Page 81 of Unhinged Alphas

I nod, intrigued.

"I was a fresh-faced recruit barely old enough to hold a gun. Lied about my age to get in, actually. We were under fire at the port I was stationed at and my gun jammed. I had this bright idea to use a whiskey bottle for a Molotov cocktail." He pauses, chuckling. "Turns out I can't throw for shit. Missed my target by a mile and set our own barracks on fireinstead."

My eyes widen. "What did you do?"

"What any self-respecting soldier would do," he says with a wink. "I ran like hell. Figured Columbia would think I'd done it on purpose, sabotage or something. The commanding officer already hated my guts. So I stowed away on a cargo ship and came to Reinmich to volunteer for the bigger war going on over here. Only thing I knew was fighting, so… might as well put it to use somewhere else, right?"

"And that's how you became one of the Ghosts?" I ask, piecing it together.

He nods. "More or less. They saw potential in me, I guess. Or maybe they just needed someone who could blow shit up and ask questions later."

I snort at that. "Seems like a valuable skill set."

Whiskey's laugh rumbles through me, and I can't help but smile. There's something infectious about his good humor, even in the face of his less-than-stellar past. I find myself wanting to know more, not just about him, but about all of them.

"What's your real name?" I ask, my fingers still tracing idle patterns on his chest.

"Whiskey," he replies, smirking. "The old me's long gone."

"I get that," I muse. "What about the others?"

He kisses my forehead softly, his stubblescraping against my skin. "Why don't you ask them? I bet they'd like to tell you about their histories, even if they're hard to talk about. Might help you understand them better."

"Maybe," I murmur, not committing either way. A mischievous thought crosses my mind, and before I can think better of it, I blurt it out. "Do you actually have a thing going on with Plague?"

Whiskey's eyes widen, and I swear I see a blush creeping up his neck. He clears his throat, suddenly looking everywhere but at me. "Uh, well... that's... complicated."

I raise an eyebrow, intrigued by his reaction. "Complicated how?"

He sighs, raking a hand through his hair. A few loose strands fall back over his honeyed eyes as he averts his gaze. "I don't know if I wanna get into all the details," he admits with a sheepish grin. "But it was a one-time thing."

I can't help the heat that rushes through me as my imagination starts flooding me with images of Plague's gloved hands on Whiskey's broad chest, their lips crashing together...

"Tell me more," I whisper, my fingers ghosting over the fabric of his shirt, inching lowerwith each pass.

Whiskey shifts beneath me, his breath catching as my hand slips under his tactical belt. "I don't know if that's such a good idea," he mumbles, but I feel him hardening against my palm.

He’s right. This isn't a good idea.

None of it is.

It's the last thing I need when I'm already struggling with these weird attachments to these alphas and what it means for me. But my hand doesn't stop. My fingers trace the hard line of his cock through his pants, and heat pools between my legs.

I want this. I want him. It has nothing to do with heat or biology or any of that bullshit. I just want to feel good, to forget everything else for a little while longer.

And I want to learn more about what he did with Plague.

"You sure about that?" I purr, pressing my palm against him more firmly. "Because it feels like you're pretty interested."

Whiskey groans, his hips bucking slightly against my hand. "Fuck, Ivy. You're killin’ me here."

I smirk, enjoying the power I have over him in this moment. It's intoxicating, knowing I can reduce this mountain of a man to a quivering mess with just a touch.

I look up at him through my lashes, biting my lip. "What if I make it worth your while?"

His eyes widen, pupils dilating as he catches a whiff of my scent. "You're... Are you turned on right now?"

I nod, heat flooding my cheeks. "I didn't even know alphas could do stuff like that with each other until today," I admit. "It's... kind of hot. Especially you and Plague."