Animal Instincts Ch. 02

"Margaritas!" All three shrieked together and laughing made their way towards the bar.

"What can I get you girls?"

The unexpected question seemed to jolt Natalie out of her reverie and daze her for a split second as the handsome young man before her casually wiped down the bench surface and smiled at them.

"Umm..." She stammered clumsily.

Sydney and Skye glanced at each other then back at her stunned mullet appearance, "six margaritas please" Sydney broke in.

"Sure coming right up" he replied.

"What the hell was that about?" Sydney asked while giving Natalie a big cheesy grin, she had never know Natalie to ever be struck speechless, let alone show any amount of awkwardness.

"Hey he kinda looks like the guy who was driving that car" Skye commented, she hoped that it would provide a distraction to her friend's discomfort, and was pleased when all three broke out into giggles at the memory of Natalie's earlier comment.

"Here you go" the barman announced as he returned with a tray of drinks, to find the girls hopelessly trying to stifle their laughter, "it's on the house." All three girls glanced at each other, collected their drinks and flashed beaming smiles at their new friend.

"Nice car by the way" chimed Sydney with a wink as they turned and walked away leaving the young man deeply confused.

"What car?" But the girls were already out of range to hear his question.

Shrugging it off, and he turned toward the next patron and grinned as he saw his brother make his way toward the bar, with a scowl on his usually pleasant features, "Ah... that car." Nathaniel's presence was enough to suggest that those three had been outside when he'd arrived, and his ostentatious sports car was clearly the car in question.

Nathaniel sighed as he made the last few steps to the bar; as a particularly exuberant group of young women had stepped out into his path and in their haste to move away, a slender brunette had almost doused him in one of her lime green cocktails. One of her friends, a petite red head ushered her away from his scowling face and into the darker recesses of the room.

Myles chuckled openly as Nathaniel leant against the bar, "Nice work I think she's utterly terrified of you now."

Nathaniel opened his mouth to retort and instead spun on the heel of his shoe, much to the surprised gasps of those on either side of him. Myles watched his brother's strange behaviour and clutched the cleaning cloth til his knuckles appeared a deathly grey, a combination of his grip and the flashing strobe lights.

He hadn't been certain he'd heard them at first, but there hidden between the resounding thud of the bass of the song that was playing and the yells and shrieks of the other club-goers, was the distinct chime of bells. The sound seemed somehow muffled but then every few moments would ring clear and precise, seeking the source of the delightful peal Nathaniel scanned the room his eyes clearly making out aspects which would have gone unnoticed by those around him.

Myles tentatively reached out and touched his brother's shoulder, dragging him back from his quest. "Nate what's wrong..."

"Did you hear that just now?" there was a feel to his words which set Myles' nerves on edge; he didn't like the sudden desperation he heard in his brother's voice. Not one bit.

Closing his eyes, he stretched his own heightened hearing out over the open space picking up frequencies and nuances that normal people shouldn't have been able to hear. Myles focused further looking for anything suspicious or unusual, but there was nothing. Opening his eyes again he found Nathaniel watching him hopefully before the look crumbled with the realisation that his little brother hadn't found anything.

"Maybe I'm just tired or perhaps going crazy?" Nathaniel muttered and rubbed wearily at his eyes, Myles continued to watch him carefully "I mean how else do you explain hearing bells in a place like this?" he gestured to the mass of writhing and grinding bodies on the dance floor.

"Bells?" Myles cocked an eyebrow.

"Yeah, you know like the jingly ones you hear at Christmas time" he explained with a dismissively wave of his hand, "Anyway, I'll get James' and Dan's usuals and you'd better get me a bottle of water. Don't want to be pushing my luck if I'm beginning to lose my marbles"

Myles' easy laughter at his brother's absurdity broke the tension and he quickly began to prepare the drinks order.

Skye and Natalie chatted and giggled constantly as they freshened up their makeup in the powder room as they waited for Sydney to finish up on her phone. Her on and off again boyfriend had decided that he wanted to see her and was pissed to find that she had made plans and wouldn't change them just to suit him. Consequently she had buried herself in a cubical and was proceeding to tell him how he could go take a jump off of a short pier for all she cared.

