Real Alphas Bite (The Alpha-Hole Duet 1)

"What is this place?" I asked in amazement, turning my attention reluctantly away from the aquarium to look at Hendrix.

To my surprise, he wasn't looking at the sight in front of him. He was staring down at my face, a golden light in his eyes, like the amazing sight wasn't the tank in front of us…it was me.

"One of the most famous restaurant/event centers in the world. People come from all over to see the wonders housed in this building."

Restaurant and event centers? Looking around, I noticed that the people in the room weren’t just well dressed, they were very well dressed. I was suddenly aware of the fact that I was still in an oversized sweatshirt and my tiny pair of pajama shorts, along with a pair of flip-flops. Not sure how I'd forgotten that fact. People were shooting us looks, or maybe they were just shooting Hendrix looks. There was fear and respect in their gazes, and it became very clear that almost all of them knew who he was.

As usual, Hendrix didn't seem to care about anyone else in the room, nor was he even aware that they were here at all. Still holding onto me tightly, he led me over to the side of the room where a gorgeous blonde-haired woman sheathed in a sparkling silver dress was waiting behind a maître d' stand.

"Everything is ready, sir," she said quickly, before Hendrix had even said a word. "Right this way," she told us, gesturing to the glass door that was sliding open behind her.

We followed her through the doors, and I found myself in a long hallway, a glass wall to the left holding another tank that stretched from floor to ceiling and spanning the entire length of the hallway. Hendrix had to practically drag me along behind the woman because I was so caught up in watching three dolphins swim around and play with each other. "Those are dolphins," I squealed, unable to contain my excitement. Hendrix’s hand briefly tightened on my hip in response, but he didn’t say anything.

At the end of the long hallway was another set of sliding glass doors, and I reluctantly allowed Hendrix to lead me away from the tank and into the next room.

The new room held another set of wonders, except this time it came in the form of gorgeous dresses. There were racks and racks of gowns in all different colors, and in all different fabrics and lengths. The woman bowed low to us before disappearing from the room without another word.

No sooner had she disappeared, than a woman with a sharp, severe black bob, red lipstick, and a fitted black tux came into view. She was the most bad-ass looking woman I'd ever seen. She gave a sharp nod to Hendrix before eyeing me critically.

"I think my selections will work," she said in a lilting accident that I couldn't place as she nodded to herself.

Before I could ask what “selections” she was talking about, she pulled out a measuring tape and walked towards me.

Hendrix let out a sharp growl again, and the woman and I both jumped. She quickly stepped back from me and looked at Hendrix apologetically. "Just need to take some measurements. May I, sir?" she asked, pausing in her ministrations.

"Do it without touching her," he ordered, and the woman nodded like there was nothing out of the ordinary or crazy with that statement.

Hendrix was acting very…possessive. I wasn't sure what to make of that.

The woman began to measure me all over, making sure that she never touched me. It was quite an uncomfortable experience, especially because I didn't know the woman's name.

“I’m Syn," I told her as she was measuring my ass. The woman didn't pause.

"Jacqueline," she answered in a stiff, cool voice.

She didn't say anything else, and I didn't press her for conversation. After all, what would I say? Oh hey, I've been kidnapped. How's your life going?

Jacqueline finished measuring me and then hustled to the other side of the room, disappearing behind some racks of dresses.

"Are you going to tell me what we’re doing here?" I asked Hendrix, who was staring avidly at his phone, typing furiously away.

"Just dinner, little wolf," he said. And of course, at that moment, my stomach decided to growl. Despite the fact that the steak we’d had on the plane had been the most delicious thing I’d ever tasted, it had been several hours since then, and with my adrenaline in a constant high with all of the new things happening, I was starving again.

My wolf yipped inside of me. Evidently, she was hungry as well.

Jacqueline came back into the room pushing a clothing rack. The entire rack was filled with clothes. She pulled out a plum-colored gown with a plunging neckline and started to hand it to me.

"The silver one," Hendrix barked, and Jacqueline froze.

She quickly put the dress back and grabbed a sparkling silver dress completely encrusted with crystals. It looked like it was the size of my left toe though, and I eyed it incredulously as she brought it to me.

"What do you think?" she asked in that pretty accent of hers. But she wasn't asking me, she was asking Hendrix.

