Page 5 of Reckless: Chaos

Windows line one wall, probably gorgeous in daylight but now reflecting our silence back at us. The other walls hold normal bedroom furniture—a dresser, a desk, a reading chair—but somehow even these mundane items feel artistic. Intentional. Like everything in this space serves both function and beauty.

“I’m never leaving.” The words slip out, half-joking, half-desperate truth.

Theo’s laugh carries equal parts amusement and relief, like he’s been holding his breath waiting for my reaction.

I stumble toward the bed, fighting with my pants in a way that’s decidedly less graceful than this room deserves. Finally down to my bra and panties, I burrow into his nest, letting the weight of the night—the mission, the confrontation, the truth about the virus—settle into my bones.

The alcohol makes everything soft around the edges, but it can’t quite dull the reality of what we’re facing. What I’m hiding. What’s coming.

Theo joins me with quiet grace, curling around me like he was made to be my shelter. Like this spot in his nest was crafted exactly for this moment, this need.

Sleep pulls at me, but I feel his lips brush my forehead, feel the words that follow sink into my soul.

“Let me chase away the demons tonight.”

And he does. Not by fixing anything—the virus still exists, betas are still dying, Sterling Labs still looms over everything—but by offering something just as vital as solutions.

A moment of peace.

A safe harbor.

A place to belong.

Even if it’s just for tonight.

Chapter 2

Cayenne

“Wake up, sunshine.”

The whispered words pierce my skull, scattering the cotton wool stuffed between my ears. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth, coated in the memory of last night’s whiskey and confessions. Finn. Even with my eyes closed, I’d know that lilting accent anywhere—intelligence wrapped in velvet, books and binary code given voice.

I crack one eye open, immediately regretting every life choice that led to my current state of dying. But then Finn swims into focus, and suddenly my hangover seems like a minor inconvenience. He’s wearing contacts instead of his usual glasses, and Christ on a cracker—how have I never noticed how his eyes hold entire universes? Arctic blue shot through with darker streams of midnight, like code running through processors. His usual professor-chic is replaced with tactical gear that transforms him from intellectual to predator, all lean muscle and contained power. His golden-brown hair has that perfectly imperfect mess that screamsI tried to look like I didn’t try,and my fingers itch to find out if it’s as soft as it looks.

“Brought you hangover salvation.” He holds up a bottle of soda and pills like a peace offering, his movements calculatedand quiet. “Try not to wake our resident artist. He gets bitchy without his beauty sleep.”

The warm weight pressed against my back reminds me exactly where I am—in Theo’s nest, surrounded by stolen clothes and omega comfort. It also reminds me that I’m wearing nothing but last night’s underwear, a fact that Finn’s gaze catalogues with beta precision. The slight dilation of his pupils, the almost imperceptible catch in his breath—details I might miss if I hadn’t spent weeks learning to read this man’s micro-expressions over chess matches.

“What ungodly hour did you drag yourself out of bed?” My voice catches like sandpaper, threatening to split my skull. The events of last night crash through my mind—the mission, the confrontation, the truths I shared.

“Early enough that even our alpha hasn’t started his military-precise morning routine.” His smile carries secrets beneath the scholarly exterior, reminding me that for all his intellectual presentation, Finn is just as much predator as the others. “Come on. Got something to show you that’s worth the hangover.”

He backs away from the bed with a grace that belongs more in Theo’s world of performance than behind computer screens. I extract myself from the omega’s embrace, trying not to notice how Theo immediately curls around the warm spot I leave behind, his face peaceful in sleep in a way it never is awake.

The cool air hits my bare skin like a system shock, making me hyper-aware of Finn’s presence. Of how the tactical gear transforms him from professor to operator. Of how different he looks without his glasses acting as a shield between him and the world. Of how his eyes track my movements with the same precision he uses to analyze code.

“Here.” He hands me the aspirin and soda first—practical solutions to immediate problems, so very Finn. The backpack comes next, offering with a hint of heat in his voice, “Clothes.Unless you’re trying to distract me from my carefully calculated timeline?”

The words carry layers of meaning, like encrypted data waiting to be decoded. Something warm unfurls in my stomach that has nothing to do with the hangover and everything to do with how he’s looking at me—like I’m a puzzle he wants to take apart piece by piece.

“Trying to get me alone, beta?” I tease back, but take the bag, recognizing clothes that definitely came from my room, not Theo’s collection. “Breaking and entering now?”

His smile turns sphinx-like, all hidden knowledge and dangerous promises. “Maybe I just want to show you that every system has its weaknesses. Even one designed by yours truly.”

Now that—that gets my attention. Because Finn designed the mansion’s security himself, a fact he’s lorded over me since my arrival. The idea that he’s willing to show me the holes in his own creation? That’s better than aspirin for clearing my head.

“You had me at system weaknesses,” I tell him, already pulling out clothes that are suspiciously perfect for whatever he has planned. Dark, fitted, practical. “Turn around, unless you want more of a show than you’ve already gotten.”

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