Main Bonus #93: Kappa Phi Delta Aftermath - Apartment 1818 (Patreon)

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RESOURCES:  Check out this narrative timeline graphic to visually see when this bonus scene takes place.

MUSIC: We listened to "Free Yourself" by Jessie Ware and "Baba O'Riley" by The Who while writing this bonus scene.

“My brave boy,” I say, scrubbing shampoo into Orion’s thick black fur in the shower stall while he stands patiently. “You’re gonna be the best smelling pup on the block.” I detach the shower wand to rinse him off.

He’s not scared of the nozzle. Luna says Orion is an aquatic animal on her planet. Our big fluffy son loves the open water. He’s tried to take several dips in the ponds at Central Park, and it’s almost December. He even enticed his sister the Lonely Mountain to join him.

Xander nearly ate concrete when she pulled his leash. I’ve never seen her tug him that hard. She treats Xander like he’s baby Jesus and she’s the cradle soothing him to sleep. Cradle would never break on baby Jesus and let him eat dirt.

Luna is afraid Orion is a bad influence.

We’re working on his leadership skills.

What I didn’t know before the Hales took in four Newfoundland pups: Newfies have webbed feet and water-resistant double coats. It makes washing them an actual chore that I don’t mind doing over hiring a groomer. Saves a buck, but it’s not about the money. I’m not trading quality time with Orion.

While I wash shampoo out of his fur, he shakes his head and torso, whipping soap suds and water at me.

I grin and laugh. Then my phone rings. I stare at my buzzing cell on the marble counter in my bathroom. “Stay for a sec.” I shut off the water, stepping onto the neon-green bathmat that says get naked. Apologies to the bathmat’s orders. I still have on underwear.

I’m rocking black boxer-briefs and some sudden concern. Last sixteen or so hours have been turbulent among my Cobalt brethren, but things have calmed down somewhere between the afternoon and the evening.

Once I see who it is, the concern wears off, and I click the green button, returning to the shower, I place the phone next to Luna’s body wash.

“Paul Donnelly,” I answer. “Your favorite person is present, hydrated, satiated, motivated—”

“I didn’t ask how Maximoff is doing,” Farrow cuts in.

I smirk. “I meant me.”

“Not my favorite person.”

I laugh and turn on the water. “You call me over your husband or what?”

“He was my first call and will be my last. Shit.”

I hear an aggressive horn. Farrow must be in the car, probably driving. Last I heard, he was at the hospital in New York.

Sometime around midnight or 1 a.m., all hell broke loose here in the Big Apple. Or slowly unraveled on my end. It started with Connor calling me out of the blue. I was in the middle of fucking Luna under our sheets, and I thought about ignoring his call because no one comes before my girlfriend does. But I had a nagging feeling.

Connor rarely calls me.

Papa Hale, sure, I get those calls every now and then. But I’m his best friend. Why wouldn’t Lo call me?

So I answered, and he asked me if I could check on his sons’ apartment with Luna. They live three floors above us. None of them were picking up their phone, and Audrey had apparently snuck out of the Cobalt Estate and called a rideshare. They suspected she was on her way to New York.

Luna and I quickly found out apartment 2166 was empty. We checked the fifteenth-floor gym, the indoor pool, the sauna. We even went up to the rooftop. Nothing up there.

No Cobalts.

Luna tried phoning Eliot and Tom. Her cousins weren’t answering her either. So they weren’t just screening their parents’ calls if they weren’t picking up for Luna. Those two are her best friends. They’d at least shoot her a text saying it’s a Cobalt secret rendezvous and they’re alive and well.

Something was going down.

They didn’t call a single bodyguard before they left the high-rise either. Not even Oscar. Who I thought was on a private plane to Prague with Charlie. That got postponed to tonight, apparently.

It didn’t take much longer for Rose and Connor to get in touch with their sons. Come to find out, they’d all been at Ben’s frat house, Kappa Phi Delta, and we learned they were headed to Metropolitan Medical with Audrey.

She overdosed on fentanyl.

It’s been fucking me up a little bit.

She’s sixteen.

Beckett was the one who gave her Narcan.

