12. Ryker
Chapter 12
Ryker
My pulse hammers against my sternum like artillery fire as I brace against their door. Breath comes short and shallow, sweat beading at my temples despite the cool hallway. Behind closed eyelids, the afterimage burns bright—red hair spilling like wildfire down her back as she rises and falls above Theo, throat exposed in a perfect arc of surrender.
I should walk away. Should focus on the dozen crises demanding my attention. Instead, my hand slides into my pants almost without conscious thought. The sounds filtering through the door aren’t helping my self-control—her breathless moans mixing with Theo’s deeper groans.
Most people miss the reality of pack bonds with an omega. Right now, each nerve ending in my body sings with phantom sensation that isn’t mine—pressure points lighting up wherever Theo is being touched. The air has grown thick with night-blooming jasmine, molecules so concentrated they coat the back of my throat with sweetness that sends blood rushing south with every inhale.
Right now, Theo’s flooding the bonds with everything he’s feeling. It’s why I went to his room in the first place—to put a stop to his teasing. Wouldn’t be the first time he’s gotten himself off while broadcasting to all of us through the bonds.
But finding Cayenne there...
A door opens down the hall. Finn stumbles out, clearly affected by what’s bleeding through the bonds. He blinks at finding me here, hand still working my cock.
“You too?” he asks, glancing at Theo’s door. His usual composed demeanor is slipping, pupils blown wide behind his glasses.
“Me too.” I don’t stop stroking, too far gone to care about propriety. “Our omega’s being a brat.”
“Quinn called.” Finn adjusts his glasses, moving closer. His own arousal is obvious, straining against his perfectly pressed slacks.
“I know.” The words come out rough as another wave of pleasure floods the bond. Theo’s doing this on purpose now, the bastard. Making sure we feel every thrust, every moan, every moment of pleasure he’s giving our beta.
“You could close the bond.” Finn presses against me, fitting perfectly against my larger frame. His analytical mind is already fracturing—I can see it in the way his usual precise movements turn jerky with need.
“Don’t want to.” And I don’t. Even though I should. Even though there are a dozen fires I need to put out tonight. Even though Quinn’s waiting for answers about?—
My thoughts scatter as Finn drops to his knees, batting my hand away. When he takes me into his mouth, the wet heat of it makes my head fall back against the door with a thud.
“Fuck,” I manage, threading my fingers through his hair. He does that thing with his tongue that makes my eyes roll back, and I know I’m not going to last. “I’m close already. Can’t?—”
He responds by sucking harder, those clever hands gripping my thighs. No one can resist Finn’s mouth when he gets like this—methodical and thorough even in pleasure.
I come embarrassingly fast, spilling down his throat as another wave of Theo’s pleasure crashes through the bond.
Finn, ever methodical, swallows everything before sitting back on his heels. Even with his mouth swollen and glasses slightly askew, he manages to look composed. “Better?”
“Getting there.” I help him up, pressing him against the wall. His cock is hard against my thigh, and I can’t resist palming him through his pants. “Your turn.”
“We have work to do,” he reminds me, even as his hips push into my touch. “Quinn’s waiting.”
“Quinn can wait five minutes.” I unzip his pants, sliding my hand inside to wrap around him. His sharp intake of breath is satisfying. “Unless you’d rather try working while Theo floods the bond again?”
On cue, another wave of pleasure hits us. Finn’s head falls back against the wall with a thud.
“Bastard knows exactly what he’s doing,” Finn grits out as I stroke him. His usual precise speech fractures. “Using her to drive us all mad.”
I catch his mouth in a bruising kiss, working him faster. His hands fist in my shirt as I take him apart right here in the hallway. When he comes with a bitten-off cry, I make sure to flood the bond with our pleasure. Let Theo feel what he started.
The answering wave of arousal nearly brings me to my knees.
“Office,” Finn manages once he catches his breath. “We have work.”
I tuck him back in his pants, already missing his warmth. “Sure you don’t want to join them?”
His eyes flick to the door, considering. But then he shakes his head. “Like you said. When we have her, it should be special. One on one first. Let Theo have this moment.”
In my office, I cut the bond completely before activating the screen behind the bookshelf. Quinn’s face appears, surrounded by empty energy drink cans.
“Sleep much?” I ask, though I already know the answer.
“Not for a matter of fact.” His bloodshot eyes narrow at us. “Location’s secure. We just need Cayenne.”
