Chapter Text
The east coast of Maryland
September 1814
“Gem, are you off your head? That’s not good enough!” Harry’s cousin looked him up and down in his disguise. On his head he wore a cheap, floppy brown felt hat and on his body a faded, overly large shirt that itched. At least they’d let him keep his trousers, though they were his oldest pair that he wore only to help Aunt Jane in the garden.
Gem chewed her lip. “Well, what do you suggest then, Johnny?”
“How should I know?” Johnny turned to his sister. “Sarah, what do you think?”
Harry let his eyes fall to the ground, his boot scraping in the dirt as his sister and cousins stood in the coach yard arguing over how best to hide Harry’s beauty. Unused to hearing anyone comment on the way he looked, isolated as he was in a small town in the countryside, his cheeks heated with their discussion. It was eventually decided to shape a bit of fabric and stuffing around Harry’s midsection in imitation of a pregnancy.
“How do I look?” Harry asked after Sarah had pinned the pretend belly in place. He glanced down at the protrusion beneath his clothing and then up hopefully at his sister and cousins.
His sister pulled her hat off her head and ran a hand through her hair. “I really must be off my head to let you come.”
“Gem, there isn’t much point in doing this without Harry,” Johnny pointed out.
Sarah wrinkled her brow and poked a bit at the straw stuffed belly strapped to Harry’s midsection. “I don’t think it’s so terrible. And Johnny’s right, unfortunately this plan doesn’t work without a skilled artist.”
Gem closed her eyes, her jaw twitching in annoyance. She had always been this way. Even as children, Gem had shown every indication of the alpha she would one day become, a key officer working for the Secretary of War.
When she opened her eyes, they softened as they focused on Harry. She smiled and tugged on one of his long curls, a brief sign of affection that Harry was so unused to in his daily life. “Just too fetching of an omega for your own good.”
“I can do this, Gem. I know I can.” He had come this far, and he would not be dissuaded from his one chance to help the American cause, although he could not help but also be secretly pleased to be able to spend time with his firebrand of a sibling.
“I know you can, H. I’m just worried our cover isn’t nearly convincing enough should anyone take notice.” Gem looked him over closely. “Just sit in the corner with Sarah and hopefully the dim light will hide what your disguise does not.”
Gem and Johnny hitched up the wagon that would take them to the coastal tavern where a traitor was to turn up to give purposely leaked information over to the British. After a bumpy ride that had Harry lurching to and fro, the wagon turned off the road and onto a gravelly beach.
As Harry climbed from the wagon, he was met with the sight of the dark sea crashing down next to an outcropping of land. There sat a dilapidated tavern that bore the name The Blue Moon in faded lettering. The sounds of a raucous party emanated from the tavern, the windows allowing the sight of a rowdy crowd drinking and dancing to the tune of a few fiddles.
Johnny clutched Harry’s arm. “Sarah knows what to do. Just keep your eyes down and if anyone smiles at you, for pity’s sake, do not smile back.”
Harry nodded, his heart thudding in his chest. In his nineteen years of life, he’d never stepped foot in a tavern or even been exposed to anyone rougher than the farmhands that worked the fields back home in Virginia. But there was nothing that could have deterred Harry from this mission.
Sand on the floors crunched beneath his boots and the haze of smoke burned at his eyes as they entered. The smells of unwashed alpha bodies and fish and roasted corn had Harry scrunching his nose. Johnny led him over to a rickety table near the fireplace just as the tavern owner appeared.
“Ah, the fellows with the puppets! You can put the stage over on the other side of the fireplace.”
As Gem and Johnny set up the stage, Harry peeked up from beneath his hat. The crowd primarily consisted of rough looking alphas and betas with a few omegas scattered among them. The bar looked to be merely a plank of wood laid over two large casks and behind it was a sign reminding anyone staying upstairs that four to a bed was the maximum.
