She was… I had to blink away the haze of heat that tried to boil me alive. She was still, and both of us were staring at each other. She shrank, once more, against Sin.
My heart thundered in my chest, mind careening out of control. Demanding I grab her. Protect her.
Bite her.
Claim her.
Don’t wait.
I could barely breathe, the need was so vicious. Unlike anyone else in my pack, I carried a decent amount of memories from before.
Echo rut syndrome was a nightmare affliction that would have always wound me up here. But afflicted or not, I’d been a young alpha living in New Oxford, so I’d been around a fair amount of omegas.
Never, in my life, had I felt an omega as touch starved as she was.
I forced myself to take another step, forced myself to listen to what Sin was saying.
“Bug—after we settle her, can we split to go get her some clothes from the Redgraves? They should have something.”
I heard Bug’s grunt of assent.
Good. Right. Yes.
The Redgrave pack would have something we could trade for. Crescent would have to stay in here, at least for now. I wouldn’t leave her unless we had backup. It wasn’t as simple as locking the cell up to keep other alphas out. We couldn’t do that ourselves—all the cell doors were automatic.
After eleven, once a cell door was closed, it locked until seven in the morning. Until then, we were vulnerable, even in our own wing.
But I also wasn’t going to let Sin go wandering off on his own, so we’d have to split up.
The Emerald pack had Justin, and being stabilized by their own omega (and the fact they were our longest standing allies) was why I trusted them more than the others.
But Holden would be out for blood, and we might be headed toward an all-out fucking war.
5
CRESCENT
We reached the door to their cell.
I squinted into it, and when my vision focused I first noticed the sea of colourful art that was spray-painted across the walls, which was odd, but comforting. It wasn’t too cramped, fitting four bunk beds against the walls, along with a plain dresser. In the centre was a decent space where a few old weights were scattered, and along the walls were two heavy iron doors.
There was a major issue with it, however. I took a deep breath.
It smelledreallygood in here.
Like… dizzyingly good.
Gunmetal. An ocean storm. Ironwood and ember. The dark, dry taste of a desert eclipse…
Those scents were in the air. In the blankets, and walls. Knit into every corner, every breath.
I hadn’t caught them before—the alphas must be wearing scent blockers—but now…
I jumped violently at a touch on my shoulder, then swallowed, looking up into blood-red eyes.
Which scent belonged to him?I couldn’t know for certain, but instinctually I came up with only one answer.
One scent was different from the others, soothing and caressing me with a presence behind it that spoke of something calmer.