But as she looks down, a blush starts climbing her throat—
—and thenherscent surges.
Not the soft sweet undertone anymore. It comes off her in a wave. A full-body bloom of honey and gooseberries that grips me by the throat.
Ash’s eyes go black, and I watch Bram, the most controlled man I know, curl a hand into a fist.
Best thing I’ve ever smelled in my life. And I’m spending everything I’ve got not to do something about it right here on Maggie’s floor.
Thank God,I think, dialing myself down with both hands.Only her scent matches can smell that.
Except a couple of the locals turn their heads. Doug pauses mid-laugh, his brow furrowing. Two booths down, an alpha I half-recognize lifts his chin, sniffing the air, and goes quiet. They aren’t her scent matches, which means none of them are gettingthe full, addictive hit of honey and gooseberries, but something is definitely bleeding through the edges. Some vague, electric omega frequency that has the room shifting.
We need to get her out of here now before half the pub loses its mind.
“Hey.” My voice comes out rough. “You wanna get out of here?”
Luna’s got her arms crossed tight over her chest now, staring down at her sneakers, flushed all the way to the roots of her hair.
“Let’s,” she says.
15
Luna
The bell above Maggie’s door barely has time to chime before we’re out on the street, the cold air hitting my face like a slap. Behind us, the roar of the locals still cheering our win is cut off by the click of the latch.
“Watch the step, champ,” Ash murmurs, his hand hot on the small of my back.
I miss the step anyway. In my defense, the night was generously cidered, and the sheer mass of the three alphas hemming me in has a gravity of its own.
Reed catches my elbow. “Whoa, easy. Can’t have my new star player breaking an ankle before the playoffs.”
I laugh and let myself tip into his side. “I retired at the top, Reed. You’ll have to find someone else if you’re thinking of hustling the locals.”
He grins down at me, his eyes dark under the streetlamps. The air between us has gone thick. I can feel my own scent pouring out of me in waves, reacting helplessly to the sudden spike from the alphas’.
It’s a potent, biological cocktail. And God help me, I’m drinking it down like it’s last call.
Get a grip, Luna.
No,my omega purrs, stretching languidly in the pit of my stomach.I don’t think I will.
When we finally manage to get to the truck, Bram pulls the back door open for me, his gaze dropping to my mouth and staying there a beat too long before he remembers himself. I sit in the middle, Reed swinging in on one side of me, Ash on the other. Bram, who stopped drinking before anyone else, rounds the hood and gets behind the wheel.
The doors thud shut, the cab goes small... and very, very warm.
“Seatbelt,” Bram says, low, to the rearview mirror.
I fumble for the buckle, my fingers clumsy. Ash’s hand covers mine, guiding the metal tab into the slot, then lets his fingers rest against my hip.
My breath catches loud in the quiet. His hand. Their scents. The cider still warm in my blood. It’s too much input, and somewhere in the overload, my omega takes the wheel—because the next thing I know I turn my face into Ash’s neck and breathe him in to the bottom of my lungs.
Ash groans, low and wrecked. The sound vibrates through his throat against my nose, and it’s somehow enough to knock a sliver of sense back into me.
I pull back an inch. “Sorry—I—”
I don’t get the rest out. Because Ash’s hand slides into my hair and he buries his own face in the side of my neck, dragging in a breath, rubbing his jaw slow along my skin in a scenting pass that lights up every nerve I own. A whimper slips out of me.
