Mated to the Alpha and His Beta novel

Chapter 495 Stella

The comparison to a wildlife documentary seemed even more accurate when I was a bystander and observer instead of a participant. Everywhere I looked, there was something going on that had my eyes going wide or made my hold back a laugh or gasp of surprise.

Humans sure did get up to some wacky hijinks once they got going with some booze in their systems.

I kept my back firmly against the bar behind me, so nobody could surprise me. On the far side of the room, shadows were split with flashing lights as people gathered around a long table. Each end was set up with red plastic cups, and the teams looked like they were bouncing small plastic balls in an attempt to get them into the cups. When someone made it, a small splash wafted a scent of yeast and hops toward me. Beer. The person who got the ball in the cup shouted and...drank the contents.

Gross!

Still, I was intrigued. I'd told my aunt I wanted to be normal, but what was common for humans wasn't necessarily translated into what supernaturals would do. At the same time, I could see so many similarities Our physical forms were basically the same, at least between humans, shifters, witches, and vampires. This hinted at common ancestry.

I concentrated for a few seconds on my inner library but didn't give myself time to do any more searching. I couldn't forget how Selena had described me as going blank. I couldn't afford to do that here in Paradise, not even for a few seconds. But I was intrigued at this new realization of how much alike we all were.

My mom and her sister were both hybrids. So were Alaina and Isaac, and their birth mother, Alice, was likely one, too. I myself was a hybrid of the most complex sort, a blend of every single supernatural that had ever existed. It should have been as natural for me to be born looking like a Cyclops or Fae as it was for me to look like a wolf shifter. Yet my natural appearance, the one I didn't have to think about to keep, matched my parents'.

Could humans mate with supernaturals? And if so, what kind of hybrids would they create? Would the human lack of any innate special talents dilute or even block out those of the supernatural? Or the opposite, would babies from a human/supernatural joining be even more talented because of something I didn't yet understand?

Why was I even thinking about this now, I scolded myself as I focused back on the dance floor where Selena had abandoned Joey for someone else. I could spend as many hours as I wanted to when we got back home, either researching all the millennium of knowledge locked away in my mind, or with real, physical books from the library in the mansion. Right now, all I really needed to pay attention to was my aun and her shenanigans.

She'd called me uptight, but I saw others standing along the walls or the bar, same as I was. Not everyone here tonight was looking to get mated...to hookup, I thought, catching an overheard conversation between two guys near me. Dudes. Bros. That's how they referred to each other, anyway. It made me laugh behind my hand.

I'd seen all three of my fathers acting kind of like this. Clapping hands on each other's shoulders. Posturing. I'd even seen Isaac starting to imitate them. What was it about men that made them walk around with their pelvises leading the way? Like the entire world needed to step aside so they could get by? Like they deserved to take up more space than anyone else around them?

The whisper of a fingertip trailed along the back of my neck, and I shuddered. But when I turned, nobody was there. I scanned the room, expecting to pick up the signature, either heat or scent, of another supernatural. At first, I thought I saw a flash of crimson eyes, but it turned out to be the silly mannequin in the fake coffin. Other eyes glowed white from that purple light, but I didn't see anyone else with a rising wolf or anything like that.

Still, my back straightened as my senses tingled. The atmosphere in the bar had changed a little. More people had been drinking for a longer time. The night was wearing on, and those who hadn't yet paired up were starting to give off waves of desperation. Humans yearned for passionate interludes that were not attached to mating-their instinct for sex was as strong as that of wolf shifters, but they seemed way less concerned about finding their one and only. More like they wanted their only for one night.

I could see Selena, surrounded by human men all yearning toward her. They were being affected by her being a hybrid, after all. They just didn't know why she seemed so much brighter, sexier, more desirable than the other women here. They weren't as dangerous as the wolves in Constantine had been, but I still needed to be watching out for her. She clearly wasn't doing it for herself.

"Hey, you." An elbow nudged me. "Guess what?"