Aric (The Boundarylands #7) - Callie Rhodes Page 0,2

the back window, she spotted the cherry red of John's car barreling down the road toward them…and catching up fast.

Chapter Two

Aric drained the last of his beer and wandered outside to enjoy one of the first balmy evenings of spring. He took up a post halfway down the porch that ran the length of Evander's Bar, leaning against its nondescript wall.

Another Friday night.

Another chance to lose himself for a few hours inside a pretty little beta.

The ladies had already started arriving. Nicky had arrived first in her Trans Am, and then a pair of flashily dressed girls in a little red pickup followed by another car and another—an entire caravan of whores.

Aric watched them from the shadows as they piled out and strutted into the bar, listening to the whoops and shouts of greeting from the waiting alphas.

He knew all the girls, of course. There weren't so many beta prostitutes willing and able to service alpha clients that he couldn't keep the ladies straight. Some had been working this job with Nicky for months. Some…years.

And they all knew him too.

"Hey, Aric." Justine, a fiery brunette with tits that could fill even an alpha's hands, noticed him under the eaves and gave him a wink as she passed by. "You bring me any more of that moonshine of yours tonight? I'm almost out."

A smile tugged at the corners of Aric's lips at Justine's lie. He didn't need to catch the tell-tale nuance in her scent to know she wasn't telling the truth.

His whiskey was strong, even for alphas. He'd given Justine a jar of the stuff the last time he'd been with her, which was only a few weeks ago. There was no way in hell even a sturdy woman like Justine could go through it so quickly.

But he could also tell from the sparkle in her eye that moonshine wasn't all she was thirsty for.

"Sorry, Justine," he said, tipping his hat, a custom black Stetson his parents had given him as a going-away gift when he first left the family's ranch to come to the Boundarylands. "Not tonight."

Until his alpha nature had showed, he'd been a pretty good bull rider. Now he was a damn good distiller.

Justine made a show of pouting and added an extra swish to her hips as she headed inside.

Aric didn't know exactly what he was in the mood for tonight, but apparently, it wasn't Justine…or any of the dozen other ladies who paraded by.

One by one, he mentally crossed them off the list. Some were too sweet for his current mood, some too spicy. Others were too loud, too soft—too something, all of them.

Soon after the last of the girls arrived, they began pairing off with his alpha brothers. Before long, couples had begun wandering out on the patio, flirting and drinking before they disappeared into the woods or the alphas' trucks for what would be hours of pleasure for both parties.

Aric didn't know why he was being so damned picky tonight. It wasn't like there was a bad choice among Nicky's girls.

For prostitutes who could handle the demands of sex with alphas, it was a coveted gig. Not only did the girls know they would be treated with respect, but most alphas' stamina and sexual skill far surpassed beta standards. Every single woman had been selected and trained by Nicky until they met her exacting standards. They all knew their job and did it well. He should know—by now, Aric had been with all of them several times over.

Maybe that was the problem.

Maybe what he needed was a little variety, something new to whet his appetites.

Well, too fucking bad.

It wasn't like Aric spent every damn Friday night wasting his money on beer and hookers. But sometimes an alpha just needed to screw, to find release for all of the energy and aggression that had built up inside him with a woman who could handle the pounding an alpha delivered.

Tonight was one of those nights. Aric had met the coming of spring with a burst of pent-up energy and productivity, putting his whiskey still back into production after spending the cold, dark days and nights making repairs to the storage shed, truing his scales, building new casks, and cleaning the fermenter and airlock. His alpha brothers started showing up with the jars they'd emptied over the winter, demanding refills.

Aric enjoyed the work, but the pressure had built up until he feared if he didn't let off some steam, he'd explode. What he needed to do