The Alpha Behind the Mask

5.

Regret was a useless emotion, but I sighed as I stood and walked to the window, looking out over the humans who couldn’t see me, the ones who might get lucky every now and again, but who would ultimately lose. Because I wanted to win. I controlled their every moment in here. There were no clocks, so they wasted hours of daylight, never aware when sunset passed to night or sunrise to day. The seats were just comfortable enough to relax into before the play at another table attracted their attention, and the high-stakes slots in another room played a celebratory tune no matter the size of the win.

Here, these humans were mine.

Only now, what Jean Boucher had was also mine. He might as well have gift wrapped it with a bow and presented it to me.

I rested my fist briefly on the glass. I’d long since become immune to the stupidity of humans, how they always reached in vain for the unattainable, but every now and again one of them surprised me with the extent of their belief that they would triumph despite the odds.

And in this particular case, I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for the long line of family members I’d watched toil to build their small but worthy Baton Rouge empire—an empire that only took the mistakes of one man to crush. They kind of felt like my family, in some odd and remote way, and it would please me to watch Jean Boucher pay for his f*****g stupidity.

Guilt at neglecting them for so long washed through me again, but that kind of sentimentality was ridiculous. Humans meant nothing to me, and Father’s decline had needed to be hidden for as long as possible. It had taken all of my attention.

But I would make Jean pay now. It would help work out some of my frustration if nothing else.

“Nic?” Benedict’s tone suggested this wasn’t the first time he’d spoken my name as a question.

“Yes?” I threw the terse reply over my shoulder, barely even glancing behind me.

“I asked if you’d seen the sub-clause I mentioned.” My friend sounded like this particularly interested him, but anger over the fact that it just took one dumbfuck in a long line of decent people to screw up a good thing still caused tension in my muscles.

The plantation home and bar Jean Boucher had gambled away had been in Baton Rouge nearly as long as I had, and I’d always taken a little comfort in knowing they were both here unchanged. An immortal life was a long one with many changes, and I’d taken my comfort in a constant.

I grinned ruefully. That probably made me the dumbfuck.

“I remember the sub-clause.” I turned away from watching the people gambling their lives away. Gambling their lives to me.

“Doesn’t it interest you?” Benedict quirked his eyebrow, but I shrugged.

“Not particularly. What’s an extra piece of collateral wagered by a drunkard?” I took my seat and flipped through the paperwork again. The outstanding amount on his tab probably didn’t even reflect what he’d poured into La Petite Mort over the years.

When he’d stopped having free cash to plow into his habit, he’d turned to credit. To his house. To his bar. To other valuable things.

“I’ll collect this debt myself.” I shoved the file from me, disgust at Boucher making my movements sharp.

“You?” There went Benedict’s f*****g eyebrow quirking again, and with good reason.

My entire staff was well aware of my thinly concealed intolerance of humans, but I needed to do something that wasn’t demanded of a new king. I wanted to just be a casino owner again, needed some action.

But being a casino owner didn’t negate the fact that I was now king, and I’d spoken, and Benedict had dared question me, so I glared at him. And at every other fucker at the table for good measure. They all dropped their gazes, suddenly busy with other files. Any other files.

“What do you need me to do?” Jason asked. He was the only one I didn’t scare, which was endearing when I was in a good mood and frustrating when I wasn’t. But beyond being my bodyguard, he was also my sireling, and he never had anything to fear from me because that bond between us was strong.

“Get legal to draw up the paperwork we require to call in Boucher’s debts. All of his debts.” I passed the file to Jason so he’d be able to follow my instructions.

He tucked it under his arm and slid his phone from his pocket. “I’ll call them now.”

“No.”

He looked at me.

“No. You go there, and you f*****g stand over them. Make yourself at home in their office. We do this today.” I watched Jason until he all but saluted.

I needed this win today, this control, to take my mind off the human woman. I couldn’t dedicate time to finding her today, so I needed something else to focus on. I’d find her later, though. Find her and explore all of the delicious opportunities her scent offered, so f*****g help me.

A human. I could hardly stand to think about it, even though I’d known this day would come if my mother was correct in her superstitions. It wasn’t like virgin vampires still existed.

“Let me know when you’ve got the paperwork. Benedict, I’ll leave you to handle the rest of these files.”

Benedict nodded as I left the room and strode to my office. Jason was already on his phone, warning our legal team of his impending arrival.

I grabbed my gun from my safe and secured it in the shoulder holster under my suit jacket. Technically, I absolutely didn’t need a gun. I was quite capable of… I grinned… neutralizing any threat without the use of firearms. However, and also on a technicality, I absolutely needed the gun. I couldn’t reveal myself as vampire to humans because we weren’t supposed to actually exist, never mind roam among them. We pretty much all obeyed the creed—even the newly turned ones. And those who didn’t… Well, we dealt with them. Just not with guns.

Still, I was seeing humans today, and sometimes a gun was the only way to scare them. It was what they understood.

Although usually my natural charm was scary enough on its own.

Jason knocked on my door very quickly with the contracts I needed, and soon I was in my limo and heading to Jean Boucher’s plantation property just outside town. I remained quiet as we sped along, my mind alternating between the task at hand and the woman from last night. Desire flared through me again, but I restrained it by refocusing on the contract, reading it over, preparing for all the arguments Boucher would likely have.

He didn’t deserve to keep the properties his wife’s family had worked so hard to establish and maintain. They were both better off with me. I couldn’t do anything else for Camille and her ancestors, but maybe I could rescue what Jean had ruined.

The stores and concrete soon gave way to open land and trees. It was boggy out here but the Boucher house was in a nice area, and I could probably make it quite useful or lucrative. I could even open a second casino location or a boutique hotel, perhaps.

But when Jenkins, my driver, swung into a heavily pot-holed driveway, driving between cracked and leaning gateposts, complete with wrought iron gates hanging lazily from their hinges, I sat up a little straighter, eager for my first glimpse of the house beyond the overgrown bushes and shrubs.

Spanish moss hung from the trees like tangled hair instead of graceful curtains, giving the impression that this place was no longer worth what Jean Boucher had led me to believe.

By calling in his debt, I was inviting all kinds of further financial problems.

I cleared my throat, and Jenkins half-glanced over his shoulder.

“Yes, sir?”

I shifted in my seat, leaning forward, and rolled down my window. “You know, maybe we should just turn arou—”

The main house came into view and a tantalizing, familiar scent drifted into the car. The scent of a viable, of-age virgin. But surely two in Baton Rouge in as many days was too much of a coincidence? I wouldn’t have remained oblivious to two of them, surely? And especially two that made my d**k stand up and take notice like this.

“Sorry, sir?”

I shook my head. Maybe virgins were like buses. You waited for one for ages and then two came along at once. “You know what? Nothing. I shouldn’t think I’ll be very long here. You can just wait outside.”

Now, I’d only come here for one thing. But there appeared to be a virgin inside who belonged to me, unless my nose was playing tricks on me.

“Very good, sir.” He rolled smoothly to a stop in a driveway overgrown with weeds, and when I stepped from the car, I let my gaze wander up the building. More weeds sprouted from the steps at the front, and some sort of creeper plant covered the side of the building and had invaded its way under the roof tiles.

I shook my head. “For f**k’s sake.” This looked increasingly like a bad idea, but a contract was a contract, and I owed this to Camille’s line. Her family line of women had always been particularly strong. Special, almost.