Chapter 1
This was a terrible fucking idea.
I knew it the second I walked through the doors almost two hours ago, and yet here I was, still sitting alone at the bar with a half-empty drink in front of me while music loud enough to shake my bones blasted through the nightclub.
Fantastic.
Exactly how I wanted to spend my Friday night.
I take another sip and immediately regret it when the bitter taste hits my tongue. I don’t even know what the bartender made me. Something pink, overpriced, and strong enough that I could feel warmth sitting in my stomach after only half of it. Maybe that was the point. Get drunk. Forget everything. Wake up tomorrow and pretend I hadn’t spent the last three weeks wondering how someone could go from telling you they loved you to deciding you weren’t worth the effort anymore.
Asshole.
I glare down into my glass like somehow this entire mess is its fault. Three freaking weeks since my boyfriend decided our relationship was apparently no longer something he wanted to participate in.
His words not mine.
I don’t think I can do this anymore, Isabella.
Do what? Love me? Stay faithful?
Pretend you actually gave a shit? I swirl the tiny black straw around my glass, watching the ice bump against the sides as flashes of purple and blue light move across the bar.
God, I was pathetic. People came to clubs to dance, drink, flirt, have fun and there they is me staring angrily at a shitty cocktail. Maybe this is why he dumped me. The thought makes something tighten painfully in my chest and I immediately shove it away.
Noooooo!
Fuck him. I wasn’t doing that tonight. Tonight was supposed to be the first night I stopped thinking about him. Which was going wonderfully considering I’ve thought about him approximately every thirty seconds since I got here.
I sigh and rest my cheek against my hand.
Bodies move behind me, packed together on the dance floor. Girls laugh loudly over the music while groups of guys stand around pretending they aren’t watching them. Someone screams excitedly when the DJ changes songs and I wince.
“Rough night?”
I jump slightly.
Shit.
I turn my head and find a man standing beside the empty stool next to me.I hadn’t even noticed him approach.He looks around my age, maybe a little older, with neatly styled brown hair and one of those easy smiles that made someone look instantly friendly.Or annoyingly confident.I couldn’t decide which yet.
“Is it that obvious?” I ask.
He laughs softly.
“You’re glaring at your drink.”
“I think it started it.”
“I knew it.” He pulls out the stool beside me. “Mind if I sit?”
I hesitate for a second before shrugging. “It’s a free country.”
“Not exactly the enthusiastic invitation I was hoping for.”
“Best you’re getting.”
He laughs again before sitting down. At least he wasn’t immediately creepy.That was something.
“I’m Daniel.”
“Isabella.”
“Nice to meet you, Isabella.”
He says my name slowly and for some reason I immediately regret giving it to him.
Jesus. Relax. He was just being nice. Not every man in a nightclub was secretly plotting my murder.
Probably....
Daniel orders a beer before turning slightly toward me. “So, Isabella- what brings you here alone?”
I raise an eyebrow. “Who said I’m alone?”
His eyes briefly move around the bar. “Your imaginary friends?”
I snort. “Maybe they’re in the bathroom.”
“For two hours?”
My head snaps toward him. “You’ve been watching me for two hours?”
His eyes widen. “No! Jesus, no.” He laughs, raising both hands. “Bad wording. I’ve been here maybe twenty minutes. Bartender mentioned you’ve been sitting here awhile.”
I glance toward the bartender, who is busy pouring drinks farther down the bar.
Traitor...
“Oh.” I say, unamused. God- why am I so on edge.
Daniel gives me an amused look. “You always this suspicious?”
I take another sip.
His expression changes slightly. Not dramatically. Just enough that I notice.
“Guy?”
I stare at my drink. It it really painted on my face or something? Was I really going to tell some random stranger about my breakup? Apparently drunk Isabella had no standards, because the words come out anyway.
“Ex-boyfriend.”
“Ah.”
“Yeah. Ah.”
“Recent?”
“Three weeks.”
He whistles quietly. “That explains the several drinks”
He laughs, and I smile despite myself. Maybe talking to someone I would never see again wasn’t the worst thing. There was something easier about admitting things to strangers. Daniel didn’t know my ex. He didn’t know me. I didn’t have to listen to him tell me how much better off I was or that everything happened for a reason. God, I hated that. Sometimes shitty things happened because people were shitty. That was it.
“He dumped me,” I say before taking another drink. “After almost three years.”
Daniel grimaces. “Ouch.”
“Yep.”
“His loss.”
I give him a look. “You don’t know me, what if I am some crazy serial killer, with... A black van?”
He raised an eyebrow, and laughs, “Aww, you couldn’t hurt a fly.”
I laugh again. “Whatever”
Okay. Maybe coming here wasn’t completely awful. My shoulders finally start relaxing as we talk. Daniel tells me some ridiculous story about his roommate, a broken television, and an angry downstairs neighbor. I barely catch half of it over the music, but I laugh anyway. For the first time tonight, I’m not thinking about my ex. Thank fucking God.
I finish what’s left in my glass.
Daniel glances at it. “Another?”