I feel Finn tense beside me. “We’re heading there now.”
Just not with her.
“You found the drive?” Quinn perks up on screen, surrounded by his wall of empty energy drinks.
“I found it.” The words taste like betrayal. “Hidden in plain sight. Magnetic chip clip on the fridge, of all places.”
Finn’s shock ripples through the bond before I shut it down. The fact that none of us spotted it earlier is almost embarrassing. Some protective pack we are.
“Good luck.” Quinn’s image blinks out, leaving us in silence.
“We’re not telling Cayenne, are we?” Finn’s voice carries resignation rather than question.
I shake my head. “Let’s go.”
“She’s going to be pissed.” His warning comes with the weight of experience. Finn knows better than most how dangerous an angry hacker can be.
“I can handle it.”
“Can you?” He adjusts his glasses, analytical mind already calculating risks. “You can’t make this choice for her.”
I round on him, alpha power bleeding into my voice. “Not her life. Not her risk to take.”
“You can’t protect her from everything.” But there’s understanding beneath his protest.
“Watch me.” I stride toward the garage, keys already in hand. “We’re taking my car.”
Finn follows without further argument, but his silence speaks volumes. We both know keeping secrets from Cayenne never ends well.
Then again, neither does letting her run headlong into danger.
When we reach the garage, Jinx is already there, leaning against my car. The feral energy rolling off him tells me exactly why.
“No,” I warn, unlocking the doors.
“Theo will keep her busy all night.” He slides into the passenger seat anyway. “And I need to get out of this house before I break down that door.”
Perfect. Just what we need—a sexually frustrated feral alpha on a stealth mission.
But as I start the engine, I know he’s right. None of us can think straight with Theo broadcasting like this.
Time to get some distance. And hope to hell Cayenne forgives us when she finds out what we’ve done.
“How the fuck did he know?” I question, pulling out of the garage.
“You two weren’t the only ones up.” Jinx shifts in his seat, clearly uncomfortable. “I’ve been hard for the last hour thanks to our omega’s little show.”
Finn’s soft laugh from the backseat only heightens the tension. I take the driveway too fast, needing to put distance between us and the waves of pleasure still flooding from Theo’s room.
“I don’t know how many times I can get myself off,” Jinx grumbles, adjusting himself again.
“Not in my car,” I warn, though I’m fighting my own renewed arousal.
“I’m dying here.”
“Get it together,” I snap, but there’s no real heat in it. We’re all struggling.
“Says the one who just got off in the hallway,” he shoots back, anger threading through his arousal.
“Then you should have gotten in the back with Finn.” The words slip out before I can stop them.
I hear Jinx’s seatbelt unclick as he starts climbing into the back. “Give me that mouth.”
“Five minutes until we reach the location,” I warn, though I know it’s useless.
“I only need two.” The zip of his jeans fills the car. “Gonna make it quick and dirty.”
“Give me thirty seconds, alpha.” Finn’s belt unbuckles.
I swear I’m going to make Theo pay for this later. The wet sounds and Jinx’s groans from the back seat make it nearly impossible to focus on driving. My knuckles turn white on the steering wheel as Finn works Jinx with that clever mouth.
“That’s it,” Jinx growls. “Take it all like the good boy you are.”
I try to keep my eyes on the road, but when I glance in the rearview mirror, Jinx is staring right at me. His lips part on a moan as Finn takes him deeper.
“Watch us, alpha,” he taunts, voice rough with pleasure. “See how well he takes my cock.”
I force my eyes back to the road, breathing hard. My own arousal throbs, already building again despite Finn’s earlier attention.
“Two minutes,” I grit out, checking the clock.
“Perfect timing.” Jinx’s words break on a groan. “Gonna fill that pretty mouth. Drink it all down for me.”
His moans grow desperate, and I know he’s close. “That’s it, every fucking drop. Show me how bad you want it.”
I pull into the industrial district just as Jinx comes with a broken cry, head thrown back against the seat. When I park, I have to lean against the steering wheel, fighting for control.
I practically stumble out of the car, locking them in as I cut the bond completely. The night air helps clear my head, but barely.
We’re never going to survive if Theo and Cayenne decide to use their powers for evil.
The secure location turns out to be an abandoned data center, all concrete and steel hidden beneath overgrown landscaping. Even at night, the building hums with the power Quinn’s had restored—enough juice to handle whatever’s on that drive without drawing attention.
