“A toast to a job well done!” Joseph raised his tequila shot high, while I raised the grilled soy cheese, enjoying Maria’s bar food. “Still not going to drink after all that, M? I’d be under the table if I had to do what you did today!”
“The nurse outfit would have suited you way more than me.”
“No doubt about that, he got his ass from me.” I was so glad I hadn’t taken a bite yet when Maria joined the conversation, choking on a sandwich would have been the dumbest way to go after that day’s events. Joseph hadn’t been so lucky, and the bar was now sprinkled with a fine mist of tequila.
“Mom!” Maria ignored Joseph’s whine to quickly clean the spill.
“He’s a bit too big to fit into the one I got but I’m sure I could get my hands on another to test the theory.” It was only at that moment that I finally took a bite, the texture more chewy that I expected.
“How’d you even get the first one?” Joseph asked while wiping his face with his sleeve, an action that got Maria to tsk dismissively.
“Nurse on her last day having a cig break. Shit, I promised her something for her birthday too, let me send her a message to see if she can come here.”
“Wait, birthday? Was she retiring?” Joseph’s surprised expression was contrasted with Maria’s, who for her part was already busy digging up something from the shelves.
“They fire you from there when you turn twenty-five.” My phone pinged with a notification within seconds. “She’ll be here in about twenty minutes. I’m gonna cover her drinks.”
“Good, because Century working back here is only covering whatever you get.” I leaned over the bar when Maria mentioned her, to see Century chopping blocks of ice and carving them into tiny ice sculptures, her current project evoked the image of someone stranded on a desert island. She had even managed to carve individual stones for the SOS sign.
Four hours later I was carrying Joseph out of the bar on my shoulder, giving a small wave to the former nurse who had called a ride home. Joseph was belting his heart out in Spanish and while I didn’t understand a single word of the lyrics, Century’s pings reassured me that what he was singing was good. I got him all the way to my car, dropping him in the back seat, on which he closed his eyes as if ready to pass out before the sounds of a fight rang throughout the alley. Joseph sat up, and sighed, laying down again. “Outsiders. Looks like fuhking Alphas or something.”
“How can you tell?” Joseph tapped his nose to answer.
“They all use this shitty deodorant brand that they think makes them irresistible or something but it just makes them obnoxious.” Before I could start going in the fight’s direction, Joseph grabbed my arm. “M, don’t, it’s not worth it, they’re all roided up to hell and back and doing some wolf society bullshit.”
“The wolves in captivity study? Really? Here I was hoping they were really into roleplaying.” I got my arm out of his grip and turned the corner, to see five bulbous mountains of muscle beating up a guy. The guy’s face was the color and shape of a raspberry at this point, slowly turning into a blackberry, and his arm was broken, the faux skin cracked and exposing torn carbon fiber muscle underneath. I leaned against the building and whistled. “Fellas, why don’t you beat up someone your own size? Nobody will be scared of him even if you make him red, yellow and blue all over.”
One of them was holding the guy up by his collar, he turned his head to me while punching him in the stomach. “Hey bros, look, our Alpha energy attracted a hot female!” The rest of them cheered, and I rolled my eyes. “Oh we’re just here collecting what’s owed to us from a client, we’ll be right with you after you’re done.”
One of them approached me, trying to cage me in with his arms. “You look cute, bet you’d look better with some makeup on.”
“Oh wow, negging, you know that’s not how you flirt with my type of girl.” I crossed my arms, looking right into his eyes, not flinching.
“Your type of girl?” He looked me over closer, focusing for an awful long time at my crotch. “Dudes, we got trapped, it’s a fucking soyboy!” A collection of sounds of disgust echoed throughout the alley, and so to free myself of the confines of muscle I kicked the guy in the crotch, using his shoulders as a step stool to jump over him when he keeled over in pain.
“I figured you’d be shitty when I heard your name but not this shitty, drop the guy and get out of my sector.” My fists were raised, Century was at my feet, not deploying her blades in the moment, more likely intending to bruise them.
