He can't find my scent.
The realization hits like a bucket of cold water through the fog of lust. The scent-blockers. He can’t smell me.
I’m a sensory void to this beautiful alpha, and it’sdevastating.
A whimper escapes me. Small and broken and so pathetic it makes me hate myself.
Cliff's dark eyes narrow as he frowns. Something shifts behind them, his confusion deepening. "What are you?" he whispers, almost to himself.
“Cliff?” Perrin says, and the alpha’s upper body angles away from me, his weight shifting toward the tent entrance.
Is he leaving?
I jump.
Arms fly around his neck, legs around at his middle, mouth on his before either of us takes another breath. Cliff grunts, clearly shocked as I push my tongue into his mouth.
Big hands grab my hips, trying to shove me off, but I lock my ankles around his trim waist and wrap my arms around his neck.
Mine.
I swipe my tongue over his, and the alpha goes still.
His whole body goes rigid. His fingers freeze mid-push.
I feel the exact moment he tastes me.
His breath hitches, then a sound rips from his chest that vibrates through my entire body. Deep and raw andhungry.
His hands stop pushing and start pulling.
He yanks me against him so hard it knocks the air out of my lungs.
One hand buries in my hair, fisting it at the root, the other grips my thigh hard enough to bruise. He kisses meback like something broke loose inside him. Teeth and tongue and a growl that doesn't stop, that rolls continuously through his chest and into mine.
There's no control in it. No calculation. He's lost to the same desires I am.
Past thought, past reason, past everything civilized.
We're two animals in a dark tent, tearing at each other, and his scent is spiking so hard the air feels heavy with it.
He breaks the kiss and drags his nose down my jaw to my throat. One long inhale. His body shudders.
"Omega?" he breathes against my skin.
"Cliff?" Perrin's voice comes from somewhere behind us. It sounds far away, muffled, like he's speaking through water. "What do you mean,omega? She's—she’s wearing scrubs. She works here. She's a beta."
Cliff doesn't answer. He doesn't even lift his head. His mouth drags up the other side of my throat, and his teeth graze my scent gland, and my body arches into him.
"Alpha." Perrin's voice is sharper now. Confused. Maybe scared. "What the hell is happening?"
A low, rumbling growl rolls out of Cliff's chest. It sounds like a warning. The kind of sound that tells another person to back the fuck up.
Silence.
Then I hear the soft crunch of boots on dirt, the rustle of canvas, and the bright wedge of daylight narrows and disappears as the tent flap falls shut.
Perrin is gone.
