Page 8 of Bonds and Beasts

I want to find her desperately, but I can feel myself slipping away. This can't happen. We can't meet our mate as a pack gone feral. The perfume is so much stronger than I ever imagined. I've never heard of alphas going feral just from the first scent of their mate.

"Hey!" a voice shouts next to me. It occurs to me that it's been shouting for a while and I haven't been able to hear it over the whooshing in my ears. My vision is tunneling. Everything going dark and fuzzy at the edges. Hands grab my arms and shake me hard. "Hey!"

It's Dean's voice.

His pale but determined face comes into view. "Are you with me?" he asks, some of his dominance flexing through the air, enough to pull me back out of whatever rutting hole I was about to fall into.

I swallow and gasp. My hands shake and my heart's pounding against my chest. "Yeah, yeah, I'm with you," I manage.

He nods. "Good. Bello's about to lose it."

I look to our lead alpha. His head has turned so I can see the side of his face. The one eye I can see is completely black, pupil eating up every last bit of white. His growl rumbles through the air.

"Listen," Dean says, "I don't know why that scent is so strong that it's about to send you both into a rut, but someone needs to stop you. That's gonna be me."

"Wait, why aren't you affected?" I ask, eyeing him. No rigid muscles, no black eyes, no barely-contained energy.

He waves a hand dismissively. "No time. Go to my room. In the right-hand pocket of my computer bag are rut blockers. I've got at least ten needles. Inject yourself, then get back here and inject Bello. He's clearly holding on by his claws, but it's not gonna last with that scent."

I open my mouth to ask questions, but Bello snaps, lets out a strangled cry, and tears through the door.

Dean lunges after him. "Hurry!" He tosses over his shoulder.

For one horrible moment I feel the urge to run, to snarl, to follow my alpha to the omega with that scent. That crazy potent, lung-splitting smell burning down to my core. But I manage to blink it back. Lead alphas are always the most drawn to a scent match initially. And this is a scent match—but fuck. It's something else too.

Something is wrong.

Dean

Behind the door is a long hallway that opens into a cavernous room that may have once been elegant, but is now destroyed. Furniture is overturned, wallpaper is torn, paintings have been flung from the walls. Cobwebs and dust cover every surface, which means it's easy to see Bello's tracks leading to another hallway. I notice these features a moment before I rush through to follow him.

A set of heavy double doors has been thrown open, and through them, I find a bedroom big enough for a queen. There's hardly any light in here and I can barely make out the forms of furniture along the wall. At the room's center is a large, four-poster bed. Bello stands at the foot of the bed, his hulking form pulled taut, shoulders hunched in.

His hand snaps forward, fisting the bottom edge of the duvet. My fingers find the light switch right as he yanks the blankets away, revealing what I hadn't noticed in my haste. There is a lump at the center of the mattress. For one stunned moment, all I can see is her. In the middle of the bed lies a woman. She's curled in a tight ball, dark blue nightgown hugging her pale curves, contrasting with the gold of her sheets. Long, red hair cascades in a halo around her.

Then I'm tackled by my lead alpha. I fall to the ground and immediately roll to keep from getting pinned under him. He slashes at me. There's no recognition in his dark eyes. If he catches me, he'll kill me.

Mate. The word tears through me as Bello swings and catches the side of my chin. Pain lances through my teeth and the taste of copper blooms in my mouth.

"Easton!" I roar as I manage to dodge an attempted tackle. The curled up omega at the center of the bed quivers and curls into a tighter ball. Her face is pressed into the blankets. My stomach tightens. We're scaring her. Of course we are. I have to get him away from her.

"Don't worry," I grunt as I sidestep Bello and push him into the wall. One eye and half her face peek out at me. Fuck me, it's a beautiful sliver of a face. "I'll make sure you're safe." It’s a line I've said so many times in the action movies, but this time I fucking mean it.

But then Bello's lunging again and I'm dodging his blows while pushing him back and back, all the way through the hall and into the ransacked room. Both of us glare at each other across the space, his blown-black eyes meeting mine. A flash of lightning lights up everything. The half-torn faces in the paintings, upturned furniture, and broken decor suddenly take on a sinister air before we're plunged back into darkness.

My eyes don't adjust fast enough and Bello's body hits mine like a brick wall. The wind is knocked out of my lungs and I'm pinned beneath him. His knuckles crack across my chin and more coppery warmth fills my mouth. His knees are impossible weights on my arms so I opt to spit the blood right into his eyes.

He roars but doesn't ease up, giving me no opportunity to wiggle free like I'd hoped. His mouth opens on a snarl, all of his fangs showing. He's going to bite my jugular and rip it out. I struggle harder but Bello is an immovable object. He bends, head tipping forward at exactly the right angle. I brace.

Instead of the sharp, violent tug of teeth on skin, I'm crushed as Bello's weight comes down on me.

"Holy shit." Easton's voice floats from somewhere above me. "He almost bit you."

I'd like to agree. I'd like to demand to know what took Easton so fucking long. I'd like to say anything. But all I can do is gape like a fish out of water and pound Bello's back with my palm. The man may look and play a Dracula-like character in most of his movies, but underneath the black clothes and dark stare he's all stacked, heavy muscle.

"What? Oh—" Easton finally gets the picture as the burning in my lungs hits peak intolerance and the edges of my vision start to go fuzzy. He grabs one of Bello's limp arms and pulls as I use my oxygen-deprived muscles to push from underneath. Once we get Bello fully off to the side, I drag in big gulps of air. Easton holds one of the needles from my bag.

"What—" pant "the fuck—" pant "took you so long?"