Derek
Awoman ground against Derek, shaking her hips with the beat of the music. He tugged her closer, lining her body up with his, letting her feel his interest.
He’d only just met her, but she’d come to him, sitting right down on his lap at the bar. “You look like a good time,” she said. She smelled like cranberry vodka and cherries. He wanted to lick the taste from her mouth.
“You think so?” he’d asked.
She’d pressed her lips to his neck then. “I know so.”
He wasn’t ready to take her to bed, so he’d lifted her off his lap and carted her to the dance floor where he’d danced, watching with mild amusement as she rubbed against him.
He was way past being flattered by these flimsy encounters. But still, they were better than nothing. Without the clubs, without the drinking and the dancing and the pounding music and the flashing lights, what did he have?
Not a damned thing.
Oh sure, he had his pack. He was the second in command to the wolf pack in Anchorage, Alaska, but at the end of the day, he was not the Alpha. His brother Roman was the Alpha, and they could get along just fine without Derek.
The woman in front of him shifted her hips. He could take her home with him right then. Well, not home. He’d never take a one-night stand back to the pack land, whether she was human or shifter. He’d take her to a hotel room. Hardly anyone ever asked questions; most of the women there were looking for the same thing he was – a quick hook up and some fun, with no strings attached.
He ran his hand over her shoulder. She tried to spin around but she stumbled and nearly fell and then he had to help her stand upright. Well, the option of taking her to a hotel was out – she was too drunk for him to take her to bed. As a shifter, it took a lot of alcohol to even get him close to buzzed, and he would never take advantage of a human woman. It was also hard for him to tell how drunk they were, since they couldn't hold their liquor in the same way a shifter could. He wasn’t sure if he needed to get her out of the club or help her find her friends.
“Is there someone I can call to come get you?” he asked.
Her eyes cleared a little. “No. I’m fine. I want to keep dancing.” She pointed across the room. “My sister’s over there.”
“Okay. If you’re sure.” He kissed her, enjoying the feel of her full lips against his, and then he pulled away. “I've got to go, sweetheart,” he said.
She pouted for a few seconds, pushing her full lips out, but once she realized he wasn’t going to relent, she ran her hand over his pecs and then turned to the next man available.
Not for the first time, a hollow feeling wound its way through his chest. He had always enjoyed his time out on the town. But now it was feeling less fun than ever. However, he had no idea what to do about it.
He just didn’t have a lot of options. He knew all the women in his pack. And although he liked many of them, and he found quite a few of them attractive, there was no spark. There was nothing to indicate that he would have a mate there, but at this point in his life, the love at first sight thing was not required for him. He would be happy with a relationship that grew over time, but he still wasn’t quite ready to settle down. He was just ready for some solid companionship, and he hadn’t found that. He was apparently “a catch” since he was the Alpha’s second in command, but it didn’t feel that way.
The rest of the pack would think he was insane for being willing to settle for a non-mate partner eventually. For wolf shifters, it was true that if the initial spark wasn't there when they first met, it was unlikely that it would develop later. That was just the nature of their biology. Of course, every now and then, there were couples within the pack that just went ahead and formed a partnership based on mutual respect, trust, and attraction, and the other members respected that, but secretly the young shifters thought they were crazy because they gave up on finding a mate.
But non-mate couples were rare, unless they happened after a mate had been lost, which was also rare. Luckily, their kind was very tough to kill.
He was still young. And his brothers would be shocked to find out that he was even vaguely contemplating settling down with one female. For the last fifteen years, he’d been adamant that he wanted to play the field.
But lately he just didn't have the same enthusiasm for it. Maybe he just needed some rest. He had been picking up most of Roman’s shifts on patrol. Roman was the pack Alpha, and he was Derek’s brother in every way that mattered. Derek loved him, but the guy was already distracted with the impending birth of his second child, and he was a little more scattered than usual about pack business, which left Derek picking up the slack.
Derek had no idea what the Alpha would be like once the baby was actually born. So far, Roman had kept his head in the game, but Derek figured all bets were off once he actually met the kid. He had missed the first five years of his older child's life, so Derek was pretty sure he felt like he had a lot to make up for in the fathering department.
On second thought, Derek didn't really want to go back to the pack land and be around all the happy couples and the new families. He wasn't bitter – not really. He was actually quite happy for his pack. There had been a stretch of time, a little more than five years ago, when he wasn't sure if his pack was even going to make it, so the fact that they were now thriving was a huge bonus.
Five years before, Roman had been a stubborn bastard about everything. All of their young shifters had wanted to be a part of the larger world. They wanted to go to college and have careers and interact with humans. They still wanted to be a part of the pack; they wanted that to be their home. But for a long time, Roman was intractable. He absolutely would not budge on his decision to keep the pack in an isolated area in northern Alaska. Finally, the young shifters had threatened to leave for good.
Derek had tried to talk to Roman about it, to no avail. But finally, the threat of the pack dissolving got him to listen. They moved to Anchorage and found some wooded land thanks to Roman’s mate, Everleigh, who was a real estate agent.
Derek looked across the crowded dance floor. The girl he'd been dancing with had already moved on. Maybe he would try the tavern next door. A little bit of a quieter environment might be nice.
He chuckled, remembering that ten years ago, he’d have laughed his ass off at the thought of wanting a “quiet environment.”
Derek had spent the last ten years living it up. No party was too wild for him. If it could be done, then he'd probably done it. He traveled the world, from the most remote places to the biggest tourist traps.
Roman teased him all the time. “You're a wolf shifter,” he’d said, just last year. “You're a mythological creature. Why do you need to go hang gliding in Hawaii?" Roman had flung his arms out wide, on a roll with his speech. "We live in Alaska, for God’s sake. It's one of the most beautiful places in the world. We've got oceans and rivers and creeks and mountains – and all kinds of wild animals. But you can't stay in one freaking place."
"I like to try new stuff,” Derek had said. “You know that.” He elbowed his Alpha in the ribs and then they had wrestled. And that was the truth – Derek did like trying new things. But lately the thrill that he got from hang gliding or bungee jumping or free diving was a little bit less. He wasn't sure why. The older he got, the more he started to think about settling down.