“I’ll be back soon.” His voice is muffled through the door. “Just need to make a phone call. Can’t have you in a bathroom for a few days while we ride out your heat.”
I hear him making what sounds like a phone call as he walks away, his voice fading down the hallway. I press my ear against the door, straining to hear.
“…yeah, got a little surprise… need you here… forty minutes?… bring the SUV…”
His pack. He’s calling his pack.
Fuck, no, no, no.
“Felton!” I scream his name, pound harder. “Felton, please! Please don’t do this!”
His footsteps fade.
I’m alone.
Another cramp hits, so vicious I cry out and drop to my knees. The tile is cold against my skin, but I’m burning up, sweating through my clothes.
Okay. Okay, think. The door. I stagger to my feet, examine the handle—no help, and the hinges are on the other side. No way to get to them.
I kick at the door anyway. Once. Twice. Three times until my foot aches, and the door hasn’t budged.
Pound on it. Scream until your throat is raw.
“Help! Someone help me! I’m locked in here! Please!”
But I’m too far from the main areas. No one can hear me over the roar of the crowd and the arena announcements.
Another cramp drops me back to my knees. This one doesn’t ease. It just keeps building, wave after wave of heat and pain and need that makes it hard to think, hard to breathe.
My Omega is panicking now, realizing she’s trapped, alone, vulnerable during the most dangerous time. She’s sending out distress pheromones that I can smell even through my own heat-fogged brain. They’re probably saturating the hallway outside, but there’s no one out there to scent them.
The pack will find you, I try to tell myself.They’ll know something’s wrong. They’ll come looking.
But what if they don’t? What if they’re too far away? What if Felton comes back first with his pack, and?—
I can’t think about that. I drag myself to the corner farthest from the door, curl up as small as I can make myself. My whole body is shaking—from fever, from fear, from cramps that are coming faster now. The heat is ramping up, and without pack, without Alpha, without help, it’s going to get bad. Really bad.
Please, I think desperately.Please find me. Beau. Jake. Charlie. Please.
Another cramp, and this one makes my vision go white. I can’t breathe through it, can only hold myself and wait for it to pass.
It doesn’t pass.
The pain keeps building. I’m so fucking hot; it’s never been like this. I can feel consciousness starting to slip.
No. Stay awake. You have to stay awake.
But I’m so tired. So hot. So scared.
My eyes drift closed.
Please, I think one more time.Please find me.
Then there’s nothing but darkness.
TWENTY-SEVEN
beau
