AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No,” he snarled.
I felt my face twist with disbelief. I’d been so caught up in my own feelings I’d never imagined he would say no when I was ready. It had my head spinning. He couldn’t do this to me now. The anger I had pushed down over the years, at the unfairness of being an omega, pushed against my skin. “You will not deny me, Wolf.”
“You’re not ready,” he growled lowly. I cursed myself inwardly for my hesitation, and for thinking we had time. I’d known something was shadowing her. Omegas were highly instinctive, and I’d felt it, like an insistent pressure on my senses. If I hadn’t been so busy ignoring my omega, I might have figured out what was going on sooner. Or at least the direction it was coming from. I had failed her in the most devastating way. This was my fault.
“They. Took. Her,” I yelled in his face, pouring my emotions into the words, needing him to understand. He snarled and thrashed against me, wanting to chase her. Find her. I slapped the stone next to his head to get his attention.
“No,” he said. A determined, set expression crossed his face, and a strangled noise I didn’t know I could make tore from me. Part rage, part despair. I couldn’t seem to find the words to make him understand.
“They took her and I can’t feel her, Wolf. Ineedyou to bite me.”
“A forced bond you don’t really want will destroy me,” he growled, his face etched with pain in the moonlight, “and that won’t help her.”
I grabbed Wolf’s face, pushed myself against him and kissed him, hard. He was unyielding against me, his lips firm, until he groaned and broke. The way he kissed me back, drenched with desperate heartbreak and need, had me breathless. He tasted of dark shadows, but he smelled like orchids and wild spaces. Everything in me yearned for her, and for him, and I let the emotion flood through me.
He growled possessively as I pulled away. “My fear held me back. I’ll admit that. But Ava and I talked earlier. She made me dig deep and realize I’d already let it go, and all I had left were empty excuses. I’ve been letting my father and his friends dictate how I live my life, and I don’t want that. You are my mate and I want your claim. I was just waiting for the right moment to tell you. Now I’m useless to her, to you both, when she needs us. Running alone down that tunnel in the dark, unable to feel either of you, wrecked me, Wolf. You said you would be anything I needed. I need this. I need you. Not only to connect me to Ava. I needyou, too, and I need younow. Don’t leave me in the dark.”
The words felt raw, as if I was cutting myself and letting them bleed out. Wolf looked agonized but was still hesitating. Something bigger was holding him back.
“You need to listen to Cary, Wolf. Feel him. We’re stronger together. If he says he’s ready, you need to trust him,” Nick said as he shifted into our peripheral vision. “I figured it out earlier today and I think Ava did too, which is why she went to talk to Cary. You can’t use your full dominance without him, and you know it.”
“What the hell?” I asked, whirling to face him. “Why can’t he use his full dominance without me?”
“Our pieces fit, Cary. We’re made for each other, and that includes you. His dominance is too much for one omega to channel. He needs two.”
“Is Nick right?” I asked Wolf. “And did you know that?”
Wolf held my gaze as I whirled back to him. “I suspected, but I didn’t know for sure. I wasn’t willing to risk testing it any more than I did earlier today.”
“Why didn’t you say something? And why wouldn’t Ava if she figured it out?” Wolf just looked at me.
“Neither of them would ever force you into something you weren’t ready for,” River said from behind me.
“They’d burn themselves out first,” Ryder added.
I closed my eyes as a realization washed over me. “Holy shit,” I whispered. “Ava trying to deny her heat wasn’t only about Nick, was it? It was about me too.”
“If it helps, I don’t think she knew at the time. I think she just felt instinctively we weren’t all ready,” Nick said gently. “But I was watching her closely when Wolf’s dominance washed through her. There was a moment of realization and I wondered at the time what it was. I didn’t figure it out until GG called and warned me I needed to make sure all our bonds were in place for what was coming, or we’d fail.”
“And now Ava needs us and we’re not strong enough because I held back,” I said, feeling like I was going to throw up as every second took Ava further away from us. I’d been a selfish fool. If I’d only opened myself to the pack sooner, I would have figured it out myself. I felt River and Ryder both laying hands on me in silent support, and it filled me with determination.
I didn’t begrudge Nick stepping into this intense moment with Wolf. He was part of our pack, our center, and this was about all of us. I finally understood what that meant. We all had our role to play, and I needed to step into mine. They weren’t complete without me. This was my pack, too.
Wolf’s dark eyes glowed in the moonlight as they flicked to Nick and he nodded at our plucky beta before his eyes pinned me again. He cocked his head. A predator assessing his prey, knowing he had me now, and only waiting for the perfect moment to pounce.
“I’ll bite you, claim you, but I won’t mate you here. Not without Ava. And not when this place, those rooms upstairs, haunt you.” His words shocked me. That he had picked up on the last source of my unease when I hadn’t said a word. “I figured it out too late, too. We should have gone somewhere else for Ava’s heat.”
I could see the shrewd intelligence in Wolf’s eyes, despite his wild aura. I could also feel his hardness pressing against my stomach. He wanted me, but he would hold back for me.
“Figured what out?” River asked, his voice a slide of dark ice in the night. He hated not knowing what was happening.
“The VIP suites are where his father’s mates took him after the parties.”
“Fuck, why didn’t you say something, Cary?” Ryder asked. His voice was grim. I felt hands grasp me more firmly as my mates surrounded me. They centered and anchored me when Wolf’s words had me spinning.
“There aren’t a lot of places, except the library, where there aren’t dark memories here,” I bit out.
Nick’s hand tightened on my arm. “I get why you need this now, Cary. We all need it. But if you’re going to take a claiming bite without the mating, it’s going to hurt.”
