The Marking

Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

MAE“Goddamn, I can’t believe we just walked five miles,” Aaisha, one of my best friends, said, heaving as we walked away from the protest march around Witver city. She wiped the sweat off her brow with the back of her brown hand, her long hot-pink stiletto nails gliding against her forehead. “Mama needs something to drink, and some men.”

Luca, my other friend, nodded to a bustling city restaurant that had a No Wolves Allowed sign on the door. “You can—”

“We ain’t leaving you outside either, not with these crazy-a*s people out here.” She shook her head, her shoulder-length black banana curls frizzing in this heat, and walked ahead of us toward the Wolf District of the city. “Nuh-uh. We gotta go somewhere they aren’t gonna kick us out of.”

Cracked pavement, mossy clumps covering brick buildings, and boarded-up windows, the wolf sector of Witver’s inner city wasn’t large by any means. So small, in fact, that even the smallest percentage of city funding would drastically improve the neighborhood because just by walking across Hickory Avenue—from the human to the wolf side of Witver—it felt like entering a whole new world.

About a block away, a neon red sign flickered.

“How about we go to The Eclipse Bar?” I suggested.

“People get handsy in that bar, Mae. Why don’t we get some liquor from the grocery store and go back home?” Luca said, placing one hand on my upper back and guiding me forward.

If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought that Luca almost sounded … possessive.

Not wanting people to get handsy with us … or me?

I glanced up at him, a small smile creeping its way onto my face, my insides warming.

Aaisha turned around and arched a sharp brow. “I ain’t waiting any longer. We’re goin’.”

In true Aaisha-fashion, she kicked the door open with the tip of her shoe and strutted into the hooting and howling room of wolves. Luca sighed and held the door ajar for me, his biceps flexing through his crisp white V-neck.

When we walked into the room, wolves sniffed the air, looked over their shoulders at Luca in disgust, and whispered to each other. I inched closer to him, not liking the way they eyed him up as people did to rogues. Luca might be a lone wolf, but he wasn’t a rogue by any means.

Ignoring their judgmental stares, Aaisha strolled to a maroon-cushioned booth, sat, and picked up a menu like it was nobody’s business. I awkwardly trailed behind Luca to the table, hating the attention, and slid in beside him—closer than I should have. But Luca had always been … comfortable … to me.

“Spill the beans,” Aaisha said after the waiter dropped off three drinks for us. She wrapped her lips around the purple straw and leaned forward. “What happened with your dad the other night? You’ve been actin’ weird all week.”

“I might’ve met this guy.” I drew my finger against an image of the Moon Goddess on the napkin and avoided eye contact with Luca, who stiffened next to me.

“You did?” Luca asked, gripping his cup tightly.

“Ooh, tell us all the juicy details!” Aaisha squealed. “What does he look like? Is he hot?”

Briefly glancing over at Luca, I swallowed hard, my heart jumping. “I was out to dinner with my dad, got into a fight with him about wolves, and stormed out of the restaurant and right into him. And … he’s a wolf.”

Aaisha bounced in her seat. “I’m so proud! My baby’s growin’ up so fast!”

Luca chuckled tensely and bumped his knee against mine. “You, uh, stood up for yourself for once?” he asked, thankfully directing the uncomfortable conversation elsewhere. He smiled at me, his brown eyes flickering amber for a second. “You’re usually too much of a pushover.”

“I ain’t talking about that!” Aaisha said, cackling from the alcohol. “I’m talking ’bout Mae getting some sexy werewolf action!”

Those piercing green eyes of that mystery wolf flashed through my mind, and my arm hairs stood straight up. I brushed my fingers against the leather bracelet with small starry pendants that Luca had given me for my birthday last year. I hadn’t taken it off for months.

“Okay, okay, that’s enough,” I said softly. Not only would I never see that wolf ever again, but wolves also didn’t mate with humans. “You know nothing could even happen between us anyway. I’m human, and he’s a werewolf. Our species don’t date.”

“Girl, you never know! You might be his”—she leaned across the table—“mate.”

Luca grimaced. “Aaisha, that doesn’t happen.”

“Says who?”

“The Moon Goddess,” Luca said, pushing the napkin with her image across the wooden table. “She chooses who our mates are, and she rarely, if ever, matches wolves and humans. A human doesn’t typically survive the shift after a wolf marks them on the neck.”

Aaisha held her glass of beer in the air. “Well, screw the Moon Goddess.”

I kicked her under the table and shushed her as other wolves glared our way. The Moon Goddess was the most sacred being to the wolf species. They worshipped her every full moon, thanking her for another month on this earth. Wolf culture surrounded the moon, her rotations, and the Moon Goddess’s innate powers to match two wolves to spend eternity with each other.

Aaisha rolled her brown eyes but then smiled at me. “For real, Mae, I’m glad you stood up to your dad. He deserves that and a kick in the a*s sometimes.” She scoffed. “And that Brett guy … disgusting.”

“I’m proud of you too,” Luca said.

He leaned closer to me, his knuckles brushing against mine on the table, sending shivers down my spine. My heart leaped in my chest, thousands of what-ifs rushing through my mind. No matter how much I loved wolves, their Moon Goddess would never mate one to me, and I would never have the same kind of love that wolves shared in a mate bond.

