Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Blue Valley Woods
Iprowl at Joker’s shoulder through the shadows of the Blue Valley Woods.
Tall, skeletal oaks rise through the mist. Frost coats their thin limbs.
My boots crunch on the snow, which now lies thickly on the forest floor. I wrap my woolen coat more tightly around myself against the freezing white, which is driving from the bruised twilight sky.
My cheeks are bitten by the cold.
I offered to join Joker on his evening patrol because Bird excitedly told me that Phantom was taking him on a date.
Phantom signed that he was, in fact, training the Omega on knife skills this evening.
Either way, Bird needs to improve his fighting skills, and the two of them deserve to spend time alone bonding.
I prefer to nuzzle and treasure Bird in a nest than fight him. I want an Omega, who I can treat like I always wished someone would treat me, with gentleness and care.
On the other hand, Phantom is used to drilling and instructing people. He handles Bird tenderly most of the time but becomes stricter when he trains him.
Phantom doesn’t have the memories of Bird lying in a coma, while desperately attempting to save his life with his pheromones and knowing that he would likely still die. He didn’t nurse him back to health like a bird with broken wings.
He didn’t spend weeks suffering torture, while plotting how to escape. He didn’t lose control of his powers because Bird’s life was threatened and then barely survived on the run with him.
Bird is more precious than my own life.
He is my weakness, and I will never be ashamed of that.
I glance at Joker.
He is dressed in a long, olive-green jacket that camouflages against the trees. His honey blond hair is trapped by its upturned collar.
He is unusually quiet this evening. His shoulders are stiff with tension.
An ominous sensation settles on me like there is something unsafe in the quiet dark, and Joker knows it.
Is something going down tonight?
I scan the dark.
Another week has passed.
Phantom has spent much of it rechecking the house and its defenses, as well as the triggers to the traps that surround it.
Only Joker knows where it is safe to patrol, and I walk where he does because I don’t want to risk being blown up.
Joker has been compulsively checking and rechecking Baby One, Two…well, all his weapons.
I have also sat with Joker and worked out a scheme to save Colette and the other Rogues from the facility, completing the Hunter’s mission, as well as my own.
I won’t simply shut down the ABO Facility; I will stop Dr. Baskerville’s plan to wipe out Rogues. Then together, my pack will expose the truth about Rogues to the rest of the world.
What society does with the information is their business.
I can’t control everything. Being with this pack, however, is teaching me that I can play my part.
I study the line of Joker’s coat. “How many weapons do you have hidden in that?”
Joker winks at me, although he doesn’t stop walking. “Wouldn’t you like to know, baby?”
I jump over a fallen log. “I could simply push you against that tree and do a full body search.”
“Hmm, you could.” Joker holds up his hands in surrender.
“No need to use force, officer, although I’d enjoy it.
I’ll go with you willingly. I’m not resisting.
” He turns around, slinking backwards to lean seductively with his hands still raised against a large oak.
Then he looks at me challengingly. “Don’t you want to see how many concealed weapons I have? ”
I glance down significantly at the outline of his hard cock, which I can see in his pants. “I can already see one concealed weapon.”
He chuckles. “Sixty-six.”
“An awkward position to try out here. But okay, Jokes, lie down.”
“I mean, that’s how many weapons I have on me, not only in my coat.”
“Impressive.” I slam my hand beside Joker’s head, and the honey underneath his peach scent sweetens in response. I lower my mouth to his ear to murmur, “But you forgot one more: Me. Now we’re in the same pack, I’m your weapon too.”
“You’re no one’s weapon. You’re just Rogue.”
I pull back in shock.
Joker is smiling at me, and I dive to kiss him.
I kiss him because I don’t have the words to express how much what he said means to me.
Joker kisses me back like he also finds it easier than words.
Finally, panting, I pull back. “I want to bond with you. We’re two Rogues. We belong together. Do you feel it too?”
Joker clutches the collar of my coat. “From the moment that I met you, baby. Do you mean it?”
“I don’t say what I don’t mean. But what will Phantom think?”
Joker is staring at me in awe, and it’s making me uncomfortable. I don’t feel that I deserve it, but I won’t reject it either.
“He has been waiting for you to voice it.” Joker slides his hands down the front of my coat like he can’t stay still. “He is waiting for Bird to be ready to be bonded, and for you to want to bond me. He’ll wait as long as you need.”
