Chapter 24: Fuck or Kill

Before you proceed, smut warning!

Her dress was a thing of the past. So were his trousers. His skin burned hot, and she didn't know if it was by his nature or her effect on him. Alcide kissed her deeply, his hands touched her everywhere. She finally got to run her fingers in his messy dark hair. His mind was a wave of desire that washed over her, lapping her in powerful strokes. The intensity of his thoughts was a fantasy in itself, one she was deeply falling into. Alcide thought of Olivia as a safe haven. She was not broken, she was not ill, she was everything a man could want in a woman.

It made her feel good. It was a true rarity on an occasion like this for Olivia not to spend all her energy putting her mind wall up as high as she could. But his thoughts and intentions weren't scary. She didn't have to block Alcide out. Her walls could finally come down for once.

She enjoyed every inch of him (and there were many to be enjoyed). He led her to his bed, and it took no time for him to be on top of her. They kissed as if there was no need for breathing. Her hand travelled down his hard stomach and she guided him where she wanted him, which was inside of her. Alcide moaned loudly, overwhelmed by the feeling. He was soon over it, and his hips pushed deeply and slowly.

Olivia's arms spread over the sheets, feeling her back arch. He thrusted over, and over again, like the ocean hitting the rocks. Her legs wrapped around his waist, never wanting him to go too far away. She wanted all of him for herself, and she was not ever going to apologize for being greedy.

Minutes that felt like hours passed. They tangled in the sheets further, in a dance so perfect it felt rehearsed. Alcide got out her leg grip and flipped her over on her stomach. A second later he was on top of and inside her again, deeper than before and hitting the spot she so loved. He hooked his arms under her shoulders and kissed her back, and shoulders, moaning softly into her ear. Feeling his hard body grind on her, it didn't take long for her to be pushed over the edge, and he finished moments Olivia did. Both of them collapsed in bed, their bodies desperately panting for air. She was covered in sweat, mostly his, but she felt light like a cloud.

Alcide was laying on his back next to her, and she appreciated his decadently muscular body for the millionth time. Yep, she did that. She took his hand, interlacing their fingers together. Olivia got a clear picture of his head, probably the clearest she'd ever gotten from his head. And she immediately regretted doing so.

He was making himself a promise. He couldn't save Debbie, but he swore to himself he was going to save Olivia from Eric no matter what the cost. She pulled her hand away instantly and looked up at the ceiling so he wouldn't see the flash of fear in her face because she knew exactly what would happen if he went down this futile path.

If she didn't play this game right, she was going to get Alcide Herveaux killed.

"We don't have to stay long," Alcide warned her the second he opened the car door for her. He extended his hand to help her get out of the low riding car.

Oh, she wasn't leaving until she got what she came here for. "You don't worry about me."

The moonless night sky was black above them and it didn't have a single cloud. The gala was being held at a historical mansion at the edge of the Mississippi River, which now functioned mostly as a museum during the daytime. The valet took her car, and they headed up the small steps into the main entrance. There was no line, as they arrived a bit late (worth it).

There was a black and white sign that clearly stated no cameras. This didn't stop journalists and paparazzi from taking flash photos from the sidewalk, between the gate bars. She immediately turned around so they wouldn't catch her face. It did strike her as strange that they would be interested in photographing guests of a political fundraiser.

Once inside Olivia immediately recognized several faces of businessmen, politicians and philanthropists she had learned about last night. Her stomach filled with anticipation of all the delicious secrets she was going to learn. However, she was also filled with anxiety as her eyes scanned the crowd, looking for a specific couple. Mostly, the vampire in the said couple. She didn't see Eric anywhere.

The security checked her small clutch and patted down Alcide's jacket before checking their IDs. She could tell why Alcide hated this sort of thing. It was mostly rich old men accompanied by suspiciously younger beautiful women. This was definitely something up his father's alley. She knew better than to bring that up though. The list of topics she shouldn't bring up with him was quickly growing.

Alcide immediately intercepted a young waiter and pulled two champagne flutes from the tray. He handed Olivia one, and she shyly took it from him. She decided it would be unwise to drink tonight, she had to be on top of her game and alcohol made her mind wall all wonky. This party had at least 400 guests in it, give or take, and sifting thoughts in crowds while sober was challenging enough already. She had to be fully in control.