“This is it?” Jinx prowls the perimeter, that feral energy still rolling off him in waves. “Bit obvious, isn’t it?”
“That’s the point.” Finn adjusts his glasses, more composed now that we’re focused on work. “Hide in plain sight. No one looks twice at another dead tech company.”
I lead them through the security measures Quinn installed. Each checkpoint requires different authentication—retinal scan, key card, voice print. By the time we reach the central server room, even Jinx has settled into mission mode.
The drive feels impossibly small in my palm as I approach the terminal. Just a tiny piece of metal and silicon that could change everything. Or destroy it all.
“What do you know about the encryption?” Finn asks, already typing commands into the adjacent system.
“Nothing.” I insert the drive, watching indicator lights flicker to life. “She kept this close to her chest.”
“For good reason,” Jinx mutters, pacing behind us. “If what Quinn suspects about Sterling Labs is true...”
Finn’s fingers fly across the keyboard, his usual methodical nature showing in each precise command. Multiple windows open as he runs initial diagnostics.
“Interesting.” He leans forward, glasses reflecting cascading data. “RSA-2048 on the surface, but...” His fingers pause. “That’s different.”
“What are we looking at?” I ask, watching him pull up another window of pure code.
“The initial encryption is what you’d expect—corporate grade, meant to look standard.” His typing speeds up. “But there’s something underneath. The way the algorithms are layered...”
He runs several penetration tests, each one more aggressive than the last. The drive responds with increasingly complex defensive protocols.
“Quantum-resistant cryptography,” he mutters, more to himself than us. “But the implementation is unlike anything I’ve seen. The mathematical framework is...” He breaks off, focusing on a new anomaly.
“Can you break it?”
“Given enough time and processing power, yes.” But his tone carries doubt. “The problem is, each attempt at brute forcing triggers additional security protocols. We’d need significantly more computational power than what we have here.”
The screens fill with his attempts to navigate the encryption, but I can tell by the tension in his shoulders that we’re getting nowhere.
“There’s quantum entanglement in the encryption itself.” Finn’s voice holds equal parts frustration and admiration. “Every time I try to isolate one layer, it affects all the others. It’s like trying to solve a Rubik’s cube that rearranges itself with each turn.”
I watch his attempts grow increasingly complex, but the encryption holds. Even Jinx has stopped pacing, drawn in by the intensity of Finn’s battle with the code.
“Whoever designed this...” Finn trails off as another attempt fails. “They’re not just good. They’re revolutionary. The mathematical concepts alone are?—”
“Sterling Labs?” I ask, though I’m starting to suspect otherwise.
“No.” He sits back, running a hand through his usually perfect hair. “This is beyond anything they have. Beyond anything I’ve seen, actually. The quantum resistance alone would take years to develop, but combined with these adaptive algorithms...”
A soft beep cuts through the tension. Then another. Warning lights flash across the screens as system after system starts to shut down.
“What’s happening?”
“The encryption...” Finn’s hands fly across the keyboard, but nothing stops the cascade of failing servers. “It’s not just defending anymore. It’s attacking. Taking down our entire infrastructure.”
Through the walls, we hear the massive generators powering down one by one. Emergency lights flicker on, bathing everything in red.
“We need to go.” Jinx’s head snaps up, nostrils flaring. “Now.”
Before I can ask why, I hear it too—the distinctive sound of approaching vehicles.
“How did they—” Finn starts, but I’m already moving.
“Grab everything. Wipe what you can.” I pocket the drive while Finn initiates emergency protocols. “We’re not the only ones who knew about this place.”
“You mean we’re not the only ones watching her,” Jinx growls, already positioning himself between us and the door.
The implications of that hit me hard. We thought we were protecting her by keeping her in the dark. Instead, we might have just made her more vulnerable.
As if to emphasize the point, the first explosion rocks the building.
“Move!” I order as debris rains from the ceiling. Finn grabs his laptop while Jinx takes point, that feral energy finally finding purpose.
Another explosion hits closer, making the emergency lights strobe. Through the chaos, I catch the scent—alphas, at least six of them. Professional hunters by the smell of their gear.
“Back exit,” Finn calls out, already pulling up building schematics on his phone. “Through the old server room.”
We make it halfway there before the first gunshot rings out. The bullet embeds in concrete inches from my head.
“They’re using suppressors.” Jinx’s grin turns feral. “How considerate.”
“Not now,” I growl, pushing him forward. The drive feels like it’s burning a hole in my pocket. Whatever’s on it, it’s worth killing for.