I try not to picture it. “You stopping by or headed back to PA?” I ask Farrow.

“That’s why I was calling. I can’t swing by. I need to get back to Philly. Audrey was just discharged. I’m going to check her vitals once she’s at the Cobalt Estate. She’s about ten minutes ahead of me with Connor and Rose.”

I crouch and squirt off Orion’s front leg. “How does it feel being the only doc on duty?” His dad is in Colorado at some sort of medical seminar thing, and his uncle and aunt are on vacation in St. Lucia.

“It feels like I left Maximoff home with three kids under three.” Farrow sounds more longing to be with him than stressed out. His heart is in Philly.

Never thought my heart would be in New York, but I love being where Luna is. Best moves I ever make are the ones where we collide.

“A stork drop a third baby on your doorstep?” I ask.

“No, Trip and Sylvie did yesterday morning. They took their oldest sons to St. Lucia, and Maximoff being Maximoff offered to watch their almost-two-year-old so a baby wouldn’t tie them down.”

I nod to myself. “You’re babysitting Edward Nathaniel Keene.”

“The Fifth, yeah. All week.”

Edward Nathaniel Keene V aka “Nathan” is closer in age to Ripley, so I’m betting Farrow’s son has loved having a playmate outside of his little sister Cassidy. At least from what I’ve seen, Ripley and Nathan get along really well. Always digging into a bucket of toy cars and racing them on the floor.

I scrub suds out behind Orion’s ears. “Maximoff could probably handle ten under three. He’s good with babies.”

“Okay, but he’s also great at most everything. It doesn’t mean I want him to do everything alone.”

I smile. It’s easy to see when two people are just perfect for each other. “You gonna buy some duct tape on your way home? Wrap yourself around him—”

“Shut the fuck up.”

I laugh again.

He tells me he thought Audrey would’ve been discharged hours ago. It’s why most everyone stayed in Philly to wait for her to return with her parents. Kinney has been blowing up Farrow’s phone asking for better updates. Farrow doesn’t care about pissing off the girl squad, but I’m glad I don’t have Luna’s sister or teenage cousins sending me angry memes.

I can take being SFE’s punching bag (not that they’re striking low anymore), but something about those girls hating me would feel like a jaw-breaking right hook.  

Then again, they’d never hate me. Even Kinney’s hate was more short-term dislike.

I’d send them funny gifs before it’d reach “fuck you” levels. Farrow won’t even do that.

“I would’ve discharged Audrey at eight a.m.,” Farrow explains while I continue washing off Orion. “She didn’t need to be under observation for that long. She came in completely responsive. Her vitals were good. But they had an admin come down to the ED.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. They were paranoid as fuck having a Cobalt there. Because of the liability if anything were to go wrong and press covered it. It would’ve been different at Philly General. They’re used to the famous ones coming in and out.”

“Maybe it’s good she got extra attention,” I mutter, but I’m sure Farrow is thinking about packed waiting rooms with sick patients and the hospital’s stretched resources.

I block my eyes when Orion shakes himself and water flings off his fur at me again. I pat his torso and stand up to get his back legs.

“What’s that noise?” Farrow asks.

“I’m bathing Orion.” I wash out more soap suds. “Oscar said he smelled like a snack. I was worried he was gonna make all the other dogs go into heat around him.”

I hear Farrow pop a bubblegum bubble. “He did not say that.”

“He did.” I grin. “Said my son smelled like a Cool Ranch Dorito.”

Farrow laughs hard. I’m grinning more until he asks, “You haven’t gone to sleep yet?”

“Nah. You?”

“I haven’t been home since Rose asked if I could meet them at the hospital, so no. But you’re near a bed, man.”

“I’ll crash when she comes back.”

There’s a long pause. “Luna’s not with you?”

“She’s upstairs, checking in with Eliot and Tom before they leave for work tonight.” My feet splash on the wet tile as I move around Orion. “You missed a joint security meeting over Zoom, you know.”

“Thatcher already sent me the notes.”

“You read ‘em?”

“Skimmed. Basically, I missed nothing.”

“Basically.”

It’s shit we’ve all heard before.

