Mated to the Alpha and His Beta novel

Chapter 492 Stella

The crowd parted for us as we moved toward the center of the dance floor. I wasn't doing that. Selena moved so confidently that she naturally took up the space.

I watched. Tried to learn. I was bumped and jostled until I followed her lead to dip and weave. By the time we got to the middle of the floor, the music had changed to something fast, with a driving beat that made me want to move my body.

Our bubble had come along with us, so I had no trouble hearing her when she said, "It's like watching a wildlife documentary, isn't it?"

"More like being in the middle of one," I said as the crowd began moving in unison.

Selena tossed back her head in a torrent of laughter. She twirled around to face a tall man who'd been dancing closer and closer. She looked over her shoulder at me and winked as she began to move in time with him.

Heat. Music. The smell of sweat and lust and unbridled joy swirled around me, tickling my nostrils. When I expanded my senses, I caught hints of anxiety, jealousy, desperation. Humans might not mate the way wolf shifters did, but this club was definitely a mating ground.

The man my aunt had started dancing with fitted his hands to her hips and pulled her up close as the song once again changed. Now I was dancing by myself, doing my best to look like I knew what I was doing. A man danced up to me, but I quickly turned around, my cheeks flaring with heat that rushed up from my center. I wanted to flirt with him, to let him pull me close the way Selena was doing, but he'd know right away that I had no clue how to dance. How to flirt.

I edged toward a smaller group of women who were dressed alike in matching T-shirts. One said "Bride." One said "Maid of Honor." She grabbed my arm.

"Is that creeper bothering you?" she cried, tugging me into their circle. "Get in here, girl!"

He hadn't been really bothering me, but I let her pull me into their group. I kept an eye on Selena. The women in the circle had a confusing human array of emotions that took a few seconds for me to sift through. They were so different from supernaturals! Complex layers of feelings swept through them, but they weren't using them to communicate with each other, because they couldn't feel each other the way supernaturals could.

The song changed, and so did their circle. One of them wore several strands of beads around her neck, each with a plastic pendant dangling from it. She yanked one over her head and slung it around my neck, where it bumped against my chest as I danced. I couldn't tell what it was, and when I tried to thank her, she just waved me away.

I turned back to make sure Selena was still okay. She had one man in front of her and a different, new guy behind her. The two men were grinding her body as she had her arms in the air. Her wild grin told me she was having a great time, but the human men had heat pulsing out of their crotches. They might not be able to sense the fact she was a hybrid, but that didn't seem to matter. They were still riled up, and she was loving it.

But was she in actual trouble?

I danced closer, trying to make sure she was okay with being rubbed up and down by these strangers. "Selena!"

The music kept going from one

song right into the next, and she pushed herself out of the human male sandwich. They grabbed at her half-heartedly but then turned toward the circle of women in the matching shirts and tried infiltrating it.

"What?" Selena asked.

"Are you all right? They were both really grabbing you!"

She laughed. "That's the point, isn't it?"

Was it? I'd have to take her word for it. In the few minutes since I'd left the circle, two new men had danced up to us. One was behind Selena. And one...

"Oh!" I cried in alarm as a hard male body pressed along my back. I felt the nudge of strong thighs against my butt and turned quickly.

That wasn't much better. Now he pulled me against his front. He flicked my beads. "Bachelorette?"

"Huh?" I stepped back to put some distance between us and bumped into Selena, who was happily pressing her butt against this new guy.

The four of us were in a tangle now. More people on the dance floor. Everyone writhing and bumping and jumping & heard a pop, and dozens of colored paper strips fell out of the ceiling and floated down while wild lights flashed. Giant screens on the walls lit up with colored patterns that moved in time to the music.

The man dancing with me was trying to talk to me, but I couldn't hear him. As I leaned closer to try, I lost track of Selena for a second- while the crowd closed up around her. I spotted her a few feet away, tugging herself free of the man's grip. She looked annoyed.

Keeping her out of trouble was turning out to be harder than I'd expected.