“A soyboy can’t threaten us, you don’t have any muscles, you gave up all your testosterone and masculinity, and for what?” The one who was holding the victim threw him against the nearest wall, and they all approached me.
“For a rocking pair of cans and ease of mind. Plus the sex feels way better. I’d suggest you try it but you’d have to unclench your asshole first.” One of them outright roared and rushed me after my last statement, I managed to use his momentum against me for a throw, but the moment I got him on the ground, another one decked me in the face. I fell on my ass and slid, and I would have continued sliding had the wall not stopped me.
Spitting out a tooth was nothing new to me, at this point I had no clue if any of mine were ones I grew myself, or if they all had been replaced over the years. That still made me concerned, I was going up against five dudes that were more muscle than brain. And so, a classic coping mechanism kicked in for me: Faked bravado. “That was the softest punch I’ve ever felt, skin like a baby’s butt.”
“Dude you moisturise?!” One of the Alphas asked, completely dumbfounded.
“I have thin skin, my muscles would rip it apart if I didn’t!” The Alphas who had punched me replied, his voice hiking up a bit in worry.
“Bro, females don’t fucking care for soyboys and metro bitches they want real fucking Alphas not beta cucks! Stop moisturising!” Who I took for the leader shoved sir punch-a-lot after that, which gave me more than enough time to stand up and go for another one of them. I jumped on his back, and put him in a chokehold. I was clinging to him like a tick through his shaking and attempts to rip my arms from him, until he threw me over himself, knocking my breath out as I hit the ground. I was being an idiot, I should have cut my losses and ran when Joseph told me to, but I was too stubborn for my own good to give up.
It was in that moment that Century struck, jumping on one of them, scratching his eye out before smacking his face a few times with her wings. She landed near me and hissed at the gang of Alphas, trying to put herself between them and me.
Getting my breathing back in order took a lot of effort, and I was coughing up a storm when I finally managed it. “I’m pretty sure I got laid way more than all of you combined.” A trickle of blood flowed out of my mouth as I smirked, sitting up, grunting from exertion. My joke earned me a kick in the ribs while one of them grabbed Century. “Let her go!”
“Dudes, think we could sell this piece of shit toy for scrap?” The guy laughed, but Century didn’t struggle. She just deployed her wing blades and cut both his arms off. He screamed, the blood stained my pants as it flowed out of his stumps, showing no signs of stopping. There went the plan to just bruise them and scare them off. I had no clue Century had it in her to just disarm a guy like that, and her nonchalant demeanor and not even a quick ping of reassurance made me just feel worse about the whole thing.
One of them pulled out a gun and aimed it at me, but before he could fire it another dude jumped in and pushed it away. It still went off, hitting me in the side, and the guy nudging the gun took it and threw it away. “Dude Alphas don’t need pussy ass guns!”
The leader looked the scene over, and nudged his head. “Let’s go, Chad and the soyboy will both bleed out soon enough, we don’t have to stay and watch.” They began walking away, the one without arms was looking pale and anemic, croaking as if trying to say something, and the guy they beat up was struggling to stand up. Gritting my teeth together, I tore off the armless guy’s shirt and tied it around the bullet wound. I could see the bullet lodged in the concrete of the ground, which was good news for me. Stumbling my way over to the beat up guy, I got one of his arms around my shoulders and pulled him up, slowly making my way to the car. I paused for a second above the Alpha. “Sorry, nobody deserves to go out like this.”
Joseph had gotten more lucid from the gunshot, and when he saw what state I and the guy was in he immediately shifted seats so I could put him down, as I struggled to get to the driver’s seat. “M, don’t you want me to drive?”
I wiped the blood from my chin. “It passed through and doesn’t look like it hit anything important, I can last until we reach Auntie Murphy’s. Please check on the art piece for me.”
“Unconscious, but breathing.”
“Good, good.” I hissed, holding my arm over the shot. “And here I was hoping to stick to scars from stabs and cuts.”
Damn, you went all in with the toxic masculinity for these guys ^^
Thank You for the chapter.