Dammit.

Kaden didn’t win. I turned to Knox and gave him a questioning look.

He just shrugged and leaned closer to me. “I’m as surprised as you are. I thought your boy had it locked up.”

“He’s not my boy,” I said into his ear. “But he did have quite a crowd surrounding him before he left. Did they all leave as soon as he did?”

“No.” Knox truly did look confused. “He had way more people at his table than any others through the end of voting. I don’t know what the hell happened.”

I stepped up on to the stage beside Justin and looked around for Kaden. If he needed help getting his shit put away, I’d have asked one of the guys to get over there.

It took me a second to realize that what I was hearing throughout the room were not chats of praise and excitement but boos and groans. I looked around and saw that most of the crowd looked pretty pissed off.

The guys from Pass Me Another took the stage but the crowd was getting rowdy, closing in on riot territory.

I turned to Justin. “What the hell? These are the people who voted for them…”

“Cheaters!” One person screamed first, and the rest of the room followed suit.

I took a step in front of Justin and hit the button in my ear to call the rest of my team forward. “Security at the front of the stage.”

Justin looked like a deer in headlights, so I grabbed the mic from him and raised one hand out to the crowd. “Okay, okay. Let’s settle down.”

The crowd was obviously still angry but they dropped their grumbling to a low hum.

“Obviously, there has been some confusion in the tallying of the votes, so we’re going to do a recount.”

I turned to Justin and he was nodding his head vigorously. Chris, the owner of Pass Me Another, threw his arms up and took a step closer to me. “What the fuck, Mitch? We won. What’s this bullshit about a recount?”

I spoke right into the mic as I waved my hand across the crowd. “These are the people who voted, and they don’t seem happy that you won. Something went wrong.”

“Nothing went wrong. We won.” The man took a step toward me, but Knox threw out an arm, blocking him from getting close enough to touch me or Justin.

“By a show of hands, how many of you in this room voted for Pass Me Another?”

“Some hands went up, but only about ten percent of the people in the room.”

“And how many of you voted for Tapped, the newbie chocolate beer?”

Cheers and whistles erupted from more than half the people in the room, and almost every hand that wasn’t up during the first vote went up during the second.

I shrugged and turned back to the Chris. “Sorry, buddy. I think that’s about as official of a recount as we need.” The grin on my face was wider than it should’ve been as I scanned the crowd for Kaden. “The real winner of the third quarter Nut Bowl is a brand new entry, Tapped. Let’s get Kaden up here for a round of applause.”

The crowd started cheering before I could even find Kaden in the crowd. It was hard to see with the lights in my face, but I felt like if he was close, I would’ve known it.

“Kaden, don’t be shy. Get on up here. The crowd wants to congratulate you.”

The spotlight moved off me and circled the floor, looking for a sexy, freshly-fucked omega working his way forward.

But it came up empty. He was gone.

On Monday morning, I made a personal visit to the warehouse listed as the business address for Tapped. The roll-up door was open, so I let myself in. Their set up was impressive, with pristine equipment that looked like it was from the future. Every canister had a digital display with numbers flashing across the front that exceeded my knowledge of brewing, so I didn’t try to decipher any of it as I passed by the contraptions.

“Excuse me,” I called out. “Anyone around?”

A guy with the same dirty blond hair and hazel eyes as Kaden but with a slightly thicker build walked around the corner carrying a box in his hands. “Oh, hey. Sorry, I was in the back.”

“No worries, man. I’m looking for Kaden Foster.”

His eyes narrowed as he inspected me from head to toe. “What for?”

“He won a contest, and I wanted to give him the good news.”

The man was clearly skeptical as he put the box down on the floor beside him then held his hands at his sides like he was ready to attack or defend—I’m not sure which. “Kaden doesn’t usually enter contests. What is this really about, dude?”

If the resemblance wasn’t so strong, I would have worried this was his boyfriend, but I recognized the same alpha brother protectiveness that I had with Justin and knew instantly not to feel threatened by this man. “My name is Mitch Bracken. I’m one of the owners over at The Fallen Nut.” I held out my hand and waited for the guy to accept it.

The man’s breath hitched as his whole demeanor changed. “Oh, sorry about that.” He grabbed my hand with both of his and shook vigorously. “You mentioned something about a contest?”

I relaxed my shoulders, disappointed by not seeing Kaden. “Yeah, I wanted to give Kaden the news myself, but there was a mixup with the votes, and he won.” I took a look around the room. “Well, I guess you did too. Your beer won the privilege of being featured on our tap for the next year.”

“Holy shit.” The man turned to yell over his shoulder. “Kaden, get your ass out here. You did it.”

As soon as I had confirmation that Kaden was in the building, a tightening in my gut made me feel nervous and excited at the same time. He’s here.

I focused in the direction the guy screamed and could almost hear every footfall and breath as Kaden got closer.

“Now what did I do?” He turned the corner and stopped mid-step when he saw me standing there. “Oh.”

My breath was just as elusive as I watched him check me out from just ten feet away. In a button up shirt and slacks, he looked even sexier than in his clubbing clothes. “Hi, Kaden.”