The Lonely Rogue

Chapter 20 Junie

Viv didn't leave my apartment for two days except to go downstairs to work. She was struggling to cope with all the information I gave her, especially the mate business. She grasped the werewolf stuff pretty quickly after seeing me shift but the matebond was another thing entirely. Jett hasn't been back since. He was as absent as my own mate.

"He's just being a baby about it, he'll come around." Cole said about Jett.

"Like your boss?" I smirked, cocking a smug eyebrow. Cole rolled his eyes,

"You play with fire, girl." He said.

The Friday night rush was in full swing and Cole was behind the bar. Apparently he did a stint as a bartender in college and was actually pretty good at it. Jackson and Karly were happy to have his help, and I was glad to have another bartender so I wouldn't have to cover. I was leaning against the bar, looking out over the crowd and talking with Cole about Vivian.

Viv was swaggering around the bar, quieter than usual. She was waitressing with Gabi and Sophie tonight, but wasn't her usual flirtatious self. Toonly was covering the front door, Clyde was on the floor, and Buck was at the backdoor. Fred was at the DJ stand.

"I heard Jett and Caspian left the realm to visit a pack in Louisiana on Tuesday." Cole informed me.

My head snapped towards him and Violet started whimpering and whining. It clicked then, the reason I had been feeling so antsy and on edge the last few days. We were feeling the strain of the matebond. That jackass could have at least done me the decency of a heads up that he was leaving and I was going to be made weaker.

"Why?" I tried to sound uninterested.

"A pack there has been struggling with rogue attacks the last few weeks, but Monday night, rogues kidnapped a bunch of women and children. Caspian went there to help." Cole explained, eyeing me curiously.

"What a standout guy." I grumbled and Cole laughed at me.

"Your eyes betray you, Junie, you're impressed by his actions."

"You need your eyes checked." I sassed him, pushing away from the bar to circle the room and get away from Cole's snickers.

As I began to walk through the crowd of dancing bodies, something drew me towards the back corner of the club. It was a much quieter, dimly lit area with some smaller booths and tables. There was a young girl sitting at one of the tables with a man sitting on either side of her. She had long, curly brown hair that reached down to her hips. Her bright green eyes were surrounded by dark lashes, but her makeup wasn't enough to hide the fact that she was underage, by a lot.

"How did you get in here?" I asked, walking towards her table. Her eyes lit up when she saw me and the men beside her perked up, too.

"Through the door." She smirked.

"With a fake ID, no doubt. You're not twenty-one." I said with my hands firmly on my hips.

"Okay, guilty, I got my boys here to sneak me in. They knew the one bouncer, Toonly." She shrugged. I eyed the two men beside her curiously. All three of them screamed werewolf.

"Still, you can't be here." I sighed.

"I'm sorry, I actually came to see you." She confesses.

"Me? Do I know you?" I studied the girl's face and realized that something seemed familiar about it.

"Not personally, but I've heard a lot about you. I'm Alice Storm, princess to the realm. These are my guards, Lukey and Mish." She jabbed her thumb towards her lackeys. The one she introduced as Lukey winced and I assumed that his real name was just Luke.