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A smirk curled his lips. “So pessimistic. I expected more excitement given how you’re about to be claimed.”
I frowned but bit back the questions that bubbled in the back of my throat.
Men like Councilman Raza loved to hear themselves talk. Stay quiet long enough, and he would tell me everything I needed to know.
His eyes lit with insidious fire. “I don’t know how you managed to evade the units for as long as you did, but it won’t happen again.”
Alister’s and Frank’s arms banded around me. Councilman Raza tested the needle, squirting clear liquid out of the end.
Councilman Raza continued, “Normally, we require all official claiming to occur in front of a witness, but something tells me the unit who catches you won’t be able to hold off.”
My body jolted into action as his words crystalized and his plan became clear.
He was going to induce my heat.
My hips bucked, and I thrashed side to side as a strong hand pressed against my shoulder to still me.
“No. That’s insane,” I shouted. “They’ll kill each other.” Or me.
“There, there,” he said, gripping my hip as he angled the syringe just above my pubic bone. “It will all be over soon, and when you’re living your new life with your unit, heavy with your first child”—his eyes hardened—“you’ll thank me.”
He plunged the needle into my skin.
My breath caught in my throat as twigs snapped beneath me.
They were there, just below me.
A unit of males.
Fuck.
I wanted to wipe the moisture from my brow, but the fear of drawing their attention kept my arms at my sides. I tried to ignore the steadily rising temperature of my body. The collar around my neck rubbed uncomfortably against my throat.
I was running out of time.
Fuck, why couldn’t I hear them?
A flush of heat made my pelvic muscles clench, alerting me to an even more pressing problem. The serum should have already worked its way through most of my body, and soon, every male in a twenty-mile radius would scent me—regardless of how much rabbit tobacco I rubbed on my skin.
The small, overlooked plant had a little-known side effect. When chewed and rubbed onto the skin, it masked one’s scent as well as any made chemical.
When I first found it growing at the base of some aspens on the west side of the Hunt grounds, I knew my father was watching over me. It was one of the biggest reasons I’d evaded capture.
I had to move. The finish line was just ahead, and this was my last chance to—
White hot pain lanced through my skull, and I struggled to breathe for a few moments. My hand shot out to grip the tree trunk as my knees turned to jelly.
Sinking my teeth into my lip, I swallowed a cry of agony.
You can do this, Bri. Just put one foot in front of—
A noise distracted me, and the scent of mint, orange blossom, and spiced vanilla hit me as I spun around. To my dismay, a huge male had joined me.
“Smart. I never would have thought to look in the trees,” he said as he leaned against the trunk.
He didn’t fool me. The possessive way his hazel eyes scanned my body had me taking a step back.
I wrestled with the idiotic urge to freeze out of sheer panic. The ache between my legs began to pulse, and I flushed as the sweet smell of my slick perfumed the air.
