My panic doesn't disappear. It's still there, humming in the background. But the way she's touching the mark on her neck with a soft, dazed reverence does something to me.
She’s mine.
Whatever this is, whatever catastrophe I set into motion, this woman is lying beneath me looking like the world finally stopped hurting, and I'm the reason.
It makes me feel unreasonably good.
Moving slowly, I lean down and rest my forehead against hers.
Our breathing is ragged and tangled together, her exhale becoming my inhale, and I can taste pear and vanilla on every breath. Her fingers are loose in my hair now, her thumbs tracing slow, absent circles behind my ears. Her eyes are half-closed, her lips swollen and parted, and there's a softness to her face that wasn't there before. Like the storm passed through and left something quiet in its wake.
I kiss her, slow and warm, my mouth barely moving against hers, and she hums into it, a low, satisfied sound that vibrates against my lips.
For exactly four seconds, I forget where I am.
Then I hear voices.
They cut through the canvas walls, muffled but close. Two men, maybe three, their footsteps crunching on the dryground outside the tent. My body reacts before my brain catches up. Every muscle locks and I curl over Elowen, pulling her into my chest, my arms forming a cage around her head and shoulders. My back is to the tent entrance and a growl builds in my throat, low and automatic.
The camp. The market. The job.
Myknot.
Fuck!
It all comes flooding back like cold water dumped over my skull.
I need to get her out of here, without anyone noticing what she is. Unfortunately, my pack is waiting for me on the other side of the camp, and it doesn’t help that we’re maybe a hundred fucking yards from the auction platform.
I’m trying to figure out my next move when Elowen stirs beneath me.
Her brow creases and her eyes blink open, glassy and confused, like someone being pulled out of a deep sleep. I can see her trying to think, trying to surface through the heat fog.
For a second, something sharp and clear flickers behind her eyes. Awareness. She knows something is wrong. Her gaze darts to the tent flap, then back to me, and her hand tightens on my arm.
"Someone's coming," I breathe. “Be quiet.”
She nods, silently telling me she heard them too.
The footsteps stop right outside the tent.
"Who's in there?" The voice is male. Beta. Loud and pissed. The clipped, authoritative bark of someone who runs things around here and isn't used to surprises. "This area is restricted for employees only. Identify yourself, or I'm sending security in."
Elowen's whole body goes rigid beneath me. My knottugs inside her as she tenses, the swollen base pulling against her clenched muscles. White-hot pain lances through me, making me hiss through my teeth. She whimpers. It's a sharp, sickening ache that radiates outward from where we're locked together, a brutal reminder that neither of us is going anywhere until my body decides we're done.
Trying to stay calm, I watch the panic flood back into the omega. Her breath hitches and her fingers dig into my biceps hard enough to bruise.
She's shaking again, but it's not from her heat.
It’s fear.
She looks up at me, and for the first time since I walked into this tent, I see the person underneath all of it. Scared. Lucid enough to know exactly how much trouble she's in. And completely unable to do a single thing about it.
"Don't move." I murmur against her temple.
Elowen nods once, then I open my mouth, ready to tell the asshole outside to fuck off if he values his ability to walk.
"Hey, man! What's going on?"
