I jump, turn to Rodrigo with a furrowed brow. “Excuse me?”
“We need a specific team makeup to infiltrate this facility, and your pack is the perfect fit.”
There’s a sudden ringing in my ears, the edges of the room turn shadowy, the ground begins to fall away from me. My voice is barely above air when I say, “I don’t have a pack.”
A growl precedes a fist slamming on the table’s edge. “Man the fuck up!” Willow shouts, and I jump again, gape at her.
“Excuse us.” Caius, who hadn’t said a word the entire meeting, steps away from the wall, wraps his arm around the seething Willow, and escorts her from the room.
Rodrigo sighs. “I wish you all would stop beating up my table.”
“Laurant,” Mira’s voice is calm yet pointed at the same time. “You know that’s not true. You have a pack, but you’re not accepting them. That has to stop. Now.”
“He doesn’t know.” Colt’s statement makes me turn my attention to him as he scrutinizes me.
“Know what?”
Mira looks at Colt, and I can almost feel the wordless exchange between them before she turns back to me. “When packs are in close proximity, and none of them are mated or marked, they’re fine. It’s the moment even one of them is mated and marked by another that things begin to…” she searches for the right words.
“Omegas will go feral if not mated and marked by all of their pack in a…timely manner,”Rodrigo offers.
“I’m sorry, what?”
Colt frowns at me. “Once mated and marked once, Omegas need to be mated and marked by every member of their pack, quickly, or else they go feral. They become wild, lose control, become a danger to themselves and others.”
“And you have two Omegas in your pack,” Mira continues for Colt. “I’m not breaking any confidences by telling you Nyx has been mated and marked by both Erich and Zephyr, and Zephyr has been mated and marked by Nyx.”
“Their scents scream it,” Aubrey says quietly.
“Zephyr and Erich have things to work through,” Colt tells me, “but Nyx… it’s only a matter of time before she starts exhibiting signs. Aggression. Lack of patience. Uncontrolled power.” His head shakes.
“It started happening to me,” Mira says in a whoosh. “I’d been marked by all but one of my Alphas, and I started to change. But we fixed it before things went too far.”
I realize at that moment I’ve stopped breathing, and I’m blinking rapidly at them. Sucking in much-needed oxygen, I breathe, “Why haven’t I heard this before?”
“We don’t want to cause a panic,” Rodrigo explains. “We have spoken privately to new packs as they begin to mate. Not every pack in the academy is complete, and as long as the unmated members are geographically far away from one another, there’s no issue.”
Fumbling my way to the nearest chair against the wall behind me, I drop into it, brain spinning. “You’re saying I need to mate her or leave?”
“Them,”Raito corrects. “Zephyr needs both you and Erich to mark him.”
“Zephyr O’Connor going feral is the last thing we need.” Rodrigo shifts his stance to turn to me. “His powers are volatile as it is.”
“But…” I choke on my words, cough and grip my chest. “But I’ve never even spoken to him.”
“Then help Nyx,” Mira implores. “She’s in more danger than Zephyr right now. But you need to be the Alpha they all need, Laurant. I know you have it in you to be that man.”
Do I? Do I have it in me to do what must be done, despite not understanding my feelings or those of my pack that I’ve all but ignored for years? Zephyr, who I’ve never even conversed with?
This knowledge of what I need to do should empower me, but instead, I feel like a failed Alpha.
Zephyr
Before he even comes into view, I can feel his presence.
Erich’s energy is blazing with the heat of his magic and from the anger he’s always wielding. The gobshite walks ‘round with a chip on his shoulder so big, I’m surprised his back hasn’t broken.
He’s beside me now, staring me down with those icy blue eyes I both loathe and love.
