The guy continued to watch the women. They moved their hands under each other’s skirts.
Nox slipped the fifty-dollar bill between the kid and his view. He jerked the earbuds free and turned around. “Whoa, sorry.” He held up the box. The plastic bag dangling from his wrist strained with the load of soda bottles. “You ordered pizza and drinks?”
“Wouldn’t be standing out here if I hadn’t.”
The guy glanced down at the towel around Nox’s waist. “No, I guess not, huh?” He grinned, then held out the pizza box. Nox took it, and the kid worked the bag off his wrist. Nox took the sodas as well.
“You’re total’s fifteen bucks.”
Nox gave him the fifty.
“I don’t have change for this.” The guy tried to hand it back.
“Just keep it.”
He glanced at the bill, then Nox. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah, consider it a tip.” Nox shut the door. The pizza and a bag of drinks filled the small table. While he finished laying their clothes out on the heater, Luca came out of the bathroom wearing the other ugly towel. A wave of perfumed soap followed him.
“Shower’s all yours.” The bruises on his arms glowed against his pinked skin. Four circles on one side spaced perfectly for Nox’s fingers and one more on the opposite side a match for his thumb. Luca rubbed his arm. “I bruise easy.”
But Nox had put those bruises on him. “I know you said you weren’t hungry but try to eat.” Nox walked toward the bathroom. As he passed Luca, his muscles tightened, and lines of burning ice seared his insides. The scent of death sank its teeth into Nox’s thoughts, commanding him.
Nox stood shoulder to shoulder with a dozen teammates.
“Your Alpha will be in constant contact with you.” The woman walked a line in front of them. Her uniform was no different, but she was the one in charge. Badges and pins were not needed to remind anyone of that fact. “Do not deviate from your orders, or you will be punished.”
The air around the man next to Nox tensed.
No, they wouldn’t be punished but Koda would.
“You’re dismissed.” She put a hand on Nox’s shoulder. “You stay.”
“Why?”
“I’m not comfortable cutting your leash yet. No one’s ever gone Phase three. Echols wants to make sure your connection to your Alpha hasn’t been compromised.”
“It hasn’t.” Even now, Nox’s heartbeat matched Koda’s.
“You lost your memory.”
“For a few days.”
“That may be, but no one’s ever gone Phase three. This is uncharted territory.”
“I’m fine. My memory’s fine.”
She narrowed her gaze. “They can manage without you. Echols wants you to see Dr. Shultz for a full series of tests.”
Nox flinched. He didn’t care about hurting, but he felt nothing without Koda suffering as well. There were other ways to stress the ties between betas and their Alpha. But they took more time, and time inhibited progress.
Since Dr. Dante had left, it seemed progress was Echols’s only priority.
“Nox?”
It was no longer a woman’s scrutinizing gaze staring at him, but the unsure eyes of a much younger man; dark brown like his brother’s. But Luca’s hair was a shade closer to black.
Nox moved closer.