Alpha Theo by C.J. Primer

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Theo

“Alright, so if you click this button here… then your view changes to all of the feeds at once. See?” Brooke spins around in her chair, peering up at me.

Fuck, she smells incredible. It’s taking every bit of willpower I have to not lean down, kiss those pouty lips of hers. Instead, I stand rigidly, positioned behind her desk chair in the hub, blinking at her monitor.

“Uhh… sorry, which button?” I ask, scrubbing a hand over my face. It’s hard to focus when she’s sitting in front of me looking like that, smelling like that.

Brooke sighs, her brow furrowing in frustration. She spins back around, placing her hand on her mouse, demonstrating. “This one.”

My eyes follow the cursor on the screen as she moves it. We’ve got the new border cameras wired, and Brooke has been spending the afternoon getting the feeds connected and the system up and running. I don’t know anything about this tech stuff, so all I’ve really been able to do up until this point is watch… and torture myself by being in her proximity without touching her.

“Got it.” I place my hands on the back of her chair, leaning my head down beside her ear and dropping my voice low. “So can we do something tonight?”

Brooke starts to turn back to me, her lips parting to speak, but I hear Carly’s annoying-ass voice instead.

“Did you get it figured out?” she asks loudly as she approaches Brooke and me.

I straighten, trying to steady my expression so it doesn’t convey my irritation at her intrusion.

“Yep,” I say, popping the ‘p’. “Brooke’s a genius.”

Carly giggles, sidling up to me and pushing at my chest playfully. “We’re all geniuses here. It’s kind of our job.”

I turn my head so she doesn’t see me roll my eyes as I sidestep away from her. The girl doesn’t take the hint though- she moves closer, fucking crowding me.

“Are we going to the bar tonight, Brooke?” she asks.

Oh hell no- this chick is not going to beat me to the punch making plans with Brooke.

“Not sure,” Brooke replies quickly, spinning back around.

“Oh come on,” Carly pouts. Then she turns to me, flashing a toothy grin. “You’re going, aren’t you Theo?” she asks, reaching out to touch my arm.

I take a little step back out of her reach, bringing a hand up to scratch the back of my head. “Don’t know yet,” I say flatly. “Gotta get this system locked in still.”

Carly sighs, rolling her eyes. “Oh come on. You’re always out on Saturday nights! I’m sure a lot of girls would be disappointed if you skipped out...”

I wish this girl would shut the fuck up. I glance down at Brooke and she’s frowning, her wolf swirling silver in her irises as she folds her arms across her chest.

I shoot Carly an annoyed glare. “Not sure I’m in the mood.”

“Okay then,” Carly chirps. “If you change your mind, I’d be up for another dance.” She winks.

Fucking hell. This girl can’t take a fucking hint. I scrub a hand over my face, moving beside Brooke’s chair and putting my back to Carly.

“Hey Brooke, can you show me how to change up the view of the camera feeds again?” I ask.

Slowly, she spins her chair back around, placing her hand on her mouse. She starts clicking around again and after a minute or two, Carly gets bored and walks away. Thank fuck.

I take another shot.

“So whaddya say?” I ask, leaning in, my voice low. “Can we do something?”

“Like what?” she asks, eyes still trained on her computer screen.

I blow out a breath, my fingertips wandering from the back of Brooke’s chair to the nape of her neck. Sparks dance between our skin as I massage it lightly. “Whatever you want. We can go out, we can stay in. We can go on a night hike and get caught in the rain again…”

“Mmm…” Brooke hums, leaning back into my touch.

The sound she makes does something to my dick. It’s straining against the zipper of my jeans as I imagine her sprawled across my bed naked, making that sound as her head lolls against the pillow- me positioned between her long legs, licking into her, tasting her. I wonder if she’d taste like she smells, of sweet coconut.

My wolf surges to the surface and I pull my hand back, trying to ground myself in reality again. All I’ve been doing is fantasizing about Brooke lately, but those fantasies won’t come to fruition unless I can prove to her that I’m in this for the right reasons; that I’m worthy of being her mate. I’ve gotta start thinking with my head instead of my dick for a change.

Brooke swivels her chair around to face me, adjusting her glasses on the bridge of her nose. “You’re not gonna take Carly up on that dance?” she teases, arching a brow.

I chuckle, shaking my head. “I’d rather fucking chew glass,” I mutter.

I lean forward, placing my palms on the arms of her chair. “C’mon, kid, don’t leave me hanging.”

Brooke rolls her eyes, the corners of her mouth tipping up into a smile. “Fine. You’ve gotta let me get a couple of hours of work in first, though.”

I straighten, holding up my hands in surrender. “Say no more. I’ll get outta your way.”

She shakes her head, still grinning.

“I’ll text you?”

Brooke nods.

I turn to grab my jacket off of the conference table, throwing it over my shoulder. “Later kid,” I say, tossing Brooke a wink as I leave.

As soon as I walk out of the hub, I’m already itchy to be near her again. This mate bond is fucking crazy- it’s like I can feel the distance stretch between us the further apart we become.

