It’s all incredibly intoxicating, this knowledge and power and intimate union.
I can’t remember why I was angry before.
I can’t even remember the events of yesterday.
All I want is to indulge in these males and bathe in their strength.
My insides clench painfully now, that storm reaching a violent point in my lower abdomen and raining passion down my thighs.
Tieran growls.
Caius hisses.
And Volt hums in approval. “Slick,” he says.
“She’s going into heat,” Tieran replies, his voice gruff, his pupils blown wide.
“How much time do we have?” Caius asks.
“Not long,” Tieran tells him. “We need to fortify the den. They’re already on their way here. I can feel them pounding up the hill.”
He releases my neck, drawing a whimper from my throat at the loss of contact. I feel as though we’ve been standing here for hours, glued together by this warmth pooling inside me.
But it’s really only been minutes.
Maybe even seconds.
It’s all so surreal and unfocused.
A pulsating spasm in my lower abdomen causes my knees to buckle. Tieran catches me instantly, his hands branding my bare hips.
I mewl, leaning into him, needing more.
“Hold her,” Caius says. “We’ll handle the perimeter.”
Tieran growls, the sound making me whimper as another pang vibrates through my belly. It hurts. I need. But I don’t understand what this is, or why it’s happening.
On some level I… I sort of do.
He said I’m going into heat.
I’ve witnessed that among females in my pack, but I don’t recall it being painful or all-consuming like this.
It’s something that only happens to mated wolves.
Usually their males take care of them throughout the cycle by keeping them pleasured and fed. It lasts only a few days.
And it typically ends in pregnancy.
That’s why heat cycles are so spare and rare for my kind, happening every few years. I’ve never experienced mine. I shouldn’t be falling into the cycle now.
I’m not properly mated.
But ohhh, it’s… it’s intense.
I swallow, my vision blinking in and out as I sway.
Tieran’s palms are still on my hips, his chest a blanket of warmth before me.
I lean into him, my tongue tasting his skin and trailing down to the grooves I left in his chest. He’ll heal soon. No, he’s healing already. He’s no longer bleeding and something about that upsets my wolf.
I want to claw at him again, to re-mark him, to claim him.
“Tieran,” I groan, his name a rasp of sound in my mouth.
“Shh,” he hushes. “I’ve got you, little one.”
There’s so much I need to say. So much I want to do. But I can’t seem to remember any of it now. My body is begging me to seek relief from this Alpha, to quiet the stirring of sensations deep inside.
I moan.
He hushes me again.
And howls pierce the air outside.
Angry howls that excite my inner animal.
A chase, she’s thinking. We’re about to go on a chase.
I’m not sure I like that idea. I don’t quite understand where the inclination and knowledge is coming from either.
But she’s anticipating it, her adrenaline flooding my veins and allowing me to stand once more.
“Don’t even think about it,” Tieran tells me. “You run, I’ll chase. And I won’t be happy when I catch you.”
That sounds like a challenge.
A challenge I very much want to indulge in.
That foreign part of me wants him to earn the right to touch me, to mate me.
I suddenly feel possessed by the need to run, to make him prove his worth. To challenge him.
No. Not just him. Them.
A crash comes from the living room, the window shattering and eliciting a feral growl from Tieran. I inhale sharply, his rumble sending a tremor through my limbs.
But there’s something more.
A scent lingering in the air.
Like rain on a murky night, I think, momentarily distracted by the familiar aroma. I’ve smelled that on a wolf before.
When?
Where?
Oh, but I hurt…
I shiver, another quake rocketing through my veins, derailing my focus once more.
Caius shouts something I don’t quite catch, the incoming snarls reverberating all around me and eliciting shivers from deep within.
Run, my wolf demands as Tieran releases me to handle one of the shifters who has just entered the kitchen. Run!
I’ve always been able to tame her, to keep her down.
But not anymore.
Not since she took over during our initial shift.
I’m a slave to her needs now and I do exactly what she says.
I sprint for the broken window, leap over the edge, and bolt full speed into the forest. My human legs are far more powerful and faster than my wolf’s legs because I’ve spent two decades learning how to move on two feet instead of four paws.
This is why I won my trials.
I’m fast.
I’m strong.
And I know when to pick my battles.
I choose this battle now.
I choose today to fight.
11
TIERAN
“Fuck!”
That little brat is going to hurt herself. Or worse.
I growl as I snap Alpha Kin’s neck. He’ll heal. It’ll take a day, but he’ll survive and that’s what matters.
The Alphas are being driven by rutting lust.
On a deep level I understand that.
It doesn’t make me any less pissed.
It would be so damn easy to take the silver blade from my pocket and drive it through Alpha Kin’s heart. That would kill him, an act that a dark part of me feels he deserves. But I ignore the darkness and join Caius in the living room.
Alpha Dirk is unconscious with a shard of glass embedded in his chest.
Volt is standing just outside the doorway handling two more lust drunk Alphas.
Caius jumps through the window with me on his tail. The wind tells me what direction Clove went in.
“Go!” Caius demands. “We’ll be right behind you.”
I don’t stay to debate the options or strategize our best plan. There isn’t time. Instead, I take off after the fleeing Omega.
She’s just inspired chaos on the island.
Her pheromones—which are absolutely fucking real—are going to drive all the Alphas mad. Maybe even the Betas.
She’s an unclaimed Omega going into heat.
And she’s running.