Then why was I struggling now?
My tail lashed in frustration. I couldn’t move. I wouldn’t allow myself because if I took a step forward, it would be towards that unbearably sweet scent.
I hadn’t noticed it at first, because the heat-scent smothered everything else, but the stench of wolf hung in the air. I’d never mistake that smell. It was the one my omega-father carried. My lip curled in disdain.
It was impossible for the heat-scent to belong to a wolf. But then, what other shifter could it be? The other animals in the town were mute animals—livestock and pets.
Unfortunately, catsareprone to curiosity. But why shouldn’t we be? We do sit at the top of the food chain, after all.
I could afford to indulge my curiosity, so I did. I wouldn’t be tempted into sex, but I wanted to know what kind of shifter was giving off that incredible, mouth-watering scent.
I prowled silently towards the source. I was invisible in the shadows, and the overpowering heat-scent covered up my own. As far as anyone else was concerned, I didn’t exist.
Voices came from inside a room. I kept close to the wall and strained to listen. There were two voices, both male. But that wasn’t what concerned me—the heat-scent came from this very room. I clenched my jaw and licked the saliva from my lips. Ignoring my base desire, I raised my head to the grimy window.
A man lay naked on the floor. He was yellow-haired, slim, clearly an adult but almost boyish in the plumpness in his cheeks. Another man stood over him, fully clothed, looming with open desire.
My hackles rose instantly.
At once, I understood two things: one, that the man on the floor was no human—he was a shifter, and he was in heat.
Two, that the man standing over him didnothave good intentions.
The growl in my throat surged into a primal roar. I didn’t care that it gave me away. Fury made my blood boil. With one powerful strike, I swiped at the old door. It shattered to splinters.
“Ah!” the omega cried.
My body moved on its own. My mind was blank with red rage. I leapt into the room, two-hundred pounds of pure muscle, fangs bared. My claws dug angry lines into the floorboards. Every hair on my pelt prickled.
My first priority was the omega. I stood over him like a parent protecting his cub. My body was a cage keeping him from harm.
“What the fuck?” the human man sputtered. He staggered backwards, hitting the wall. Fear-scent rolled off him in waves. I didn’t have to look at his lower half to know he was hard. I hissed in disgust.
The blond omega whimpered, but not from fear. He curled up tighter, likely trying to deal with the discomfort of his heat.
Now that I was here with the lone omega, my arousal was a speck in the furthest corner of my mind. Anger burned brightly in its place. The thought of this man touching the omega infuriated me. I’d never been so pissed off in my life.
The man frantically reached for a weapon in a way that told me he was unfamiliar with his surroundings. He found only an old paperweight.
“Go away!”
He threw it at my head. I dodged it. It was laughable that he thought he could outsmart me.
“Fuckin’ cougar coming out of nowhere,” he muttered. He grabbed the metal rod hanging in the closet and ripped it from the hinges, brandishing it like a club. To my surprise, he wasn’t using it for defense—he advanced on me, intending to use it as a weapon. “Get away from that omega!”
Outrage and a strange pang of jealousy shot through me.Thatomega? What the hell was he talking about?
He swung the metal rod at me. In a swift motion, I raised a paw and deftly grabbed it.
The man balked, then wrenched it out of my grip and swung again. He was aiming for my side, but if I moved out of the way, he would hit the omega. I gritted my teeth as he smacked me with the rod.
“Stop!” the omega cried.
The pain barely registered. It meant nothing to me. I was more confused and enraged by the way this human referred to the omega. He was no shifter—if he was, he would have shifted to fight back by now. But then how could he have known?
And more importantly, he was dead wrong if he thought the omega wasjustan omega. My inner lion felt furiously protective, so much so that it startled me.
I needed to keep this omega safe.
