Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Though many of the glossy black tables were cluttered with empty drink glasses and bottles the staff hadn’t yet had a chance to clear away, it still wasn’t hard to find clean and empty spots—people came to Club Moscow to dance and were most often on the floor, and Nina’s people were efficient.
The club did have a seating area for dancers, but that was up on the partial mezzanine floor right at the back part of the warehouse. That was where tired partygoers went to put up their feet, catch up with friends, and talk over bar snacks in a more relaxed environment.
Nina being Nina, the mezzanine was set up to resemble a comfortable living area with cozy couches and even huge cushions. Just in case a changeling decided to shift form for a bit. The only rule was no nakedness post-shift. If a drunk changeling shifted while in their clothes, thus destroying their clothes, they stayed in that form.
Changelings policed that themselves. Anyone found bare-assed was quickly ordered to “put on their fur” by friends or hauled outside by the same friends to find the naked idiot some clothes.
No one wanted to be banned by association.
A movement at the corner of his eye had him glancing in that direction. Grinning when he spotted the man waving to him from three tables further along, he began to weave his way to the table.
Leaning down to Theo as they reached it, he said, “You remember Pavel and Arwen.” His lips brushed the shell of her ear as he spoke . . . and she shifted closer.
Oh fuck, his Theo was definitely in a dangerous mood tonight.
Barely restraining the urge to haul her off to his lair, he turned and bumped fists with his twin, then did the same with Arwen. The empath had given him the skin privileges of a clanmate much earlier than he had others in StoneWater not because Yakov was Pavel’s twin, but because they’d become friends independently of Arwen’s relationship with Pavel.
As always, Arwen was dressed about a hundred times better than the rest of them: a long-sleeved black shirt printed with raised black patterns in what looked like fine velvet, tucked into black jeans held up by a belt of solid leather with a silver buckle in the shape of an M. He’d neatly folded up the sleeves of the shirt to the elbow, and his shirt was open at the collar to reveal a sliver of throat and chest.
Within that space sat a necklace with a thin and strikingly jagged centerpiece.
Pavel, meanwhile, was wearing a short-sleeved shirt of rich brown with bronze stud detailing. The shirt had a fold in the sleeves that brought attention to Pavel’s biceps. It also hugged his pecs. He’d paired the shirt with his favorite blue jeans.
Wait a minute.
“New shirt?” Yakov asked his brother, his voice deadpan.
Pavel gave him the finger, because they both knew the stylish shirt had to have been a gift from Arwen. Left to his own devices, Pavel was all old checked shirts and worn T-shirts. Yakov had worried about sophisticated Arwen’s tolerance for that back at the start, but the other man had never attempted to change Pavel.
This gift was something special, a piece he’d clearly been unable to resist buying because it so perfectly complemented Pavel’s build and coloring. The fact that Pavel was wearing it? It meant he liked it. Because while Pavel was crazy for Arwen, he was very much his own bear.
Which was why Yakov could tease him on the point.
Noticing that Arwen had gone motionless, his face stricken, Yakov realized the E thought his words a criticism. “I like it. Might even steal it. You’re still not the pretty twin, though.”
“Such delusions,” his brother drawled while Arwen leaned in to whisper something in Pavel’s ear.
He didn’t catch what it was, but he did catch Pavel’s affectionate nip of Arwen’s jaw before his brother murmured something back. Blushing, the Psy male relaxed. Pavel had no doubt made it clear to Arwen that no one had a chance of getting Pavel in clothes he didn’t want to be in. Arwen had simply gotten his gift very, very right.
But even as Yakov had spoken with his brother, he’d kept the bulk of his attention on Theo, making sure that she got the spot next to Arwen—because behind the two was the open part of the door. To have her be the one closest to the outside, to possible danger, went against his primal instincts, but the bear was willing to tolerate it for her comfort.
“Okay?” he asked as he took position on her other side.
She nodded, her eyes scanning the room as she took in the mass of bodies gyrating to the music, the lights playing over the paleness of her skin in a dance of vivid color. “I don’t believe I’ve ever been this proximate to so many other sentient beings in my life.”