Trapping Quincy (Caspian and Quincy)

Chapter VI - Time Crunch

CASPIAN'S POV

Colorful strobing lights are flashing in tune with the upbeat modern music. The decor is classic and very rich in silk and velvet. Overhead, glittering chandeliers are hanging from the ceiling by steel chains and women in sparkling heels, tiny shimmering g-strings and nothing else are swinging and dancing on each one of them.

Half-naked bodies of beautiful lycan patrons are swaying on the dance floor everywhere. This club is exclusively for lycans but once in a while, you'll spot a werewolf in the mix.

I'm glad that here, I'm just another lycan. Nobody knows that I'm a prince. Somewhere in here, my security detail is watching me. They're so good at being discreet that even I can hardly spot them.

I stare at the brooding man sitting in front of me. Commander Darius Rykov, one of my very few trusted friends. He just arrived this evening. His face is unreadable but I can tell that his mind is miles away. More precisely where his erasthai is right now. His erasthai, Penny totally ignored him, left the house not ten minutes after his arrival to go to some frat party. I dragged him here after Penny left. I can see that this is the last place he wants to be.

Penny is a werewolf and we are a pack of lycans. Lycans are different from regular werewolves. We are smaller in number compared to humans and werewolves but we are the strongest.

We, lycans live for centuries. While Fae folks grow normally like humans until they hit the age of sixteen, we lycans stop aging like humans at the age of eighteen.

We are the direct descendants of the moon goddess, so we are treated with reverence in the werewolf world. However, we're not given mates chosen for us by the moon goddess like werewolves. We are blessed or cursed, depends on how you look at it, with erasthais. The one that our souls call for. The one that could be the end of us or the one to make us whole. Our erasthai could be anyone; another lycan, a werewolf, a human, or a faery. We could claim them, mark them, and take them away, no matter if they're already mated or married to another. Of course, we're free to mate with anyone other than our erasthai, but the bond would never be as strong as or the same as with our erasthai. Once we marked them, the werewolf, human, or faery of our chosen would gradually turn into a lycan.

Penny and Darius met each other three years ago and felt the erasthai pull right away. Penny was crazy about him but for some reason, he refused to mark her. Darius even went as far as telling her that he's marking another woman. The idiot. She waited for him. She tried everything to try to get him to accept her. My brave Beany. Something must have happened a couple of months ago that made Penny finally stopped trying. She's out there trying to move on and forget about him.

I take another sip of my drink and realize that it's empty, so I lift two fingers up to beckon a passing waitress over.

Her smile turns seductive and her hips sway even more when she sees us. Her black silk waitress uniform barely covers any essential parts of her body and her eyes are a pure invitation.

"Good evening, gentlemen," she says. "What is your poison? Just name it." Her tone implies that she is also on the menu.

"Dirty martini, wet, shaken, straight up," I tell her, curving my lips up into a tiny smile.

Always be nice to people who handle your food and your drinks.

"And what about you, sir?" she directs her question to the stony-faced warrior.

"Whiskey, neat," answers Darius. His tone is curt and his face doesn't encourage any flirting. Yup, this is the last place he wants to be right now and I'm the devil who brought him here.

"Right. I'll be right back, mon chérie," she says with a lilt to her voice. If she notices his curt and unfriendly demeanor, she's doing a good job at ignoring it. She winks and walks away with that exaggerated sway of her hips. She glances back over her shoulder after a few steps and when she sees that my eyes are still on her curvy ass, her coy smile widens.