Royal Submission

3. It was a great idea, until it wasn't.

The bouncer manning the door is more for show than real force. His frame is large, but he's soft like a gummy bear. I kinda want to poke him just to see his reaction. I'm not a bully. I just have a sick twist for yanking down the kind of men who throw their size around just to intimidate people who are smaller than them.

I'm much smaller than he is. Standing next to him I'm snack sized, but I'm the predator here. Nothing about Gummy Bear intimidates me.

Haley clearly has a different strategy for getting what she wants out of this situation. On tip toes she whispers something in his ear that I can't hear over the loud roar of music.

She slips him a fifty dollar bill ontop of our cover charge. He quickly stamps our hands. They say "boobs and booze" in green ink. I look around and see some hands that have "boobs only" in red. Haley smirks at me and I nod back smiling. I don't have to say a word, being best friends means she knows I approve her methods.

We make our way into the club. The music is so loud its almost painful to my wolfy ears. The lighting inside the club is low but I can see everything just fine. Tiny rainbow colored orbs of light dance upon my skin. They are bouncing off of every surface to the beat of the music. In fact, the entire club has become drunk on music. Here everything is moving in rythm, it's hypnotizing.

Before we get too sucked into the club's heady current, we must first get a few drinks in our system, and looeen up a bit. Squeezing our way to the bar with Haley leading the way is taking forever.

"Use those two swordfish-for-elbows youve got girl. At this rate we wont make it there before last call," I tease her.

She shoots me a little smirk over her shoulder and starts pushing the crowd out of our way, like Jesus parted the red sea.

She jabs a sharp elbow into a girl whose wearing too much makeup. It causes her drink to spill into the large plastic cleavage of her fake Barbie-looking friend. Unfortunately, I'm now passing by the two when the friend whips her ugly face around at me like its my fault.

'GAHHH..her face! She looks like Chuckies Bride!!' I really want to ask her who does her work, just to warn off the rest of humanity. Shes a textbook example of the dangers of plastic surgery.

As these bimbos attempt to engage me into a heated argument, my best friend in the whole world shoots toward us. She rises quickly to my defense. Shes always been the louder, more aggressive one between us.

We always joke around about her being a better wolf than I am. While I am protective, it takes alot more than a bimbo to rattle me, so alot of times I come off as a little timid. I'm really not. I just pick and choose my battles better than most, and tend to use my dry sarcastic humor to solve my problems instead of my claws.

"Holy s**t Charlie its Chuckies Bride!" Haley gasps looking at me with wide eyes, and chucking a thumb over her shoulder at the Thing next to us. This is why we are best friends. Our brains are always firing on the same wave length. The two uglies are clearly offended and gasp out loud. Her comments have earned their hard glares, but before they have a chance for a rebuttal the club's entire atmosphere changes.

The shift in the air shocks my inner wolf. My internal instinct physically manifests, and my body feels as though someone has dumped a bucket of ice water over my head. Goosebumps spread rapidly across my skin.

I quickly assess my surroundings to find the cause of this when one of the bimbo twins screech in an octave that's sounds close to a dog whistle. 'The f**k is she screamuing for?,' I wonder.

Shes pointing towards the bar, so I follow her line of vision and find a good looking man staring at me. When I make eye contact he lifts an eyebrow, and his nostrils flare. He's taking in my scent. I immediately do the same.

I'm not used to crowds, so at first its difficumt to make any sense of the human scent stew that's assaulting my nose. 'Damn this place stinks.' It smells like urine, old beer, and regret.

I blink my eyes and try one more time to seperate the individual differences. My eyes shoot open and I look at the man whose slightly smirking at me. Hes a wolf, like me!

His smirk looks a little smug for my liking. He doesn't smell THAT great or look THAT good to appear so.smug. The only reason I'm shocked is because this is the first one of my kind that I remember ever meeting outside of my family.

I know that I was born in Moon City, out west, before the Royal family fell from the power. My parents have told us the sad story a hundred times. It's the only time I ever see my dad with tears in his eyes. An entire pack was wiped out My parents, brothers, and I are the last remaining descendants of the Royal Moon Pack. We fled in the night, and settled 2000 miles away in the Appalachian Mountains.

Because of how secluded our family pack is, I was only an infant last time Id been around other wolves. No matter how excited I was to be around another wolf, there was no way I was going to go all fan girl over him. I dont care how cute he is. He seems too full of himself. I dont like it.

And I don't like the looks hes giving me. I give him my best scowl, grip Haleys arm, and pull her in the opposite direction towards the stairs before she gets a good look at him. I know that if she sees him she will drag me towards his direction. I love this girl, but she's way too boy crazy for me. I strategically divert her attention.

"I seen that they have another bar on the second floor. Come on, let's go up there where its less crowded.," I persuade her.

Thank the Goddess she hasnt seen Mr. Don Juan sitting at the bar. Shed never let me pull her away from Julio over there. I give one more glance in his direction. He doesnt seem very pleased with my reaction. His runs his hand through his hair. I hope he uses a napkin to wipe all that greasy product from his hands now. I dont think it'll come out of that Gucci suit he's wearing.

