Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 145721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
“We good?” Kierse asked.
Ethan and Gen exchanged a look before nodding. Gen took Kierse’s hand. “Are you okay?”
Kierse shrugged. “Let’s just move.”
She fell into step between her friends.
“This whole thing is so messed up.” Ethan’s head hung forward, and he stuffed his hands into his pockets. “We can’t go back to Colette’s. We’re going to have to find a way to tell her what happened to us. And Corey.” Ethan looked panicked. “He’s going to be worried.”
“My mother is a formidable woman,” Gen said. “And Corey knew he was sending us onto the streets. He won’t worry too much tonight. It will be all right.”
“But how will we contact them? We don’t even have a phone.”
Kierse blew out a breath and said the words that she hated saying. “Nate will know what to do.”
Because Nate O’Connor had a solution to everything. She was certain he would have one for this newest dilemma. And she had more than just security and communication in mind.
“We’re in good hands,” Gen said.
“But that’s home.” Ethan whispered the thought they were all thinking.
“I know,” Kierse said.
And they fell silent after that. Their home had been taken from them, but at least they had one another.
Kierse led the group around the corner and down 10th Street toward the giant warehouse that made up the ground floor of Five Points. The name was an homage to the famous Five Points neighborhood in lower Manhattan where the Five Points Gang dominated in the nineteenth century. It coincided rather well with the consolidation of the five wolf packs during the Monster War under notorious werewolf alpha Nate O’Connor. Monsters had mingled peacefully with humans on his property even before the Treaty went into place. It had long been a safe haven for those who saw a future for monsters and humans and continued to be so today.
The exterior was black with a large glowing blue sign and a line that wrapped around the building. They moved to the back, waiting their turn as Kierse watched the drug deals go on in the park across the street as she tapped her foot impatiently.
After a few minutes, they made it to the front. The bouncer looked the trio up and down and pointed at a sign that read “We abide by the Monster Treaty.”
“You got a problem with that?”
“We’re good,” Kierse told him. “We’re just here to see Nate. Is he in tonight?”
“Don’t know,” the man said. “Haven’t seen him. You’re good.”
Kierse paid the cover charge and then stepped inside. It was a monstrosity of a building. What used to be a large warehouse had been converted into a pulsing nightclub full to the brim with people dancing. Ethan’s face lit up at the extravagance of the place. He was more of a party boy than he liked to admit—young and beautiful and open to anything. Though he would have preferred to be here with Corey.
Kierse didn’t understand how she and Ethan had gone through such similar things and he had turned out with his emotions on his sleeves and she had come out of it shut off and broken inside.
“This place has an energy,” Gen said.
She wasn’t wrong. Five Points was the nightclub. It used to be even more slammed than this, but the street festivals were new competition.
“Thank God it’s not a full moon,” Kierse grumbled. “The whole place goes on complete lockdown.”
Ethan shuddered. “That would have been bad timing.”
Werewolves could shift at will, but on the three nights surrounding the full moon, they had no choice. It was animalistic, and anything that crossed their paths was bound to wind up dead. She remembered when the streets used to go silent on those three days. Doors barred, no business, not a peep. With Nate as alpha, they locked themselves down to comply with the Monster Treaty.
“Come on. Let’s find Nate.”
They put Gen between them as they eased through the club. The crowds felt more oppressive than usual after their fun race across the festival. Kierse kept her chin tilted up and her eyes straight ahead.
When they reached the bar, she leaned over to speak to the blond bartender, who had a crescent moon with five stars—the symbol for the Dreadlords—pin attached to her low-cut bodice. “Hey, is Nate in?”
The woman poured two shots, pushed them to the couple in front of her, and took the cash before facing Kierse. “You want Nate? How do you know him?”
“We’re friends.”
“Nate is friends with everyone,” she said with a laugh. “You’ll need to be more specific.”
“I’m his little sister.”
The bartender checked her out. “Nate doesn’t have any sisters. And thank the Lord for that. She’d be the most overprotected woman in the city. But if he’s running around on Maura with you, I’ll have his balls.”
Kierse snorted and dropped a fifty on the bar. “I’d kill him myself if he ran around on Maura. We’re more like colleagues. Tell him Kierse McKenna is here.”