Pierce is the one who saved me from my car.
My anxiety filters out as the scents in the car turn harsh, biting. Wren’s is nearly burnt syrup as his evident fury radiates to me.
“I can make it home from here. It isn’t far.” The lie slips out.
I don’t want to be a hindrance. I don’t want to be reminded that Charles is dead. That another man I cared about is gone.
Who was he to them? A pack mate? Is that why their scents call to me too? Why they’re both matches? Just as he was.
Pierce tightens his hold on me, his bulky arms hardening under his jacket, and a deep growl vibrates between us. “Wren. Take her to our house.”
“She’s a Rossi!” Wren whips out, glaring pointedly at me. His icy eyes swirling in anger. “She was looking for Charles!”
A Rossi.
I kept Tony’s last name. Even though I knew the negative connotations that came with his family. Even though we were no longer married. No longer mated.
One last honor to the man who left this world too early.
But what does Charles have to do with any of this?
Pierce doesn’t release his hold on me, but he looks down questioningly. “No one can come get her. The roads are all closed or about to be. There aren’t any snow plows in this town, and they don’t expect the snow to let up for a few days. We can’t just leave her out here to freeze and die.”
“Luth—”
“He hasn’t come out of the back in over a month except for food. He doesn’t get a say. You are going to take us to the fucking house before she freezes.” Pierce pinches my chin in his fingers forcing me to stare into his eyes. “And when we get there, you will explain yourself. Tell us why you are here. Who sent you. Understood?”
Gulping, I hum my agreement.
A wave of desire hits me out of nowhere. I do my best to contain my reaction but it echoes louder and louder the longer he keeps his rough fingers on my chin. I am incredibly grateful the scent-blockers appear to still be working, otherwise I might very well be perfuming in this small enclosed space.
Wren pauses a few more tense beats before releasing an exasperated sigh. “If this goes sideways, I’m going to kick your ass. And if you fuck with us,Omega,I will come after your pack. Don’t think I won’t take each and every one of them down.”
Except his threat is empty. I don’t have a pack. I am a lone omega who is being driven back to a house with two alphas I don’t know, in the middle of a snowstorm.
This time when I shiver in Pierce’s arms, it isn’t from the cold. Even still, he turns the heater up a few notches.
What have I gotten myself into?
The heater from the truck wraps me in its comfort. and it doesn’t take but a few seconds for the adrenaline to leave me, draining the last of my reserves. Exhaustion is a weighted blanket that is violently clawing me under.
I want to fight it, but I inherently know that Pierce is safe. That he won’t hurt me.
It takes less than thirty seconds for me to fall asleep in his arms.
ten
Pierce
Pierce watches the omega unwaveringly. He hasn’t taken his eyes off of her since he pulled her from her car. She is small, young,fragile.
“She fell asleep.” Pierce doesn’t loosen his hold on her. He is acutely aware of how close she came to dying.
Of the absolute horror he felt watching it play out. Seeing her car skirt off the road, unable to help. The single instance he thought it wasn’t going to stop. That she was going to die before his very eyes.
It only took her a minute tops with the heat turned all the way up and then she began blinking slower and slower until her eyes didn’t open again. Her soft, even breathing, another indication.
“Or she’s faking it. She’s a fucking Rossi!” Wren whispers.