The thrum of the music leaked into the room every few moments as the door opened and closed as other women came and went. Skye closed her eyes and let the feel of it penetrate into her soul, swallowing the last of her drink she decided she wanted to dance and indicated to Natalie she would meet them both out on the dance floor.

Stepping out into the shadows of the room, she nodded her head along to the beat as she set her empty glasses down on the nearest table. As she stepped under the flashing lights, she became the focus of every man she passed by on her path to the centre of the floor. Closing her eyes again she twisted and rocked her body in time with the beat.

Sydney and Natalie emerged from the powder room glancing around to find Skye gyrating to the rhythmic pound of the music with another dark haired girl. "I'll grab us some more drinks" Sydney remarked then ducked off toward the bar.

Natalie made her way toward Skye and smiled at just how much attention the usually shy girl was gathering in her sexy blue dress. Touching her shoulder to get her attention Natalie began to writhe in time with the music, not entirely unaware of a handful of men paying particularly close attention to her own movements.

"Syd's getting us some more drinks" she said as she leant into Skye's shoulder, locking fingers they both turned together as Skye nodded. Sydney regrouped with them as the song ended, the young bartender from earlier hot on her heels carrying another tray of drinks.

"This is Chloe" Skye indicated the slender girl she'd been dancing with.

"Hi, nice to meet you girls" she smiled at the little group before locking eyes with Myles which went unnoticed by the other three.

"Myles here offered to bring the drinks over" Sydney indicated the bartender who greeted them all with a warm smile.

"I guess we should try and find a booth or an empty table," Natalie glanced around the room.

"Actually it's pretty crazy in here tonight, how would you girls like to join me at mine?" Chloe offered.

"Sure, that would be great" Skye answered for her group "where are you seated?"

"This way" Natalie and Sydney looked at each other as Skye followed the young woman as she wove a path toward a section which was roped off with velvet ropes, and contained a dozen booths lit with LED tea lights, which were partitioned with the utmost privacy in mind. There was another suited man standing at the bottom of several steps, quickly reaching across and unclipped the rope and nodded as Chloe led the girls and Myles toward an empty booth near the back.

The girls settled themselves into the black velvet bench seat, while Myles arranged the drinks on the low table. Noticing that Chloe was almost finished her drink, "Same again miss?" he asked politely and smiled as she recognised the game he was playing.

"That would be great, will you be joining us for your break Myles?" she enquired innocently, as the other three girls watched him as he carefully considered his options.

"I'll have to make an appearance upstairs first, but I can't see how I couldn't come back afterward." He said with an easy grin.

He was greeted with dazzling smiles and four sets of sparkling eyes; tucking the tray under his arm he swept into an elegant bow before the group of women, returned to the bar to place the order for Chloe's drinks then ducked up to the security office upstairs.

"So what brings you girls out tonight?" Chloe asked as she sipped at her drink, she had been bored to tears before she had seen Skye on the dance floor, she'd felt inclined to join her purely as a way of security against the leering men who had started to gather around her.

"Graduation celebrations" Sydney replied between sips.

Natalie and Skye took turns explaining how they planned to find a place together in the city now that they had graduated, so as to be closer to prospective jobs and to enjoy their new found freedom a little more freely.

Brook nodded her understanding, "That's great, I did something similar a few years back, however I've found that I have a greater appreciation of home now. Do you have anywhere particular in mind for your move?"

"Cedar Towers" Natalie replied with a new acceptance of the attractive brunette who had befriended them.

"So you seem to know everyone Chloe," Sydney sipped at her drink, she had noticed the fleeting looks between Myles and the muscle man at the rope "a VIP booth no less, are we sipping it up with some hot young thing she didn't recognise?"

"Oh lord no! I just come here all the time, my brother works here." The other girl chuckled and nodded to the waiter who had brought her drinks, "though I'm not really supposed to tell anyone" Chloe dropped her eyes looking anxious. Natalie, Sydney and Skye glanced at each other with worried looks.

"Well we won't tell anyone that you told us" Skye edged in, unsure if she was making the situation better or worse.

