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“Ohmigod, I’m so sorry!” I let my camera fall to be held up by the strap and place a hand on the back of the toddler I almost knocked out of her grip.
“Oh, you’re fine,” she says, laughing. She has big blue eyes, dark brown hair, and killer curves. “I’m probably to blame. You got some wicked shots of my men. I was creeping over your shoulder.”
“You’re with one of the bands?” I ask, shaking my head. Of course she is. Not only is she stunningly beautiful, but she’s backstage with a toddler. It’s highly unlikely a fan would bring a baby to a New Year’s Eve show.
“Matted Whine,” she says. “By the way, I’m Love.”
“Tinley.” I hold out a hand.
Damn, nowIfeel like a creeper. I had the biggest crush on Issac Matthews a few years ago. He’s one of the two frontmen for Matted Whine.
“You’re with War and Ram, right?” She shakes my hand but rocks back and forth. The baby in her arms is probably a year or two old. She’s got an adorable pair of ladybug headphones that cover half her head.
“And Fitz,” I agree, smiling politely. The audience screams in the background, and I’m baffled how any child could sleep through this chaos. They must be some dang good headphones.
“Right, that man is one fine hunk of alpha.” She laughs, but I’m pretty sure my smile turns to a frown in a millisecond. I shake off the omega pout that comes when anyone checks out my alphas. I mean, they are all equally gorgeous. “Aww, your face. You’ll get used to it, but I wanted to introduce myself and make sure to have you tell Warrick how happy we are for all of you.”
“Thank you,” I say sincerely.
“You know, I still haven’t been able to shake the guilt.” She nods at the baby. “Warrick was injured helping my guys make it to me when I was in labor. I’m sure you know he intervened when a woman was being attacked.”
“Yeah,” I agree, but he and I haven’t talked about it in depth yet. The only time he mentioned it, the conversation focused on the emotional ramifications, rather than many specific details.
“Plus, they’re all part of the Ruined Records family. I’m just saying, if you ever need anything…” She wraps an arm around my shoulder, yanking me into her chest. “And please tell him how happy we are for all of you. I haven’t seen him since the hospital right after the riot, but we brought Bellamy in case.” She shrugs. “I don’t know. I’m just a big fan of that guy as a human being, ya know?”
A wide smile breaks out over my face because we can definitely agree on that.
I pull back as we separate, and ice slides through my veins. Xavier specifically didn’t come back for this performance, but he’s walking our way with the guy I now know is Gavin’s assistant, and the scary bathroom guy. They’re still pretty far down the hallway, close to the greenrooms, but they’re coming in our direction.
“Oh God,” I whisper, moving my face back in line with Love’s shoulder.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, twisting her head. “Is that the guy? The one we’re all supposed to keep an eye out for?” I nod. “Gotcha.” Her head swivels to the back wall and she pulls me with her over to two men. “This is Jude. That’s Vince. They’re going to go detain him.”
One guy is tall with blond curly hair and a surfer vibe. The other is shorter and stocky, with a dark olive complexion and black hair.
“That group walking our way?” the shorter man asks.
“Yeah, Xavier from Northern Star is with them.” I peek around Love. “Okay, they just took a turn into one of the greenrooms on the right.”
“Shit, Tinley. I turn around for ten damn seconds and the two of you disappeared.” Steve jogs over.
“Isn’t Xavier supposed to be on stage with the rest of Northern Star?” the blond man asks.
“Doesn’t matter,” the other guy says. “Let us handle this. You stay here.” He looks at Steve. “You’re with us. We’ve got a hit.”
The audience screams in the background, but since we’re farther away, it’s slightly muted.
“Um, so I think you might be in trouble,” Love says, spinning me around.
My camera slaps against my stomach as Warrick stands, chest heaving and looking quite feral. Several of the venue staff who stuck around are trying to shove him back toward the stage.
My giant alpha quirks an eyebrow, holding out an arm for me.
“Oh wait, let me hold this for you.” Love carefully pulls the strap of my camera up until she can slide it over my head. As soon as that’s off, she gives my shoulders a helpful shove from behind.
I stumble forward, pushing down my hair that got tangled up when she pulled off my camera.
Warrick meets me in the middle, shaking his head. He wraps an arm around my back and guides us toward the stage.
