Moon Dance

“At least she’s looking toward Trevor. By the way, thanks for the call,” he said in a serious voice. “I’ve been waiting on something like this to happen.”

Jason shrugged, “It wasn’t for me. It was for her. She deserves better than him.” He tried to smile, as he watched, knowing she would be single now. But the vision of all the other guys pulling at her attention caused his small smile to have a hint of sadness.

Chapter 2

Envy felt the heat slide over her like a second skin as she descended the steps. She tried to relax her tense muscles and moved onto the dance floor. Taking several steps in Trevor's direction, she felt like she was in a mosh pit of sex, as fingertips softly touched her bare skin and unfamiliar bodies slid against hers.

The dance floor was darker than the other clubs she’d been in or worked at and she found she liked the privacy. It wasn’t so much individual couples dancing as it was a group mingling of warm bodies. Feeling the change in the atmosphere, she slowly raised her hands letting her own fingertips brush across strangers in the darkness. The adrenaline rush that followed pounded through her to the beat of the sultry music.

Not looking forward to confronting Trevor, she took a moment to close her eyes and simply move with the music that could only be described as the sound of lust.

As she felt the fleeting touches growing bolder, Envy opened her eyes and found herself staring at several male chests, some showing skin through unbuttoned shirts and some covered in tight material that was just as seductive. She didn’t dare look up into their faces for fear of making eye contact.

Becoming a little heady, she started backing up and didn't mind when they followed her in the seductive dance. Feeling the cold iron of the dance cage against her back, she slowly looked up at it on the small platform. Her eyes locked with the guy inside the cage as he drew the girl who was with him down onto her knees under him in a submissive posture.

The whole room seemed to fade away as their gazes locked and held. The way he was looking at her made Envy feel like she was the one submitting. He had ice blue eyes with a very thick black ring around his irises. She didn’t think she’d ever seen eyes so startling or intense. She could have stared into them for hours and still wanted more and that scared her.

His look gave Envy the impression that he knew what she looked like naked. The way his eyes roamed over her body and lingered in certain places… made her feel like his hands were touching those same places. The urge to throw herself against the cage bars and beg him to take her hard and fast was almost too much to resist.

Jerking her gaze back from the possessive sight, Envy tried to remind herself she could leave the dance floor whenever she chose.

Trevor wasn’t having fun even though he tried to go with the flow of the dance and blend in as much as possible. But hot girls and dancing weren't the real reasons he was here. He kept his gaze on the guy in the cage because that was his true mark.

The guy's name was Devon Santos and he was the last person to be seen with Kelly Foster; the 20-year-old girl who’d been found in a nearby alley last week. She had been in that same cage with Devon the last night she’d been alive.

So far he’d learned that the murder victim had just quit working at a club down the strip called Night Light. She’d only worked at Moon Dance for one night… the night she died. Hers wasn’t the only death he was following but it was a lead. Whoever had dumped her body had made sure to leave it near the cougars and jaguars like a gift.

Devon was part owner of this club, along with his two brothers, Nick and Warren, and their only sister, Kat. Rumor had it that the two clubs had a silent feud going on and that the two families had actually been rivals since both their fathers had gone missing over ten years ago.

Trevor’s eyes narrowed, knowing the real reason why there was animosity between the clubs. These weren’t normal clubs; they were owned and run by shifters. The club Kelly had been working at was run by were-cougars. She'd left there and came to work for were-jaguars, only to turn up dead the next day. That was just too much to ignore.

If the humans knew shape shifters lived among them, there would be panic… but they had been a part of society for a long time without the secret getting out. As long as they abided by the laws of the human race, there was no need to cause mass chaos by outing them. Human mentality would return to the dark ages if that ever happened.

The theory within the black-ops CIA paranormal command was to deal with it the same way they dealt with UFO’s and Alien encounters; lie, hide, and cover it up. There were much worse things out there besides the shifters that fit in well with humanity… other, more dangerous creatures that humans only made bad horror movies from and some that humans were still clueless about.

But when people started turning up missing or dead, his team was dispersed to try to figure out what was going on.

Seeing Devon abandon the girl in his cage and move closer to the bars to stare down at someone, Trevor shifted his gaze. He instantly felt his blood pressure rise by several degrees when he spotted Envy leaning back against the same cage surrounded by a withering mass of guys.

What the hell was she doing here? He left his dance partners without a second thought and shoved his way through the crowd toward her.

Devon growled low in his throat when the girl that had caught his attention raised her hands to grip the bars behind her. He could smell her heat over everyone in the whole club and it called to him. Wrapping his hands over hers, he let his fingers trail seductively down her arms through the bars of his cage.

Just as Envy was about to look back up at the erotic dancer, someone grabbed one of her arms and jerked it down from the cage. Her lips parted when she saw who it was. She’d completely forgotten about Trevor! The seductive mood broke and she was angry again when she remembered why she'd come to Moon Dance in the first place… revenge.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Trevor snapped a bit too harshly, trying to pull her away from the cage and Devon’s dangerous reach. If the jaguar was the killer, then the way he was looking at Envy marked her as his next target.

Envy kept her other hand clenched tightly on the bar simply because she didn’t like the way Trevor had decided to manhandle her. He was acting as if she’d done something wrong instead of him. Smiling her sweetest smile, she informed him, “I came to dance… just like you did.”

