This doesn’t make any sense.
I blinked again, startled by the sudden glitter of lights all around me.Windows. The moon above. Ice.
Not a black cave. No scent of fresh blood.Not in heat.
My core clenched in response, not out of want but out of fear. And I sighed when I felt nothing wrong. No pain. No residual burn. No agonized sensations.
Because it was all in the past.
It’d happened over a century ago. In the Pre-Infected Era. Right before the outbreak.
I shivered.Fuck. What triggered that?My throat resembled sandpaper, my insides frigid from being momentarily paralyzed by my nightmares.
Except, no… no, that wasn’t what paralyzed me.
My eyes widened as I finally followed the command tolook…
Lorcan.
His name tumbled through my mind on a growl as I yanked my gaze away from his chest and up to his face. I’d momentarily lost my sight, too consumed by the past to see the present.
He stared down at me with those unfathomably black eyes, his expression still unreadable. But I caught a hint of regret in his mind.
“Don’t pity me,” I snapped at him, my voice a rasp of sound.
“I don’t.”
Now it was my turn to lift a brow at him because I heard the lie in his mind. “Don’t ever do that to me again.”
“I don’t make false promises,” he returned. “But I won’t hurt you without cause.”
I snorted. “Without cause.” Typical Alpha. “And let me guess—turning down your knot would be justified cause, yes?”
“What makes you think I’d ever offer you my knot?” he countered.
“We’re mated. Isn’t that your right now,Alpha?”
He cocked his head to the side. “This is a mating of convenience, Kyra. We both did what we had to do to protect our best friends.”
A mating of convenience,I repeated to myself with a mental snort.Is that even a thing?
Although, I supposed most Alphas would find it ratherconvenientto have constant access to an Omega for knotting purposes.
He made a sound that suggested he’d overheard my analysis. But that didn’t make it any less true.
I knew Alphas. I understood their desires. It didn’t matter what species they were; they all had one goal in mind—to procreate.
That was why they took Omega mates.
And while our circumstances might have been different today, Lorcan would eventually cave to his wolfish instincts. It wasn’t a matter ofifhe would butwhenhe would.
“Look, Kyra, all I want is a room I can stay in while I protect Kieran and Quinnlynn during this vulnerable time,” he told me, his voice sounding more tired than before. “And, if you’re feeling amenable, I wouldn’t mind a tour of the Sanctuary so I can better understand the security limitations.”
I waited for him to say more, but he didn’t. He simply stared at me while his thoughts confirmed that his only intention for staying here was to safeguard his cousin and Quinn.
However, underneath it all, I sensed his hungry wolf. He might be tamed at the moment, but I doubted he would stay that way for long.
Which meant I needed to prepare for the inevitable. Although, I couldn’t do that with Lorcan breathing down my neck.
