Page 161 of Alphas Like Us

I never asked if Donnelly supplied the drugs. Some bodyguards will, but Donnelly would let another person chop off his hand before he touchedcocaine.

I stay on my forearms. Not looking over my shoulder athim.

Donnelly inks me quietly. Tattoo machine buzzing, and then he says, “I can’t leave him, man.” He lowers his voice. “I know I can’t get him to stop. I mean, fuck me, his twin brother couldn’t even convincehim.”

I pop a bubble in my mouth. “Because Beckett thinks drugs make him a better dancer,” I whisper, “and now he’s started thinking that he dances like shit withoutthem.”

“I hate that,” he mutters and then speaks under his breath. He tells me how he can’t talk to Beckett about his teenage years. Because then Beckett would try to protect him and ask the Tri-Force to transfer Donnelly off hisdetail.

Donnelly doesn’t explain his past to me. I already know it. When he was fourteen, his parents gave him meth for the first time, and as an adult, he prefers not to be around hard drugs. Not out of temptation. Mainly, they bring back badmemories.

“Hidey ho.” Luna hops off the last stair into the living room. “Uh, I meanhi.” She raises a hand in a hesitantwave.

Luna.

“You covered your ink?” Donnelly mimes to his forearm where lyrics to “Dreams” by The Cranberries should be. The black ink is concealed with flesh-toned makeup. Hiding her tattoos is new. The plain dress, pin-straight ponytail, and simple makeup has been happening for weeksnow.

“Yeah, yeah.” She comes over and sits on theloveseat.

I raise my brows at her. “Why do you keep looking less like yourself and more like everyoneelse?”

She shrugs. Glances at Donnelly, then back to me, and tells us, “Andrew says it’seasier.”

Easierforhim.

“Luna, fuck this fucker,” I say, grinding my gum beneath my molars. Maximoff has been afraid that her new boyfriend is the cause of Luna changing, and in four words, his fear has beenconfirmed.

“This guy wants a basic bitch. Go let him date a basic bitch,” Donnelly says while he finishes my ink. “Don’t turn intoone.”

Luna watches the tattoo machine, lost in thought. “He’s not all bad. He gives okayhead.”

I pop another bubble. “Okayhead sounds likebadhead.”

Donnelly wipes my skin clean. “If you’re just lookin’ to be eaten out, I’ll eat youout—”

“Hey,” Maximoff cuts in on the bottom stair, eyes narrowed. His dark hair is wet from a shower, but he’s already dressed: jeans and a green crew-neck. “What the fuck,Donnelly?”

He shuts off his machine. “I like eatingpussy.”

Maximoff looks at him like he lost his mind. “That’s mysister.”

Luna falls supine on the loveseat in agroan.

Donnelly packs his ink. “I think you’ve embarrassed your sister,man.”

Maximoff looks whiplashed, and I can’t stop smiling. I stand up, pants unzipped and unbuttoned. My tattoo just needsbandaged.

The second he sees the new ink on my lower back, he zeroes in. Fixated. Completely forgetting about Donnelly and his sister. Now I know how to capture 100% of his attention. He even draws near me,dazed.

My smile stretches. “You’redrooling.”

“I’mglaring.”

He’s a human heart-eyeemoji.

Donnelly tattooed a wolf with a pirate eye-patch, and two letters are inked on thepatch.

WS.