in the corner. The place was packe
