CHAPTER FOUR

(FOUR YEARS LATER)

ALPHA ARNOLD'S POV

The place was crowded and I hated it. After years of not being at any rowdy place, did not only feel strange to me but it left me exasperated.

My beta, Luke was right by me and he sensed my discomfort with the place.

"Are you sure you want to be alone in here?"

He asked once I was inside.. it was a strip club with strippers dancing on the pole and it irked me.. it was difficult to believe that I had been a lover of such places only a few years back. 

"Yes, Luke. Someone is going to notice that we are here for something other than what they do here and that is not going to help our course in any way. "

I said. It was my way of telling him to leave me alone. I needed to be alone for what I was looking at to turn out fruitful. If we were together, there was a probability that I would have my attention off my target, whatever it turned out to be and I did not want that.

" I might just have to hang around here. I don't have to be with you, right? But I shall let you know as soon as I perceive anything that might interest you. Or say, anything that would help our course."

He said.

Luke was not just a beta, he was smart and he was brave. He was worthy of the position even though his wolf was a gamma, and I had chosen him to be my beta solely on the basis of merit. I nodded at him as he retraced his steps until he was right out of the doors.

There had been a group of Lycans from the Lycanthrope society who were specifically members of the moonstruck pack, who came out to the human city to sell information that pertained to the Lycanthropy, its weaknesses and strengths and of course ways that other packs could infiltrate the moonstruck pack of which I was the alpha. 

They usually came to the bars and clubs to have a fun time and meet with those who would be interested in their small business. I had taken it upon myself as the alpha to step into the human town, and into the most popular strip club to search for these folks. It would be easy to recognize them. They were Lycans like me and I would smell the distinction from other humans.

I took a seat somewhere at one end of the bar and took a drink.

After the night four years back when I had had myself entangled with the lady I had rescued from bad Werewolves, who had later turned out to be my mate, I had done everything to keep myself away from the club and every other place that seemed like it.

It had haunted me for years, the memory of the night I had spent making love to her, and the tears that had welled in her eyes when I had rejected her the following day, asking that she never cross paths with me again.

She had not taken the money. She had left the money on the floor as she slipped into her dress and ran off.

The gravity of what I had done did not dawn on me until a few weeks later... I had gone back to look for her and had tried desperately to reach her all to no avail.

While I sat alone with my thoughts, a familiar scent hit my nose.

I looked around. A new stripper had been ushered onto the platform and cheers and applause rent the air. She was obviously a favorite to many. But not long later, she was down from the pole and was dancing right before me, but not for me.

"That is her, damn it!"

Chase, my wolf growled.

I dismissed the voice.

The pull I felt was intense it took my attention from everything else.

Seeing her again after four years and not talking to her was torture in itself.

I knew nothing about her, yet her memories had kept me company for four years, even when I had finally had to go search for her, there was only her face and scent that was etched in my memory.

I watched her wriggle seductively for a while to those she was entertaining before finally leaving the room. I took one quick look at my watch, it was almost eleven in the night and I expected she would be on her way back to her home since she had already made her appearance. I stood up so abruptly eyes turned in my direction. I left the club.

Luke would still be loitering around as smartly as he could and I was going to see where the woman whose memory I had been carrying around for years was going to be.

She was a stripper at a club in a human city. There was something about her life in the human city that I needed to know. There was everything that I needed to know about the mate that the moon goddess had given me. The one whom my rejection of her had brought me more pains than I could have ever imagined.

It was humiliating that I had to secretly follow the same shewolf I had rejected a few years back but that was the irony of the situation.

She didn't notice that she was being followed until she stepped out of the shadows and stood to flag down a taxi, I crossed from where I had parked to meet up with her.

"Hey, lady,"

I said.

She spun around, bracing for an attack and defense on her part.

"You did great tonight, do you remember me?" 

I asked. She rolled her eyes. I saw it with my wolf abilities since it was pitch dark.

" The lot of you never learn. Get the hell away from me."

She snapped. The words sank slowly. I didn't want to believe I had been addressed thus.