My instincts reacted too, as I searched for the threat.
Something other.
Enemy or... or something new.
Karma prowled to the front of the cage, staring out toward the light of the open door that led into the room.
It was pure dominance, and not something I was used to feeling as an alpha.
A figure turned the corner. The owner of this aura, which was magnitudes larger than any alpha aura I'd felt, was carrying a shape in his arms.
It only took me half a moment to process what—or who—I was looking at.Sinwas stepping down the hallway toward us, Crescent in his arms, hers wrapped around his neck as she hugged him close.
I don’t think I’d ever felt a flood of relief like I did then, getting to my feet and staggering toward Karma.
The truth we’d known in the periphery became so obvious now.
He was not an omega.
Her scent hit me then—roses and cocoa, saturated by the charred edge of unmanaged heat. I crossed toward the door, fists closing around the bars desperately as they approached.
She needed me.
Sin was covered in blood. It coated his cheek and hair, dripping from his fingers, which gripped her tight in his arms. A few blots were stark in her snowy hair and smeared on her cheek.
I reached for her, but Sin let out a low growl, wild eyes snapping to me in a moment, though he cut off as he took inmy face. I paused, not a single instinct in my body inclined to challenge him.
The terror earlier hadn't been a joke.
They’d been attacked.
“Is Vandle…?” Sin asked.
“He’ll live. We need to get to the waiting roomnow, though,” I said as Sin set Crescent down before him, still supporting her. I reached through the bars of the cage on instinct to brush her hair back. That was when I saw the blossoming purple bruise that was blooming across the side of her face, obscured half by her hair.
A whine of distress rose in my throat as I cupped her neck.
She was safe and alive—here with us. I had to remind myself of that. And we needed to hurry.
She was unfurling a shaking fist, revealing the key that she tried to slip into the cage lock quickly, missing a few times, which set me on edge. Behind me, Karma already had Vandle in his arms and was helping him to his feet.
While the two of them limped out, I slipped through the doors and around the cage. I’d heard a sharp clink at some point in the night, my mind tuned into my omegas nest.
Sure enough the keys, that had been in Vandle’s pocket, were resting on the stone floor beside the cage. I grabbed them and returned in seconds.
Sin picked Crescent up again. I wanted to, but there was a very unsettling glow in Sin’s eyes right now, so I didn’t dare.
But we had to cross Anarchy and pray the doors were still unlocked, and there was no alpha living that would dare cross this man before we got there.
CRESCENT
I was in Sin’s arms, flooded with my pack's scents.
They’d been in a cage… I remembered letting them out, but now things were getting hazy.
I loosened my grip on Sin's neck, inhaling deeply, only to cough, a sharp pain shooting through my chest and nose.
“Almost there, firefly,” Sin told me.