Chapter Three

Stafford stormed through the club. As hard as he tried to focus on the women swarming through the shadowy rooms, they really didn’t appeal to him. It had been three days since his last feeding and still, all he could think about was how the hell Jasmine could have picked the damn wolf over him.

The man had no idea what he was doing with a woman. He had no idea what he was doing full stop. He was an idiot. Stafford could barely close his eyes without imagining Jasmine’s fate.

Perhaps Hayden would treat her as well as he knew how, the vampire allowed. After seeing how careful he had been with Jasmine, he didn’t think the wolf was capable of real cruelty, but what of the other wolves in the pack? Hayden seemed very happy to share his lover with him, what if he didn’t have the sense to keep Jasmine to himself now she really belonged to him?

A low growl was Stafford ’s only warning before someone launched himself at him. Stafford just managed to put his hands out in time to avoid going face first into the wall. “What the hell!” He swung to face his attacker. Hayden loomed between him and the room.

“You couldn’t stay faithful to your mate for one week, could you?” the wolf demanded.

“What the hell are you talking about now?” Stafford snapped, pushing the larger man away from him. He looked around, eager for the sight of Jasmine and already wondering if he could convince her to change her mind. “Where’s Jasmine?”

Hayden growled and pushed him back against the wall. “You can’t even keep track of her. How the hell are you supposed to be her alpha if you can’t even…”

“What are you on-she picked…” he faded away at the same time as Hayden. “She didn’t come to your room?” Stafford realised.

Hayden frowned down at him, the hand against his chest stopped trying to push Stafford through the wall.

They held each other’s gaze, each waiting for the other man to blink, each hoping the other man would confess he was in the club screwing around behind her back, just so he could know Jasmine belonged to one of them and was safe.

“I wouldn’t be here looking for blood if she’d come to me,” Stafford said.

Hayden stepped back and let him move away from the wall. “Where is she?”

“ Washington,” Stafford remembered. “The human’s name was Washington.” He stormed toward the exit. In moments he’d pushed past the crowds and was outside in the cold night air, throwing himself into his sports car. Before he could even slam his door, the other door opened and Hayden folded his bulky frame into the small space on the passenger seat.

Stafford stared across at him. He bit back the order to get out of his space and out of his car. It was just possible a wolf might be useful if everything came down to brawn rather than brain.

“We find her and we bring her home,” Stafford said. “We’ll sort out whatever the hell is going to happen between you, me and her later. Deal?”

Hayden nodded and slammed the car door.

Stafford turned the key and put his foot down. “ Washington owns a club on the other side of town,” he told the wolf.

Hayden nodded again.

Stafford cast a glance at him. Hayden’s normally over cheerful countenance was conspicuously absent. In fact, the guy looked ready to kill. “We’ll find her,” Stafford said.

Hayden nodded once more.

“And when we find her, you’re going let me do the talking,” Stafford went on.

“You talk,” Hayden agreed.

His tone of voice said everything he needed to say. While Stafford was talking, Hayden might well occupy himself by ripping the throat out of whoever Jasmine was with now.

He looked across at Stafford. “She is our alpha female. Our pack. She wouldn’t walk away from us unless she had no choice. If someone has hurt her, I will kill him.”

Stafford stared out of the windscreen and made no comment. Maybe the werewolf wasn’t as stupid as he looked. It sounded like a damn good plan to him.

By the time they reached the club there was a low persistent growl building in the back of Hayden’s throat. For some reason, the bouncer took one look at them and waved them through without a word about the queue of people they’d walked past.

Mr. Washington stood on the far side of the club. In the darkness, it took a vampire’s night vision to pick him up, but Hayden obviously wasn’t reading the room with his eyes-he took one sniff of the air in the club and he was off across the room.

By the time Stafford caught up, Hayden had picked Mr. Washington up by the neck and had him pinned to the wall, his feet dangling several inches off the floor.

“Where is she?” Hayden demanded.

“Perhaps he’ll answer you more readily if you release his windpipe,” Stafford said, from a few paces behind him. Cold amusement dripped from his voice-if Jasmine was not at stake, he imagined it might be a great deal of fun to play bad cop to Hayden completely-bloody-psychotic cop.

Hayden reluctantly lowered the man to his feet. Stafford stepped in close to him, crowding the man into a corner.

“Jasmine left the hotel with you. Where is she?” he demanded.

The human was far more resilient than any other Stafford had met. He didn’t look the least bit impressed with their interrogation technique.

“Neither of you have any claim on her,” he said calmly. “She signed a contract. She belongs to me.”

Hayden began to growl low in the back of his throat again.

“Where is she?” Stafford demanded, leaning in close to the human man so he had no space at all to breathe.

“She went away for a few days. She’s staying with family. I don’t know where.” He sounded incredibly bored by the conversation.

Hayden’s growl escalated.

Mr. Washington looked from one of them to the other. “Grow up both of you-she’s no toy for you to play your petty games with. And do stop trying to play above your weight-I’ve been dealing with vampires and werewolves since long before either of you were born. Neither your parents nor your grandparents scare me, you two aren’t about to either. Especially not when I remember you as a scruffy little pup, and you as a bawling baby.”

Stafford cleared his throat, suddenly feeling rather like a child who was about to be sent to bed without his supper.

“And I remember both of you before you hit puberty and decided to hate each other-apparently for no good reason other than to annoy your parents.”

Stafford opened his mouth, he closed his mouth, then he pulled himself together. “Whatever you remember of us, neither of us is a child any more-Jasmine belongs to us.”

“No, she does not. Neither of your species has ever had any idea how to keep a human submissive,” Mr. Washington said. “Your lot always go back to your pack and your lot never keep one of your ‘human pets’ around for longer than a few feedings. Jasmine deserves a damn sight better than either of you.”

“She is my pack,” Hayden snarled.

Mr. Washington stared back at him, obviously not the least impressed with the show of temper.

“You sent her to us,” Stafford reminded him.

“She’s been rather annoyingly able to remain detached from every damn master I’ve tried to place her with up until now-who could have known she’d be foolish enough to take an interest in two childish idiots.”

“What?” Hayden blinked. “You’re her alpha…”

“I’m her trainer,” Mr. Washington said coldly. “I have no interest in the girl.”

“Right,” Stafford said-as if any man could ‘train’ Jasmine and not give in to the temptation to enjoy what she seemed to offer far too freely.

Mr. Washington smiled slightly, amusement dancing in his eyes for a moment. “You two are both far more my type than she will ever be,” he informed them.

It was Stafford ’s turn to blink.

“Sir?”

Stafford turned around, a young man stood near them with a tray of drinks. He looked from them to Mr. Washington and back again.