His nerves calmed a little at the capable way Gem and Johnny seemed to fit into their roles as puppeteers. The crowd cheered as Gem’s puppet took on the role of a revolutionary at odds with Johnny’s aristocratic puppet, and they crowed their appreciation when the revolutionary had the aristocrat swooning at his rendition of an American anthem.
Harry mostly kept his eyes on his sister and cousin, but when he lifted his gaze, he was often met with a wink or a grin though none seemed overly unsavory, likely due to his pregnant belly. As Johnny and Gem accepted accolades from the crowd, Gem caught his eye, lifting her glass with a brief motion towards the door.
As surreptitiously as possible, Harry slowly turned his head in the direction Gem indicated. A tall, pale man with thinning dark hair and a pointed face had entered the tavern and weaved his way through to a much larger man sitting in a corner that Harry hadn’t previously noticed. A long scar marred the left side of his face as though he’d been burned quite badly at one point in his life. He looked much younger than the man who approached him, but still had an air about him of toughness.
Gem appeared back at his side. “What do you think? Can you do it?”
Harry nodded. “Yes, I’ve had enough time. I’m certain I could draw them.”
“Go collect Johnny,” Sarah hissed as she helped Harry to his feet. “He’s taken that money box around a few times already.”
Just as they started towards Johnny, the door of the tavern swung open and two giant alphas barred the way as they looked over the crowd. Their thick muscles tugged at their dingy shirtsleeves, but it was the array of weapons strung across their bodies that sent fear down Harry’s spine.
The tavern quieted. Harry clearly wasn’t the only one concerned by the looks of these alphas.
Sarah pushed Harry back into his chair, and he sat with a thump, his hat jostling on his head, just as Johnny slid into a chair beside him and Gem next to Sarah.
“Don’t so much as move your head,” Johnny hissed. “We want to be as unobtrusive as possible.”
“Ya got that right,” the proprietor said as he sat down at their table, his face wan. “Them two alphas are from the Ace of Spades.”
“Not Nicholas Grim’s ship?” Gem asked.
“One and the same.”
“Pirates?” Sarah whispered.
“Stay calm,” Gem instructed. “Don’t move. Just stay still and pretend you see nothing.”
Nicholas Grim. Of course, Harry had heard of Captain Grim. The stories of him were legendary. So much so that Harry had begun to think of him as an imaginary figure as one might think of trolls or dragons. There had been tales of setting ships ablaze with their crews still on board, hostages taken and ransomed, and many a story about how Captain Grim had come into possession of the ruby he wore on his chest—a gem that had once belonged to an archbishop.
The tavern owner looked nearly as terrified as Harry felt. “She’s right. Don’t do nothing to draw attention. Looks like Captain Grim’s showed up.”
Harry watched in horror as the most dangerous of pirates walked into the tavern. He was a tall alpha, having to stoop a bit as he entered in through the door. His dark, heavy lidded eyes gazed unnervingly over the tavern though his face remained impassive. Beneath a shock of unruly black hair, a strong brow and large chin set off a face that did not look evil, merely indifferent, which felt somehow even more unsettling. The presence of the man rather than his appearance drew every eye.
Had Harry not known his infamous name, he would certainly have known he was not like other alphas.
Captain Grim was accompanied by two men. The younger of the two wearing no shirt beneath his vest must’ve been near Harry’s age and yet not a hint of youth crossed his face. His long black hair fell over one tanned shoulder, a shining waterfall of black silk that nearly reached his waist. And while his hair was quite striking, his face was even more so. He would have been pretty but for the cold look in his eyes and the thin set of his lips as though he’d never had reason to smile.
As the young pirate moved through the room, Harry caught a glimpse of his pierced ear threaded with a loop of thin gold. Every table he passed tensed until he reached one in particular whose occupants nearly leaped from their seats to scramble away. Only the briefest signs of disgust crossed his face before he upended the table sending bottles and cards and coins to the floor. One playing card flipped into the air catching Harry’s eye before it fluttered to the ground, a jack of hearts.
