This time, I cannot help myself. I wrap my clawed fingers around her little wrist and pry her hand away from her face to hold it firmly in mine. “It is all right, Mrs. Sutton Nash. No one will fault your grief. Cry all you like. As loud as you like.”
“Layla,” she whispers, keeping her eyes on our linked hands. “My name is Layla.”
“Layla.” When I speak her name, she takes a deep breath. Her racing pulse under the pads of my clawed fingers slows to a steady rhythm.
If I had not promised her I would not claim her, I would pull her onto my lap right now, damn the blood test, and risk being overpowered by our bond and the death that could follow.
But I am not like the dead alpha behind us. As much as I want to claim this omega, I will keep my promise and uphold the Accord. Until her blood has been tested and categorized, and she decides she wants to be claimed. The process is slow, but I will honor it.
“I wonder how you could have scented without knowing. Without causing a riot around the alpha who triggered it.” I ponder out loud.
“That’s what I was trying to say. Sutton never let me go with him to the inner districts. He always collected supplies on his own because he didn’t want me around the alphas, just in case I scented, but… I don’t know. It’s weird. The signs have always been there.”
“Always?”
“Yes. Actually… Now that I think about it… Since not long after I met Sutton.” It seems she is coming to the same conclusion I have.
But that cannot be. The only designations we have found in humans are omega and beta. Thousands of tests. Not one human we tested resulted in an alpha designation. However, everything Layla has said points to Sutton being an alpha. Except that I cannot smell his mark on her. She wears only her own sweet scent.
“I apologize for the insensitive nature of this question, but I must ask: when was the last time you and your mate were intimate?”
Tears well in her eyes as she slips her hand from mine.
I have wounded her heart. All I want to do is rip out my own to show her how her pain breaks me.
“Sutton had a terrible flu. About a week ago. While he was recovering, I got it. The most we’ve done in the last seven days or so is kiss each other on the cheek. Too exhausted to do anything else.”
A Throkyn alpha’s mark would not have worn off in that time, but maybe a human alpha’s mark is not as strong.
I surveyed the scene and the bodies. The injuries the alpha sustained were from more than the shotgun blasts. Sutton certainly fought with the strength of an alpha.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking? That Sutton was an alpha?” Layla asks.
“We will know soon enough. If you are willing to authorize the blood test.”
“Of course. I just want answers.”
The Center comes into view after the console chimes the final turn, exiting the Beta district and entering the Alpha district.
In range, I hail the Center on the comm. “Lieutenant Zayd, requesting entry and assistance with an unmated omega, her deceased human mate, and the deceased alpha that attacked them.”
“What the f—I mean… Roger that, Lieutenant,” the voice of chief enforcer Kydax’s mate, Ellie-Mae, responds. “A receiving team of mated alphas and their omegas will meet you in transport bay three.”
“Thank you, Ellie-Mae.”
“Thank you, Zayd,” Layla says after the comm disconnects. “I will not forget the respect and kindness you’ve shown my husband and me. I hope we can see each other again soon.”
I nod, but the reality is that unless she wishes to bond with me or she bonds with another alpha, I will never see my sweet Layla again.
Chapter 3
Layla
Thestarkwhitetransportbay door with an alien symbol, I can only guess, stands for the number three, splits down the middle, and whooshes open. Zayd presses a button on the console that’s lit up like a Christmas tree, and the transport floats inside.
Before us stand two hulking alphas, a woman at each of their sides.
The woman on the comm had made it clear that the alphas that would greet us would be mated and have their omegas with them, but that doesn’t stop my heart from racing or my stomach from churning with fear. Will the scent of an unmated omega send them into a frenzy? Will I be the cause of more death and heartache today?
