“Well, now,” he said, in a voice like gravel. “Aren’t you a sweet little morsel? Too bad you’re so skinny.”
His scent wrapped around me, overpowering and so verywrong. I doubled over and puked on the floor, my stomach cramping in time with my womb.
The alpha lunged forward and grabbed me. “Fuckin’cow. You think I wanna smell that shit the whole time I’m balls-deep in you?”
I coughed, choking on bile, and he slammed me against a different part of the wall.
Heath, I thought desperately—my eyes focusing with laser intensity on the blade of the stiletto as the alpha raised it threateningly to my face.
All at once, a silvery sheen of clarity settled over my mind. One thing mattered, and one thing only. My mate was somewhere in this building, and this alpha was standing between me and what I needed.
I darted forward, the edge of the blade sliding along my cheek as I grabbed the alpha’s forearm and buried my teeth in his wrist. My jaws closed with a strength I’d never realized I had; my teeth piercing through skin and gristle.
The alpha howled, taken completely by surprise as the knife slipped from his grasp and clattered to the floor. I jerked my head, tearing at whatever was in my mouth and spitting it out as my teeth came free. The knife hilt felt like a magnet. It drew me to it unerringly as I dove for the floor, coming up with it held in one of my bound hands.
I sprung upright again and jabbed sideways with savage precision. The blade slid into the alpha’s jugular with almost no resistance, slicing through flesh like butter. The man madea wet, choking noise of shock as he scrabbled at the protruding knife handle, one hand flopping uselessly as it dangled from his torn wrist. Then he toppled slowly to the side, his knees folding and sending him crashing to the ground.
I stared down blankly as he flopped like a fish, gouts of red spurting rhythmically from his neck. When he stopped moving, I looked slowly past him to the door. Then I looked back down at the twitching corpse.
A ring of keys hung from his belt. I crouched next to him and pulled them free before walking to the door. He hadn’t even bothered to lock it. It was heavy, but it swung open with a creak.
I glanced at the camera. Someone would see what had happened, probably. But I didn’t need much time. Outside the cell with its choking miasma of blood, rosemary, and leather, I could smell my mate. I clutched the keys tightly in one hand and ran toward the source of the scent.
TWENTY
Jez
MY MATE WAS CLOSE.I was sure of it. My head swam, thoughts becoming harder to hold onto as the smell of his distress overwhelmed my rational mind.
Keys. I had to keep a grip on the keys. My clothing itched and rubbed like burlap. I wanted nothing more than to stop and tear it all off. But to do that, I’d have to drop the keyring. And I needed the keyring. I needed to keep the keyring because... because...
The sour scent of oak-aged whiskey had been growing stronger with every step, until it was the only thing I could focus on. But now, a weaker scent of lemon and paprika wove in with my mate’s pheromones.
Omega. It was an omega’s scent.
Another omega was withmy mate.
For a split second, rage the likes of nothing I’d ever felt before exploded behind my lungs. Then my lagging brain caught up to what I was smelling, as more details filtered in through my nose.
Young. This omega was a child. Afrightenedchild.
No... not just frightened.Terrified.
I staggered toward the barred cell that was the source of the mingled scents. Behind me, shouts erupted from the way I’dcome, as though maybe someone had found the open cell door and the crumpled body inside.
