A tall, lithe woman with black hair and wearing a skimpy black dress—clearly not waitstaff—was plastered up against Max, her arms wrapped around him and her lips crushing his.
It was like Lauren had been punched in the stomach. All the air rushed out of her lungs and the noisy surroundings faded to nothing as a buzz filled her ears. Something dark inside her flared to life, her inner jaguar wanting to claw the unknown woman to shreds. And Max for that matter. The reaction was ridiculous but so primal, so visceral it took her by surprise.
Though it felt like an eternity, only seconds had passed before Max stepped back. In that instant he found her watching him, his expression one of surprise and another emotion she couldn’t define. Lauren didn’t care what it was. She schooled her expression. “If you can tear yourself away, your help is needed at the bar,” she said coldly before turning on her heel and letting the door swing closed behind her.
Unsure what was wrong with her, why she felt almost betrayed, Lauren picked up a large tray next to the end of the bar and started loading three separate orders on them. She picked table numbers that were clustered together so she could make the least trips possible and get things out as fast as she could. As she started to lift the tray, Max came up beside her and lifted the hatch to the bar.
“Lauren, that woman isn’t—”
“What you do is none of my business.” She wasn’t sure what he’d been about to say, but all she knew was, she didn’t want to hear it. She didn’t want to hear anything out of his stupid mouth right now.
Chapter 4
“Damn, Max, give the girl a break,” Charlie muttered next him as she loaded another glass into a bin, getting it ready to take to one of the dishwashers in the back.
“What the hell are you talking about?” he growled, unable to hide his annoyance as he wiped down one of the liquor bottles. It was close to two in the morning and most of the restaurant was cleared out except a few tables. The actual bar was already closed and while he wanted nothing more than to throw Lauren over his shoulder and get the hell out of there, he wouldn’t leave his packmate Charlie alone to clean up the bar. Not when Sapphire and the other servers were already busting ass to clean the back of the house and tables.
Lauren had offered to help, but Sapphire had told her not to worry about it because of all her help tonight. Yeah, she’d been helpful but she’d also flirted with every single guy she’d waited on. Maybe that was a bit of a stretch but it sure felt like it. So now she was sitting at a table with some of his male packmates laughing and looking too gorgeous for her own good. And for his sanity.
Her hair was still pulled up into a ponytail, revealing her long neck and with how low her top was cut, she was baring too much skin. Shoulders shouldn’t be sexy, but hers were. He wanted to rake his teeth over all her exposed skin then follow up with kisses. He wanted to mark her so all other males would know she was off limits.
“You’re staring at her as if she’s the enemy. What she did was fucked up but…Grant should have given those damn jewels back to her pride. We all know it and it’s not like our pack needs the money.” Before Max could interrupt Charlie continued. “Besides, she gave us all her tips from tonight to split. She’s okay in my book. By the way, whatever happened to that skank human you hook up with sometimes?” Charlie asked in disgust, not bothering to hide her annoyance. “Thought I saw her in here earlier.”
Max sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. “She’s not a…don’t talk about her like that. And we’re through.” They had been for over six months. Or so he’d assumed. Things between him and Darcie had fizzled over six months ago and she stopped coming around right before he’d met Lauren for the first time. After getting her scent into his system neither he nor his wolf wanted anyone else so it had worked out perfect for him that the human female was out of the picture. It wasn’t like they’d ever been a couple and that had worked fine for both of them. It only made sense things had ended between them with no drama.
Then she’d showed up tonight drunk, angry at her new boyfriend for some reason, so she’d thrown herself at Max. Of course Lauren had seen her kissing him. She’d been hard to read but for a fraction of a second, she’d looked raging pissed at him. His primal side had been glad she actually cared, but he hadn’t wanted to hurt her even inadvertently.
“Good,” Charlie muttered. “Why don’t you get out of here? I know you’ve been dealing with all of Grant’s duties and we’ve got this covered. Get some rest.”