The Stargazer's Alpha

Ch. 26: Rogues' Reward

"Then Harold laughed," I told Mie. "He laughed and said, 'I should have known. Blake's crawled out of dumpster, so he wouldn't fuck trash on the sly. No, no. He's fated to trash. It makes so much more sense.' Then he laughed even harder, like a madman. It scared me."

More like terrified me. Freaked me out so much that despite the aches and the vise that was crushing my skull, and wanting to throw up continuously, I crept to the office. It was better than staying in my room. The drop from the balcony had become too tempting. I needed someone to tell me I didn't screw up with Harold. Or at least that I didn't screw up too too bad.

Mie's face froze in disapproval, as she shoved a second box of tissues into my hands. The contents of the first one lay crumpled all over my desk. "It's a disaster. You're a disaster. A catastrophe."

I could barely squeeze out a sob, my throat collapsed so much. "Why...why did you send him?"

"Harold was eager, and it gave me time to data dump his tracking app. It has Scarlett," came Mie's snappy reply.

I'd just pressed a fresh tissue to my nose to catch the drip, so I stared above it. Mie looked as concerned and as slightly disgusted with me as before, sitting stiff, with arms wrapped protectively over her growing stomach. "S-say it again?"

"I suspected that there was very little trust between the cousins, so I snooped. I expected him to keep tabs on you, but Scarlett was a delightful surprise."

A shiver ran up my spine at the thought of being watched. If it felt like a betrayal of trust to me, who held no illusions about Harold, for Scarlett it would be devastating. Not that I would ever pity her or anything. "Can I see the data?"

"No," Mie said. "You've done enough for one day to ruin Blake."

The second box of tissues went even faster than the first.

Mie's heart softened only at the very end of the day. Partially, because I forced myself to work through the haze of misery, and partially because Reed called. Reed's calls always helped.

"Okay," she said, "but not here."

For the next few days, we sat late at night at Mie and Reed's, plotting to the sounds of the crackling fireplace and the twins evading their bedroom like it was Alcatraz.

***

The result of this conspiracy was me, speeding toward Seattle on Blake's old motorbike on Friday night. It didn't surprise me at all that Blake owned a bike in his teens. Or that his parents begged him to sell it. And that he couldn't bring himself to do it, so he hid it in his brother's garage.

"To ride free, when he has time," Reed said, shaking his head with a bit of chuckle, before Mie cut him off with a murderous stare. "Ah...of course, an Alpha should never act so irresponsibly."

So, yes, I had Blake's bike between my legs, speeding to Seattle in pursuit of Scarlett.

As far as the pack was concerned, their future Luna locked herself in Harold's house, howling to the moon as the pangs of mate-sickness ebbed and flowed.

Reed, Mie, and I knew better.

We thought she'd be in a seedy bar in Seattle, in a neighborhood that people should avoid after dark if they didn't want to fall prey to muggers and murderers. I should know—poverty forced me to rent a room just a few blocks away from Scarlett's favorite watering hole.

This address was so surprising, we had checked and rechecked. There could be no mistake: our sophisticated Luna rarely missed Friday night specials there.