“Who’s in the box, Sin?” Holden asked. There was a feral spark in his eyes, he already knew what he'd find.
“You have me.”
“There's always room for another.”
“Don’t—!” My voice cut off as Holden jammed his hand over my mouth, eyes fixed on the rut box.
There was a strange second of silence as Declan paused, fist on the handle, head cocked as if curiously waiting for the sound again.
My heart pounded in my chest.
Then I heard anotherthump, this one louder than the others.
I hadn't ever growled like I did as Declan finally turned the handle. It was vicious, guttural, and utterly useless as the rut box opened.
Crescent's scent of roses and cocoa hit the room, beautiful, terrified, and in the full throes of heat.
She all but fell out, catching herself on Declan's shirt. She stared up at him, cheeks tracked with tears, eyes so gold they seemed to shine, each exhale tangled with a faint whine as she felt the fully fledged agony of her heat.
“It's... it's me.” Her voice shook. “Not him.”
A strange moment passed as every alpha in the room realized that whatever they'dthoughtthey were experiencing as heat, was nothing to the true one facing them now.
Holden was staring at her, pupils fully dilated.
No, no, no.
She didn't know what she'd done—what this pack was capable of.
“I'll be whatever you want if you don't touch him.”
VANDLE
We were alive.
Somehow.
Beyond all reason. My body was all but giving out as I slumped against the bars, the corpses of the Wakefield pack bleeding out around me.
Blood made of black, glistening pools seeped outward.
Phantom was clutching a bar with his fist, chest heaving, blood smeared across his hands and face. At some point Karma had passed the knife off to him, and it glinted with stained dark liquid in the dim, flickering lights of the room.
Karma was the only one of us with life in him. A growl ripped from his throat as he threw his weight at the cage door.
I understood that fury. It was a burning monster within me, demanding I pick this stupid body up and move.
The first call had been made. Our appeal countdown had begun, and we were trapped in this cage without our omegas.
We’d survived, but it didn’t matter at all.
I felt them through the bond. Sin and Crescent.
Terror.
It flickered between them—each fighting for dominance in the bond.
My chest heaved as Karma slammed his shoulder against the bars once more, and I tried to pick myself up again.