Fated (Pyte/Sentinel 5)

But for right now this was the perfect place to let her hair down after a grueling day at work. The only downside of course was the owner, Drew McNeil, also known as, “The Prick.” He was an annoying little toad whom she would gladly bitch slap only she couldn’t allow herself that pleasure, because the bastard was still unmated.

She didn’t make physical contact with any male shifter outside of her family unless he was mated. That was a major rule for her and many other shifters who weren’t ready to get tied down with a mate just yet. In her opinion there was something seriously wrong when a simple handshake could ruin your life. Shifters didn’t get to choose their mates. Their reproductive compatibility made that choice for them. There was absolutely nothing worse than getting stuck with someone you absolutely hated, because your hormones just happened to be the perfect combination needed for reproducing. Hence why she hadn’t bitch slapped Drew yet, but oh, the day that he found his mate she was going to bitch slap him for a few minutes, hours, or whatever.

She smiled at the idea of Drew getting stuck with a woman who refused to accept him. Gr

anted, it wasn’t a fate that she would normally wish on any male…other than him that is. Once a male found his mate he couldn’t have sex with anyone but her. Not that he would suddenly become desperately in love with his intended mate or anything. He wouldn’t. Yeah, he would become a bit possessive over her, but being mated didn’t mean that you’d suddenly found the love of your life.

Shifters could only reproduce with their mates, which was the reason why the choice was forced upon them. It meant that they were perfectly compatible to have a child who was strong enough to survive childhood so that one day they could make the transition into their immortality.

Nothing more.

Unfortunately for the males it also meant that their equipment would never respond to another woman, except for his mate's. He could live for a thousand years with unbelievable sexual frustration simply because the mate that fate had given him didn’t want him. The females of course had no such problems. They could still have sex with others and even enjoy it. It was the one reason why a lot of unmated males either went for a mated female or settled for a human, because no shifter in his right mind would willingly subject himself to that kind of life.

Personally, Kara only dated human males. At seventy-two years old she felt that she was still too young to deal with a mate.

“Who’s that hunk?” Maggie asked as she pointed toward the middle of the dance floor.

Kara placed her hand over Maggie’s and gently pushed her hand down before anyone could catch the gesture since it made shifters a little nervous when humans pointed at them. It probably had something to do with centuries of being hunted down and massacred.

Go figure.

She followed Maggie’s gaze to a tall man with short jet-black hair mused in that way that usually took men two hours and several hundred dollars to achieve. He had killer blue eyes, a handsome face with an expression that let everyone know that he knew exactly how hot he was and didn’t give a flying fuck about it. He had a nice build covered in designer clothes and he also had three women, human women, grinding all over him.

“Well? Who is he?” Maggie asked even as she frantically touched up her makeup.

Why did men like him have this effect on normally intelligent woman? Kara had to wonder with a snort of disgust.

Sighing heavily, Kara gestured lazily towards the man in question, “The Prick,” she announced in a bored tone.

As though she’d screamed her favorite nickname for the asshole over the PA system instead of just mumbling it, Drew’s head snapped up in their direction. His cold gaze locked on her before his “I don’t give a flying fuck,” expression shifted into something that could only be described as pure rage.

There was no doubt in her mind that he wished that he could do a number of nasty things to her like kick her out of his club, but unfortunately for him, he’d lose Mick, the best shifter bouncer in the city, if he even tried. It must really bite his ass to be forced to let her in his club, especially since she didn’t have to pay the cover. Then again, it probably didn’t help that she also didn’t have to pay for her drinks since Mick had made sure that they were on the house years ago.

She was a mature adult and would act like one no matter how tempted she was to screw with his head, knowing that it probably really bothered him to be forced to put up with her. Then again, she owed it to everyone out there with a mortal enemy to rub the fact that he couldn’t do anything about her being in his precious club in his face. She really did. It was her civic duty.

With a saucy wink, she blew him a kiss. His eyes flashed silver the same time his lips pulled back into a snarl. She laughed when the girls around him stumbled back, startled. He ignored them as they returned to grinding against him as he mouthed a very lovely phrase to her with the word bitch and kill used several times in various combinations that actually impressed her.

The only mature thing was to do the one thing that she knew that he absolutely hated. She pinched two fingers together in the universal sign indicating the size of a man’s penis. Of course she felt that she was being rather generous by indicating that he had at least a half-inch. Childish? Yes. Rewarding? Why yes, yes it was, especially since it looked like he was about to come over and rip her throat out. Biting back a smile, she stood up, deciding that it was probably the best time to join the crowd on the dance floor and give him a little space to cool off before he acted on his anger issues.

*-*-*-*

He was going to fucking kill her

He didn’t care if it cost him the best bouncer that he’d ever had. This shit was too fucking much to take. Nearly every week for the past five years he’d been forced to put up with that bitch. She came and went as she pleased, drank his booze and shook her ass for all the human males all the while taunting him in his own club!

This was bullshit!

No other male, especially an Alpha would put up with this shit. Why he had for all these years was beyond him. It was past time that she learned to submit to her betters. Normally he would give Mick a heads up over what he was about to do, but tonight he didn’t have a choice. Several members from enemy Packs were here and every single one of them had just witnessed more of her bullshit.

If that wasn't bad enough, his Pack was starting to question his leadership. They were getting greedy and wanted to completely take over Boston and he didn’t see the need to do that, not with the way things were these days. The world had changed, providing them with more opportunities and more than half of his Pack was still stuck in the fucking Dark Ages, demanding more than they needed and risking their very existence every time they defied him.

He also had other Packs trying to take over his territory and kick him out of Boston, terrified of his position and the possibility that one day he would use that position to take everything for himself. He knew that several of his enemies had just witnessed Kara’s act of defiance and were stupid enough to think that because she’d pulled that shit on him, that he was fucking weak and they would try to use it as an excuse to make a move against him.

Any sign of weakness could set off another war and right now he wasn’t sure if his Pack would back him up or use this as an excuse