“You didn’t do anything wrong, Kaida. I don’t want you to feel weird with me. I deserved it,” he says, breaking our silence.
“How do you know that’s what I’m feeling?” I ask defensively.
“I can smell your shame in the air, Omega.”
Has my scent increased that much? It burns my nose, but his scent is the same, a touch colder, wrapping around me, making me feel safe.
“I’m sorry for hitting you,” I whisper.
“I deserved it.”
“No, I shouldn’t have done it.”
I turn and force a smile, but he reaches out slowly, giving me time to get away from him. I don’t move; I can’t. He curls his fingers under my chin and presses his thumb gently, tilting my head up.
He opens his mouth to say something. I watch his lips, wondering if he will taste different with all this mess between us. My stomach flutters with nerves, and I lean towards him.
“Maybe we should—” I start to say.
“KAIDA KERES!”
I jump away from Mordecai like I’ve been electrocuted, but he grabs me and drags me back into his body.
“He can’t hurt you; he’s just trying to scare you,” he whispers in my ear. “I’m here. I’m not going to let him touch you.”
His huge body engulfs mine, and then I’m shoved into Jarek’s arms while Mordecai leaps through the window, disappearing.
I make a small sound of protest. Cadel glides across the space, climbing until he’s perched just inside the window, hidden in darkness, waiting and watching.
He hisses, and I shove out of Jarek’s arms and approach the hole. Cadel points down, and I follow his finger until I see who is yelling. The Beta’s Fang is walking beside the Beta’s Claw and beside them, astride his massive black stallion, is the Warden.
Seeing the three of them together is enough to make my bowels turn to water.
“You can’t hide forever; your scent is spreading through the city, getting stronger and stronger. My dogs are going to sniff you out,” the Fang roars, tilting his head back and laughing maniacally.
I expect to see canines, but then I realise what the eight men arranged around them are there for.
“Oh, my gods,” I breathe in horror.
Eight alphas, they look half-starved and mad. I recognise one of them. Willow, the alpha who hit me, the one who escaped the school.
“What are they?” Cadel asks.
“Alphas in ruts. That’s what happens when you deprive an alpha of an omega for that long but introduce a heat scent. They go into violent ruts where they will rape and bite, maim and even kill the omega before they are stopped. They are stronger, faster, their sense of smell is better; all they care about is the omega and knotting them by whatever means possible. Even if it causes her death,” Jarek whispers.
Unstoppable.
He’s got them on leashes.
“What happens to an omega who suppresses her heat?” Cadel asks.
I fidget in on the spot, memories slamming into me. I don’t want them. “The heats become stronger and impossible to deny, they will allow any alpha to knot them. Some have come out of it bonded to alphas they’ve never met before. An omega who hasn’t had her heat is all instinct. They are vulnerable and weak. Prey. The gods truly hated omegas to make us this way.”
“Have you had a heat?”
I press my lips together, not wanting to open up that gruesome history. “There’s another option. It’s called heat sickness. You suppress your heat, and it starts messing with your body, your hormones. No alpha can get you hot and bothered; you show no attraction, and slowly, you just start shutting down. I have seen omegas die from heat sickness. But better that than losing a limb in a heat.”
Cadel scowls. “They’ve perverted everything that this world should have been.”
