Page 5 of Rook

I want to fuck her, just like everyone else.

Guess I should fucking get in line.

Chapter two

Oberon

The dust from the abandoned lab coats my throat, a bitter reminder of another dead end.

We’re a bit of an odd crime-solving trio, but it seems like nothing is normal these days. Me, Rook, and Aisling have been hunting for the newest source of eros for weeks…and we keep coming up empty.

I slump onto the couch, kicking up a cloud from the old cushions. Rook’s rummaging through his horde of flicks, while Aisling stands arms akimbo, tapping her foot.

“Come on, not another action movie,” she groans, flicking her hair over her shoulder. “My nerves are shot; I need something light, something fun.”

“Light and fun?” Rook chuckles, pulling out a case and waving it in the air. “This is Pacific City, sweetheart. Even our comedies have gunfights.”

“Your taste is garbage,” she shoots back, but there’s no heat in it. She’s tired, we all are—playing house because our real one has crumbled to shit.

“Pick something bloody,” I grunt from the couch, my bones aching like hell after today’s wild goose chase through the ruins of another lab.

“Horror it is,” Rook decides with a nod, thumb pressing the remote with more force than needed. The guy’s got this unexpected thing for slasher flicks, which, considering our line of work, you’d think he’d be sick of blood and gore by now.

“I’m gonna go shower—then food?” Aisling’s voice cuts through the room, all soft edges but carrying the weight of a deftly thrown knife. She’s peering at us, one eyebrow cocked in that way she has when she’s half-serious, half-amused.

“Sure thing, Stargazer,” Rook replies, his eyes trailing after her as she saunters off towards the bathroom. There’s an ease about him, even as he watches her go, like he’s memorizing her every step without making it obvious.

I lean back, the leather of the couch creaking under my weight, feeling the pull in my muscles and the drag of exhaustion. But there’s something else, too—a kind of warmth, maybe respect, as I look at Rook. He’s solid, reliable; a straight shooter in a world full of crooked arrows.

“Get something with extra cheese. And throw in some jalapeños,” I call out to him, breaking the silence that settled like a third person in the room.

“Got it. Heat it is,” Rook says with a chuckle, already on the phone with the closest pizza joint. He’s not exactly in delivery range out here in the boonies, but I guess he’s got a hookup—and I’m sure he pays well. His fingers tap a staccato rhythm on the armrest, the only tell that he isn’t as calm as he seems.

“Hey, Rook,” I start, shifting to get a better look at him. “You ever think about… you know, having a pack of your own?”

He pauses, phone pressed to his ear, and gives me this look like I’ve just asked him to recite poetry or something. “Haven’t had much time for thinking about ‘ever afters’, Oberon.”

“Fair enough,” I reply, understanding more than he probably knows. We’re not exactly living in a fairy tale—more like a gritty comic book where the heroes are just as flawed as the villains.

“Besides,” he adds, the corner of his mouth ticking up in a smirk once the pizza’s ordered, “who says I don’t already have one?”

I lean back into the couch, a spring creaking under my weight. Rook’s still thumbing through that worn stack of DVDs like they hold some secret to the universe.

“That’s not what I meant,” I scoff. “I mean like…a pack of your own, with all the bells and whistles.”

“You mean the fucking?” he snorts. “I think I’m getting enough of that vicariously through you, mate.”

I flush, but he waves it off.

“Can’t help it,” I admit with an awkward shrug, feeling the heat rise in me, but not from embarrassment. It’s something else—something primal. “She needs it. Needs us. She’s short two pack members, and that’s no small thing for an omega.”

I catch his eye, hold it. There’s a weight there, a question hanging between us that neither dares to voice. It’s on the tip of my tongue, this unspoken invite.

But I let it linger, unsaid.

Because the thing is…I shouldn’t be making these calls, extending these invitations. When I came into this pack, I was second to Gunnar; he and Aisling had a deal that they would discuss bringing someone else in when it seemed right. It’s normal for omegas to have multiple mates, but Gunnar has been possessive since the day I met him.

Now he’s AWOL…and I’m not sure who’s in charge anymore.

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