Page 37 of Son of a Preacher Man

She tipped her chin in thanks and downed it in one swallow.

He handed her another.

Kelly couldn’t make out what they were saying, but things looked heated, and not in a good way, between Dillon and what’s her name—Kelsey? Yeah, she was pretty sure that’s what it was. Only met her once at the funeral. The chick’s ponytail whipped back and forth, smacking poor Kodiak in the face.

Dillon got up and left her. The girl just sat there, her mouth hanging open, before she followed him over to the railing. Kelly traded a look with Kodiak. He shrugged.

Katie leaned into her ear. “I have a feeling this is going to be quite entertaining.”

A low, drawn-out snarl echoed throughout the club. Kelly couldn’t tell which direction it was coming from and glanced to the big screen. A girl’s eyes darted about as she scrambled to find a place to hide amidst the trees that covered the stage.

“Isn’t that the point?”

Then sidling up next to Kelsey, Matt growled loud enough for everyone to hear, “Run, rabbit, run.”

“I didn’t mean the hunt,” Katie said, giggling behind her hand.

Kelly watched Dillon’s girlfriend leave the railing in a huff, Dillon chasing after her.

Oh, got it.

“Wait. Hunt?”

With a giggle, Katie tipped her chin at the Jumbotron screen. “You’ll see.”

Following her gaze, Kelly saw the nubile, barefoot girl, just as she crouched beneath some branches. The set design, realistic and elaborate, was like something out of a movie. Menacing trees draped with moss, bushes, and boulders all shrouded in mist.

Looking down at the stage itself, she couldn’t see a thing. Night vision camera, maybe? Must be.

She heard it then, and goosebumps sheeted her skin. As if they were a warning, eerie growls, long and deep, reverberated from every direction. Four men, wearing pants and wolf masks with glowing eyes, their muscled torsos bare, appeared at each corner of the stage.

Kelly chanced a look toward the purple couch to find everyone’s gaze riveted to the screen. All except for Kodiak, that is. Lip turned up in a devilish smirk, his sights were set right on her.

A lone howl pierced the air, and the pack of snarling beasts set off. They sniffed along the forest floor like dogs, foraging through the mist to hunt down their prey. She’d never heard of a game of hide-and-go-seek being played quite like this one.

The girl, her knees drawn tightly to her chest, curled up into a ball. It was just a matter of time before one, if not all of them, got to her. But then, that was the object of the game, wasn’t it? Nevertheless, the anticipation of when was downright palpable.

His eyes still on her, Kodiak’s tongue skimmed across his teeth. Kelly wished now that she hadn’t been such a self-conscious idiot. Fuck Dillon Byrne and all the rest of them. Aroused as she was, she’d much rather be snuggling with him than standing here with her niece and Brendan, because honestly, this was kind of awkward.

A scream ripped her gaze back to the screen. One of the beasts had reached the girl. He pulled her out of her hiding place by the hair, and straddling her tiny waist, ripped the sheath from her body with his teeth. Naked, she thrashed beneath him. Having conquered her, the alpha of the pack lifted his head to the spotlight shining down on him like the moon, and he howled.

Kelly reached for Katie’s hand to squeeze it. Except it wasn’t her niece who now stood beside her. So mesmerized by the primal tableau playing out before her, she hadn’t noticed when this tall, masked stranger, the devil himself, took her place. “Who are you?”

Raising her hand to his lips, he kissed it. “Lucifer.”

Course you are.

She wanted to laugh. Maybe it was the way he carried himself, his commanding presence, because the man oozed sexual dominance. Whatever it was, just as surely as Lucifer was not his real name, she got the distinct impression he was not someone to cross. “Kelly.”

With a slow up-down perusal, he released her. “Lovely.”

His eyes feral, Kodiak appeared none too pleased. She shrugged, and gazing again at the stage, watched as the wolf, his engorged cock jutting out in front of him, savagely claimed the girl for all to see.

Fucking Christ…her jaw dropped.

As if that wasn’t exactly what Kelly wanted. To be taken. Ravaged. Loved so fiercely…

She glanced at Kodiak.

---