I am surprised how okay I am with that.
Bird needs a pack, and this is the right pack for me.
Mars wouldn’t recognize me, but he’d be so fucking happy for me.
When an owl hoots behind me, Joker jolts.
My eyes narrow.
He’s too on edge.
Something is wrong.
“Are the Krakens close?” I demand.
Shocked, Joker lets go of my coat. “I wasn’t expecting to bring our enemies into your bonding speech.”
“When I bond you,” I wedge my knee between his thighs, “you will be gasping with pleasure and not shaking with nerves. Now, why are the Krakens so dangerous?”
“Besides the fact that they’re deadly bounty hunters? Crack SEALs? Trained killers?”
“The same could be said of Phantom and you.”
Joker glances down, troubled. “Phantom and me may be unhinged in our own ways. But we’re not sadistic psychopaths.”
Fear coils inside me. “They hurt you.”
“Many times.”
“I don’t mean with punches or hazing.”
I feel sick.
Joker’s scent sours.
He ducks his head. “Reaper was the bomb expert. She was the one who burned Phantom. She was in love with Viper and followed her lead. And it was Viper who made my life hell. Viper the top, elite fighter who everybody admired. Viper the Alpha who insisted that one day I would be her Beta. She had no limits and she was the unit’s golden Alpha.
So, everybody was afraid to challenge or report her, especially to help a Beta.
You’re not like the other Betas, she’d say as she pressed me down onto the bunk.
No other Beta would understand me like you do, she’d add.
She had these poisonous green eyes, and for years, it was all I saw when I shut my eyes.
I still do, sometimes. She’d always say, don’t fight this… I always did but…”
“Jokes,” I whisper, my heart breaking.
I saw this with Omegas at the auctions. It’s why Mars and I were determined to take over the Adonis pack and stop the Omega trafficking.
I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for Joker, as the only Beta in a unit of Alphas.
“Did Phantom know?” I demand.
I must know whether Phantom ignored what was happening to his friend for the sake of his career.
How can I accept a Chief Alpha who did that?
Joker frantically shakes his head. “Of course not. He’d been promoted and didn’t share the same camp, unless we were on a mission.
I hid it from him because I didn’t want to ruin his life along with mine if he found out.
He would have torn the Krakens apart, no matter the consequences.
Not telling him was my way of saving him. Please, you can’t tell him.”
Relieved, I rush to reassure Joker, “I won’t.”
“Afterward,” Joker’s voice is unusually flat, and his expression shutters, “I would wash the Krakens’ scents desperately off my skin.
I could still always smell them. Feel their touch.
I felt embarrassed that I couldn’t fight them off.
I was meant to be strong. And every time, I felt like I was losing myself, piece by piece.
I knew that I was becoming increasingly reckless on missions.
Perhaps, switching saved my life. If I hadn’t become a Rogue, then I would have eventually died…
let myself die. Because there was no way out.
I was yearning after an Alpha who I thought would only ever see me as a friend, trapped with a pair of Alphas who were wearing me down to become their Beta more every day.
And that is who is coming. The Krakens.”
My eyes become as cold as ice. “You mean, that’s who we are going to kill.”
Joker raises his gaze to mine, vulnerable. “I love you.”
“And I am going to bond you.” Then I freeze. My heart rate spikes. “We’re being watched.”
The hairs rise on the back of my neck, but I don’t move.
I can’t give myself away.
Joker pulls me closer, as if he’s going to kiss me, as cover. “The Krakens are in the woods this evening. They’re doing long distance surveillance.”
My voice is dark. “They can see us.”
“They won’t make a move yet. I’ve been in teams with them enough to know how they work.”
I snarl, grabbing Joker by the hair and tugging his head to the side. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I needed to be sure.”
“It’s what you’re doing on this patrol, right? But it’s also why you’re so tense.”
“Yeah, baby. Keep yanking on my hair, however, and all the tension will leave me. Do you want to put on a show for them? Because I know how much seeing me with you will kill Viper, and that’s the perfect revenge.”
“She doesn’t get to witness that. You’re all mine and too special. How far can they see?”
“Just to the edge of the territory for the moment.”
My expression gentles. “If you’re not up to being bonded tonight, then tell me. It was a lot, what you told me. I don’t want to push.”