The sound of bright laughter turned Harry’s head, and he saw the third man who had entered with Captain Grim. At first in profile, Harry had a look at the tousled brown waves of his hair and the perfect set of his nose. Had Harry ever noticed a man’s nose before? He did not think so.
He appeared to be of medium build next to Captain Grim, and his open leather jacket revealed the hard planes of his chest beneath it. Faded denims hugged his muscled thighs and dark colored boots laced up to his knees. But it was in the way he held himself that Harry was left with little doubt that this man was an alpha even if he was nowhere near enough to scent him.
Harry had never made it his habit to stare at an alpha, but this one was unlike any other he’d ever seen. Slender yet muscled, graceful in his movements yet radiating danger. With a swift movement, he grasped a chair from the floor and flipped it upright. As he sank into it, he flicked the hair across his brow, catching the light that revealed strands of a golden hue from his days in the sun, and looked up.
And then, Harry was confronted with his face.
This pirate had a face that took his breath away. He was so much more than handsome, he was beautiful and yet still uniquely alpha in his features. The high cheekbones and angular jaw set off deep set eyes of the clearest blue, gleaming like sapphires. The man said something clearly in jest to Captain Grim whose lips curved into a small, affectionate smile, and Harry stared in wonder at it.
The man’s eyes crinkled at the corners as he threw his head back and laughed at something Captain Grim said in return, astonishing Harry at the change in his face from something strikingly sensual to something with much more humanity. But then, the god-like face returned back and Harry’s belly stirred with something other than fear.
His cheeks heated at the urge to be closer to this stranger. Harry looked away, his breath labored. This alpha was a pirate, a member of the most notorious crew of pirates. It seemed that the devil did not always appear with flames and a pitchfork.
Sarah grasped his hand beneath the table, and Harry tried to focus on the pressure of her hand rather than the pirates across the tavern. But his eyes continued to find their way back to the beautiful pirate. It wasn’t until their eyes met that his fear kept his eyes on the table in front of him.
“We’ll have to take the risk,” Johnny said under his breath. “We’ve got to get Harry out of here. It’s not as though Sarah and Harry look as if they’re able to up and ride off for the authorities.”
Gem’s finger tapped the table, a nervous habit of her youth. “Might draw more attention to them though.”
“More attention, you say? Haven’t you seen the way that son of a bitch has been looking at Harry?”
Sarah’s brows furrowed. “Surely given Harry’s pregnancy, he won’t do more than look.”
“He’s a pirate,” Johnny hissed. “I bet with the odds most times, but not when it’s Harry’s virtue at—look!”
The men Harry had come to draw had approached Captain Grim’s table. The scarred man took a seat at the table, leaving the other visibly shaking next to them. When Captain Grim took out a long knife, Harry’s heart beat in triple time.
“What’s he going to do?” Whatever courage Harry had mustered to come here in the first place had fled.
“I don’t know,” Gem said. “But whatever it is, I think it’s time for you two to go. Sarah, Harry, you try to slip out the back door. We’ll meet you at the wagon as soon as we can.”
As Harry and Sarah stood, Sarah wrapped an arm around his waist. “Try and look faint.”
“I don’t have to try,” Harry muttered, leaning against his cousin as they made their way towards the door. The pirates at the table took no notice of them, but the one at the door stepped in their way.
“Go back and sit down.”
“My cousin—please, he’s unwell. I just want to take him outside to lie in the wagon,” Sarah implored.
“No.”
“I beg of you. He’s not many weeks from birth and needs rest.” Sarah shot a look back at the pirates. “A shock could do harm. Please, surely you had a mother once yourself. ”
The pirate’s demeanor softened for the briefest of moments and then he nodded at Sarah and Harry to the long haired pirate at the table who gave them a brief glance before waving his hand dismissively. They were allowed to pass.
