Chapter Three

Bill swallowed and for a second, he felt like he was eleven years old again and in his parents' backyard, tearing into half cooked steaks with barely there fangs and slurping on mango smoothies. He swallowed again because he could swear on his life he could taste his favourite smoothie in the back of his throat.

The rest of his body came awake slowly and he groaned as he became aware of the pain in his face, stomach and ribs. Goddess, he felt like he'd been run over a million times by a freight train.

He blinked twice to clear his head, staring in confusion at the room he was in, trying to make sense of where he was and what had happened that made him ache so much. He was on a bed, that much was clear and from the looks of it, he was in an actual...bedroom? But where? The sound of muted music reached his ears and he took a wild guess that he was still in the bar, probably in one of the rooms. Wait – why would they even need rooms in a bar?

The images came back to him quickly – the gorgeous omega and then getting punched in the face by that huge ass alpha. He groaned again at his stupidity. What the fuck had he been thinking? At the time, it had felt like a fabulous idea – he felt bile rise in the back of his throat because he'd wanted it. He had wanted that alpha to beat the shit out of him for reasons he didn't understand.

What the fuck was wrong with him?

"Feeling better yet, sweetheart?"

Bill jumped in shock, groaning in pain as the movement made his bones ache, before turning his head to find out where the voice was coming from. He felt his heart race at the sight of the woman sitting on the left side of his bed.

The woman stood up from the chair she was currently sitting in, and Bill felt himself shrink a little helplessly into the sheets at the pure intimidation that seemed to ooze off of her very pores.

The lights in the bedroom were dimmed and it made the woman's sharp blue eyes positively glow in the darkness, her blood red hair and dark skin not helping at all to warm the look. She made her way over to the bed in the most elegant catwalk Bill has ever seen in his life, her white six inch heels glinting in the semi-darkness.

"Bill Anderson," she said warmly, placing both her hands on the bed and leaning over him as if she were about to kiss him.

Bill leaned even further away, his heart suddenly pounding. "Do I know you?"

She chuckled. "No. But I know you. And that bullshit you pulled tonight doesn't happen, ever again. You bring a bad name to my establishment and I will fucking end you. Do you understand me, officer?"

Bill struggled to sit up, fury hitting him from nowhere when he suddenly realized that the gorgeous woman speaking to him was an omega.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" he growled, barely hiding his wince at the effort it took to sit up so quickly.

Their faces were so close together they were practically exchanging breaths.

The woman had the audacity to laugh, not the least bit intimidated by him and she suddenly reminded Bill so much of Dallas Crane that the alpha wanted to smash his skull into her disgusting, pretty, smug-looking face.

"I've heard of you, Bill Anderson, all bark but no fucking bite. This is going to be your last warning. I really don't want to ban you from coming here again, officer."

"You fucking –"

The door slammed open and Bill jumped in surprise at the action, while, of course, the evil witch in front of him barely even twitched.

"'Twas nice to make your acquaintance, officer. Do come again," she said with an amused smile as she stood up, smoothing the invisible wrinkles off her tight maroon dress before slowly and elegantly making her way out of the room.

Bill seethed silently with rage on the bed, only then noticing he had a splitting headache, and he found himself suddenly exhausted, reaching a hand up to cup his banging forehead.

"I am so sorry about that," the person who'd barged into the room said on a rough exhale, "Trinity can be a little...much. I hope she didn't –"

"Where am I?" Bill interrupted. Right now, he didn't give a fuck who Trinity was. He just wanted to go home and lie in bed while thinking about his life choices.

"Oh, you're uh – in my room."

That made Bill pause and look up.

"I mean – uh – you're still in the bar, I didn't kidnap you," the guy laughed nervously, shoving his free hand into the mass of thick curls of fiery red hair on his head, his skin dotted with a million red freckles, his other hand holding a tray that held a glass of water and a bottle of what Bill assumed to be pills, "you got in a fight –"

"I know that," Bill interrupted rudely, staring at the guy. It took a second for him to recognise him as one of the alphas who worked behind the bar.

"Right, yeah, of course, why would you – I mean –"

"How long was I out?" Bill interrupted again, swinging his legs out of the bed, still clutching at his head. He couldn't help but glance a little hopefully at the tray the other alpha was holding, wondering if the little bottle held a pack of painkillers.

"A couple minutes. Trinity handled the other guy and his date. You probably won't be seeing much trouble from them again, I assure you. Trinity kind of has a reputation around these parts."

Bill seethed through his teeth at the reminder of the dark-skinned omega. "I'm going to fucking arrest her for harassing an officer –"

"Whoa! Hey! Calm down, there's no need to do that!" the other alpha said quickly, making his way into the room. He dropped the tray on the bedside table and then stood in front of Bill, looking awkward and like he didn't know what to do with himself, "She's a little intimidating, but she means well and if she didn't act the way she did, a lot of shit would go wrong in this place, seriously."

Bill glanced at the bottle of pills again. "That doesn't mean she should be a fucking asshole about it. A simple 'please don't fight in the bar' would have sufficed. Fucking bitch."

The other alpha winced at his tone before drawling out, "oh-kay. The pills are for you, you can stop glancing at them like they're gonna suddenly disappear or something," he chuckled.

Bill frowned up at the guy. "Thanks," he muttered, opening the bottle and popping two of the painkillers into his mouth before reaching for the glass of water.

"Go out with me."

Bill choked on the pills, spraying water everywhere in his shock at what the other alpha had just blurted.

"Shit, fuck, sorry! I'm sorry!" the guy gasped, rushing to a small fridge in the corner of the room, his face tomato red, "I'd go downstairs to get you some water cause it'll be cold and straight from the bar – my fridge's broken you see –"

"Just give me the fucking water," Bill wheezed, his eyes tearing up from the bitter taste of the pills in the back of his throat.

The guy brought out a bottle of said water from his fridge, throwing it in Bill's direction and Bill immediately screwed the cap off, downing the water quickly to get rid of the bitter taste in the back of his throat and keep him from coughing. His heart was racing almost violently underneath his ribcage.

"Sorry – I'm – sorry, I didn't mean to spring that on you like that, fuck, sorry. Shit."

Bill glared in the alpha's direction when he was done with the water and his throat felt better before growling out, "Is this a fucking joke?" He only then just noticed how nicely the other alpha was built; like he worked out but not too much, his arms containing just the right amount of muscle, broad chest filling out the black t-shirt the guy was wearing and fuck, why the fuck was Bill's heart still racing?

The other alpha was still blushing madly, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand, the muscles in his arm bulging almost obscenely, refusing to meet Bill's eyes. "Uh – no? This is in fact, not a joke."

Bill stared at him, mouth parted with shock, before he got up from the bed. "You're sick. You're fucking sick."

"Whoa, there's no need for that kind of language –"

Bill quickly made his way out of the room, his heart pounding and palms beginning to sweat. He needed to get out of there, right now. It took him ages to finally find the bloody staircase that led down to the bar but soon he was finally outside and he could breathe and what the fuck, what the fuck had just happened –

Oliver watched the alpha – his crush – leave his room like he had a terminal disease and he clenched his eyes shut, heart aching at the rejection. Fine, he knew that alpha on alpha relationships – most especially between two guys – was a little taboo in Maviz, but he hadn't expected his alp – no, not his – he hadn't expected the alpha to be that freaked out about it.

He bit his lower lip and thought, well, at least I asked him out. It was better knowing than not.

Bill hailed a cab, heart still racing frantically, the other alpha's words replaying over and over again in his head. What the fuck was that? He thought, almost panicking. Goddess, he was never going to set foot in that bar ever again in his fucking life.