Page 79 of Why Cruise

“Justice!”

I trailed my fingertip down his cheek and across his bottom lip.

“There you are! We need you to talk to Aria!” Rose yanked my arm so forcefully, I staggered a dozen feet into the street before I caught myself. “You must tell her Auction Night should be more traditional. Male alphas and female omegas only.”

She was practically running and dragged me a few feet more. I planted my feet. She jerked to a stop. She looked annoyed but immediately rearranged her face into doe-eyed sweetness. I looked down at where she had a grip on my wrist and then glared back at her. She dropped her hand. Fear flickered across her face, but just as fast, it was replaced with a calculated coy shoulder shrug.

“Well, you know…” she babbled.

I took one step toward her. Rose took two back.

“… auctions were traditionally for female omegas only, and…”

I pushed my aura out and gritted my teeth, holding back a bark. I grabbed her by the upper arm and marched her to the line of taxis.

“Your casual bigotry is boring me, Rose.”

I nodded at a female beta leaning against her cab, smoking, and only giving our little show passing interest. “Take her back to the port. Epsilon of the Seas. She arrives safely.” I peeled more than enough bills off my money clip for the task. The driver’s smile widened.

“Of course,” she drawled and popped open the passenger door with a flourish of her hand.

“But Justice…” Rose whined.

“Get in the car.” I spat the words out.

“This bus is…”

“Get in the car or I will make you and you will not like it.”

Her lip trembled, but she ducked her head and crawled in. I stepped back to let the car pull out. It made a wide, gentle turn in the plaza. Rose had her head in her hands, obviously crying.

Theo stepped next to me as I desperately grasped for my aura to get control of it. It couldn’t be comfortable for him to be so close to my energy field.

“Well, that was a choice.” He sighed. I couldn’t tell if that was disapproval in his voice. He tilted his head toward me. “Does it make me a bad person if I really, really enjoyed that?”

I snorted and then took a cleansing breath. My aura still felt hot and prickly. I took a half step away from Theo to shield him from it, but he just matched my movement.

“Mackenzie is going to die when I tell her.” He reached for the shopping bags I was still inexplicably holding. “She’d been making snide comments about Mackenzie’s weight since the beginning.”

I slid my arm back over his shoulder like it belonged there. His aura poured into me, smoothing out all the sharp edges. It took a few seconds for my brain to catch up.

“What do you mean, ‘her weight’?” I said as we started for the bus.

“The fashion at the pool is very cutthroat.”

“Yeah, but what do you mean? Mackenzie is perfect.”

“Exactly.”

As I climbed the steps of the bus, it finally dawned on me that they were picking on her for her appearance.

“Those bitches.” It came out a touch too loudly as I was met with rows of Rose’s entourage, looking concerned and nervous. I rolled my eyes at them and slid into a seat next to Theo.

Mackenzie

I rested my elbows on the rail, watching whitecaps dance across the harbor.

As I shifted my weight, I was very aware of my wet panties. Drenched by Ren and me. Justice’s panties.

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