CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 7
ALEXEI VOLKOV
Shit, yeah. So not only am I at The Blood Moon Gala where I'm meant to be searching for answers, but now I'm being hung up against a shifter dancing in what can only be described as the sexiest fucking dance ever performed.

Her perfect breasts are really spilling over her dress corset because they're being pressed against my chest, and it's not possible not to gaze down when she eases her head back onto the back, shaking off bare shoulders. She is only an inch or two shorter than I am, and so as we dance, my cock is uncomfortably nestled near where it so eagerly wants to be. And now, apparently, enough of my blood flow has been redirected so I’m talking about my favorite appendage in the third person.

Yeah, it’s safe to say I’m up Shit Creek without a paddle.

Her hand runs over my back and palms my butt. Has my butt ever been palm-ed? Hell, if I remember. I lean forward as she drops her plump lips onto the side of my neck, her warm breath making her already hard dick even harder.

Is she trying to kill me? Is this the trap I was dreading falling into here? Because if I'm dying—death by hot shifter is not a bad way to go, if you want the truth.

"Tell me something about yourself," she yells.

"What?"

"Anything."

I swallow. "I have a tomato allergy."

Natalia Morozova steps back just enough that I can catch a glimpse of the raised eyebrow.

"Tomatoes?"

I nod. "Only when they're raw, though."

"You're allergic to raw tomatoes. Why not cooked ones too?"

I shrug. "Don't know. But the raw ones make my tongue swell up."

"Interesting."

"What about you?" I'm surprised at how much I want to know about her.

"I'm not allergic to anything," she says. "But I do love to bake."

"Like cakes?"

Natalia nods. "Cakes, cookies, cupcakes—you name it, and I can bake it.".

"Well, in case you ever need a taste tester…"

She laughs sadly at me and leans against me once more, head on my shoulder as we sway to the rhythm of the song. Couples across the Eternal Hall dance floor are in love with each other—some more advanced in their relationships than others.

I have no idea what kind of party I thought The Blood Moon Gala was going to be, but this had damn well better not even qualify as a faint comparison.

Natalia bends forward, her warm breath caressing my neck. "Are you in the mood for being naughty?" she breathes against my ear, and I tense. Does she have any idea what I am?

"Naughty?"

"Risky, adventurous, sexually aroused—" She giggles. "Any or all of the above?"

I take a step back and look into her impossibly large, brown eyes. "All of the above."

"Good." She pulls me away from the dance floor and over to the edge of the room. Red fog swirls around our ankles as we shoulder past the mob toward an open door. When we're poised on the threshold outside, a transparent man strides through, and Natalia springs away. I grab her, automatically shoving her behind me as he grins at us. Then he removes his cap and bows and disappears without speaking.

At my side, Natalia snorts, and I can't help but smile as she laughs hysterically. "Not every day you see someone who was probably one of the first passengers of The Crimson Ark."

"True."

She laughs another second before her expression turns serious, her eyes falling to my lips. I attempt to open my mouth to ask her if she is certain, but I am stopped as a woman in a long, flowing red gown appears beside us.

"I believe what you are looking for is found on The Abyssal Floor," she says softly, and then turns and proceeds down the corridor toward a staircase.

"What are we looking for?" I ask Natalia.

"I don't know, but I think we should go check out." 

Not leaving myself more than a second to hesitate, I turn and keep going down the hallway, Natalia at my heels. Finally, a stairway appears on our right. Taking her in tow, I swallow hard as we start down. Nothing that's happened tonight has given me the feeling this is a trap, but it's early anyway.

And Natalia is the perfect distraction to knock me off my pace if I let her.

We flow into a poorly lit hall that's lined with sconces in the shape of tentacle-like things mounted on the black walls. She drags me down the corridor farther and grasps the brass lever of a door at the end. Glancing up at me, she releases the handle and pushes the door open.

"Perhaps what?" Natalia asks curiously as we step into one of the Obsidian Chamber of the ship. Boxes hang from cargo nets above, and midnight black drapes long block our vision of the back.

Natalia steps forward, but I stop her. "Let me lead."