CHAPTER 138: RESEARCH AT CLUB GOLDEN 2: INFO DUMPING

Bethany’s Pov.

"So, the club was indeed hidden, huh?" I asked softly as we began our walk down the hallway.

He released a deep chuckle, which made my heart skip for a second, but I managed to keep my expression as normal as possible. "It’s not hidden, Princess. It’s just...the arrangement. It’s an underground club. Keeping it on the top floor makes it too accessible. A lot of wrong people try to get in a lot of times; spies from gangs, the news, the police, arranging it this way gives us more control over who goes in and out."

"It’s the only known exit of this club, and it’s Oliver’s duty to guard it." He concluded as we got to the end of the hallway. He turned to face me, and already knowing what he wanted to say, I beat him to it.

"Yeah, I have questions," I said, looking at him. He nodded, giving me the go-ahead, so I brought up two fingers.

"One. You said ’us’, not ’they’. You guys own the club?" I asked, already knowing his reply. But the ’why’ was what I was after.

"Why?" I asked after he nodded, folding my arms across my chest, delving into full research mode.

"Well, initially, we made it a general but exclusive club to generate revenue for the pack. After that, the ideas kept flowing, so we organized special nights for our gay customers and stripper nights too. We made a ton of money from those nights, especially during the first two years after we opened, but in business, the ideas have to keep coming.-"

"-Or else, your customers would get bored, and boredom is seriously bad for business. And we had a shit ton of competition then. So, we came up with the idea of converting it to a BDSM club. It sounded crazy at first. People thought we were confused and stupid, which in all honesty we were, but not stupid.-"

"-Around that time, the company was still in debt. One fucker had over fifty percent of our shares, and the club was our main supply of funds for the pack, so we had to do something. Then, Theo suggested we did something no one in Eldrador had ever done before. Something we weren’t going to ever bother changing, because it wasn’t just unique, but a huge part of us.-"

"-And through thick and thin, Club Golden was born." He said, sighing. "I just info dumped, didn’t I?" He asked, guilt etched on his face.

I chuckled at his question, nodding.

"I’m so sorry. I’m not very good at summarizing." He said, scratching the back of his neck.

I scoffed at his statement. "I was the one who asked. Besides, you can simply give anyone a summary, but not me. I’m your mate, remember? I have to know every damn thing, down to the tiniest detail." I admonished, and he nodded, smiling.

He placed his palms on the sides of my head, over my ears, pulling me closer and pecking my forehead.

"Noted, ma’am. " He muttered against my lips, which I tucked in.

What? I couldn’t have him licking off my lip gloss again.

"Gotta protect the lipgloss, I’m sorry." I chimed, winking at him. He just scoffed in response. "I have one more question, which you’ve kinda answered," I said, looking at him, gauging his reaction.

"Mmhm. I’m all ears." He said.

"Okay. So, firstly, is Oliver a member of the pack? And does he know about us? Secondly, are most of the people in there werewolves?" I spewed, mentally grabbing a notepad again, like I was waiting for a sermon.

"That’s three questions, Bunny." He stated, chuckling.

I just shrugged my shoulders, wearing an innocent look, waiting attentively.

"Okay, firstly," He cleared his throat, mirroring my stance. "Yes, he is. Just like Mia. And he didn’t know until he met you. Although I might have informed him to ensure security was extra tight tonight. None of our VVIPs are coming in today, so upon seeing you, I guess he figured.-" He paused, looking at me like he was expecting a retort, just like I did earlier.

When I shook my head, he wore a confused look, as if asking me why.

"It’s okay. He’s a good person as well. Just make sure he doesn’t ’spread the word’." I said, shrugging.

"Mm, okay." He said, shifting his weight. "Well, for the second question, the answer is No, and I really love it that way." He admitted easily, no lingering remorse anywhere in his features, and that got me super duper curious.

"May I ask why?" I asked, shifting my weight.

"It’s simple. They are oblivious and just want to have fun. They don’t know who I really am, and do not want to get intel about my pack and stuff, which makes it easy to handle them."

"Whereas, werewolves, on the other hand, come in here and begin snooping around. Try to steal from my clients and cause unnecessary fights amongst my customers due to how hot-headed and possessive they are.-"

"-For instance, in the BDSM world, some people like exhibitionism, while some do not appreciate it at all. And it’s completely fine. In here, no one forces you to show off, but if you’re not willing to show, you cannot watch. That’s the way it goes. That’s the way it has always been.-"

"-But werewolves would love to watch others do their thing, but don’t like to be watched. I am an alpha male, so I understand possessiveness very well. While it can be crazy hard to handle, with maturity, it gets easier. And exhibitionism, honestly, isn’t so bad. But because they are assholes, they keep causing problems.-"

"-So, we banned a lot of them, and that was the best fucking decision we ever made, because since then, rukus in the club has dropped to the barest minimum. So yeah, I prefer the humans at this point, and I’m not ashamed of that." He concluded, shrugging his shoulders, while I mused on everything I had just heard.

His reports didn’t shock me as much as they should’ve, and I couldn’t even judge him for his decisions at all.

Werewolves can be very unruly and crazy because of their wolf side. It can be managed, but it has to be done consciously till it’s mastered.

But sadly, a lot of them hardly gave a flying fuck, because on the pack, they are all the same. But exhibiting such characteristics in public was just too much.

"I info dumped again, didn’t I? " He asked again, pulling me out of my muse.

"Well, yeah. You did. But I don’t mind, just like I didn’t before. I like knowing details, remember?" I asked, sighing.

"What’s wrong?" He asked, coming closer.

"It’s nothing. It’s just...no matter how hard someone works, there are always people waiting to put them down. I don’t like it." I said, huffing.

"It’s part of life, Princess. It doesn’t take much to have haters. Just have something they don’t have and there, you’ve got an archenemy." He said, hooking our elbows together. "But while they wait, we party. Okay?" He asked with bright eyes, and I couldn’t help but smile brightly at him.

Then he placed his palm at the edge of the wall, pushing lightly, before withdrawing his hand.

The soft sound of the door unlocking filled our ears, but it felt like fuel to the fire of anxiety that raged inside of me, increasing its tenacity.

He led me through the door onto a very high staircase that overlooked the huge club.

My jaw dropped open in awe as I took in the place, completely forgetting to close my sensitive ears.

In as much as I didn’t have any idea of what the place looked like, I had borrowed some imagination from the descriptions Kevin used to give me on Mondays after his Friday adventures to parties in the city with some of his cousins.

But the place I was looking at was way beyond what I had imagined. Hell, it even felt so wrong to have imagined such a place like that.

Despite how high we stood at the top of the stairs, we weren’t remotely close to the ceiling.

The walls were padded heavily with black materials, the air was neither hot nor stuffy like Kevin had described, and the people were having so much fun in... conventional ways.

I couldn’t see them clearly due to the white harmless smoke that was released into the air, but I was be you curious to know what was going on down there.

"Like what you see?" Tristan asked, his body dangerously close to mine as he came closer to where I stood.

For some reason, I suddenly found it extremely hard to breathe. Felt like he had sucked up all the oxygen around me, just by coming close.

"I think I do." I managed to mutter, swallowing the lump that had formed in my throat.

"Would you like to see more?"