Trevor’s lips thinned knowing she’d seen him dancing with the other girls, but what she didn’t understand was that he was just using them as a cover. He didn’t even care enough to ask their names. He and Envy glared into each other’s eyes for several heartbeats before he sighed.

Bending down close to her ear, he whispered, “I can explain.” He hadn’t wanted to tell her who he really was because, just like her dickhead of a brother Chad, he was afraid she’d only assume he was using her to gain better access to the bars where she worked.

“Come on,” he tried again to pull her away from Devon’s heated gaze. He took a second to glance up at Devon and if looks could kill he would have been a bloody spot on the floor. He gave the look right back then returned his attention to his girlfriend.

Envy shook her head at him. She just bet he would explain. “I came to dance. I can dance with these nice guys, or you can start moving and join us.” She raised a delicate eyebrow, as if it didn’t matter one way or the other to her.

Trevor slowly turned his head and glared over his shoulder at the lustful guys still hanging around waiting to see if they stood a chance. “Scram,” he told them, in a deadly tone, as he slipped closer to Envy. If she wanted to dance, then by god, she was dancing with him.

Envy pouted at him but secretly wondered why he was acting so jealous when he’d just been dancing so provocatively with two other girls. “You're no fun.” She finally released the bar to run her hands over her own body, nonchalantly slipping the small taser out of her pocket, and then ran her hands over his ribs.

Devon stood to his full height, staring down at the little redhead who'd caught more than just his attention. He didn’t like the smell of the guy who was trying to claim her. He smelled like old gunpowder and that meant he had a weapon hidden somewhere on him. He reached out and unlatched the cage, telling the female dancer to go take a break.

Touching his finger to his ear, Devon listened to his brother inform him through the almost invisible com-link that the girl at his cage had a taser and had plans to use it on a guy. He looked across the dance floor toward the black light that lit the steps seeing Nick standing there ready to interfere, if needed.

It had been Warren’s voice on the com-link, so Devon figured his oldest brother was watching from one of the night vision cameras hanging under the catwalk above him.

Looking back down at her small hands now roaming the guy's body, Devon felt the sudden need to take the guy's head off. That was until he saw the glint of silver as her hand traveled down toward his hip. His lips hinted at a ghost of a smile deciding not to interfere just yet.

“Let me handle this,” Devon whispered into the com-link.

Chad and Jason smiled at each other knowing it was getting ready to go down, and then took off for the steps leading to the dance floor.

Trevor suddenly realized Envy hadn’t told him she was coming here either, so why did he feel so guilty? “I asked you what you were doing here,” he repeated, and this time his voice was steady, as he moved against her. Bad move, he almost lost his train of thought, as most of his blood rushed to his groin, giving him a hard-on for the first time since he’d stepped foot inside the club.

Envy pushed her body against his seductively so she would have a chance to step back really fast. “I came to give you something,” she answered and put all the heated desire she was feeling from the dance floor into her eyes to distract him.

“I hope it goes with the same thing I have for you,” Trevor groaned, as he felt her hand cup his groin.

“Let's find out,” Envy hissed, as she pressed the taser against his raging hard on and jerked back just as he spazzed and dropped to his knees without a sound. “Oops!” Envy pouted and quickly slid the taser back in her pocket before turning to flee in the other direction. The last thing she wanted to do was to be still standing there when Trevor found the strength to stand back up.

As Envy made her way through the darkened dance floor, someone snagged her arm in a firm grip. Thinking it was her brother; she didn't look up right away but followed trustingly. Just as she did glance up, a small door was opened and she was pushed through it.

Envy barely had time to turn around before it was shut and locked behind her. A dim overhead light flicked on revealing TV monitors and the guy who had been in the cage. She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off.

“I thought maybe it would be best if you watched your handiwork from the safety of the office,” Devon smirked, as he pointed at one of the screens.

Envy glanced toward the screen thinking the sight of Trevor holding his crotch would make her laugh… but instead, she felt really bad for him. It made her heart feel like it had dropped a couple of inches. Seeing him in pain, she was suddenly glad the monitor didn’t have sound because she was sure she didn’t want to know what he was saying.

She watched in silence as Chad and Jason appeared from the crowd and helped him the rest of the way up from the floor. She couldn’t tell what was being said, but when Trevor pushed Chad away from him with more strength than he should have had seconds after being tasered, her eyes swung to the door ready to bolt back out there before one of them got hurt.

Seeing the dancer shake his head warningly as he stood between her and the door, Envy glanced back at the monitor surprised to see it was actually Jason who grabbed Trevor in an arm lock while Chad placed handcuffs on him.

Feeling a little more than angry with herself for being so childish, she started for the door to tell Chad to let Trevor go. Again, the hand gripped her arm. She glared down at it refusing to meet his eyes, when it was obviously her fault for starting this. The guilt only added to her anger and renewed her courage.

“After seeing me just taser a guy, do you really think that’s a good idea?” She jerked her eyes up to his and tried not to lose her breath from the impact. Now that she had a closer look, his eyes were even more amazing than they’d been behind the bars of the cage.

“Whoever those guys are, you might want to let them get him out of the club before you go back to dance.” Devon warned again, watching the flame shoot into her eyes. He could almost see her fur bristling with the need to go rescue the guy she had just wounded… not that he had any intention of letting her. “What’s your name?”