Three

Soft pinks, purples and vanilla light bounced across the insides of the near empty club as closing time crept in slowly. It had been a long night and surprisingly busy since it was only Wednesday night but, both humans and werewolves had been looking to blow off steam and spend their hard earned cash on drugs, alcohol and young women skimpily dressed and dancing. Even their drinks were brought to them by young females for the lusty men to paw at whenever they pleased. 

Luckily for Chloe, she was still on bar duty until her back was fully healed. The Alpha didn't want anyone seeing her injuries because it was bad for business but Chloe was aware that as soon as she was back to full health, she'd be back dancing like a performing monkey or serving drinks while greasy old men groped her. 

Sighing tiredly, she placed another clean glass on the shelf as the music was finally cut and the bouncers began ushering the few stragglers left out of the front doors before shutting them and locking up. 

"Chloe." The bar manager appeared near the door to the office. "Leave those. I'll finish up. The Alpha has requested you girls in the VIP room."

"Yes sir " Chloe nodded, setting the glass in her hand on the shelf and moving quietly to the VIP room. 

Chloe had been in the VIP room plenty. It had been nicknamed the Alpha suite amongst the employees because usually only Alphas could afford the room. It was basically a club within a club with its own fully stocked bar and stage. All of the girls had worked the room by now but less than half were regularly called to service the room. Chloe was grateful she wasn't one of those girls. She had heard the Alpha's could get extremely rowdy and fights had broken out before.

Chloe was one of the last girls to arrive and chose to keep to the back of the gathering in hopes of avoiding the Alpha seeing her. Since his visit, Chloe had been trying to avoid him yet that was proving difficult. Everywhere she looked, he was there, watching with those predatory eyes. There was something there that unsettled the small blonde. It was a heat that left her feeling exposed and on edge. That evening had been no different but now something else thankfully had the Alpha's attention. 

"We have some very important guests arriving next week to stay with us for while." The Alpha explained. "That means we will be putting on a party and I need you girls to do what you do best and make them feel welcome. They are your number one priority. If this goes well then we will have new allies and I will make sure you are rewarded. Beta Kevin will be assigning you your tasks for that week." 

Guests? Chloe was intrigued. Sure Alphas visited but their Alpha tended to try and keep other packs away in case someone who wasn't in on his dealings cottoned on. Alpha Nathaniel and several other Alphas had made quite a bit of money for themselves by exploiting the vulnerable and lower ranked members of their packs. While the Blue Mountain pack supplied the girls, other packs in on the scheme supplied illegal drugs, weapons and counterfeit money. It was quite the racket the group had going on and no one on the outside had a clue.

So these new people must have something really good to offer for Alpha Nathaniel to pull out all the stops. 

"Right everyone back to your room." A guard announced, snapping Chloe from her thoughts. 

She turned to leave hoping that was the end of that but a guard quickly stepped in her way, his expression passive. 

"The Alpha has requested to speak with you." The guard said in a tone that left no room for argument. 

Chloe felt her blood run cold, glancing over her shoulder to see Alpha Nathaniel still talking to his beta about plans for the visit in a week. Perhaps he wanted to talk to her about that? Maybe he needed to do something extra to impress the visitors. It was certainly a loaded theory given that Nathaniel had no qualms in exploiting the girls in his custody.

Instinctively Chloe’s eyes sought out Katie. The tall brunette was still dressed in the skimpy bejewelled attire from her shift, eight inch heels adding to her already impressive height. Behind the thick fake lashes and colourful makeup, Katie’s black eyes were questioning her. 

The Alpha wants to talk to me again. Chloe told her friend. 

What about?

I don’t know. Maybe it’s about the guests staying next week. 

Or the dinner he is insisting you attend with him alone. 

“Chloe,” Nathaniel’s voice broke through the conversation, his eyes watching the small blonde. “Come here, please.” 

Chloe had no doubt the anxiety in Katie’s eyes was mirrored in her own. Swallowing on the dry lump in her throat, Chloe shuffled forward, breaking eye contact with the tall brunette and fixing her gaze low as was expected of her in the presence of any male especially the top ranking males like the Alpha and beta. By the time she came to stop in front of Nathaniel, all of the other girls were gone and she was left at the mercy of the Alpha who now lounged on one of the back leather wall seats, one arm slung across the headrest while the other cradled a laser cut tumbler filled with ice and a couple of fingers of a dark amber liquid. Beta Kevin had stepped away but was only a short distance away, dropped at the bar going through paperwork while guards were dotted around awaiting any orders the Alpha deemed suitable for them to carry out. 

