Page 27 of Shaken Knot Stirred

Moxie

A smile teased mylips as I woke up in a puddle of sunshine, all warm and cozy. I gently opened my eyes. His aura was blazing and warmer than the sun. Nico was sitting on the floor on the other side of the room, his legs outstretched in front of him. The soles of his boots were scuffed, but I could tell they were polished to a high shine.

His polished shoes had been the first thing I’d noticed about him, well, besides his aura. They’d made him stand out from all the other boys wearing ripped jeans and ratty sneakers. My parents had set up the events in an abandoned strip mall. Peoplehad streamed in and out, waiting for the amazing Moxie to tell their fortunes.

His aura had been unstable, like all alphas when their auras emerged. It had flickered with different shades of orange. I didn’t see orange auras very often. As I watched him, he’d slid a wallet out of some guy’s back pocket and tucked it into his own coat. His shiny shoes and calm demeanor made him seem much older than he was. They made him look like he wasn’t a threat.

He had come back the next week and waited until the very end, when there were no more poor souls waiting to hear what their auras had in store for them. He’d handed me a bracelet, one that I’d watched him steal right off the arm of a sobbing omega the week before. I had told him I knew he stole it. He just flashed me a devastating smile and walked away.

“This only works in romance books. You know that, right?” My voice had that harsh edge that sleep brings.

“What’s that?” Nico said. His voice was as smooth and rumbly as I remembered.

“Watching a woman sleep. It’s fucking creepy I-R-L.” I said the letters and not the words, immediately snapping back into old patterns and inside jokes we used to share.

“L-O-L.”

I sat up, pulling the light blanket around me. I was tired. Running for your life took a lot out of a girl. I was surprised I got any sleep. Tucking the locket back into my bra, I cursed to myself, knowing I probably only fell asleep because I could sense Nico nearby. He had always kept me safe. Until he hadn’t.

“Beg…”

He cut me off with a slight shake of the head and then pointedly looked up behind me. I turned and picked up the camera, he noted. Great. Now I had to wonder if Beg had watched me sleep remotely. That was indeed creepy.

“Okay, well, that’s great. Is Donald’s Donuts still around? We could go get breakfast.”

Keeping the blanket wrapped around me, I stood. So did Nico. As he stepped closer, his eyes fluttered along the edge of my cheek where he had hit me last night. I turned my cheek toward him, hoping there was no mark; he’d feel guilty enough.

“I…” he reached his fingers out to touch my cheek. The door beeped. Nico took a giant step back as the door banged open.

Beg filled the entrance. He threw my duffel bag at me. The force of it knocked me back a few stumbling steps.

“Someone woke up on the dick side of the bed this morning.” I muttered as I shuffled the bag to the side with my feet so I wouldn’t trip on it.

There was a gasp behind me. Lana was in the hall now. She was perfectly dressed, her long blonde hair swept over her shoulder and across her body. Her aura was crinkly with fear that told me not to poke the bear.

Beg stalked over to the worktable and cleared space for him to sit on the edge. I had briefly investigated it last night. A little production line had been set up to repackage drugs into little blister packs, like the ones you got gas station blockers in. I hadn’t touched anything because it looked meticulous and complicated and I didn’t want to screw up Lana’s work.

“A good night of sleep didn’t improve your bitch mouth, I see.”

“Oh yeah, I slept like a dream, what with being kidnapped at gunpoint and all, and left with your guard dogs.”

The dynamic of this pack was fucked. I could see it in their auras. I didn’t fully understand it, however. Pack bonds could look a lot of different ways. They could be ribbons of energy connecting people, or look like spider webs, especially if the pack was big and there were a lot of individual bonds between packmates. Beg’s pack? The bonds were there, but they werestunted, like Beg was loath to touch either of them, holding onto their auras like they were stinky socks.

Because of that, and the fact that Nico had punched me on sight, something he would never do, keeping an adversarial stance was my best option at the moment. Lana moved further into the room. Her aura stretched for Nico and for me. It was the metaphysical equivalent of putting herself between us and Beg.

And then I noticed their scents. Nico’s fresh oak and mint. Lana’s grapefruit. All tied together with Beg’s stinging pine. They swirled around me, making me dizzy and giving me rollercoaster tummy. They were my scent matches, my pack. We were all fucked.

Under the cover of the blanket, I fumbled with the locket. Prying it open, I wedged out a blocker, keeping it pinched between my fingers. If Beg discovered I was his scent matched omega, that would throw gasoline on this little fire.

Beg clapped his hands and rubbed them together. “Let’s discuss your working arrangements.”

“Awww, did your housekeeper quit and you need someone to wash your panties?”

“Hell’s bells,” Nico’s mutter was barely audible. He stepped back to lean against the wall with arms crossed.

“Feisty. It’s going to be fun teaching you manners.”

“You know,” I said, flopping on the couch and arranging myself. I feigned a yawn, using that as cover to pop the blocker into my mouth. “I can’t really do the big scary alpha thing until I’ve had at least two cups of coffee. Why don’t you be a good boy and fetch me one?”

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