Her date, however, downed the whole glass in one go. "It's gonna take me another 10 of these to get me where I emotionally need to be."

"Here. Have mine," she gave him her glass. He arched a brow, confused as to why she wasn't drinking. "I don't really drink," while I work.

"You had a gin and tonic yesterday, and a beer at lunch."

"Trust me, this is not the place you want to see me drunk. And it doesn't take much."

"Alright," he sighed before chugging her champagne too. He set the two empty glasses down on a side table and they made their rounds around the room.

Olivia knew a lot about the guests already. If not their names, she knew the companies they represented. Alcide had to do very little in terms of conversation, as Olivia did most of the schmoozing. Alcide just stood by, drank and watched her mostly amazed, and a bit confused. The guests who did know him were surprised he was attending on behalf of his father (and were also surprised he was accompanied by Debbie Pelt). She let him take the lead on those, for the sake of being polite. Liv was his guest after all.

They finally reached the main area of the party which was a large ballroom located at the back of the house. The room had 20 ft ceilings, crystal chandeliers and the entire south wall had beautiful windows that faced the back garden and the river. The ballroom was complete with a live jazz band on a corner stage and a grand staircase on the east side of the room that led to a mezzanine where a few people watched the party below. People laughed and conversed loudly. Most of the guests knew each other already and were drunk enough that the conversations she got to overhear would make a PR specialist sweat.

As for mind-reading, she discovered an absurd amount of insider information. She was going to call her stockbroker the second was by herself. Liv was also surprised by the number of married men who took prostitutes as dates to this kind of thing. The ladies were lovely, polite and kind, and extremely bored. But they were good actresses. A lot of people thought she was an escort too, but quickly changed their minds once she opened her mouth. She didn't mind though, it was a compliment either way.

A lot of people were jealous of her date. Some were jealous of Alcide's date too, which she found flattering. She also found out a hell lot of personal juicy gossip. It was getting incredibly difficult to retain all of it. She wished she could somehow take notes. But so far, she had nothing useful to take home.

"Hervaux!" A younger man called out through the crowd. Younger in relative terms, he seemed to be in his mid-30s, about Alcide's age. He was shorter, about her height in heels, and he had brown skin, black hair and an extremely photogenic smile. He looked like an expensive Arabic prince.

"Basim! Nice to see you, man!" The two men gave each other a boisterous hug, complete with pats on the back. "It's been way too long. How's it been?"

"Oh you know, living the dream. Anabelle is expecting again which is always wonderful. She's here somewhere. Where's Debbie?"

Alcide froze in place for the longest second. "Debbie is fine. Basim, this is Olivia."

Basim took a good look at her, and she looked deep inside his head. Just like she suspected, the man was also a werewolf. She couldn't tell by his thoughts but his face gave away that he disapproved of Alcide dating someone who wasn't a wolf. She wondered how he could tell she wasn't. Was it the scent?

"Olivia, this is Basim Al Saud. We met at the Training Academy, but he went private a year ago."

"Smart man," she smiled.

"Indeed," Basim said, a bit stand-offish. "How do you two know each other?"

"We met at work," Olivia quickly replied. Alcide didn't seem quick on the trigger. "I'm an accountant, and-"

"Then you are definitely too smart for him," he interrupted with finality to it. The words were a compliment but the tone was threatening. He then turned to Alcide, changing topics entirely. "You still playing football?"

"No, no, I'm too old for that. I just lift now-"

"Oh, Alcide!" A blond woman joined their little circle, very pleased to see her friend. She was wearing a pretty yellow dress sporting a large baby bump. "It's so good to see you!"

"Annabelle," Alcide kissed her on the cheek. "You look even more stunning pregnant somehow."

"Why thank you. It's getting hard to sleep again, but we know it's worth it. Lord knows we've been trying for our second for ages. Hey, where's Debbie? I want her to touch my bump and tell me what I'm having!"

It then dawned on Anabelle that Olivia was standing next to Alcide, not as a mere stranger but as his date. She blushed immediately then exchanged looks with Alcide and Basim. Apparently, Anabelle had said something she shouldn't have.

"Debbie had this… Gift. She could tell the sex of babies by touching the belly." Alcide explained awkwardly.

Wow, have these people heard of ultrasound? "Ah, that is oddly specific but… Very cool."

