Endangered Ch. 08

Once they emerged from the back of the coat room, Chris remembered Hailey's instructions and headed around the bar towards the roped-off stairs. It was still early and there were mostly the regulars around, Beings perched near the bar or in quiet booths. Their party drew interest as they passed but no one approached. Someone did point as they whispered to get their friend's attention.

"Are you sure the enchantments here will be able to disguise Immi?" Annabel wondered aloud.

"This bar is run by a vampire, it can handle it," Lillian assured.

The stairway to the VIP area which had been rented for the party was unguarded this early in the night, so they climbed on up the richly carpeted steps. Chris' assumption to follow his nose toward the delicious scent of food turned out to be the right move.

"Chris!" Hailey rushed up to them, slowing as his brood followed through the doorway, fanning out around the dragon. It made quite a formidable sight to the hopeful young werebison but she was met with smiles and even a genuine twinkle or two as she met their eyes in turn and introduced herself.

"Hi everyone, I'm Hailey. Hopefully, Chris has at least mentioned me a little?"

"Of course he has, Hailey," Susan assured. "I think you've met everyone before except Claire, Michelle, and Petra."

"Hi Hailey, thank you for inviting us tonight. We haven't really gotten out all that much recently, this is really nice," Claire said.

"Yeah, thanks," Annabel agreed. "Sorry for being late, I hope we didn't cause any trouble."

"It's fine," Hailey assured them, pointing across the room to the line of people waiting with plates in hand. "The buffet only arrived a few minutes ago. Rufus organised with the restaurant next door to provide dinner and it's supposed to be really good."

"It certainly smells delicious," Susan agreed. "Why don't you introduce us to the birthday girl before Chris starts salivating too much. He hasn't had anything since lunch and you know how your father works him."

"It's how you've been working him I'm worried about, Susan," Petra joked.

Susan smiled wickedly and slapped playfully at the dragoness. Meanwhile, Hailey led them over to a professionally set table where several people were seated. Chris couldn't help glancing down at her figure, the only part of the outfit she'd changed since this afternoon was the addition of an elegant pair of white, high-heeled strappy sandals. They did wonderful things to her petite frame.

A very athletic looking young woman sprung up from the table when she noticed who was approaching. Her jeans were painted on and her red crop top contrasted nicely with her medium length straight black hair as she bounced excitedly next to Hailey, waiting for an introduction.

"Oh, my God. Hailey! I was almost starting to think you were full of shit but it is him," she made no attempt at tact.

"Hi, happy birthday. You must be Lauren," Chris extended his hand politely.

"Thank you, Chris. I'm really happy you all made it," Lauren replied. "When Hailey mentioned that she'd been hanging out with you I thought it would be a wonderful way to introduce you to some of the younger Beings here in Denver. There really aren't that many of us so we've got to stick together."

"Yeah, I've noticed that actually. So, if you don't mind me asking, what sort are you?"

"Of course, I don't mind. I'm just a boring old werewolf," Lauren smiled.

"There's nothing boring about that!" Chris enthused, he'd been looking for an opportunity to talk to another melded predator species about how their animal instincts influenced their thoughts and magic.

Lauren beamed, finally starting to believe what Hailey had been telling her all week, that he was just a regular guy. Even as he introduced her to his attractive broodmates, she didn't detect any smugness or superiority from the man who was clearly satisfying them all.

"Here, we made you a present," Chris continued. "We weren't really sure what would be appropriate so we went pretty generic. Sorry."

Petra produced a neatly wrapped little box, about two inches by three from her purse and presented it to Lauren.

It was hastily unwrapped to reveal a large, glittering quartz crystal, faint tendrils of purple energy wriggling inside.

Lauren was speechless for several moments. While she'd never been very strong with magic as a werewolf, her senses allowed her to understand the depth of energy contained in the lattice network of the gemstone. It was certainly the largest magic vessel she'd been allowed to hold. Maybe her pack had some larger ones stored away in their private vault, but they would never be simply given to her as a gift, they were far too valuable.

"Guys, this is... Thank you," Lauren jumped forward and wrapped her arms around Chris, then proceeded to repeat the embrace with each of the surprised women. She held the gem close to her breast one last time before placing it reverently back in its box.