"It's okay he'll probably just chew me out later" she smiled warmly; the genuine look of concern on the other girls' face touched her. "Did you guys want to dance some more?" standing she waited as the others decided whether to join her or not, and smiled when all three stood and shuffled around the table.

Myles knocked once, stepped into the room and lingered by the door waiting for his Alpha to acknowledge him.

"Okay so we need to keep an eye on these groups here..." Nathaniel and Daniel were checking out the wall of security monitors and issuing instructions via radio to the guards on the floor. James looked up briefly from making notes in one of the shift registries, and nodded at Myles.

"Hi Myles," James greeted without even raising his eyes from the page "how's things?"

"Not bad, not bad. Just came to see if my brother had finally found his bells?" he quipped, and sat in one of the leather chairs.

The other men each looked at him with questioning looks then looked toward Nathaniel for an explanation. "I thought I heard something downstairs earlier" Nathaniel tried to explain then shrugged as he realised James was scrutinising him "Since no one else noticed it I thought maybe I'd walked a bit too close to one of the speakers."

"You sure you heard bells?" James enquired; Nathaniel was beginning to feel particularly stupid.

"I'd bet my life on it. Why?"

"Could be nothing, I'd have to talk to granddad to make sure" His enigmatic answer had all three wondering what on earth the sound of bells had to do with their grandfather, and why James was taking the absurdity of it all so seriously.

Myles spied that the girls had made their way back out onto the dance floor and were enjoying themselves greatly as a building number of men struggled to not drool while the girls moved as one. "Well looks like Chloe is having fun with her new friends." He directed their attention to the middle screen.

Turning to where he pointed the men instantly recognised the youngest Wolseley grinding away amongst a group of other girls. Daniel swallowed hard to stop himself from groaning audibly as she leaned in and placed her hands on the hips of a curvaceous red head in a gold dress. The mysterious other woman lifted her head in silent laughter; her eyes closed her own arm resting on Chloe's shoulder. The uninhibited look of delight on her pretty face had him instantly hardening and he had to carefully shift his weight in order to adjust his rapidly growing erection. He quickly decided that he'd spent far too many long hours in the confines of the surveillance room for his own good.

He watched with baited breath as Chloe took the smaller woman by the hand and spun her out into the direction of another two women, who joined into the silent laughter as they caught her and writhed with her. By the time James had flourished his signature on the bottom of the page, he had begun to detect the subtle increase of pheromones and looked to see what had caused his cousins to become so worked up, only to find himself watching his little valedictorian on the screen in front of him -- and with the pretty brunette and the red head he had heard earlier no less!

"Myles can you arrange for Ryan or one of the other boys to come up here and give Dan a break." Clearing his throat to stifle his own groan, it was clear to all that it was not a request. Myles nodded and grabbed the phone and called Ryan down at the bar.

"How about we go downstairs and have some fun boys?" James was already moving at a swift pace out the door before he'd even finished his question. Nathaniel and Daniel glanced at each other quickly then back to the empty place where James had been, before leaping around the desk and dodging the other furniture in a race to see who could get to the dance floor first.

The song that the girls had been dancing to melted into a more upbeat rhythm and all four began to twist, bounce and bop along, before long Skye excused herself and made her way to the bar for another round of drinks.

It was with a sharp tap on the shoulder that Chloe registered the smouldering green eyes of her older brother. Instinctively she tensed and scented the air, when she picked up nothing more than the sweaty hormone riddled bodies which surrounded her and her little group, she wondered if she was perhaps in some trouble.

"James!" She exclaimed and threw her arms around his neck "what's wrong?" she said more quietly into his ear noting Nathaniel and Daniel both hovering patiently behind him, with similar glints in the depths of their own eyes.

"Nothing's wrong" he laughed and tussled her hair and pulled her closer for a hug "just figured we'd come see what trouble my favourite little minx was stirring up." He eyed off a group of male onlookers gathered to one side and set her back on her feet; choosing to sidestep in their direction, causing them to shuffle backwards.