When the door closed behind them, Harry let out the breath he’d been holding and deeply sucked in the salty, ocean air. They scrambled down the steps so quickly that Harry faltered on the last few, stumbling over his own feet. He landed hard, but would have recovered quickly if not for the pins holding the fake belly in place. “Ow!”
Harry stood and the bundle fell to his feet. “Sarah! The pins! They’ve popped off their heads!”
“Damn!” Sarah cursed. “At least it wasn’t inside. Just stay here and gather up the mess, and I’ll run back to the wagon for more pins. Where’s your hat?”
Harry felt at his head.“I must have left it at the table. Can’t I just make a run for it with you?”
“No, what if someone is watching the wagons? If they see you’re not with child, we’ve lost our reason for leaving. If they think we’ve gone to fetch someone—well, I don’t even want to know what they’d do.”
“What if someone comes?”
“Just hide under the stairs.” And with that final instruction, Sarah disappeared into the darkness. Harry gathered up as much of the straw and feathers and tucked himself away beneath the wooden steps.
He shivered though not from cold as he tried to stuff the feathers and straw back into the bundle. But it all slipped from his fingers at the creaking sound of the rusted door hinges and the thud of footsteps on the stairs. The two pirates accompanying Captain Grim came upon the absurd scene of Harry surrounded by a pile of straw, feathers floating in the air.
He raised his eyes in terror and only barely noticed that the beautiful one was laughing because the long haired pirate pulled him up by the shoulders. “So—is it a boy or a girl?”
The question was humorless as the young pirate kicked at the bundle beneath Harry. Harry’s mind raced. It was not only his own life he needed to worry about here. Tears began to slide down his cheeks. “Please. We weren’t going to bring the authorities.”
“The hell you weren’t.” His fingers dug into Harry’s shoulders.
“Careful, Zayn.” The other pirate stepped closer and then laughed softly as he repeated back Sarah’s words that he must have heard from the pirate at the door. “You had a mother once yourself.”
“My mother’s not worth a halfpenny, Louis, and you well know it.” The one called Zayn cast the other pirate a disparaging look and then turned back to Harry. “Where’s your friend, little mother?”
“I don’t know,” he whimpered.
“That wasn’t the correct answer, you lying wench.” Zayn pushed him then, and he staggered back against a post. He moved to grab Harry again or perhaps worse, but Louis stepped between them, staying his hand.
“I know you don’t think it worthwhile, but there are usually better ways to do this.” Louis turned to him then, brushing back the curls that had fallen into Harry’s face and tucking them behind one ear. “If you do not want to tell us where your friend’s gone, tell us why she left you here.”
“She—she’s gone to get more pins to—to fix my—so no one would see that I wasn’t really—”
Zayn snorted.
Louis just smiled before turning to Zayn. “You think he’s lying?”
“Probably not. Ludicrous enough to be the truth, I suppose. Keep him out of sight then if you don't want the crew to see him. I'll send them a signal to come ashore.” Zayn kicked at the bundle once more, sending a few feathers back into the air. “Maybe this time you can be the one to stuff him.”
Louis slid in next to Harry, casually drawing an arm around his shoulder. It was then that the smell of the sea faded into a rich scent of tobacco and something sweeter, caramel perhaps. And yet somehow he was reminded of tea infused with bergamot.
“You’re white as a ghost, love.”
Harry clapped his hands to his cheeks, feeling the clammy skin beneath his fingers. The gorgeous scent emanating from Louis began to engulf him, making him feel even more off kilter. As another tear slipped down his cheek, he dashed it away with his palm. It wasn’t as if he didn’t know he was young and foolish, but he was embarrassed of how quickly he’d fallen apart when tested for the first time.
Harry pulled away from him if only to get away from the intoxicating scent of this alpha. Only, he hadn’t counted on the railing he clutched onto to give way. “Oh! I—I broke it.”