“How are you feeling, Chloe?” Nathaniel asked before taking a sip of his drink. 

“Well, my Alpha.” Chloe replied softly, wringing her hands together in front of her. 

“Is your back healing? No infections or fever?” 

“It’s healing well. The healer said I should be back to normal by next week.” Chloe reported. 

“Hm, good.” Nathaniel replied. “But to be sure, I’d like the healer to examine you one more time. I’ll arrange it with him.” 

“Thank you, my Alpha.” Chloe knew better than to question anything that the Alpha said. Sure it was odd that the Alpha was insisting on Chloe being seen by the healer again when there was no hint of infection or illness but Chloe would rather not suffer her leader’s wrath again so soon after the last time. “Will that be all, my Alpha?” 

“Just one more thing,” Nathaniel replied, his voice sickly sweet. “I would like for you to attend dinner with me this weekend. Saturday evening to be exact.” 

Chloe felt her stomach drop. She had been fearing this. Part of her had hoped that when the Alpha brought it up a few days before he had meant it as some empty promise to back up his lacklustre apology. He never invited any of the girls to dinner. They weren’t allowed to attend any of the celebrations or ceremonies. The Alpha explained it was because they were vulnerable being that none of them had their wolves (because allegedly low ranking shifters weren’t blessed with a wolf) but the girls knew better. The Alpha didn’t want his pack to learn about what he was doing to the girls. 

“Of course my Alpha.” Chloe managed to get the words out over a heavy tongue. “It would be my honour.” 

“Brilliant. Well now that’s agreed, I’ll make the arrangements and let you know the time.” The Alpha replied, clearly pleased. “Donovan, can you please escort Chloe back to her room?” 

“Yes Alpha.” A male voice responded from somewhere behind Chloe but she could barely hear him over the sound of her heartbeat drumming in her ears. 

Chloe turned to follow the guard that had been called upon but froze when she felt the Alpha's presence rise up and overshadow her. She flinched when a large calloused hand tilted her chin up slowly forcing to look into Nathaniel's steel blue eyes, his eyes shimmering black like the night as his wolf pushed forward to devour the image of the slight she-wolf in front of him hungrily. 

"I look forward to seeing you Saturday." Nathaniel spoke softly as his eyes settled back to his human blues. "Sweet dreams." 

Chloe couldn't say anything, her heart thrumming madly in her chest as terror flooded her veins. She waited until the Alpha's possessive grip released her jaw before slipping away to follow Donovan, cheeks tinting pink when she saw the amused smirk on the guard’s face. She felt like she couldn’t breathe until she was out of the leader’s sight but even then her lungs felt like they were being crushed under the weight of the panic she was feeling. 

“Dinner with the Alpha, huh?” Donovan spoke up when they were outside in the freezing cold. “And only days after he gave you a good hiding.” He let out a whistle of mock appreciation. “What did you do to deserve that?” 

Chloe didn’t say anything, keeping her head down. It wasn’t uncommon for the guards to torment the girls. For some reason they took sick pleasure in it but they never went too far. Belittling, the odd unwarranted grope and the occasional prank were as far as it ever went but Chloe had seen the hunger in their eyes. They would do so much more if their loyalty to their Alpha didn’t stand in the way. 

“Not going to tell me? Spoil sport.” Donovan carried on, his breath coming out in puffs of fog. “Then again I think we can all work out what’s going on here, can’t we?”

“Nothing is going on.” Chloe replied quietly, relieved when she saw the lights of the packhouse appear against the black backdrop of the night. “I don’t know why the Alpha wishes to have dinner with me.” 

“Hmm, but I think you do know why though.” The guard snorted and shook his head. 

Chloe’s lips pressed into a thin line as she frowned. She knew very well what the male was insinuating but she refused to rise to the bait. She was a low-ranking wolf and Nathaniel was an Alpha. He had no interest in trying anything with the likes of her surely. Besides, if he was interested he could just go to the ranch. He could have any of the girls there and not even pay for it because he was the boss.

Deciding Donovan was just trying to get under her skin, Chloe picked up her pace wanting to be away from the crude male and out of the cold as quickly as possible. She was grateful when the male didn’t say anything else, following her at a much more casual pace until they reached the packhouse and Chloe was allowed to go to the warm safety of the den.