"You're welcome. I'm glad you like it," Chris wasn't sure what else to say.

"Of course I like it. This is so cool, I can't believe you're actually at my party!" Lauren yipped excitedly and began pulling him forward, intent on introducing her new friends to everyone.

***

The evening progressed and Chris was introduced to almost everyone. There were so many names, he was sure he couldn't remember even a quarter of them. A lot of Lauren's family and pack members were there. Their pack was small and relatively rare in that it was based in a hub city. Most Were-Being packs chose to establish themselves further away from the influence of the territory leaders. It wasn't that they were necessarily doing anything nefarious, just that it was nice to stake out your own area and have it to yourself.

There were also a few familiar faces he was beginning to recognise from the Denver Being community, including Tosh and his daughter Hinata. The Japanese arachnid was the Maginet territory admin and made a joke that he'd had to do extra work ever since Chris signed up for his device.

His daughter seemed especially timid, standing stock still beside her father with downcast eyes while they chatted. The quiet woman was the epitome of Japanese beauty but didn't offer a single word or look his way despite the dragon's appreciative, if furtive glances. He couldn't help noticing her hips and bottom seemed extremely large for a woman of otherwise slim build. It was obvious she was attempting to hide it with loose clothing, but the task was nigh impossible. His dragon instinct couldn't help admiring her childbearing potential.

It seemed to Chris that Lauren must be quite popular to have so many people come to her birthday, all of whom seemed genuinely interested in being there.

Dinner was spectacular. The restaurant that Rufus had organised the catering with specialised in pasta. Chris went back for seconds of everything. Rich Bolognese sauce with pungent parmesan grated on top, finished with pine nuts. Creamy blue cheese sauce around spinach and feta ravioli. Pumpkin and garlic flavoured gnocchi. It all disappeared inside his bottomless stomach along with chunk after chunk of addictively good garlic bread.

The ladies were more reserved in their appetites but very appreciative. Annabel was especially interested in the gnocchi, wonderful little pasta dumplings that seemed to melt perfectly into an explosion of flavours when bitten into. She was going to have to try making her own sometime.

When Chris got up for his third huge helping, even Immi started teasing him about being a glutton, which Chris thought was highly hypocritical. Nonetheless, Susan cautioned him not to get too carried away or he would be uncomfortably full when she took him dancing. Grudgingly, he deferred to her motherly judgement.

After dinner, everyone milled around chatting and laughing. Hailey pulled Chris, Annabel and Claire over to the bar and asked them what they wanted to drink. They were already familiar with Rufus' rather lax attitude towards the younger Beings having a drink or two, so Chris had a beer while Hailey and Annabel each had a glass of white wine. Claire had trouble making up her mind but eventually ordered a non-alcoholic watermelon-mojito mocktail. Then Hailey led them over to the big glass window at the end of the room which looked out over the club below.

Things were starting to heat up downstairs. Although they couldn't hear the music being played due to some rather magical sound dampening in the VIP area, the sea of bodies jostling and writhing on the dance floor made it clear that there was an enjoyable time to be had.

"That does look fun, doesn't it?" Hailey asked, looking hopefully towards Chris.

"Yes," he smiled back. "We can go down there, can't we?"

"Chris, are you asking me to dance?" the young werebison teased.

"I... yes?" His face started turning beet red and he shot a guilty look towards Annabel.

"Like fish in a barrel," Claire giggled and took a sip of her drink. "He's so easy to tease it almost ruins the fun."

"Almost, but not quite," Annabel agreed. "Well if you're going down there I'm coming too, you simply can't be trusted alone with a young lady as gorgeous as Hailey. She'd probably wind up mysteriously pregnant."

Hailey's shocked look quickly turned into a peal of laughter as a mortified Chris hung his head. She couldn't believe they were teasing him so.

"I promise I'll be good. Please can I dance with him, Annabel?" Hailey entreated.

"Well of course you can, Hailey," Annabel smiled. "But you're going to have to learn to share if you want to join our little club."

"What?" Chris spluttered.

"Really?!" Hailey almost squealed before looking around to see if anyone else had noticed.

Annabel and Claire smiled, sharing a knowing look before turning back to the excited young werebison.