“You’re very amusing, omega.” Louis laughed again. His eyes that changed from piercing in intensity to soft and jovial now tucked away, nearly shutting closed. “Here, allow me.”
Louis took the railing and snapped it back in place by matching up the nails with their previous holes.
“I didn’t realize I was so amusing .”
“Ah, did that sting? I apologise.” He reached out a hand, cupping Harry’s chin and forcing him to gaze into those brilliant eyes. “Now, how about you and I be friends? I’ll give you some good advice. My cohort will be back soon with the others and—”
“Pirates?” Harry gasped.
“Yes. More pirates. Seven. Maybe eight if Blackwell’s sober. In any case, we should go.”
“What? No! I have to wait here for my cousin.”
“Love, think about it. Whatever I can do, seven pirates can do it seven times.” Louis placed his arm around his shoulders once more and began to lead him towards the wagons. “Let’s hop up into this one.”
He had tossed Harry up into the nearest wagon before Harry could say a word about it. Louis then climbed up into it as well, settling beside him. He could hear the pirates growing closer to the tavern and found a large knothold in the side of the wagon to peek through. He watched helplessly as they made their way into the tavern, loaded down with weaponry.
“How many are there?” Louis asked.
“Blackwell must still be inebriated.”
Louis nodded. “You know, your friends inside are safe. Grim’s after someone else.”
“My—my husband is inside, and my cousin’s mate.”
Louis raised one brow. “You don’t smell like you have a mate.”
Harry’s cheeks heated with the implication. “We’re only just married.”
“Is that the reason for your little ruse with the pillow round your belly? Your husband’s attempt to keep other alphas away from you?”
“It wasn’t a very good disguise.”
“Oh, but it was, darling. You can tell him that it worked fine while it lasted. Are you shivering? Here, take my jacket.”
“No! That’s fine. I’m fine. You can’t—you’ll have nothing—”
Louis shrugged the jacket off his shoulders, bare to the waist now. “Why are you so shocked? Surely, you’ve seen a bare chest before. You are married after all.”
“My husband—he sleeps in a nightshirt.”
“Of course, he does.” The pirate smirked.
He placed the leather jacket round Harry’s shoulders, the smell of Louis now surrounding him as he looked into Louis’ eyes. They appeared soft again in the moonlight, but Harry knew he couldn’t trust that. What would this alpha do if he knew that Harry’s sister and cousin weren’t puppeteers but instead officers in the American military?
His gaze dropped to Louis’ chest, the lines of his muscles obvious even in the shadows. Seeming inappropriate to be staring at this pirate’s chest, his gaze slipped down to Louis’ legs encased in tight denim, hinting at the hardness of the muscles beneath.
“Like what you see?”
Harry snapped his head back up, but was saved from having to answer by a piercing shriek followed by silence.
Louis seemed unperturbed. “Grim doesn’t like screaming.”
“What are they doing?”
“Just scaring a man. The one who approached our table. Grim doesn’t take kindly to imposters. Don’t worry. They’ll let him live.”
Harry’s mind raced. How much did Louis know? Or Captain Grim? He was brought out of these thoughts by the touch of Louis’ fingers drawing his face towards him. His scent was overwhelming him again. He was close enough now that he felt the alpha’s breath on his lips just before they pressed to his own.
Harry’s mouth parted in a gasp of surprise that only allowed Louis to deepen the kiss from a gentle press to something more exciting. Harry’s heart thudded erratically in his chest at the sensation. He’d never been kissed, and he’d had no idea it would feel like this as though every touch of his fingers and lips left a burning trail.
And yet, Harry craved the fire.
Louis’ skilled motions turned his head to one side, dragging his lips across his mouth. Harry whimpered as Louis’ clever fingers found their way beneath his shirt, leaving sparks of sensation on his bare skin. And then he was being pulled atop Louis, straddling his lap as Louis’ hands ran down his back, and then further to cup him closely.
