Free Alpha Trio: Vol. 1 - Cats & Dogs by Ana Vela Page A

of a ship through water, without heed for the other club patrons.
     
    “Here he comes,” Grigore shouted, clapping his hands together and then rubbing his palms back and forth.
     
    “That’s your brother? He looks so... angry.” Tanya shifted nervously against his side. Emilian wrapped one muscled arm around her slender shoulders.
     
    “Don’t worry, babe. That’s just his face. Andrei is perpetually pissed off. Still a nice guy though.” He and Grigore shared a laugh. ‘Nice’ was not a word anyone would use to describe Andrei Lupei. Hard-assed, demanding, exacting, slave-driver... those were much more common.
     
    Emilian was more laid back than his older brother. He rolled with the punches. Grigore was the joker of their litter, Andrei the fierce one. He was the calm one. That wasn’t to say that he couldn’t get the job done when it came to riding the new pups on the force until they got their shit together, or kicking some vampire ass. But, generally speaking, not a lot got him riled.
     
    “That fucking bartender was purposefully ignoring me.” Andrei slid three beers onto the table, green glass bottles glistening with drops of condensation. Emilian snatched his up and brought it to his mouth.
     
    “Was it a new guy?”
     
    Scowl or not, Andrei had no trouble with the ladies. None of them did. But Drei’s thick, dark brows knitted. “No.” The word was clipped. Grigore snorted.
     
    “You got the brush off from a lady bartender? Oh man, I gotta see this chick.” Grigore craned around their older brother, trying to glimpse the woman behind the bar. He gave a low whistle. “Damn, and she’s smoking hot too.”
     
    “She’s a total bitch.” Tanya’s green eyes (they were contacts, he could tell) narrowed as she talked about the other woman. “I asked her to make me a skinny Cosmo and she handed me an empty glass .”
     
    Emilian’s lips twitched. That was actually pretty funny. Add that to the fact that she’d given Drei the brush off and he liked the girl already. Drei grunted, the closest thing he had to a laugh. His eyes, so dark a brown they were nearly black, flicked back toward the bar.
     
    Grigore was the only one who commiserated with Tanya. “That’s so rude! She’s probably just jealous because you definitely don’t need a skinny Cosmo.” He flashed his smile at Tanya. She slid her long fingernails through her hair and flipped it over her shoulder.
     
    “You’re so sweet!” she cooed. Emilian kicked up an eyebrow at his baby brother. Grigore shrugged and sipped his beer. He didn’t blame Grigore. That was just the kid’s personality. He was always the one rushing to the rescue of any damsel who might possibly be in distress.
     
    Emilian extricated himself from between Tanya and his smiling brother with swift leap over the table. Tanya gasped in surprise.
     
    “Gotta piss,” he offered in explanation. Grigore took the opportunity to slide closer to Tanya. She didn’t seem to mind. Emilian shook his head, shoving at the wayward lock of black hair that always slid over his forehead. He considered buzzing his hair, like Drei did, but the military cut suited his muscular big brother more than it did his sleek build. At least his hair wasn’t as long as Grig’s. His younger brothers black locks brushed his shoulderblades.
     
    Em didn’t really need to go to the bathroom, but the cloying scent of Tanya’s body wash was getting to be too much after all. He skirted the dance floor with long strides. Hundreds of bodies writhed to the thumping music. Girls in tight tank tops and ripped jeans, guys in leather. The strobing lights sparked off piercings in eyebrows, lips, noses, ears. Bare skin glistened with sweat. Compared to some of the outfits on display, his t-shirt, jeans, and boots were pretty tame, even if they were all black.
     
    “No wonder Grig likes this place,” he muttered as a girl with electric pink hair and barely any clothes on practically crawled