Basim scoffed, insulted, and Alcide glared at him. Olivia had committed some kind of faux pas, but she didn't quite know what. Not being able to read their minds properly was starting to be irritating. She had no idea how regular people did this without embarrassing themselves at every social interaction.

"We should go find Burell and give him our best wishes on behalf of my father. It was nice seeing you, Basim."

"Same to you. Give Debbie our love."

Alcide completely ignored his remarks and steered Olivia through the crowd, away from the werewolves. He led her outside into the garden, through a set of large arched doors. It was refreshing outside, the night air felt cool on her skin. It was also much quieter out here and much less crowded. Olivia stayed in the gravel path, fearing her heels would instantly sink into the grass.

It was there that they ran into Truman Burrell, the guy whose all the fuss was about. He was a bald man in his 60s with round glasses and a polite smile. He was accompanied by his daughter, a bright doe-eyed 20-something named Willa, and he was talking to none other than the Shreveport Mayor. Alcide led introductions, and between small talk, Olivia read their minds like a fucking Chinese Menu. Lots of delicious options. Burrell politely excused himself, and Alcide and Olivia walked away, closer to the water. Olivia felt like she was high for a moment she was so excited about a specific deal she had "overheard" about. There was a large plot of land by the Red River that was being eyed for the development of a Casino - the first one in Shreveport. Hell yes, that was the kind of thing she was fishing for all fucking night!

But Alcide grew tense beside her, and not standing the silence, he sighed frustrated. "I'm sorry about my friends earlier. Not all of us are accepting of strangers."

"No kidding," she was abruptly brought back to reality. Alcide's aura pulled her like an anchor. "I apologize if I was rude."

"You weren't. There's no way you could have known about Debbie."

"I take it she's the ex-girlfriend."

"Ex-fiance," he corrected her. Another thing they, unfortunately, had in common. "She came from a respected family in our community. Her father is a very famous Shaman, and he predicted we were soulmates when we first turned."

"First turned?"

Alcide took a deep breath looking at his shoes for a moment. "It doesn't happen until puberty. And most people don't ever find their soulmate, so when a Shaman calls it, it's very rare and very treasured in our community. You kind of become celebrities."

So Debbie and Alcide were the Brangelina of the werewolf world. "Ah. So I take it that a lot of people are disappointed it didn't work out between you two."

"That's my life in a nutshell, yeah."

Olivia knew pieces of the answer, but she was curious about the whole story. "Why didn't work out between you two?"

"She has problems with substance abuse."

"And let me guess, vampire blood is her poison of choice?"

"Yes. I've seen firsthand how it can destroy a person. She can't hold down a job for more than a few months, she can't go to rehab because she needs to turn at full moon. I tried my best to help her, but I can't get through to her. I know it's a terrible thing to say but she was better off staying in jail where she can't get her hands on the stuff," Olivia had to look away when he said that. It was her fault Debbie got out of jail. "But things don't always work out that way. Now no matter where I go I am ostracized for failing her, and disobeying our ancestors' wishes. But I just couldn't watch her destroy herself anymore. I can only take so much."

Olivia felt guilty for playing a role in Debbie's downfall. She had no idea the depths of harm she had caused. But she only allowed herself to feel guilty just for a second. Being a criminal you can't spend too much time thinking about how broken your moral compass is.

If it wasn't Olivia laundering money, or Eric regulating the sale of vampire blood, humans would still kidnap, drain and kill vampires for it and they would still sell in the black market. If anything, Eric was preventing more harm by making sure the draining was at least consensual. And if it weren't her laundering the business, it would have been someone else. Shit, if she were to die right this instant, she was sure the Queen would replace her in less than a week.

She also thought Alcide may be oversimplifying the issue a bit. Vampire blood could be addicting and its effects were like playing Russian roulette, sure. But it was more or less the same with any drug. If Debbie is an addict like he claims she is, she would have found something else to be addicted to if vampire blood didn't exist. People don't become mentally ill because of drugs, people do drugs because they are mentally ill.

Nevertheless, it was a shitty position to be in. "I'm really sorry about her," Olivia told him.

It was getting increasingly more difficult to look him in the eye without feeling remorse. His intentions were noble and Alcide was a good man. A fool, but a good man. Having sex with him was starting to cloud her judgement.

