I don't recall how I ended up in this situation. But the cushions of the booth did not smell as nice as you'd think. Plus, Mya's ass was surprisingly heavy as she forced me to eat polyester.

I was an omnivore for crying out loud. I liked normal food.

"Mya..." My voice was muffled as I tried to push myself upright.

Her answer was a resounding harrumph as she forced her hand into my shoulders.

In the words of every great movie I have watched, which is little in the past few months... You are probably wondering how I got here.

Who knew six drinks of various fruity alcoholic drinks could lead to such measures? I was simply talking to Jo, asking him questions about his past, about his memories, and he happily gave them. Mya was getting me another fancy drink and sneaking hand caresses with Mel.

Next thing I knew, Jo's arm was around my shoulders, his fingers tickling my hair until it fell from my neck. Then his eyes dropped to Asra's branding on my throat and his eyes widened.

"You're one of them!" He spat.

In a drunken haze, I wasn't sure what he was implying at first. His arm around my shoulders turned stiff as he stared at my neck. I frowned, unsure why it was such a bad thing, until I realised I was in the presence of humans.

"I'm not!" I shook my head, my eyes widening.

The others around the table all spoke at once, loud, drunken and angered questions being thrown our way. I was confused, my eyebrows furrowed as all the voices all blurred into one enormous mass of noise.

Dean's voice carried the most. The deep baritone vibrating my skull.

"Show us!"

I rose to my feet, glaring at them. Jo's jaw tightened, and he stood to his full height, Dean right behind him. The women at the table all stared at me with harsh glares, Frankie the only one who may pass as neutral despite the downturn of her lips.

"You're one of them." Jo glared.

I shook my head, crossing my arms. "I am not a wolf!"

He took a threatening step closer. "Are you a spy?"

"No!"

"How does Mia know you? What have you done to her?"

"Nothing!" I snapped.

"Then explain the mark." Jo sneered.

Before my drunken ass could realise, he had taken one broad step closer, grasping my shoulder and spinning me to face the booth. I gasped when he grabbed me by the hair, forcing my head to bend painfully backward as he stood behind me. Pain radiated across my scalp, and I reached up to claw at the back of his hand, struggling to find ground as he jostled me until my knees shook. Fingers poked my mark, checking for its authenticity, and I flinched when it sent a startling pain down my spine.

"Hey!" I complained.

Jo's fingers left my mark, but his grip tightened on my hair. He arched my head until we were staring eye to eye, his dark eyes narrowed with warning.

"What are you doing here?"

"Drinking." I spluttered, and his grip tightened. "Let me go!"

My mark felt like it was burning too.

Alcohol was weird, man... Woman. Woah-man.

There was a clatter before Mya's voice echoed from across the bar. "Ailia!"

Jo's fingers slackened, and his eyes seemed to widen. Confusion flittered across his face, but his lips barely parted before he disappeared entirely. I hardly had time to register what was going on before something forced me into an alternate universe.

Something hard hit my head. For a moment, darkness enveloped my mind, and I was unaware of my surroundings. It was a quick sleep, on par with a nap in a chair. But then, someone moved me and my eyes fluttered open. Complaining grumpily, the stranger hushed me to be placid as I saw four gigantic figures fighting mere feet away. That's when Mya stepped in, and now I lay face first on the booth's seat.

I wasn't sure how long I was used as a cushion, and I assumed a while because the bar had become eerily quiet as I fell in and out of sleep. The scuffling had stopped. A dread pooled in the vodka mixed stomach acid as I no longer heard Jo's grunts of fight.

Turning my head, I blew my hair out of my face. "Can I get up yet?"

Mya sighed, and I inhaled with relief when she climbed from my body. I pushed myself up onto my elbows before grabbing the table and forcing myself upright. My head span and my eyes closed in the attempt to settle the tilting of my brain. My body wanted to lie down again, but I forced it upright.

"What happened?" I muttered, reaching for my drink.

"I think that's enough, Sleeping Beauty." Mya tutted, taking the orange mixture out of my reach.

I frowned, blinking up at her. "What?"

"We're going home."

"Already?" I cocked my head.

"Yeah, the car is waiting."

"Oh, but I never got to find out what Jo knows."

"Don't worry, he will come with us."

My eyes widened. "He will?"

"He laid a hand on a luna. Asra will punish him."

I was sure my blink was on par with a sloth's ability to run a sprint, as I stared at her dumbfounded. "He what?"

Her eyes narrowed. "He assaulted you."

"I barely call it assault."

"Ailia, you're drunk. You barely feel anything when you're drunk." She sighed. "Come on, let's get in the car."

I felt uneasy, but took her outstretched hand. The bar was completely empty. Even Mel had vanished. The music was a soft echo of the life that was one rife in here. I looked around, trying to find anybody else, but it was just the two of us. Blood splatters of pain marred the ground and my heart clenched as I imagined the worst.

Jo was weird, sure, but something didn't settle right with me.

Before I realised, Mya had me in the back of the car and was wrapping the seatbelt around me.

"Does Asra know?"

"Of course."

"That was fast." I commented.

"The mate bond told him the moment you were in trouble." She shook her head just as the car lurched forward. "He had wolves nearby."

"Oh right, magical brain thing." I muttered, my eyes fluttering closed. "That explains the pain."

"Pain?"

"Yeah," I snorted, my head rolling to the edge of the headrest. "It felt like fire when Jo touched my mark."

