Mine…
A dry wind in darkness.
My eclipse.
That was definitely Sin's scent.
I was shaking; I realized.
“Crescent." Sin was frowning down at me and I grounded myself.
You’re touch starved, silly. Any alpha is going to smell like heaven.
It was just the way I was wired. Even if the scents I’d caught back there hadn’t been like this.
I was scared, then. Now I felt safe.
That was all.
They reduced my exposure to alpha scents at the Convent if they could help it.
Or alphas at all—not unless the alpha chose it, fully knowing the risks of being around omegas with golden eyes, and the temptations that came with them.
What about this pack?
Didtheyknow?
Now, I was in here withthreealphas, and Sin was just standing there topless. It had been so kind of him to give me his shirt and protect me—and the other alphas in there—from temptation, but it was so, so hard not to stare at how much muscle there was across his chest.
My pulse got thready just thinking about it.
Or the kiss he’d given me…
With a name like his, I was half convinced this was all a test.
Maybe… maybe the Sisters knew what was happening in here, and just needed to be sure I wouldn’t be a problem again…
But it wouldn’t do to bank on that.
I forced a smile onto my face, then glanced around—notat Sin.
All of them were staring at me.
Just an hour ago, the idea of being stuck in a room with three strangers like this would have been terrifying, but my fear… it wasn’tofthem. Which was unexpected.
“What… what can I do?" I asked. I looked around, examining the two doors along the walls, both bland and metal—one, oddly, with a metal peephole at around head height that seemed to be shut. The beds were messy, though, and I edged over to the nearest one, giving the blanket a little tug.
That’s what they’d want, right?
I’d been taught a thousand things about the role of an omega and internalized every one, always listening so raptly to Sister Josephine, knowing it wassosilly to dream I might one day get to put that knowledge to use, but not being able to help it anyway.
It was dangerous to offer a bond to an omega as sinful as a gold pack without being steadfast in their faith.
Being a gold pack—marked by these golden eyes—meant I was lesser than other omegas. Within the first year of perfuming, all omegas weresupposedto go to the Institute to get an injection that would make us fit in with society. Fail to do so and our eyes would turn gold, marking us traitors.
Our hormones, our instincts, everything about us was more… feral.
Evil.