"It's okay. But now you understand why this is so important to me. She's lost and I made my peace with it, but I can't … Let you go down that path too, I can't-"

And suddenly the spell he had on her was gone. She knew what he was about to say and she loathed it. His insistence on saving her was really unbecoming. "Stop it. I'm not lost, Alcide-"

"Olivia, I'm not going to stop until Northman is behind silver fucking bars. And if you don't help me, you'll have no choice but to go down with him."

She could feel her fresh manicure making creases in her palms, she was clenching her fist with so much anger. Liv raised her chin up high, and her voice went cold with it. "You have no idea what you are meddling with-"

"Then tell me!" He said in a low, serious voice. "I can help you! I am literally the only one who can!"

"I don't need you to help me, Alcide. I don't need you to save me! I don't need you period. Now, drop the case before something bad happens-" maybe the warning was crossing the line, but she meant it.

He threw his hands in the air. "I don't get you, Olivia! I've told you everything you wanted to know. I even told you things about me I haven't told anyone, and you've told me nothing. I don't know how else to make you trust me!"

"This has nothing to do with trusting you, Alcide." Olivia sighed, already regretting what she was about to say. She hated being vulnerable. "What do you want to know?"

There was so much he could have asked about her, and she didn't know if she was willing to answer it. But what he asked her disappointed her in more ways than one.

"Why are you protecting him? What does Eric have on you that-"

"Oh my God, stop!" Olivia snapped. "Stop pretending that you care about me when all you actually want is dirt on Eric! I am not giving it to you! I would never betray a client-"

"Then why did you come? Huh? You knew what I wanted all along, and if you won't agree to cooperate then why are you even here?!"

She wished she could tell him why she was really here. She wanted to confess she could read minds, and she wanted to learn about all the business dealings of Louisiana's rich and famous so she could quit working for criminals while her head was still attached to her neck. She wished she could say it, she really did. But she knew she would be hauled into a psych ward or worse. There was a reason Olivia abided by her rules.

He meant well, she knew that. Alcide was nice, competent, and more than willing. But there was no knight in shining armour in this world that could ever save her from the dark place she put herself in - nor she wanted one.

But the worst of all? She could only see one way to get him to stop, and that was to hurt him. "I only wanted to sleep with you."

She couldn't even believe she said those words out loud.

There was a certain darkness in his eyes that was cutting. Even his shoulders dropped a little. They came to a stop in the middle of the sitting area by the river's edge. "Oh, come on... That's bullshit."

Rule number 10: If you are going to bluff... "Well, am I wrong?! Did we not-"

"You really expect me to believe that?" He took a step closer, she could feel the heat radiating from his suit. It was hard not to be drawn to it. To anyone else looking from away, this might have looked like a couple about to fall in love in Baton Rouge's most romantic spot.

The truth could not be further away. She looked him dead in the eye, frowning. "If you didn't want the truth, don't ask for it then."

"Fine. Then why go through all this trouble? Why not just invite me to your house last night? Why not fuck me in the Fangtasia back parking lot?" His angry eyes were piercing holes in her head. He towered over her like a great wall, but Olivia was unaffected by it. "You wanna pretend you're that kind of woman, then answer me that."

Now would have been a grand time to read his mind. However, it was the darkest it had ever been. She had hurt him alright. Olivia wanted to tell him the truth. To confess the kind of horrible woman she was. That she was nothing but opportunistic and manipulative, it was right there on the tip of her tongue. But the truth was? Olivia Carson was no worse than anyone else. And if she was horrible, she didn't feel bad about it. No sex in this world would make her talk to a federal agent and undo literal years of her work, just to land her ass in jail regardless of what he could promise. Even if it was the right thing to do, even if it would erase her karma or get her into heaven.

Before she could tell him to go fuck himself, literally the worse thing that could have possibly happen, happened.

"You have no idea what kind of woman she is, agent." A smooth cold voice spoke behind them.

Oh no.

A.N:

If you think THIS chapter was wild then strap yourselves in, because we are in for a ROLLERCOASTER folks! Thank you so much for all the lovely comments on the last few chapters and for the continuous support I've gotten all throughout this story. It really means the world to me. This fandom is the best, and I genuinely love writing for your guys.

much love, til next chapter xoxo