"Yes," Annabel said.

"On a probationary basis," Claire qualified.

"Mmm, yes, subject to good behaviour," Annabel smirked, stroking a hand up Chris' shirt and across his broad chest. She looked right into Hailey's eyes, establishing her authority as First.

"Or bad behaviour. As the case may be," Claire giggled.

"You guys are the best! I've already thought of so many ways I can help out. Yes!" Hailey jumped and threw herself around Chris, wrapping her legs around his waist and arms around his neck. She stole their first kiss from his gobsmacked lips as his big arms automatically wrapped around her, cradling her against him. Her warm, insistent kissing ignited a dangerous flame in his loins. Soon their tongues were doing a slippery tango as she began hunching her body into him in a rather lewd rhythm. After almost half a minute, they came up for air, chests heaving.

"Oh my fucking god, you smell amazing," Hailey panted, loving the spicy masculine scent of the dragon up close.

"Yes, he certainly does but Hailey, we think it would be a good idea to take things a little more slowly than some of us have done in the past," Claire looked to Annabel.

"Ha!" Annabel chuckled at the dragoness. "That won't be hard. She'll be taking it slow if they wait another ten seconds before getting down and dirty on the floor!"

"He's my mate," Claire said unapologetically. "It's instinctual, I had waited so long to find him."

"I know, I'm only teasing. And we have this wondrous little love bump to be thankful for because of it." Annabel placed her hand reverently over Claire's lower belly, feeling the slight bulge of her swelling womb.

"I think going slow is a good idea too," Chris' mind finally caught up enough to offer up a coherent sentence and he placed a reluctant Hailey back on her feet, mindful of making a scene. "Seriously you guys, I was only just talking with Susan this afternoon about how I was a conflicted about my feelings for Hailey. How did you know I was thinking about her joining our brood?"

"Well, you're always talking about her," Annabel explained as Hailey looked up at him reverently, blue eyes huge with admiration.

"You do?" Hailey asked happily.

"Yeah, and Lillian kept us in the loop on all your little tricks and seductions, young lady," Claire tried for sternness but couldn't keep her face straight. "I'm surprised Chris here had the willpower not to pounce on you."

"Sorry, I did feel a little bit bad about that," Hailey apologised. "It was sort of thrilling though, like I was tempting him to stray. I know I'm signing up to share him though."

"Unbelievable. I know there's supposed to be magic involved with keeping a dragon's brood unified and loving but this is getting out of hand." Chris was yet again astounded that Annabel and Claire seemed to be simply absorbing Hailey into their little group.

"And you're complaining, why?" Annabel cocked an eyebrow.

"I'm not...It's..." he sighed, unable to articulate his feelings.

"I've got this one, girls," Hailey spoke up. "Chris, it might seem strange by human standards but there's nothing wrong with your relationship with your brood. It's natural for a dragon. I consider myself lucky to have an opportunity to join you and I know a lot of other Beings would, too."

"Hailey's right," Claire said. "We've talked about this, Chris. You might be blended with your dragon fully but you still haven't accepted everything that comes with being a dragon. You need to stop fighting your instincts."

"Alright, alright, I get it," he surrendered. "Just go with the flow, huh? Alright then, Hailey, let's go downstairs and have that dance."

***

One dance turned into several and Chris was soon intimately aware of the exact dimensions of Hailey's petite frame as she gyrated in sync with the beat. He tried keeping up with her movements and she didn't seem to mind his hopeless flailing. In the end, Chris woundup just holding her soft hips and rump possessively, their eyes staring lustily at each other as people writhed and boiled all around them.

After a few more songs, Annabel and Claire pulled them over to the downstairs bar for a breather. Rufus saw them and beckoned them over to his private booth, introducing them to another vampire called Claus, who seemed the quiet type. Chris was a little wary of the strange vampire at first but soon warmed up to the man as Rufus began regaling them with stories of how he and Claus had met across the trenches during the First World War.

Other people from the party began trickling downstairs and soon the rest of the ladies joined them at Rufus' booth. Lauren and a few friends were in tow.