Price told me and the rest of Epsilon to remind our clients that we’re there to help protect them, not get in their way, so they’ll feel the need to call us. We aren’t held responsible for not being requested for an outing. That’s on the client. So Audrey’s bodyguard, Vlad Kosko, isn’t getting the axe, especially since she’s a minor. Rose and Connor would’ve had to contact him.

I still don’t know Vlad well enough to even make a judgment. Oscar says he’s physically slow. Like can’t run. But Audrey isn’t a runner, so no worries there.

“Does Luna know you’re washing the dog?” Farrow asks.

“Nah, gonna surprise her with a clean pup.” As we say short goodbyes, I end with, “Give your husband a wet willy from me.”

I imagine Farrow’s eye roll before he says, “No.” He hangs up.

I’m all smiles. “Good boy,” I tell Orion, shutting off the water and returning the shower wand.

He’s licking my hands and drooling.

“Appreciate the love and all, but we gotta get you dry.” I give him a head rub before opening the door and letting him out on the get naked mat.

I start towel drying him when the door suddenly opens.

Luna enters our bathroom.

Her immediate smile on me does wonders to my nervous system. Can’t really explain it. Not a biologist or chemist, but it’s like seeing in colors that only exist on an unearthly planet.

On Thebula.

I’d believe I have those powers.

I’d believe in anything with Luna. Her smile pulls her round cheeks and reaches her shimmering amber eyes. Her light brown hair is down—glitter, that hasn’t washed out, stuck in the strands. She threw on black cotton shorts and a cropped lime-green sweater she knitted this year.

I grin back at her. “Make a soft-landing home, space babe?”

“Very soft,” Luna smiles more. “I parked in our living room.”

“Could’ve parked on my face.”

“My favorite spot,” she sing-songs with an even bigger smile.

“Your name is on it. No one else is allowed there.” I stand up and lean over Orion to kiss my girlfriend. Her lips are as soft as her cheek beneath my hand, and I deepen the kiss for one second before Orion shakes himself again. Not fully dried, he sprays the two of us.

Luna laughs against our kiss, and my chest floods while I laugh with her. I pull back to rub Orion’s coat one more time with the towel.

His tail wags excitedly while she scratches behind his ears. “He needs the strength of the Thebulan winds to dry him.” She opens a cupboard and whips out the industrial hair dryer like it’s a gun.

I pat Orion. “Good thing your mommy is an extraterrestrial.”

“Uh-huh. Good thing his daddy is an extraordinary earthling.”

“Girl, don’t make me blush.” We exchange another smile before we’re drying Orion together. I brush out his fur while she blows him dry.

I love Luna Hale.

Thinking about tattooing it on my skin since it’s already etched on my soul. She smiles back at me again, her eyes lingering on my septum piercing. It’s not new, but I haven’t always worn it.

I can tell she likes it, but I don’t make much mention of it in our shared quiet.

Once Orion has gone through the doggy salon, we’re both sweating from the heat of the dryer. We end up sitting against the cabinets on the floor. Orion is lounging across our laps like a happy fluffy lug.

“They okay?” I ask as Luna stares off a little. “Upstairs?”

She digs her fingers in Orion’s clean fur. “I think they’re all better now. But Tom said it was really, really bad at the frat. If Beckett didn’t have Narcan in his car…” She looks over at me. “Tom said he went and grabbed it. When he got back, Audrey wasn’t awake anymore.”

I try to think of the positives. “It’s good Beck had been there. He knows what to do.”

Luna’s brows bunch in hard thought. She’s digging through memories. “Has he overdosed before?”

“Nah. At least not that I’m aware of, but I don’t imagine that’d be easy for him to keep secret.”

She’s staring off at the shower. “He’d been abusing…cocaine?”

“Yeah. Addicted to it, up until—”

“Scotland,” Luna smiles at her toes. “I remember most of Scotland.”

I love when she reminds me that she does. “Knew you would,” I grin.

She’s remembered a lot more than she ever imagined. It feels like every day a little something comes back to her.

I just don’t like when she throws up afterward. Could do without that, but I think Luna would take hugging a toilet bowl if it meant she could remember every time we’ve ever kissed.

