I woke up a few hours later with my property jacket draped over my shoulders, alone and naked on Wolf’s bed. I looked up, my ass twinging, and saw that Wolf’s clothes were gone. I also noticed that my skin was clean and figured Wolf must have wiped me down after I passed out and went back to the party.

Fucks me in the ass and then leaves me all alone.

Bastard.

I sighed—my annoyance short-lived because I knew he was probably dragged back to the party—and stretched, probing the feeling in my ass and determining that, despite being a little sore, it was manageable. I looked around the room, seeing the normal duffle bag of clothes I usually left on the chair in the corner was gone. It took me about five minutes of rooting around before I found my clothes hung on one side of Wolf’s wardrobe.

My heart felt funny, which I promptly squashed—it was just wardrobe space, for God’s sake—and pulled free a pair of comfy leggings and a long shirt. My boots were on the bottom, which Wolf must have also taken off me after my amazing new experience, and I put them back on.

I was about to leave the room when I saw my property jacket laid on the bed. It’s too late to back out now, I thought to myself, grabbing the damn thing and putting it on, pretending to hate the way my back straightened with pride before stepping out into the clubroom.

The room was still filled wall to wall with people, and when I checked the clock, I realized that I had only slept an hour or two at the most, meaning the party was in full swing.

I felt like I was snaking endlessly in and out of people, and yet, my search for Wolf came to no avail. I did find Julia, however, who was having her fun with Jax as he dragged her upstairs to his bedroom. I hoped she wasn’t using my game with Wolf earlier as a reference to thinking Jax’s kind of kink would be fun. There was an extreme level of difference between handcuffs and Jax’s S&M.

I would have laughed at the thought if a sudden dose of cold beer hadn’t hit me. I spun, furious that the beer was dripping over the leather of my jacket, and turned on the assailant.

“Shit, babe,” the guy gasped, blue-green eyes looking down at the damage he’d done. “I’m so sorry about your jacket. Here, you can use mine if you’re cold,” he said, pulling off his denim jacket, revealing a curling snake tattoo reaching up to his forearm, bright red eyes glaring back at me as he held the gray jacket out toward me.

It took a second for my guard to go up. This party was only for club members and affiliates, and yet this guy had just poured his beer over my property jacket and treated it like a minor mistake. The property jacket of this club’s president’s old lady.

“You’re not meant to be here,” I growled, deprioritizing the condition of the cut as my hackles rose. My voice must have dripped poison because the guy flinched in surprise as I called him out.

His innocent, apologetic expression turned to cold ice in a flash, and I didn’t get the chance to scream as he shoved his hand over my mouth and pulled me against him.

My heart raced as the adrenalin kicked in. I lifted my leg, about to show him that he messed with the wrong fucking girl when I felt the tiny prick in my side and my blood ran cold.

“You’re a clever girl,” he whispered in my ear, the Russian accent I knew too well clear in his voice. “Now, I’m going to let go of your mouth before someone thinks something’s up, and you’re not going to scream, you got me?”

I nodded into his hand, the knowledge and information about what Wolf had found out from Charon swelling in my brain. This man was a Black Jack. No doubt about it. There was no way Pipe would have let him in unless...

“What did you do to Pipe?” I growled the second he freed my mouth.

“He’s indisposed,” he said, and the indifference in his voice made me think Pipe was in more trouble than I thought.

My eyes darted over the man’s broad shoulder, looking for anybody for help, but there were too many people here to find any of the brothers, and the people around me didn’t notice my distress. To everybody else, it would have just looked like he was talking in my ear. I was on my own.

“Why are you here? What do you want?” I demanded.

“Everything else we’ve tried hasn’t worked. We needed to take extreme measures.” His voice was calm and collected as he kept the knife poking a hole through the thin material of my shirt.

“You won’t gain anything by taking me hostage,” I growled, my eyes looking over to the bar, where I saw the crowd part, revealing Wolf, Jasper, and Polo sitting on stools, beers in their hands, drinking.

I begged the universe to make Wolf look my way as his eyes began to glaze over the room like they always did, and for a second, I thought they’d passed over me. But then they didn’t. His brown eyes did a double take as his eyes met mine, and a breathtakingly happy smile transformed his rugged face.

Relief flooded my body, and at last, I thought I was saved.

“I’m not taking you hostage.” For a second, I could swear his voice sounded sympathetic.

Then he plunged the knife into my stomach.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, pulling the knife out and walking away.

My whole world seemed to slow as my eyes became impossibly wide, stuck in a transcended moment of pain where time just waited. It waited for me to etch the smile on Wolf’s face as he moved toward me. It let me savor the way he walked with confidence and purpose, like I was his only goal. And last of all, it tortured me by allowing me to witness the painful moment of devastation when the crowd between us parted and his eyes dropped to the red soaking through my shirt and dripping into a puddle on the floor. The moment when my man’s world came crashing down around him.

Wolf’s roar cut into my slow world and everything came rushing down on top of me.

I collapsed to the floor, hitting the ground long before Wolf could reach me, as screams and sudden shouting exploded around us.

“Anna!” Wolf’s broken voice yelled as he slid to his knees, his hands shaking above me as his brain tried to process what he should do.

He chose to press down on the wound, and I expected it to hurt, but instead, it just felt cold. A freezing, chilling cold swept through my veins as drowsiness took hold.

“Pipe,” I breathed, my tongue suddenly feeling too heavy to move. “Check on Pipe.”

“Don’t talk, Anna,” Wolf snapped, his eyes flicking to my face as he tried his best to offer me a controlled, confident smile through the tears rolling down over his big, rough Russian’s face.

I became aware of someone else dropping down by my side, but I didn’t have the energy to waste looking at who it was.

“Ch-check on Pipe,” I insisted, my breath soft and staggered through my chattering teeth. “C-crap, why am I s-so cold?”

“You’re going into shock, but you’ll be fine,” Wolf reassured me. “You’re going to be fine.” He took my hand, his other bloodied fingers brushing the hair out of my face.

I could feel my consciousness sinking and tried to fight tooth and nail to stay awake, while Wolf begged me to keep my eyes open. But my fight was fading.

“Kiss me,” I blurted, the urgency to touch him, to feel him, suddenly overwhelming all my senses and thoughts.

Wolf shook his head, his eyes glazing. “No,” he growled through clenched teeth. “I’ll kiss you tomorrow. I’ll kiss you the day after and the day after that. Not now.”

“Wolf,” I hissed, my words taking way too much energy than they should. “Kiss me,” I pleaded. “Kiss me now.”

I saw the conflict in Wolf’s eyes as he fought to be stubborn.

But he took too long and my eyes closed, the darkness reaching to take me in its grasp.

And then warm lips pressed against mine, and despite everything, I could taste his scent of expensive whiskey and cigarettes and remembered wishing it would never end.

It was the last thing I felt before my world fell into silence.