THEO
Theo
I had one hand on the small of Mackenzie’s back, the other clenching my stomach when we crashed into Justice’s stateroom. She was practically vibrating with tension and out of breath.
“Hey, I was just coming to find you,” Justice said. He was pulling on a shirt, standing next to the dining table. “Theo, there’s a lunch with dolphins excursion today. It was highlighted on your spreadsheet.”
He looked good, half naked. All naked. And he remembered my spreadsheet. Focus, Theo. No time for thinking about your dick in his hands, her mouth, slick everywhere. I shook my head and took a breath.
“We have to explain something to you, and you can’t freak out.”
“I don’t freak out.” His jaw ticked.
“You absolutely freak out,” I said. “Let… let us explain.”
I opened my mouth, then closed it. Where do you even start with something like this? The fight? The blackmail? The thumb drive currently burning a hole in my pocket?
“Ren thinks he killed Nolan,” Mackenzie blurted out. “He didn’t. We have proof. But if you don’t do something, by the end of the day he’s either going to be in jail or bitten into a pack that’s not…” She licked her lips and tried again. “A pack he hates.”
Justice went still. So still I was tempted to take a step back. “Explain?”
“He didn’t kill anyone,” Mackenzie rushed on, the words tumbling out faster and faster. “But Catherine, that tall sexy female alpha has this phone, well had this phone, we have it now, and there’s video of the fight with Nolan, on her necklace, but it’s not a necklace, it’s a thumb drive.” She shoved her hand into my pocket for the thumb drive and phone, practically knocked me off balance. She held it up for Justice and then put it on the table. “We did crime and stuff. And Gaston said Nolan’s dead with fifteen stab wounds, but Ren only stabbed him once so I’m not sure what’s happening there, he was just stealing a dumb car now he’s using it to blackmail him into joining their pack or worse, and Ren was going to do it to protect you because there’s stuff about you on the phone too probably and…” She sucked in a breath.
Justice put up a hand to stop her. “Start over,” Justice said. His voice was careful, controlled and very, very cold. “Slowly.”
We were either about to fix everything or fuck everything up. Nausea rose, making my mouth dry.
Mackenzie took a breath, a calming one this time, and started from the beginning. How she’d seen Ren with that pack. Justice mentioning Nolan at dinner. The overheard conversation. What Ren said last night.
Justice looked away. His jaw ticked. Fuck. Mackenzie had panic in her eyes. No, no, no.
“He said they wanted his name, him in their pack. And that wouldn’t be enough anymore. That they now want you. Or an omega to sell. I don’t know what that means but, he’s going to do it. He’s going to bite into that pack or turn himself in and go to jail. To protect you.” Mackenzie swallowed hard, tears flowing down her cheeks. “And Ren, too. You said it, Justice. And Ren, too.”
Justice looked from Mackenzie to me and back again. His face was still very cold and very still.
“I need a computer.”
We had basically sprinted across the ship back to our room. The first thing Justice did was make Mackenzie change her shoes. She kept tripping in flip-flops. He had barely said a word.
Justice had my computer in split screen mode. I didn’t even know it could do that. We watched the video all the way through once. Nolan was dead for sure. He had jumped Ren. Ren defended himself. Nolan staggered back and collapsed, and Ren took off. Justice fast forwarded the footage, and it showed Nolan getting to his feet and then being surrounded by his pack, who took him to the ground and stabbed him over and over. I had watched it. I shouldn’t have. Now I felt like I was having sympathy stabbing pains in my gut, too.
In the other half of the computer screen, he was downloading stuff, but I couldn’t tell what. He spent some quality time bitching about the slow Wi-Fi under his breath.
“Okay, here’s what’s happening,” He finally said. “First, I’m getting everybody new phones. It will have location tracking on it, and you will carry it with you at all times, especially if you are doing fucking crime. This,” he tapped the thumb drive, “was reckless and dangerous. You should have come to me first.” He cracked his neck, “And I 100% understand why you didn’t.”
I bit my lip to keep a “yes sir” from falling out of my mouth. My dick was already hard. It didn’t need to get harder by being turned on by my alpha going all alpha.
Wait.
My alpha?
Mine.
When did that happen?
Justice closed some windows on my computer and brought up a skinny display that looked like a phone screen. He had had Mackenzie’s phone plugged in to transfer files or something. I wasn’t sure.
“I’ve cloned Catherine’s phone. That’s what you see here. Anything that comes or goes on her phone, we’ll see it. The Wi-Fi is too slow to upload all the data to the cloud, so we have to save it locally for now. She’s got PackFinder on her phone, so we know where they all are. Looks like she’s tracking Ren, too.” I leaned in and looked at the screen. Two dots were in the shopping plaza down the pier and two were floating out in the water. Duh, a map wouldn’t show a cruise ship. That had to be Ren and Catherine’s phone.
“I’m cracking into Ren’s phone remotely, but that’s going to take more time. It will pop up like Catherine’s phone when it’s done.”
“Is that legal?” We both looked at Mackenzie.
“No, Mackenzie, we are doing actual, real crime now.”
“Oh, okay.” She said, unfazed.
“There’s encrypted files that I want access to, but I can’t do that here. I need my computer and phone. Yours is too slow. So I side loaded the code that I need to fix mine on Mackenzie’s phone, and…”
“You could have fixed your phone this whole time?” I asked.