Before we make it to the second floor, hes already reached us. 'Damn werewolf speed!' He dares to wrap one of his greasy paws around my arm.

I look down at his hand thats touching me, and glare at him. I dont cower from his presence, though. I know hes a powerful werewolf by his aura. I just don't care. I meet his eyes head on, and shove a bit of my dominant aura back in his face.

His eyebrows scrunch up in confusion, and his frown deepens. He looks at his hand thats upon me, and shakes his head like he's trying to figure out something. I dont get what hes doing, and react.

"You done using my arm to solve whatever quantum physics theory your brain is stuck on?" His eyes meet mine once more. He lets go as I yank my arm from his hold.

His eyes shoot over to Haley and he touches her arm. Thats when Ive had enough of all his pawing. All wolves know how important personal space is to our kind. He knows too. He just doesn't care. Hes being overly familiar with Haley and I. My wolf part is feeling disrespected. I feel uncomfortable that he's openly violating the unspoken zone code.

There are yellow zones, red zones, and oh hell no you don't zones. Enter the same room as another wolf, and youre in a yellow zone. In this zone youre being sized up, and your aura is evaluated. A wolf's sensitive underbelly is an example of a red zone. If we're not familiar, dont tickle my sides or rub my pregnant belly. I'm not a f*****g Buddah shrine. Touch my belly, and a stranger will earn themselves a snarl, bite, or maybe I'll scratch their face off. A wolf's neck, children, mate, and other loved ones are 'oh hell no you dont' zones.

Haley is one of those zones to me, and this wolf just crossed it.

Im about to go all feral on his ass and rip my best friend from him, when Haley speaks up in a tone I totally recognize. Horny Haley is out, and she likes this guy. 'Hormonal human,' I scoff.

"Well hello handsome. You come here alot?," she asks.

Shes flirting with a f*****g wolf, an appex predator, and has no clue. If I wasnt here shed be just a sheep led towards slaughter. She rubs up against him as he asks to buy us drinks. Scratch what I said before. Shes a sheep skipping towards slaughter, with her eyes closed, and humming a happy tune. 'i***t,' I think to myself.

They begin to chat it up, and head towards a booth next to the bar, leaving me behind. I'm irritated with Haley. I'm also having a hard time calming down my inner wolf. She doesnt like the other wolfs presence, and even my human side agrees with her. This guy is too slick, too versed. He's too put together for a wolf.

Wolves are innately wild animals. We prefer to be outdoors, bathing in the sun, or playing beneath a full moon. Wolves have a certain woodsy smell about them. We smell like the wind. If you've ever smelled someone after they've spent the day riding a motorcycle in the sun you'd know what I mean.

This guy, whose name he says is Leo, has that piney earthy woods smell, but it's faint. The wolf note is buried beneath layers of what smells like hotel soap slathered on. Hes wearing too much cologne that my nose itches. I know I dont have much experience in meeting other wolves, so I have no idea how I know hes a pampered wolf, but I do. Maybe it's his expensive clothes, his watered down wolf smell, or the way he waves his arrogant auro around like a flag. I can see right through him.

He comes from money. He's one of the types of wolf my father has warned me against. I'm uneasy with this entire situation. I see him and Haley all cozy in a corner booth. She thinks she has his full attention, but I can feel his eyes watching what I'm doing at the bar.

I would just leave, but I don't believe in leaving a friend behind. I quickly formulate an escape plan in my head, and hop off the bar stool. I walk up to where they're sitting, and tell Haley I need to use the bathroom. Instead of picking up the girl code I'm laying down the fool barely looks at me and waves me off with an, "Okay, I'll be right here," and continues chatting up the Wolf.

I try not to sound overly snappy. The last thing I want is for Leo the weirdo to think I'm jealous. I am being a possessive wolf b***h, but these hormones arent for him. My inner wolf wants to come out just to scratch his eyes out for looking at my best friend as if shes prey. Not today pervert. Not today.

"Haley, come with," I firmly tell her. 'before I lose my patience,' I want to say, but I don't. I dont want to come off like I'm being bossy or c**k blocking my best friend either. When she starts whining and asking why I can't go alone, my patience is thin as thread and about to snap. "NOW," I command.

She whips her head around with big eyes. She takes in my body language, looks back at Rico Suave, and shoots me a glare. I raise an eyebrow. 'Is she challenging me?' I'm trying to look out for her ass. There's no need for the attitude and dramatics.

When she sees that I'm not budging, she caves. "Okay. Okay, I'm coming. Chill out," she says. Throwing her hands up, she yields to my demand.

The stranger taps her ass as she slides out of the booth, and she giggles. I grit my teeth. How can she be so naive to the dangers around her? Coming here was a mistake. We need to get out of here before he realizes we left. f**k, the night was going great, until it wasnt.