Mya hesitated, but I remained sleepy. "Asra felt your pain. He isn't happy."

A small smirk lifted my cheeks. "What else is new?"

***

I woke the next morning in my bed, my mind clear of anything and everything.

I was not sure how I got into the bed. Most of my evening after my fifth drink was a blur.

"Asra?" I mumbled, glancing at the clock.

It was a little after half ten. I doubted he would be in here, and the cold side of the mattress told me he had been gone long. Looking around for signs of life, I found a condensing bottle of water and some pills on the bedside. There was a note from Eve telling me to take them when I woke.

Sceptically, I eyed the tablets and left them there. I felt fine; whatever it was, must've been a precaution of my alcohol intake.

Shifting to the edge of the bed, the duvet fell away to reveal my body clad in Asra's shirt. Lifting the dark red tee to my nose, I inhaled his scent with a soft smile. He always smelt so wild, so musky.

Shakily standing, my head throbbed a little and forced me to sit back down to catch my bearings.

"Must've drank more than I realised." I muttered to myself, trying to stand again.

When I didn't topple, a sharp huzzah left my lips before I trudged to the bathroom. Reliving myself in a daze, I barely registered the dirty clothes in the basket until I placed the hand towel on top of it. Now, normally I would've been uninterested in dirty clothes, but this was my top, and it was no longer white.

Lifting it from the basket, I stared in horror as I realised the new marks were splatters of blood.

What the hell happened last night?

Gazing at myself in the mirror, nothing was out of the ordinary, and I rubbed my eyes just to make sure. Deciding to take a shower, to wash off the grubbiness I suddenly felt, I stripped off Asra's shirt.

Yet again, nothing seemed strange.

Standing beneath the warmth of the shower, I tried to remember what happened. No matter how hard I tried to picture my night, most of it was a blur. I can barely remember Mya forcing me into a car. Perhaps there was some vomit in there? I wasn't sure.

Squirting shampoo into my hand, I was halfway massaging it into my hair when my nails caught on something. A sharp gasp left my throat, and I gently poked the area again. It felt like... stitches?

Rinsing the shampoo, a determination filled me. I was out of the shower, half dry and dressed and on my way to Asra's office before you could say hospital. My hair flew wildly, dripping down the back of my shirt. I only wore a shirt and some shorts, and tried my hardest to ignore the irritating dampness as the elevator dinged its arrival on the ground floor.

Marching to his office, I walked right inside and found Asra hunched over his desk, phone in hand. He barely flinched, blinking up at me as he muttered into the hand-held device. His blue eyes raked over me, eyebrows raising when he noticed the soft dripping of my hair. My hands fell to my hips, glaring at him as I waited for him to finish.

When he finally set down the phone, he placed his hands on the table and stared at me. "Good morning, Ailia. Feeling well?"

"Cut the crap. What happened?"

He pursed his lips. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"Sex on the beach." I stated.

He blinked, staring at me. But when I didn't expand further, his chest rose with breath as he leaned back in his chair.

"Do you remember Jo?"

The name sent my stomach into a twirl, and I nodded when I could picture the human male. I wasn't sure why I felt my gut twinge, but it was trying to tell me something, too.

"What about him?"

"He assaulted you."

"He did?" My eyes widened.

That didn't seem right.

"Why?"

"You don't remember?" H wondered.

"No." I frowned, moving closer to his desk.

His nostrils flared. "He was getting closer to you, and saw my mark."

Odd familiarity flared in my mind, and my eyes narrowed with understanding.

"Then what?"

"You retaliated, and he and the others threw insults." He continued. "Then Jo assaulted you."

"Expand assaulted."

"He pulled you by the hair, touched your mark." He grumbled. "Then when my people stepped in, he threw you to the ground. You tried to fight all four of them yourself, and Mya had to subdue you."

That didn't seem right.

"So, he grabbed my hair and called me names and I got put in a time out?" I mused. "I don't recall being thrown around."

My attempt at humor didn't impress him.

"You hit your head. Perhaps it is a concussion." He cocked his head, staring at my scalp.

"Perhaps I was jostled when your beefy men charged a human male." I counteracted. "That seems more legitimate to me."

"Either way, Tulip, he manhandled you and you got hurt. I assume you are here because you found the stitches." Asra commented, standing at his desk.

I shrugged indifferently as he rounded his desk. His hand met my elbow, pulling me to his chest. Despite the dampness of my hair, he kept me close as his other hand inspected my scalp. I grimaced when he prodded the area, aware that it was bruised and tender.

"You passed out in the car. Eve stitched you up, gave you some of my blood before I cleaned you up and brought you home."

"Vampire again." I muttered.

He barely smirked, pushing himself away to stare down into my eyes. "You are lucky I had wolves guarding outside."

"So, I was watched all night?"

"Of course."

My nose crinkled. "Everything was fine."

"Was it though? You are a human, so a male human is going to be an uneven match."

"You saying I'm weak?" I scoffed.

This caused his lips to twitch, finally. "Far from it, Tulip."

"Good." I crossed my arms. "Now we have cleared up that your men shoved me into the ground. I am going to go dry my hair."

He rolled his eyes, stepping away from me to sit back in his chair. "Okay, Tulip. See you after."

"I have work." I shook my head.

"Did you take the pills Eve gave you?" He wondered.

"No, I don't need them. I feel fine. Wolf blood is magical." I shrugged, turning to leave the room.

I felt the smugness of his face without even looking at him.