“Oh, look, here comes your guard dog now,” he says, giving me a soft smirk.
“Looks like your plan worked, darling.” He removes his hands from my hips, slipping away, leaving me on the dance floor alone as Luke approaches me once more, just as my body flushes with a heavy heat.
“Was he tolerable?” Luke asks, his faint smirk drawing attention to the dimples that have been hidden underneath that scruffy five o’clock shadow all week.
“Huh?” I ask, near breathless as a flush of heat overtakes me.
“Simon and his two left feet?” he says. “I believe that was what Elizabeth Bennet said when Mr. Darcy asked her how to stoke affection, right? Dancing wastolerable. Even if the partner was not.”
His green eyes sparkle with interest, and I suck in a breath from both his charm, and the sudden flush of heat. Sweat forms on my brow.
“I—” I can’t breathe. The room is spinning and closing in on me at the same time.
“I need some air,” I say as I push past him, seeking the closest exit into the courtyard.
“Emily…” His tone shifts completely to one of concern, of panic. I rush through the crowd, towards the doors, my heart beating a mile a minute.
“Emily, slow down…” he calls, but I can’t. I need to run. My omega is just as panicked as I am. I’ve felt heat strokes before, but this…
This is different.
It feels like my entire body is onfire.
I burst through the doors to the courtyard, hurrying down the steps, my heels clattering on the wood and stone path. I keep running. I can’t stop. I can’t?—
I nearly trip on my own two feet, falling over a damn vase onto the ground and then the heat hits harder than ever. I grimace, squeezing my legs together and hunching my shouldersas I try to ride out the harshest, most brutal heat wave I’ve ever felt.
The scent of caramel and spice mixed with apples and that undeniablealphascent hit me like a brick. I whine.
“Emily, look at me.” Luke’s voice is smooth, warm. Like the caramel that fills my lungs.
“I can’t,” I say, because I’m afraid of what I’ll see reflected in those bright green pools.
My body shakes as I try to brace through it, the cool air kissing my skin a welcome sensation.
But it turns to a shiver rather quickly, and then I feel warmth like I’ve never felt before. It’s notheat.It’s not a fire.
It’s comfort.
The deep scent of caramel is stronger here. Without thinking, I breathe it in and curl closer to the fire that surrounds me. Large hands secure me, and I realize when I open my eyes that Luke’s placed his jacket around me and he’s holding me. Against his hard, solid chest.
I can’t fight his scent or his hold, something inside of me unlocking like a dam.
“It’s alright,” he says, his voice shaky. “Just… breathe.”
He sucks in a breath and lets it out. And then he does it again, and I follow his lead.
“That’s it,” he says. “Good girl.”
Something about those two words settle every panicking cell in my body.
Our alpha is pleased with us.
I blink, trying to dispel the thought, but the moment it lands, I know it’s true.
I’m his, whether he knows it or not. Whether he accepts me or not…
When did that happen?