Nathaniel and Daniel both took turns also collecting her up into crushing hugs, "Are you going to introduce us to your, ah friends?" Nathaniel grinned at Chloe as she collected her bearings.

The arrival of the three very attractive men had Natalie nervously glancing toward Chloe and fidgeting with the hem of her dress, "Uh, sure. Natalie, Sydney I'd like you to meet my brother James..." Chloe indicated the first man who had appeared, before turning and gesturing first to the blonde man behind her "this here is my cousin Daniel..." Natalie quickly shook hands with both Daniel and James.

Sydney suddenly found it much more difficult to breathe under the scrutiny of Daniel's blue-green eyes. He took a step toward her, and she struggled to swallow her nervousness away; he was taller than her, by the better part of a foot - even with her heels giving her additional height. Her belly constricted and fluttered as he took her hand to shake it.

"And this mutt here is my other cousin, Nathaniel." Chloe deftly dodged his wayward elbow and poked her tongue out at the dark haired man who clearly towered over her.

Natalie reached her hand out to Nathaniel as well and she smiled as softly squeeze her hand; when she looked into his face his eyes glinted and a knowing smile play across his lips, her heart thudded painfully in her chest and she wasn't sure if it was from the music or from the gorgeous specimen of a man in front of her.

James slumped an arm around Chloe's shoulders, carefully hiding his disappointment that the lovely woman he'd seen earlier on the monitor was nowhere in sight. Chloe elbowed him in the ribs to draw his attention towards Nathaniel as he leant forward to ask Natalie a private question.

"Get your fucking hands off of me!" Skye's suddenly raised voice drifted toward the group, and caused all heads to turn in her general direction.

"That's Skye..." Sydney and Natalie exclaimed at the same time, and within a moment Daniel, Nathaniel and James pushed their way through the crowd, the girls hot on their heels.

"C'mon sugar, I think we could have some fun." The drunken man drawled at her.

"She's not interested creep, keep your hands to yourself" Sydney reached around Daniel to grab Skye's free hand and attempted to pull her friend to safety.

"Butt out bitch, I'm talking to her not you." He glared at Sydney, tightening his hold on Skye's wrist making her wince as pain shot up her forearm.

"You have three seconds to let go of her before I arrange to have your hands and arms removed permanently." The appearance of three larger men startled the heavily intoxicated man and his friends, James continued to glare at the man until he dropped Skye's wrist like it had bitten him.

"Are you alright?" he asked with genuine concern as she rubbed her wrist.

"Yeah I think so" Skye replied as Sydney and Natalie pulled her a step or two further behind the feral looking Daniel and James. Brook pushed her way through the crowd with three of the suited guards eager to lend support where they could.

"I don't know what your fucking problem is man" one of the drunken men slurred, James' eyes had settled on the new speaker the moment he stumbled forward "she's just some stupid slut..." One of the guards grabbed the man before he had a chance to finish his sentence, just as James growled and lunged for him. Nathaniel quickly stepped into James' path placing one arm across his chest and resting his other hand on the flat of his stomach as to prevent him from ripping the man's throat out. With a shudder he noted that same darkness swirling just below the surface of James' eyes, before he even registered what he was doing he focused his thoughts on reaching his friend and dragging him back to his senses.

James mate you do not want to do this here -- you're scaring the girls.

With a quickly issued order into his concealed radio, Daniel nodded as Ethan and Nathan stepped up behind the group of men. "Get their details and get them out of here, and do make sure they don't cause anymore fuss."

Nathaniel stayed his hold on James, who was sucking in deep breaths like the next could be his last, they would be lucky if the drunken man and his friends would never realise just how close his stupid words had brought him to an untimely demise.

Assessing that Nathaniel continued to prevent James from following the group, and the wary looks Natalie and the other two girls were throwing them. He roughly cleared his throat, and announced that for the next ten minutes all drinks were on the house. The gathered crowd cheered and made their way either toward the bar or back toward tables so as to spread the announcement to those who hadn't heard.

"Sorry Nate," James seemed embarrassed of his actions, but in much better control of himself after a couple of long minutes of deep breathing. Nathaniel continued to stand in front of him but began to relax his own stance seeing James back in control.