Page 49 of The Omega’s Nest

Then a muffled voice—it’s deep, angry. An alpha’s voice.

The footsteps break into a run.

Adrenaline surges as I wait for Addie to come through the door. I prepare to grab him and run.

A loud thump against the door. Addie cries out. The growl of an alpha.

Red descends. My vision fills with it. Rage. Pure, vicious fury.

The voice is moving away, what sounds like a body being dragged with it.

I slam my hip and shoulder against the door. The wood gives the tiniest bit. I do it again. And again. The wood buckles. Growls and snarls rip out of me. I feel no pain as I hammer through the wood with the side of my body.

The door falls away under my next shove. I have a second to realise the alpha has opened it. I stumble forward and catch the laughing eyes of Benji looking down at me.

“You again,” he says.

I swing, clocking him under the chin and cracking his head back. He stumbles, not prepared for an alpha in a rage. I pounce on him, forcing him to crash to the ground. His hands come up, but I’m faster, my fists taking turns whaling into his face.

I’m fully in it now. I’m no longer human. The face beneath me is turning red, the pale skin splintering and running with blood.

Benji tries to buck me off, punches me in the kidney.

I roar and hit him again and again and again. I hit him until he stops moving. And then I keep on hitting him.

“Leo.” That’s Addie’s voice.

I inhale deeply. His scent is nearby, but faint. I blink through the blood smattering my eyelashes.

Addie stands in the hallway, dwarfed in my clothes, his eyes wide.

“Addie,” rumbles out of me.

He smiles, tremulous, relieved.

“Get out of here,” a voice comes from behind Addie.

I growl and leap up.

But it’s an omega. A petite, striking omega.

“I’ll take care of this. Go,” the omega says. It’s not urgent, but his tone has a steel to it I wouldn’t associate with an omega.

I yank Addie against my side.

“Thank you,” Addie says to the omega. The omega rolls his eyes and flicks his wrist in a shooing motion.

I lean down and nudge my face between Addie’s shoulder and neck, breathing in deep. That’s my omega. That’s my home.

“Fuck’s sake, go,” the omega says again.

“Leo,” Addie says and grips me by the nape. “Come back now, we have to go.”

I whine at him—I need to scent him.

Addie grabs me by the hand, yanks me forward, and I follow. I’ll follow Addie anywhere. His hoodie has fallen down, and the sea breeze catches his scent once we step onto the loading dock, sending it rushing back to me. I hook into it—a tether that can lead me to the ends of the earth.

Addie’s hand is easy on top of the steering wheel, the streetlights illuminating the swallow tattoo on the back of his hand in occasional bursts of light. The alpha rage is receding.