Harry gasped, breaking the kiss. He had no idea how to stop this or even if he wanted these hypnotic sensations to stop. But again, a startled noise saved him.
“Harry? Harry! Are you here?”
Relief hit him like a brick, but before he could call out to Sarah, she had begun to run towards the tavern. Louis leaped from the back of the wagon, chasing her down quickly and clapping a hand over her mouth.
“He’s safe. But if you run into that tavern screaming, you won’t be.”
Sarah struggled a moment more before going still.
“Don’t scream. Nod your head yes if you understand what I’m telling you. And then I’ll let you go.”
Sarah nodded with a hard jerk of her head. He released his hand. “Where is he? Where’s Harry? What have you done with him?”
Harry hung from the back of the wagon. “Sarah? I’m here. Help me!”
But Louis made it to him first, firm hands at his waist, helping him down. When Harry looked up at Sarah, it was to the sight of her cousin at her fiercest. “You’ve got to let him go. He’s so young. If anything were to happen to him, he would never recover.”
Louis turned a searching look on them as he leaned back against the side of the wagon. “I wonder what exactly are a young omega of obvious breeding and a beta who is clearly a lady doing in a smuggler’s tavern.”
Sarah answered quickly, but somehow it fell flat. “The puppets.”
“Ah, yes. The puppets. Just commoners I suppose. Though young Harry here has hands that have never touched a scrub bucket. And you, Sarah, your manners and speech do not mark you the mate of a puppeteer.”
“If we’re to be making judgements, then mine is that your speech marks you a gentleman and yet your behavior suits the gutter.”
Louis smiled, but the smile did not reach his eyes. “My behavior gets much worse than this Miss Sarah. Something you should keep in mind.”
“We don’t know anything of importance,” Sarah insisted.
“I would hazard a guess that this innocent beauty hasn’t been told much, but I’d wager you know much more, Sarah.”
Harry watched in awe as Sarah’s jaw set in defiance. “You’d give up beating me long before I said a word.”
“I don’t doubt that, Miss Sarah. But what would you let me do to lovely Harry here before you started answering my questions.”
Both Harry and Sarah gasped.
“You’re clever, Sarah. But you’re an amateur.” Louis looked at them both again and then sighed. He reached for Harry then, taking one curl between his fingers. “I have a certain hesitation to maim anything so beautiful though.”
Harry’s cheeks flushed with heat at both Louis’ touch and his words, but then his fingers were quickly withdrawn to fiddle with something, a ring. Louis placed the ring into Sarah’s palm. It was ornate, and in the moonlight Harry saw it was engraved with the letter T.
“Take this.”
“What is this?”
“Give it to the man at the stables. He’ll hitch your team for you. I wouldn’t be so kind a second time. And if it had been any other man but me—”
Sarah bowed her head. “I know.”
“Don’t risk him again.”
“We won’t,” Sarah promised.
“Go, I’ll send out your alphas.”
Harry watched him walk towards the tavern. Even the way Louis walked was magnetic, his hips swaying with his unique stride. As he entered the tavern and pulled the door closed, Sarah sank to the ground with a hysterical laugh. “Good lord, what an alpha.”
Shock still worked its way through Harry’s veins. “I was a pathetic ninny. If you had heard me, Sarah, you would have been ashamed of me.”
“Nonsense,” Sarah said, threading her arm through Harry’s as they began walking towards the stables. “I assume he kissed you. You look upset, but not that upset. And to be honest, an alpha that looks like that—well, if you kissed him back, few could blame you.”
“Why did he let us go, do you suppose?”
“I haven’t a clue. I suspect he thought if he found out who we were he’d have to kill us. How in the world does an alpha like that become one of Nick Grim’s pirates? Who could he be?”
“His name’s Louis.” Harry liked the way it rolled off his tongue. “I heard the other pirate call him that.”
“Louis? You don’t suppose—no. Couldn’t be. Let’s hurry before he changes his mind.”