The effervescent host ordered a round of Champagne, toasting first the birthday girl and then the expecting dragonesses. Then it was Chris' turn to be passed around for dances with Lauren and her friends, but not before Susan dossed them with a little of her pheromone cancellation potion on their exposed skin. There were a few mild protests that she was ruining the fun but it was generally taken well.

By now, he had a mild buzz going on and was feeling pretty damn good. The warm happy feeling was distracting, his dragon restless and eager for action. So too was the thumping music and the press of bodies in the dim light. Especially Lauren's as she bobbed her ass backwards, bumping his crotch before pulling away, smirking over her shoulder.

He wasn't aware his hold on his concealment was slipping until it was too late. He grasped at his chest, tipsily trying to battle his essence back down into the core of his tummy where it would be imprisoned. He'd gotten so good at it lately that he barely had to think about it. Now it was rebelling, rioting inside him whilst he was inebriated and unable to cork it back up.

It was no use. His magic settled comfortably in his solar plexus, radiating through his body and outwards, saturating the air. He let out a huge sigh, closing his eyes, his muscles relaxing into the glorious feeling of his full magical potential arcing between his cells. It felt so right. Why did he have to contain it all the time? Why couldn't he just be himself?

Lillian's sudden presence broke his half-drunk reverie and he opened his eyes. She wore an inquisitive, almost concerned look as she placed her hand on his forearm. Lauren had taken several steps back, looking almost reverent as his magic washed over her, inner wolf wagging her tail like a happy pup.

"What's wrong, Chris?" Lillian had to come close, leaning into his personal space to make herself heard over the music.

Her scent hit him like a truck, affecting his inebriated dragon brain on an instinctual level.

He found his arm slipping around her waist, pulling her close in that little red dress. A startled breath of warm air wafted across his skin from her open lips. Her huge breasts met his chest and yielded, pillowing against that expanse of solid dragon. Bolder still, he stepped forward between her legs, inserting a muscled thigh between her own.

"Nothing's wrong, Lillian. I just lost control of my concealment. I may be a little bit drunk," his boyish smile disarmed her as he pressed his advantage, squeezing her voluptuous figure closer still. "You're so beautiful. Dance with me, Lillian."

Lillian quivered in suppressed arousal. Never had she been so tempted. Never had he been so bold. His powerful body, his delicious scent, his sweet blood, his youthful innocence, it all sang to her inner beast. It took every ounce of her self-control just to break even with her wicked desires. Her own defences were left lacking as his big hands began roaming brazenly across her, separated only by thin red silk. All the while, his pulsing aura irradiated her magical senses, blocking out the world and leaving only him behind as they began swaying automatically with the music. His blue eyes hypnotizing.

Were they not a perfect match? Her vampire whispered.

"Chris..." she whispered, looking up into his handsome, guileless smile. "We can't... I...bloodpact..."

He probably didn't hear her over the music.

She could see his lips coming a mile away. It was almost slow motion but she was powerless against him. Her body betrayed her, not for the first time when it came to him. His face descended, eager for the caress of her plush lips, moistened automatically by her treacherous pink tongue. Her eyes fluttered closed and her back arched into him, accepting.

It was only one little kiss, her inner fiend crooned as their lips finally met.

Her tongue ventured out first, eager to taste him and was quickly accepted into his mouth. Her hands finally came alive, one sliding up his back, the other inching dangerously down his torso. He was absolutely delicious, sending her fangs into a terrible aching as they tried to meld their bodies completely. A piteous little whimper escaped her as his leg pressed against her flooded womanhood. She could feel the denim of his jeans on her soft inner thighs. Her bloodpact woke up with a vengeance as she blatantly broke the elf's orders.

Chris couldn't believe he was finally kissing her and smiled into her full lips, breaking their kiss unintentionally. He found his roaming hands had done admirably while his brain was occupied by the beautiful vampire. One had a firm grip on the left cheek of her big silk covered ass, greedily assessing her marvellous flesh. The other was in the beautifully scented russet hair at the base of her neck, holding her close. It was refreshing to be looking almost directly into her brown eyes. She was perfect.

"Chris, we shouldn't," Her hand came between them, pressing a little more insistently even though their lips were still barely touching. Her bloodpact was insistent against her insubordination now, tugging like an imaginary choke collar, cutting off her breath, searing at her skin.

"I want you, Lillian."