Joker smiles. “It’s because you’d check in on me that I know I want to do it tonight. Erase that memory for me. Their scent and touch. I don’t want to wake up with the image of her green eyes but your blue ones. Bond me, baby. I want to be your Beta.”
Joker is a thrill-seeker. He needs an adrenaline rush. And I want to give him the illusion of danger but show him that he can be fully in control of it.
So, I lean in and whisper, “How about if we have a hunt? A chase. You run, little Beta, and if I catch you, then I will fuck, bite, and bond you.”
Joker moans. His pupils dilate.
“What if I don’t run?” Joker bares his neck further. “What if I want you to do that?”
“Of course you want me to.” I let go of Joker’s hair with a shove. “It’s a reward for both of us. But I have to follow exactly in your footsteps, or we’ll be blown up, won’t we? It’s a game. Want to play?”
Joker’s eyes widen. “You’re as crazy as I am.”
“Was there ever any doubt?”
“Phantom would spank us for this.”
“Let him try. Now, run.”
Joker spins and sprints into the dark.
One, two, three.
I only give Joker a three second head start, before I dive after him.
I am thrilled by the chase.
Primal play is my kink.
I truly do need to focus, however, on only following where he runs because he knows the safe route back to the cabin. He won’t reach safety, however, because I am going to catch him.
I am making sure that we are safer in our territory and further away from the prying eyes of the Krakens.
The Krakens have taken too much from Joker already. I am not allowing them to take from him the moment that he bonds with me.
I weave around trees, as snow drives more fiercely into my face, and I blink it out of my eyes.
Joker isn’t attempting to be quiet as he runs through the forest. He is deliberately leaving a trail for me to follow.
I know that he can run faster than most people (including me), and has been trained in stealth.
This is a game that he is determined to lose.
I grin wickedly as I speed up. My heart hammers in my chest.
Joker is just in front of me. His coat whips in the wind.
I growl, before I leap.
Joker laughs — fucking laughs — as I snatch him by the scruff of the neck and drag him backwards.
He struggles, while I slam him against a tree. He squirms around, until he is facing me.
I pin him in place with my arm.
Joker grins like he has won. “Help! What shall I do? I am caught by the big, bad, Alpha. I should never have risked walking through this wood to my grandma’s house. My, what big teeth you have.”
“All the better to eat you with.” I nibble teasingly along Joker’s neck, and he groans.
“My prey.” I lick up and down Joker’s throat, as he shivers.
Then I take him by surprise by reaching into his coat pocket and pulling out one of his many small knives.
“I have no idea how that got there, officer,” Joker deadpans.
“I’m impressed by how you’re able to combine so many roleplays.”
“It’s a talent.”
Joker is panting but he shows a trust that means more than words can, as I draw the flat side of the dagger down his sweater, before pressing the sharp tip lightly against his crotch.
He stills. “Careful, baby.”
“Hmm.” I slice through Joker’s trousers with deft movements to reveal his underwear.
He is breathing hard.
I reach into the hole that I have created, palming over his crotch.
He is hard like I knew he would be.
“I promised that if I caught you, I would fuck you…” I withdraw my hand, before slicing through the panels of his underwear, which fall through to reveal his hard, pierced cock.
“I didn’t think that I could find you hotter.” Joker is staring at me with admiration. “But you’re the only one who I prefer handling my weapons than me.”
“I should have known that you’d call your cock your weapon.” I grip Joker’s dick firmly in my hand.
Joker gasps into my kiss, which is passionate and claiming.
He shakes, as I press the knife against the naked skin of his hip, while working his cock with powerful, long strokes.
I am overwhelming him.
I break the kiss, lowering my head to suck and lick up his throat.
“Alpha,” Joker moans. “I adore you…”
I nibble harder on his sensitive skin, and he melts.
I trace the knife in circles, lower and lower toward his balls, which draw up as he is rushed toward intense pleasure.
Then I lick over Phantom’s scarred bond bite.
Joker yells and bucks, shuddering with the pleasure from the bond bite.
“Do you want me to bond you, Jokes?” I check in a final time. “Because I want you, all of you, for who you are. Omega, Beta, or Rogue. It doesn’t matter to me. I simply want you.”
Joker’s hazy gaze clears, as he drops his hands to my shoulders. “Please...”
Joy rushes through me, as I sink my teeth into Joker’s collar bone beneath Phantom’s scarred bite, claiming Joker as my bonded Beta.