I shake my head. “No, I should probably—”
The room suddenly tilts.
I freeze, blinking hard as I grip the edge of the bar. The lights look too bright, streaking every time I move my eyes. My tongue feels heavy. Thick. I squint and when my eyes open the lights are hazy.
What the hell?
“You okay?” Daniel’s voice sounds farther away than it should.
“Yeah.”
Lie. Biggest lie of the night. Biggest lie of my life, why can’t I fucking see!? I try to straighten up and the floor drops out from under me. I grab the bar harder, heart starting to race.
“I think... I drank too much.” Shit, shit shit! This has never happened before!
His hand lands lightly on my shoulder. “You don’t look so good.”
The music is pounding against my skull now. My stomach twists. I need air. I need to get out of here. “I don’t feel so good.”
I reach for my purse and nearly knock it over, but Daniel catches it. “Easy.”
“I’m fine,” I mutter, even though I’m clearly not. I stand up anyway.
Huge mistake.
My knees buckle and he grabs my arm before I hit the floor.
“Shit—”
Everything is spinning. I hadn’t even drunk that much. Two drinks. Maybe two and a half. This doesn’t make sense and cold fear slides down my spine. I open my eyes and stare at the empty glass. It’s all blurry but I can’t remember the last time I actually watched it.
Fuck.
“Isabella?”
“I need my car,” I manage.
“I’ll walk you.”
Something about the way he says it makes my stomach turn to ice, but my head is too heavy to argue. His arm slides around my waist and I stiffen, but I can barely keep my feet under me. We move through the crowd. Lights and faces blur together. A hallway. A door. Then cold night air hits my face.
“My car is...” I point weakly toward the parking lot. I think I parked somewhere to the right.
Daniel keeps pulling me the other way. “This way.”
I try to stop. “Wait— Daniel—”
His grip tightens. Not enough to hurt. Just enough that I notice.
“Almost there.”
I force my eyes open wider and see it, there is a large dark van with two men standing beside it. Watching us.
Oh.
Oh fuck.
Oh FUCK! FUCK SHIT!!
Fear explodes through me so fast it cuts through the haze.
“No.” My feet dig into the ground. “That’s NOT MY CAR!”
“It’s fine.”
“I said that’s not my fucking car, DANIEL!”
One of the men by the van laughs. The sound makes my blood go cold.
I try to jerk away but Daniel holds on tighter. “Stop making this difficult.”
I swing my purse at him. He catches my wrist like it’s nothing. What the fuck,
“No—!”
I try to scream but my voice comes out weak and broken. My knees give out completely. Daniel curses and hauls me against him.
“Get the door,” he snaps at the others.
No.
No no no no no no!
I fight as hard as I can, but my body isn’t listening anymore. My vision is going dark at the edges.
“Let me go...”
Then everything around us suddenly stops because a sound cuts through the parking lot.
A growl, low, deep... Not even...human? A wolf? What’s a wolf doing in the middle of LA? Every hair on my arms rises.
Daniel freezes, I don’t feel his grip even moving. The blurry men in my sight seem to have frozen as well and even through whatever the hell is happening to me, I feel it. There is something dangerous is standing behind us. Slowly, blurry Daniel turns.
His grip on me loosens. Shit- and I thought getting snached by a serial killer was the most dangerous thing that could happen.
I manage to look up.
A man stands several feet away.
Tall.
That is the first thing my useless brain notices.
Very tall.
Broad shoulders fill an expensive black suit, the jacket fitted perfectly around a body that definitely didn’t belong behind a desk. Dark hair. Sharp jaw. Hands clenched at his sides.
And his eyes...
I can’t see them properly.
Everything keeps blurring.
But he’s staring at Daniel like he wants to rip him apart with his bare hands; maybe I should’ve been afraid of him too.I probably would have been if I could think straight.
Instead, the stupidest thought enters my head.
He’s really handsome.
Seriously? I’m being kidnapped, and that’s what my brain decides to contribute? Fantastic.
The “handsome” stranger takes one step forward and Daniel backs up, with me still tight in his grip. I try to move but his grip tightens. Ugh FUCKER.
“Stay the fuck out of this.”
The man’s chest rises and another animalistic growl comes from him.
FROM HIM?
What the—
Daniel suddenly releases me.
My legs give out immediately and I scream. On no- pavement! It’s going to hurt come on... But I don’t hit the ground. Where is the ground? Instead strong arms catch me.
Warm.
So warm.
I blink slowly and find myself pressed against a solid chest. It’s him. His scent hits me through the fog in my head. Something clean and dark, almost like cedar after rain, why did he smell so good?
God, I was losing it and now my eyes won’t stay open.
The stranger looks down at me.
His face is blurry.
Angry.
No.
Not at me.
Something changes the second his eyes meet mine.
His expression goes completely still.
Like he’s just seen something impossible.
I try speaking.
“Don’t...”
My voice is barely there.
His hold immediately tightens.
“I’ve got you.”
His voice is deep.
My last thought barely forms before everything finally disappears.
Who the hell are you?
Author’s Note 🤍
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— Chinchy Coco ♡
