“Maybe he’s claiming the nest at last,” she said. “That’s a good thing.”
“He only growls when we’re looking at you,” Karma said.
“And he’s eatenallthe ice cream,” Phantom added.
“But I want mine to start first.” She wrinkled her nose, all cute-like.
“If his heat hits, yours will too,” I said. And they were both on hair triggers with the amount of drugs they’d had to suppress them.
That’s why we were taking this so fucking seriously, even if she wasn’t worried. We had a double heat coming up, with an omega and a sigma who’d never had a heat before—and of them, the one who could snap us in two had a truckload of trauma he hadn’t dealt with.
“Look, I’m the seer,” I said. “And I say he’s not stable.”
“Wait, youare,” Karma said, looking at me. “How did you not know he was a sigma? Don’t you like… see designations and all that?”
I shrugged. “He doesn’t look that different from omegas—well, until the aura. He is... a bit different, but it’s not like I knew to look for it. And down in Anarchy, most of the auras are so fucked up it’s not unusual for them to be odd.”
“He said he’ll be fine,” Crescent whispered. “He will be. He has all of us.”
Hehadbeen saying that.
And I hadn’t listened.
Crescent and Sin had gone on an outing to the local town in the last few days, and I’d taken the opportunity to have an alpha hook installed. It was a hook drilled into the ground, attached with a chain threaded into the nest. We’d had to find a really old one with a high concentration of Vycron Steel. It seemed it might have been enough for sigmas.
When Sin had asked about it, I’d told him it was a kink thing.
Not that I wanted to chain Sin up, but he was being a brat. And an idiot if he didn’t think instincts could get the better of him.
Plus, he’d made me bark.
The truth was, though, if things went south, none of us could deal with him.
I was pack lead, and it was my job to make sure we were safe. Even if that meant chaining my pack members up during heat.
The good thing about both of their hormones holding out was that I was recovered enough to deal with heat. The knife wounds along my side ached, but I was able to walk around. And I’d be able to fuck well enough—if my sigma didn’t try to cock block me.
“We should talk about what happens if he’s not balanced,” I said. “From what we know, it’s a bit like an omega’s heat with... alpha instincts. I’m worried, if he goes into heat, he won’t want us near.”
“But he loves you.” She looked hurt.
“I know, Little Omega,” Phantom said. “But he’s been treated like prey by alphas for a year and a half. In heat, it might not matter anymore who we are. And if you’re in heat at the same time…?”
“Let’s just talk through the plan. He has you, and that could be all we need.”
Her eyes lit up. “What does that mean?”
“He doesn’t have trauma around you, Princess. You’re the one who can balance him—like you balance all of us.”
55
KARMA
I still had to let off steam every day.
The feel of my fists hitting the worn leather bag we’d set up in the back forest released a tension deep in my chest. And giving it up would be giving up a part of me, a coping mechanism I’d used for so long it was deeply rooted in my being.
But I didn’t need the bloodshed, anymore.