She threads her fingers through Orion’s fur again. “Why would Beckett know what to do, Donnelly?”

I shift my leg out from under Orion, just to rest my arm on my bent knee. “He’d been around some people who did hard drugs in New York. Back when I was his bodyguard, I told him to stay away from heroine, fentanyl, meth—shit like that, but I never told him why, even if he knew some of my family history. I didn't act like it bothered me that much. Probably wasn’t even that direct about it either.”

I can’t remember ever saying, no.

I explain, “He never got into it, but he saw someone OD at a party. Think he was eighteen.”

“You were with him?” Luna frowns.

“Yeah.” I frown back, not understanding her expression.

“So you both saw someone OD then.”

Ah. “Yeah,” I nod. “But I mean…” I shrug at her.

She has an innocence after losing her memories that she didn’t have before. I still don’t really like bringing up my past. It’s so dark. I’d rather just smother her with hope. With light.

Luna’s lips form an O in realization before she literally says, “Oh. That wasn’t the first time you’ve seen someone OD.”

“Nope.” I make a loose rock on gesture. “Twelve.” That I can recall off the bat. There might've been times when I was a lot younger, but I don't let myself revisit those memories. Ever.

She scoots closer underneath Orion, just to rest her cheek on my shoulder. I cup the side of her head, then twist one of her glittery strands of hair around my finger, listening to her whisper so quietly, “You have a strong heart.”

I've never had anyone compliment me as much as she does. All the things I love about myself, she sees. I whisper back to her, “Hope you feel it every day, space babe.”

She nods rapidly, then looks up at me. “Did you know Beckett carries Narcan in his car?”

“Yeah.” My face pinches in a wince. “I hate that he had to use it on his little sister.” I swallow down a rising lump in my throat. “I talked to Beck earlier when he got back from Philly.”

She sits up straighter. “You did?”

I nod. “After I checked in with Epsilon across the hall, I stopped by his apartment. Most everyone else was sleeping. Think Ben was out on that hike in the Catskills with your uncle.”

“Uncle Ryke, uh-huh,” Luna nods.

“Beckett had still been up.”

He had made a zigzagging trek from the hospital to Philly, then back to New York. He said Ben wanted to drop off stray kittens at The Independent. Best bar in Philly, the one Jane now owns.

Luna glances at the bathroom door. “Beckett already left for the ballet. I didn’t see him upstairs.”

“We didn’t chat for long. He looked beat.” He also gave me a look that I knew so well. My guy’s not one for words when he’s upset, so he was on lockdown. I know the feeling.

He’d just said, “She took what she thought was a Tylenol, Donnelly. She didn’t know what the fuck was happening to her.”

“She was surrounded by her brothers though. She wasn’t alone. You were there, Beck.”

He untensed a bit, nodding, then he stared out. “Ben…”

I frowned. “What about Ben?”

He shook his head, then said, “Just seeing Audrey OD at his frat was a lot for him.” He took a breath. “Uncle Ryke will help him.” I gave him a hug on my way out and let him sleep since he needed to dance later.

I look down at Luna in our bathroom. “You see Ben at all?”

“He was passed out on the couch. Eliot said he’s going to Harriet’s later tonight.” Luna winces now. “Ben threw up at the frat. They said he didn’t…he wasn’t well when Audrey…”

“Yeah, Beckett said something similar,” I mention.

Luna leans more of her weight into my side, and I kiss the top of her head, then glance down and laugh. She’s letting Orion drool all over her leg. “At this rate, we should learn how to swim in his drool. Might flood our apartment.” I stand up, then help her to her feet as she says, “We already know how to swim in drool.”

“That so?”

“Yep. We can’t drown.”

I have her hand in mine, bringing her toward the shower. “Facts I agree with. Tell me more.”

She smiles. “You’re a very hot human specimen.” I’m taking off my boxer-briefs, and she’s watching me get naked. I strip her sweater over her head, then snap off her bra and slide her shorts and panties down her legs.

