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 beherBeta. 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 shutmyeyes. 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.
