And she was… ours.
I felt something unwind.
Ours, and?—
“You won’t go anywhere without one of us,” Vandle growled at her. She shrank a little, or as much as she could with his palm still cupping her neck.
“Yes, alpha.” She glanced at us nervously again, lip trembling.
Now my nerves were calming, I was starting to tune into the feelings of my pack. What I found was a tad unexpected.
I think Vandle was… angry. Oh, yep, really fucking angry. I could also feel a faint trace of fear that was dying down now. It was a feeling I understood after exiting the bathroom to find she was gone.
Since all I’d got from him in the last year and a half was a smudge of possessive, territorial alpha instincts, I thought that was… good.
Well.
For us.
Crescent, on the other hand…
“Should we… go back to the room?” Karma asked.
Vandle’s annoyed, mismatched gaze snapped to him. “You fed me protein bars for three days,” he growled, straightening. “I’m starving.”
Crescent, freed of his grip, tried to slip from the table. Vandle huffed, stopping her before she could, and picking her up. He was one tall motherfucker, and she might as well have been a teddy bear with the ease with which he lifted her into his arms.
Crescent, who now had her arms wrapped around Vandle’s neck with that oversized top, was staring at me with eyes as wide as dinner plates as Vandle walked off—and right past the bloody mess of bodies he’d left behind.
I felt a smile twitch on my lips. I probably shouldn’t find any part of this funny. She’d almost got herself bonded by some random fucking alphas, and I didn’t have a clue why. But uh… she was ours now.
So that was that.
And she looked so fucking cute in Vandle’s arms.
CRESCENT
I had a bond with my mates.
The spike of fear I’d felt when I'd stared up at that alpha who'd approached me in the square was fading at last. My mate had killed him, which was wrong, I thought.
But they seemed to fight and kill a lot in here so maybe it was... different from the outside world?
There had been a little bubble of joy in my tummy when my mate had come for me. Something exhilarating about the iron tang of blood in the air and the aching mark on my neck.
Vandle, they’d said.
He... wanted me.
And he would fight for me.
My pack lead… the thought was dizzying. More than I could have imagined.
And now I was theirs... like... properly theirs.
I should feel a lot more guilty than I did, but none of this had been my choice.
I’d tried.