Yet I couldn’t seem to stop how I reacted to them, just as that mystery wolf had said.

Maybe in another life, I would be fated to be a wolf, to run free through the woods, and to love a mate. But in this one, I had been destined to fight for better lives, equal rights, and the ability to share beautiful friendships with them … and to have the occasional hook-up, of course.

A tall, dark-eyed wolf appeared at the head of our table, a dragon tattoo covering the side of his neck. “Can I buy you a drink?” he asked Aaisha, staring down at her with hunger in his eyes.

Aaisha glanced up at him and then looked at me. “He talkin’ to me?” she asked, pointing at herself for emphasis. After I nodded, she turned back to him with a huge smile, jumped up, and held out her hand. “Aaisha.”

When they disappeared into the crowd, I sipped my drink and glanced over at Luca. “I want to go to more protests with you, but that was … terrifying,” I whispered, thinking back to all those men and women screaming at us and at the wolves for just … being.

Apparently, it was a crime for wolves to be alive.

“That wasn’t as bad as some other protests,” Luca said, sipping on his drink.

“They threw wolfsbane into the crowd and snapped silver whips in front of the protesters,” I said to him, fingers paling around my glass. If he didn’t think that had been that bad, what was worse? What had those opposing protesters done to the wolves?

I gnawed on the inside of my lip and glanced up at the television in the corner of the room that played the nightly news. A wolf stood beside a fire outside the square, reporting about the latest protest that the police had instigated this time.

Luca leaned forward, placed one finger on my chin, and turned my head to look back at him. “Forget that for now,” he said, amber specks floating in his brown irises. He drew his tongue across his lower lip, and I sucked in a breath. “We’re here to relax, Mae, so relax.”

Placing my elbows on the table, I tilted toward him and smiled. “And how do you suggest we do that besides getting drunk off this strong wolf beer that I definitely shouldn’t be drinking?”

“If Aaisha disappears for the rest of the night, we’ll have the whole apartment to ourselves,” Luca said.

When Luca’s eyes flashed gold, I sucked in a soft breath, my stomach fluttering at the sight of his wolf so close. We stared at each other for a few moments until, eventually, Luca pulled away and leaned back in the booth.

“We could, uh, watch that action movie that you’ve been wanting to,” he suggested.

I looked away, my cheeks flushing, and gave a small smile. “Yeah, sure.”

Two feisty she-wolves scooted into the empty booth where Aaisha had once sat, smiling at Luca.

“Hey, Luca,” one purred at him, pressing her perky breasts against the table and toying with his shirt collar. “Haven’t seen you in a while. How’ve you been?”

I clenched my hands into fists under the table as Luca tensed beside me. When the other girl dragged her claws across his forearm, I grabbed my empty glass and stood. “I’ll leave you all alone. I don’t want to intrude.”

“Mae,” Luca said, seizing my wrist. “You don’t have to go.”

“It’s okay, Luca.” I patted his shoulder like a friend would because that was all I could ever be to him. I gave the girls a tight smile, my chest tightening, and turned away. “I’m just going to get a drink … or two.”

Before he could convince me to stay, I hurried through the crowd to the bar. I didn’t want to watch them flirt with my best friend, the man I … I had wanted for so long. I couldn’t stand to see them move their nails across his chest and purr at him—something I would never be able to do.

Sighing, I slid onto a leather stool that seemed to be cut and taped in the center and placed my glass on the bar. I wanted to look over my shoulder and watch Luca like a hawk, but I didn’t want to feel this shitty anymore. I needed to just get over my stupid little crush.

Nothing would ever happen between us anyway.

“Mae!” Aaisha called, grabbing onto my shoulder and hauling herself toward me. Curly hair a wild mess, pupils dilated, and lipstick smudged all over, she grinned wickedly at me. “Hey, Mae! We’re going to get more drinks!” She exaggerated with a wink. “I might be back before tomorrow. Maybe. I don’t know. Don’t wait up!”

The man who had asked her for a drink wrapped his arms around her waist and mumbled something into her neck. She giggled like the maniac she was and wiggled her brows at me.

Before she left, I grabbed her hand. “Make sure to send me your location.”

“Yes, Mom,” she said, waving me off. “I’ll be fine.”

After she left, I slumped down in the stool and dared to look back at our booth. Luca had disappeared with those two girls, leaving our drinks and used napkins on the table. My phone buzzed in my pocket.

Luca: Get home safe with Aaisha.

My chest tightened at the thought of Luca going off with a couple of cute she-wolves for the night. It wasn’t like this didn’t happen often. I should be used to this by now. Ever since Luca’s mate had rejected him and he asked to live with us, he had been sleeping with other girls to make himself feel better. I just … ugh … I wished that one night, one of those girls could be me. Maybe it would ease these feelings I had for him a bit.

Guzzling my drink, I listened to the rowdy music playing through the speakers and watched wolves grab she-wolves by their waists and sway to the steady rhythms together. I threw the glass back, thinking that if I got drunk enough, I could disappear into the crowd, too, and get snatched by the waist and taken home with someone.

“Kitten,” someone growled into my ear from behind, his callous fingers sprawling around my hips. He trailed his nose up the side of my neck, which made me stiffen, my breath catching in the back of my throat. “I told you that I’d see you again.”