I was so overwhelmed by everything that was happening, I was only faintly annoyed by the fact that I was being ignored.

"That's the one," he said, and she nodded subserviently before gesturing towards a door to the left of us. She walked towards the door, her heels clicking against the marble tile, and opened it up to reveal a luxurious dressing room.

But it wasn't a normal dressing room—this one held a shower, a velvet-looking bench, and a mirrored station that held an assortment of different cosmetics.

When I didn't move to follow her, she huffed in annoyance. "Your reservation is in thirty minutes. Please come in."

I hustled after her, still confused about what was going on.

“Let me know if you need anything,” she said succinctly before exiting the room and closing the door behind her.

I was feeling very much like a fish out of water, pun intended, considering the surroundings, but I decided that a shower would be nice. Getting kidnapped wasn’t exactly a sweat-proof activity.

It took me about five minutes to figure out how to turn on the thing, but once I did, it was worth it. Three nozzles were going at once, one consisting of a waterfall spray that came straight down from the ceiling. The water was the perfect temperature, and there were at least 10 bottles of shampoos and body washes available for me to use with complementary vanilla and coconut scents that almost had my eyes rolling to the back of my head with how good they smelled. I could have stayed in the shower forever, but I eventually turned it off and made use of a large, fluffy towel that had been on a heating rack right outside the shower. Because of course, you couldn’t use a non-heated towel in a place like this.

After wrapping the towel around me, I stared down at the cosmetics in dismay before deciding to dry my hair first since I actually knew how to do that. I was out of practice using makeup since I hadn’t had an excess of funds to blow on making myself pretty.

Blow drying took only a few minutes thanks to whatever high-tech ability the blow dryer had. My hair looked like silk after I was finished, and I couldn't help but admire it, even with my scars marring the view from the back.

The scars. Hendrix just had this effect on me, where I forgot myself. He wouldn't have seen the scars last night in the dark, but he would have for sure seen them when he put on the sweatshirt. Yet he hadn't said anything. And even if he somehow missed it while putting on the sweatshirt, he would have heard about them when he heard about my family.

Trying to push that little fact out of my mind, I decided to put on the dress next. I eyed it incredulously for a long minute. It was so pretty, but it really was so small. Thinking that I at least needed to attempt to try it on, I picked it up and pushed it over my head before trying to pull it down my body. I squeezed and sucked in, and I somehow got the dress all the way down. It was skin-tight, but staring in the mirror, it looked like it had been made for me. I was…pretty. Not a thought that I'd had much before in my life. The dress fell all the way to the floor, and it was high enough in the back that only a little of the scarring peeked out.

Not that there's anything to be ashamed of, I reminded myself as my wolf huffed in agreement.

The dress had tiny cap sleeves and dipped low enough to tastefully show my cleavage. I couldn’t have dreamt up a prettier piece of clothing.

Deciding that the dress deserved a little bit of makeup, I fumbled through the packages on the makeup stand until I came across some mascara, blush, and lipstick. I at least knew how to do that. The pink lipstick that I tried on somehow didn't seem to fit my new look, and I debated for a long minute before grabbing the red lipstick and carefully putting it on. Before I could spend any more time admiring myself though, the door practically crashed open as Jacqueline all but stormed in.

"Very good,” she said in surprise, and it honestly felt like the nicest compliment I'd ever had. She held up a pair of sparkling silver high heels and gestured for me to put them on. I slid them on and then attempted to walk a few steps, feeling like a newborn foal as I did so.

Jacqueline sighed in annoyance before reaching over to a box I hadn't noticed on the bench and revealing a pair of kitten-heeled silver sandals that would be much easier to walk in.

"Thank you,” I told her as I slid off the high heels and slipped the sandals on. Much better.

"Time to go, Cinderella," she said, just the corner of her lip tipping up in amusement. I snorted, not sure that the description was accurate, before taking a deep breath and heading out to where Hendrix was waiting. His back was turned to us, and he was rifling through some clothes, an enormous pile stacking up next to him. For a second, a flicker of what could have been jealousy passed through me as I wondered who those clothes were for, but I pushed the feeling away. Although, if someone claimed to own you, you really should be able to own them right back.

Not that I had an interest in owning Hendrix.

My wolf snorted in disagreement.