Soon, we’re in the shower together, making out under the warm water and steam. I pretend with her that we’ve reboarded a spaceship, and we’re decontaminating after visiting a foreign planet.

I clean off the drool from her leg and stay on my knees for an unknown amount of time. Not counting. I could live here, eating out Luna. With her tattooed thigh quaking on my shoulder and her moans pitching the hot air.

She’s clawing at me. “Donnelly, please. I need…inside. You. Please.” She wants my cock. “I’ll die…if you don’t…I need. Please. Come inside. Come inside.”

Fuck me.

I stand up again, hard as a rock. Then I place her hands on the black tiled wall and hold her slender hips. She falls more on her forearms as I thrust slowly inside her. Being this close to Luna is fucking bliss.

Seeing her lose herself to the feeling of me…I could live here too. Deep inside her pussy. I hold her more against me as her legs try to buckle. Luna is so worked up as I fuck her from behind. She’s already gasping for breath. “Shhh, babe,” I whisper against her ear. “You gotta breathe, Luna.” The vapor thins the air, and I reach behind me to shut off the water. Then I push the wet hair out of her face.

Luna is wrong about not drowning. Just on one account. Pretty sure she’s drowning in me right now, and the only reason I’m not going under with her—I can’t have us both passed out. I will make sure she survives.

I’m very good at that.

We have the best shower sex, but then again, sex with her is the greatest sex I’ve ever had. She does black out when we come together, but the steam has died down. I have her in my arms in a front piggyback, stepping out of the shower.

Luna tries to sink back down on me. Seeing her try makes me instantly hard. “Again," she rasps.

I fuck her again on the way to our bed. Art supplies litter most of our living room, especially the coffee table, but other than that, we keep a neat apartment, if I do say so.

Orion trails after us, his paws scraping against the floorboards. Luna buries her face the crook of my shoulder, her moans muffled, and I’m thinking maybe I should go pick up some duct tape. Wrap her around me.

‘Cause I don’t want her to ever detach.

She feels the same.

It’s why when we come again and end up in bed together, I hold her against my body, my arms wound around her breasts and her back up against my chest. Even when we’re hot and sweaty, Luna doesn’t push me off her. Sometimes she’ll kick me in her heavy sleep, but for the most part, she grips my arms until hers go slack with exhaustion. Tonight is no different, really.

Except for the part where she wants me to stay inside of her.

It’s where my cock loves to be, and for the first time in too many hours, I can finally feel my body begin to let go. Fatigue tugs my stinging eyes.

There's no way I can crash until I know she's safe and sound. I can’t sleep when she’s awake. I think Farrow knows.

I think Luna might realize it too, but she hasn’t mentioned it yet.

Just when it feels like I shut my eyes, my phone buzzes on the nightstand and lights up the dark room. I reach over Luna who hasn’t moved yet.

Xander is my first thought.

My client. Her brother.

I should’ve checked on him before we went to bed. His roommate and best friend, Easton Mulligan, left this weekend to stay with his parents at their demand. Xander is alone in his apartment, but he should be okay. He said he just planned to binge “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” again.

I blink through my bleary eyes to see it’s not Xander. Confusion is cold water against my face. I’m wide awake.

Why is my cousin calling me?

I answer and put the phone to my ear. “O’Malley?”

Beckett’s bodyguard.

It's so great to be back in Paul Donnelly's head! We hope you loved this new perspective of the action-packed night from Burn Bright. Being able to show a broader scope of what's happening with different characters is why we love Patreon so very much.

If you've noticed the black out box in the character list graphic, this is why: Luna's bodyguard will be blacked out during the Cobalt Empire timeline until Frog & Quinn's romance is complete so it won't spoil their future novel.

The night isn't over yet, and you'll continue to see more of Donnelly's perspective as events unfold from the "aftermath" of the frat house into the disappearance of Ben. So stay tuned for another bonus that'll be dropping before the end of June!

xoxo Krista & Becca

P.S. We highly recommend reading Farrow & The Keenes if you haven't read that bonus yet. It gives you a much deeper look at Trip's side of the family.

“Kappa Phi Delta Aftermath: Apartment 1818" Copyright © 2026 by K.B. Ritchie