Free Web NovelChapter 17: EYES ON ME IN THE DARK
KEISHA’S POV
I didn’t even want to go.
I was already in my pajamas when Nadia knocked, fully prepared to spend the rest of the evening doing absolutely nothing, and somehow thirty minutes later I was standing in front of my mirror in a black dress while she sat on my bed eating my snacks and telling me I looked amazing.
"Nadia, you know I can’t get drunk today," I reminded her, checking my reflection in the mirror.
She munched on a piece of chip, the sound echoing in the room. "Oh, I’m aware. I’m just so bored, Keisha. I asked my dad if he wanted to hang out tonight and guess what he said?" She flopped back on the bed. "He said no."
My heart jumped at the random mention of Alpha Callum. Of course he had said no. I couldn’t imagine being in the same room as he was right now. My mind couldn’t stop replaying that scene at the office. The look in his eyes.
No way.
Could he have been jealous?
I knew he and Dane didn’t like when I spoke to Orin, but something about the possibility that they were jealous made me shudder.
"I’m sure he’s just busy with stuff."
She sat back up, this time clutching her pillow. "it’s definitely not about the pack. He’s more focused on something else. I just don’t know what."
Oh, I had an idea. Something that had to do with me. But I didn’t tell her that.
The last thing I needed was more noise by going to the club, but Nadia had her mind set already.
I didn’t know how she did it. I genuinely didn’t. But I found myself trailing after her reluctantly as we made our way to the car.
The club was loud and warm and packed with bodies moving under low red light and Nadia was in her element immediately, pulling me through the crowd with her hand locked around my wrist like she was afraid I would escape. Which, fair enough. I would have.
Straight through the backdoor if they let me.
She found us a spot near the edge of the dance floor and turned to me with bright eyes. "Drinks first." fгeewebnovёl.com
My stomach churned at the sight of the cup and I smiled slightly.
"I’m okay."
She stared at me. "Keisha."
"Go ahead. I’ll be right here."
She gave me a look that said this conversation wasn’t over and disappeared toward the bar. I turned and leaned against the railing and let the music wash over me and just— breathed. I looked out at the crowd. Watched people laugh, move and exist without complication and felt something loosen in my chest that I hadn’t even noticed was tight.
It was nice actually. Just being somewhere that had nothing to do with pack records or border reports or the bond pulling at me in two directions every time I walked into a room. Just noise, warmth and anonymity.
I could already feel myself loosening as I watched people writhe around, bodies humping in different corners of the room.
This was the life I missed. Before everything came crashing down at my previous pack. And before everything came crashing down here too and I found myself locked with Alpha Callum and Dane. It was nice to get everything for my head, even if it was just for a second.
Nadia came back with two glasses and pushed one into my hand. "Just one. It’s not enough to get you drunk, here ."
I looked at it and then, looked at her. She was already raising her brow so I rolled my eyes and I took a small sip.
She beamed like I had done something heroic and immediately started moving to the music, completely unselfconscious, her hair swinging. I watched her and felt something warm move through my chest. She was ridiculous. She was also the reason I hadn’t completely lost my mind over the last few weeks and I didn’t know how to say that to her so I just watched her dance badly and smiled into my glass.
She grabbed my hand at some point and tried to pull me onto the floor and I resisted with everything I had. She eventually gave up and just danced around me instead, which was somehow worse because now I was standing in the middle of it rather than at the edge of it, but I was laughing and she was laughing too, for a few minutes everything seemed all funny and light.
Then I felt it.
Not the bond. This was different. The bond was warm and pulled from specific directions and I always knew exactly what it was. This was something else entirely. A prickling at the back of my neck. The specific feeling of eyes that weren’t just passing over you but were settled on you. Watching.
Someone was watching me.
I turned my head slowly toward the far corner of the club.
Someone looked away fast, slinking out of sight smoothly.
I kept my eyes there, trying to find the face in the low light and the moving bodies but whoever it was had already shifted, already disappeared into the crowd, and all I caught was a shape retreating into the shadow near the back wall.
Diane went very still inside me.
That wasn’t Callum. That wasn’t Dane. The bond was quiet in both directions, nothing pulling, nothing warm.
Someone else had been watching me.
My heart plummeted into my stomach and I stared at the empty space.
Who the hell was that? And what did they want?
Nadia spun toward me with flushed cheeks and a huge smile, completely unaware. "You’re actually smiling! See, I told youㅡ"
"Yeah." I forced the smile wider and nodded and let her pull me back into the noise of the evening.
But my eyes kept going back to that corner.
Empty now. Whoever it was, they were gone.
Or they were just better at hiding.
And that was unsettling as hell— because I didn’t know their intentions but they had left me uncomfortable and with a bad feeling that something unpleasant was going to happen.