The old server room is a maze of abandoned equipment. Perfect for cover, terrible for quick escapes. Finn leads us through with precise efficiency—he probably memorized the layout before we even arrived.
More shots, closer this time. The hunters are good, moving in coordinated pairs. Professional. Expensive.
“Car’s on the east side,” Finn whispers as we crouch behind a defunct mainframe. “Two hundred meters once we clear the building.”
A bullet sparks off metal near his head. I drag him down, catching movement in my peripheral vision.
“Change of plans.” I press the keys into Finn’s hand. “Get the drive home.”
A bullet sparks off metal near his head, and instead of running, our beta drops into a defensive crouch. “I’m not leaving you two to have all the fun.”
“Finn—” My protest cuts off as Jinx launches himself over the server bank with predatory grace.
The sounds that follow remind me why he earned the name psycho squad —crashes, grunts of pain, and one very distinct snap that better not be a neck. When I round the corner, he has one of the hunters pinned, arm twisted at an angle nature never intended.
“Look what I caught,” he purrs, eyes wild with that dangerous light. “Want to tell us who sent you?”
The hunter spits blood. Professional grade tactical gear, military bearing—definitely not Sterling Labs’ usual muscle.
“Finn.” I nod toward the exit. “Last chance.”
“Alpha.” His voice carries steel beneath the calm. “They knew we were coming. That means we have a leak. I’m not leaving until we find out who.”
He has a point. These hunters were too prepared, too precise in their timing. Someone knew we’d be here tonight.
Jinx increases pressure on his captive’s arm, drawing a bitten-off cry. “Tick tock. Some of these bones are getting awful fragile.”
“He’s right.” I crouch in front of our guest. “You’re good. Professional. Which means you’re expensive. So let’s talk about who’s signing those checks.”
He spits on my clean boots.
“We’re taking him with us,” I decide as another explosion rocks the building. “Jinx, make sure he can’t fight back. Finn?—”
“Already on it.” He’s pulling zip ties from his tactical vest because of course he came prepared. “The others are regrouping at the north entrance. We have maybe two minutes.”
Jinx executes a precise series of strikes that leaves our guest limp but conscious. “Just pressure points,” he says with that manic grin. “He’ll start feeling his legs again in about an hour.”
“Perfect timing for a chat.” I help secure the hunter while Finn keeps watch. The man’s dead weight is awkward, but between Jinx and me, we manage.
The trip to the car is tense—all of us aware that his team could be regrouping. But either Jinx’s display of force gave them pause, or they’re waiting for a better opportunity.
“Trunk?” Jinx asks, already moving that direction.
“Trunk.” I pop it open, noting with grim satisfaction that Finn’s analytical mind even planned for this—there’s a dark tarp already laid out.
Our guest tries to speak through his zip-tied gag as we arrange him. Probably complaints about the rough handling or threats about who he works for.
“Comfortable?” Jinx asks with false sweetness. “Good. Because we’re going to have such an interesting conversation when those pressure points wear off.”
I slam the trunk closed on whatever muffled response he tries to make.
“Finn, you’re driving.” I toss him the keys. “I need to make some calls.”
“And I need to watch our friend,” Jinx says, sliding into the back seat. “Make sure he doesn’t try anything cute like morse code with his boots.”
As we pull away from the compromised facility, I can’t shake the feeling that we’ve just stepped into something much bigger than we realized.
The drive weighs heavy in my pocket. Whatever’s on it better be worth all this.
“We can’t take him back to the mansion,” Finn says what we’re all thinking as we hit the highway. “Not with Cayenne there.”
“I know a place.” Jinx’s voice carries that edge that means someone’s probably going to bleed. “Old warehouse district. Used to clean up PCA messes there.”
I catch his eye in the rearview mirror. “The kind of place with good soundproofing?”
His grin is all teeth. “The kind of place where no one asks questions about screaming.”
A thump from the trunk punctuates his words. Our guest is either trying to morse code after all, or really doesn’t like where this conversation is heading.
“Take the next exit.” Jinx leans forward between the seats. “Let’s see what our new friend knows about Sterling Labs. And who else might be watching our beta.”
As Finn turns onto a road that doesn’t exist on any map, I wonder if Cayenne will ever forgive us for what we’re about to do to protect her.
Then again, considering what these hunters were willing to do to get that drive...
Maybe she’ll want to help.