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I nodded gently and was happy when it didn’t feel like my head was about to fall off, and the world stayed where it was instead of sloshing around. Although I still didn’t risk looking up fully yet. No need to tempt the devil.
“I’m just pissed these morons got the jump on me. I think they knocked out Bear. He took off in a hurry when he sensed something. I found him unconscious but breathing just before they jumped us.”
Technically, Bear was still awake when I found him, but I figured it was better to summarize the facts right now.
As soon as I spoke, the feet of the two men behind Damon and Leif spun in my direction, forcing Damon and Leif to turn and cover the intruders behind them. I was confused and felt the tension in the air ratchet up to a whole new level.
“Sam, I need you to focus,” Damon barked in a tone that could make a beta wet themselves. But the strange feet stayed pointed firmly in my direction.
The two men had to be highly dominant alphas to stand up to Damon.
Who the fuck was Sam?
Even though my head was clearing a little, my stomach felt bruised where I cradled it and I was having trouble taking deep breaths. I’d resorted to breathing shallowly, but it added to my dizziness, so I forced a deeper breath into my lungs now.
The moment I did, the overwhelming scents of aged leather and buttered popcorn hit me. Combined, they shot white light through my brain and pulled at me deliciously. I leaned forward without meaning to, needing to get closer. My mouth watered and my whole body roaredMINE, in the most primal of ways. It was instinctive, seductive, and utterly terrifying.
I froze in place as the sweet scent of passion fruit that had haunted me most of my life teased my senses like a hidden memory. I instinctively knew it was a heartbeat away from ripping free from my body, and fear paralyzed me.
No, no, no, this was bad. I recalled what Maia had said when I asked her how she had stayed hidden as an omega for so long. She’d caused herself pain whenever her scent threatened to leak out.
I pushed against my stomach and held my breath until I saw black spots, and the pain felt crippling. I didn’t want to pass out, though. When Maia met Damon, she’d fainted, and her scent had exploded, uncontrolled, into the room when he caught her.
I couldn’t risk anyone touching me right now.
You’re a beta. You’re a beta.I chanted in my head.
Yet my heart suspected it was a lie. Betas didn’t react to the scents of alphas.
three
Mysenseshadbeenon high alert since my best friend Dio and I had arrived to rescue my sister Maia. There had been something urgent and instinctive tugging at the edge of my awareness since we first approached the farm.
I’d tried to shake it off and put it down to concern for my sister and an unfamiliar environment with unknown threats.
We’d been tracking my sister since we returned shortly after the Crash. I’d headed for my family farm until I found out she wasn’t there anymore. She’d been sent to the Palace years ago and nobody had told me.
I’d instantly started flipping tables and Dio had barely calmed me down before I’d been out the door, headed for a helicopter and a possible court martial. My entire team had followed, determined to go down having my back if needed.
I hadn’t seen my baby sister in over a decade and dreamed of reuniting with her the whole time, so my emotions were a mess. Yet even with the joy of finding Maia, then my bone-crushing guilt at finding out she had gotten none of my letters or notes and thought I had abandoned her all those years ago, my senses had remained heightened and searching.
Something in the air around this farm had me on edge, calling to me and demanding my attention. Something more than the current threat to my sister from the gun-wielding maniac who had been stalking and abusing her. It was like the faint echo of a mermaid’s siren song carried on the breeze.
Maia had found a home and her mates here. I already knew they were good guys and would do anything to protect her. As much as I wanted to be the one to charge in and save my sister, I knew her mates would beat me to it. Their reputations were well-earned. They were lethal and deadly. They were only holding back right now because it was part of their plan.
But the moment I heard that siren song crystalize into a single voice, I felt like the entire reason for my existence shifted.
That fucking voice. So sweet and sultry with a slight husky rasp that sounded like an old-school jazz singer. It was a gut punch. I spun instinctively and vaguely noticed Dio did the same as Damon and Leif spun to cover our backs while loudly cursing us.
It was all kinds of wrong. It went against all our training and put everyone in danger. I knew that logically, but my alpha demanded to know who owned that voice. I focused my entire being on the task. The logical part of my brain was no longer running the show.
I was known to be instinctive, hot-headed, and sometimes impulsive. I didn’t have a great handle on my beast on my best days. But I had never felt a pull this intense and all-consuming. All my military training meant nothing in the face of it.
I scanned in front of me, and my eyes immediately pulled to a bright-haired woman on her knees, looking winded and dazed. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her.
It was like a giant spotlight had lit her up. One only I could see. She was suddenly in the forefront of my vision, and everything else retreated.
I noticed a bruise forming on her temple and blood running down her cheek. My scent spiked, a note of whiskey searing through my natural leather and oak scent. It always seemed to rise to the surface when my emotions were high. Usually, when I was angry. Or aroused.