I make my way through the corridors of the complex, heading for Gray’s office to give him an update on the border security system. I’m surprised how quickly it came together- if this thing works, it’s going to be a total game changer for the squad. We’ll have a lot more time to focus on other things if we don’t have so much of our manpower devoted to patrols.

When I reach the door to Gray’s office, I raise my hand to knock, trying the knob. I frown when I find that it’s locked, figuring that he must not be in- but then I hear a voice call from inside.

“Just a minute!”

Fucking Fallon.

I heave a sigh, leaning against the doorframe. After a few moments, I hear the click of the lock and the door swings open.

“Hi Theo!” Fallon greets, smiling brightly.

Is this girl fucking bipolar or something? In the past week she’s screamed at me, punched me, and kneed me in the nuts- and now she’s all chipper like we’re buddies? I can’t keep up; her changing moods are giving me whiplash.

“Hey,” I grumble, peering past her into the office. Gray’s seated at his desk, leaning back in his chair, fastening the button on his jeans.

So that’s why the door was locked. I smirk when his eyes meet mine.

Fallon steps aside, gesturing for me to come in. “How’s it going with Brooke?” she asks.

“Good,” I grind out, stepping inside and grabbing for one of the chairs opposite Gray. I hear the door close as I take a seat, but unfortunately Fallon isn’t on the other side of it- she strides over to the chair beside me, flopping down on it sideways and kicking her legs over one of the chair’s arms.

“I’m glad,” she sighs, stroking her long ponytail over her shoulder. “I hope you two can work things out.”

Okay, now I’m confused. Isn’t this the same girl who was just warning me to stay away from her sister a couple weeks ago? My confusion must show on my face because she speaks up again.

“It might surprise you to hear this, but I’m rooting for you guys,” she says, fiddling with the ends of her hair.

I arch a brow. “You are?”

“Of course I am,” she shrugs. “You’re her mate.”

Her mate. Fuck, I can still hardly wrap my mind around it. There’s something primitive inside of me that responds to that word, something possessive.

I study Fallon dubiously, wondering if her words are actually sincere. She’s never seemed particularly fond of me, but then again, I haven’t exactly been warm and fuzzy to her, either. When she started things up with Gray, I guess some part of me felt like she was taking my friend away. Now that I have Brooke in my life, I realize how selfish and immature that line of thinking was.

“Did you get those cameras up?” Gray asks, and my attention shifts to him.

“Yeah,” I breathe. “Brooke just finished linking all the feeds up. It’s pretty slick, dude, you’ve gotta come check it out when you get a chance.”

Gray gives a curt nod. “Definitely. Thanks for getting that going. We should get some of the squad trained on the system so they can start monitoring the feeds.”

“I’m sure they’ll be lining up to do it if they know it means less patrols,” I chuckle.

He nods again. “Why don’t you make an announcement after practice on Monday? See if we can get some volunteers.”

“Sure,” I say, leaning back in my chair. “Brooke showed me the general gist of the system, but IT will probably have to do the actual training.”

“Where’s she at with her program?” Gray asks.

“Done. The geeks have been playing around with it for a few days now.” I got to see it in action, too, and it’s fucking impressive. It’s basically a big database to collect information on known shadow pack affiliates and track their movements through their technological footprint.

He smiles, leaning forward on his elbows. “You guys wanna go back to Denver next week so Brooke can get it set up over there?”

“Yeah, for sure,” I say, a little too enthusiastically. The thought of getting away with her again, spending the night, has me itchy with anticipation.

Gray cracks a smile in response to my enthusiasm. “Cool. I’ll set it up.” He and Fallon exchange glances. It feels like they’re scheming- like setting it up has a dual meaning.

It makes me a little uneasy, but I suppose it doesn’t hurt to have them in my corner. I’ll take all the help I can get when it comes to Brooke.

I know she still has doubts, but if we don’t mark each other to seal the mate bond by the next full moon, it’ll dissolve away- and now that I’ve felt the bond, the thought of losing it is fucking painful. I get why Brooke’s resistant to bind herself to a guy like me, but we’re also hard-wired to give in to the bond, to seal it right after it snaps into place, and it’s driving my wolf a little crazy to be around my mate without claiming her.

If Gray and Fallon are any indication, then sealing the bond only strengthens it, makes it run deeper. I want that with Brooke. I want all of it, all of her.

“Thanks,” I say, rising to my feet.

“See you at the bar tonight?” Gray asks as I stride toward the door.

“Not sure,” I say over my shoulder. I grab for the handle and turn back to him, and he’s got a puzzled look on his face. Probably because my answer to that question has always been a resounding ‘yes’.

“Depends on what Brooke wants to do,” I add.

A smile creeps across Gray’s face. He and Fallon exchange glances again while I just toss them a wave over my shoulder, pulling open the door to leave.

As much as I enjoy going out to the bar in Goldenleaf, part of me hopes that Brooke will want to do something else tonight so I can get some time alone with her. And if she does, I think I know just the place to take her.