He squeezed his fist and tapped it to his forehead. “Yes, but that’s not the point…”
“Justice, you made yourself suffer for no reason? Why?” Mackenzie rubbed her hand across his tight shoulders.
He visibly struggled to get control of himself. “Because I would have had to ask for help. Now, next…”
“Justice,” Mackenzie cooed.
“Okay,” he blew out a sharp breath, “Can we table the exploration of my own personal trauma and psychological failings? I don’t think we have a lot of time, and I am not losing Ren again.”
Mackenzie bent and kissed his forehead. I could practically taste the sigh that rippled through his aura. His tension came down a hundred notches.
“Theo, stay here and watch their locations. I’m going to take Mackenzie back to my room and fix my phone and computer. Then we will all go find Ren. He’s still on the ship somewhere.”
And just like that, he guided Mackenzie to the door, and I followed in their wake.
Justice paused and gently wrapped his fingers around my neck. He pressed his lips to mine, his tongue briefly, too briefly, in me. He slid his hand up to my face and swiped his thumb across my cheek.
“I love you.”
I moaned. “Alpha.”
He smiled, then kissed me quick and stepped out the door.
I slumped into the wall and just breathed. I may have actually blacked out. I had to hold on to the wall to make it back to the chair and desk. A replica of Ren’s phone was now on the screen. I snagged the little towel elephant that our steward was always leaving for us off the foot of the bed. I snapped it open and rubbed my face. Kissing alphas was very sweaty business.
I zoomed my finger aimlessly around the track pad and sat up straighter when I noticed I could interact with the phones. Should I read her PackSpace page?
No. What was important? Justice said we were probably running out of time. Text messages.
Just as I was about to click open her texts, there was a pop up from a group chat titled “GT”.
G:
Cath, where the fuck are you
A message popped up on Ren’s phone. Reading Catherine’s texts was one thing. Reading Ren’s felt like a violation.
Gaston:
you have 10 minutes
Ten minutes? I navigated to Catherine’s PackFinder app. One dot that was hanging out in the ocean was on the move. Ren.
The screen on Ren’s phone changed. He was bringing up his map and searching for… Police station? Police? Why did that feel terrible?
I pulled the orientation binder onto my lap and flipped through it. Shit. There was a full page travel advisory for Saint Aurelia. I skimmed the document.
Travel in groups, if unbonded. Carry pack registration documents at all times. Respect designated beta-only restrictions.
I paused at the Law Enforcement section.
In case of incidents requiring police intervention, alpha and omega travelers are strongly advised to:
Return immediately to their cruise ship if in port
Contact their consulate in the Port Shopping District
Avoid engaging directly with local law enforcement without consular support
Document all interactions
Why would he go to the police?
Ren didn’t know he hadn’t killed Nolan. He hadn’t seen the video. His dot in PackFinder was off the ship now. He was going to turn himself in.
My fingers shook as I dialed Mackenzie’s phone. Right to voice mail. Shit. I tried again. Reception could be spotty on the ship, but fuck. I didn’t have Justice’s number. This could not be happening. Not now. Not just when I finally found them.
The knot of tension yanked tight in my stomach, making it flip over. I swallowed hard. I tore the page out of the orientation book and left it on the computer, hoping they’d figure it out. I bolted out the door, trying to text as I ran.
I was only a few minutes behind Ren. I could catch him. I fought through the crowd to get off the ship. The sun was super bright. I had to squint. Gaston’s dot had been on the south side of the plaza, right across from the bandstand. I rounded the corner of the pier and spotted the white awning protecting the raised stage. I scanned the crowd. Ren was already talking with Gaston.
I jogged into the plaza and slowed. There were police everywhere in crisp light blue shirts. Some leaning on the seawall. Pairs strolling through the plaza. An officer looked me up and down and sneered.
Ren had his back to me. What was I going to do, walk up and say hi? Gaston grabbed Ren’s arm and pulled him close. No. He wasn’t going to bite him in public, was he? I jogged the last few feet.
Gaston saw me and his face lit up.
“You brought a friend.” Gaston wrapped an arm around Ren’s neck. It could almost look like a hug.
Ren now saw me too and his face went white.
“Theo, get the fuck out of here.”
I kept walking.
“Leave. Now. Go.”
Gaston motioned to the pocket of his windbreaker. I could just make out the butt of a gun. He jabbed it into Ren’s side.
“Well,” Gaston drawled. “This is better than expected. Little omega, why don’t you walk across the plaza and go see my friend over there in the black hat?”
“Don’t fucking do this, Theo. I’m not worth it.”
Time. I just needed time. Justice would get my text. I just needed time. I wrapped my arms around my stomach and slowly started across the plaza.
“Do it, Gaston, fucking bite me.”
“Let’s wait until the little omega is in good hands.”
Sweat dripped into my eyes, stinging. I rubbed at it. Totally didn’t help. Two officers approached me. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I just needed time.
My vision dimmed as a cramp stabbed through my stomach. Panic drenched me in a cold sweat.
No.
Not now.
I stumbled, fell to one knee. An officer grabbed my upper arm and hauled me to my feet.
And I threw the second punch in my entire life.