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Chapter 41
Pace. Back and forth.
Crunching gravel.
Trees looming, branches grasping.
Stars wheeling above, cold and distant.
Uncaring.
Rifle gripped tight, strap digging into scarred collarbone.
Doesn’t matter.
Barely feel it.
Only the scent.
Her scent.
Sweet, dizzying.
Honey and spice and something darker, headier.
Omega.
My omega.
But not mine.
Never mine.
Monster.
Undeserving.
Pace faster, boots thudding.
Snarl rips free, echoing in the night.
Can’t escape it.
The pull, the need.
To claim, to possess.
To sink teeth into tender flesh and take.
Shudder, clench fists, growl.
Can’t think like that.
Won’t.
She’s not prey, not a toy.
But the scent…
The beast within me howls, snarls, to be free.
Ivy deserves better.
Gentle touches, soft words.
Not blood.
Not brutality.
Tearing metal, snapping bone, rending flesh.
All I’m good for.
All I know.
Destroy everything, ruin it all.
The others are with her now.
Thane.
Valek.
Plague.
Whiskey.
Treating her as a thing to own and claim.
White-hot rage, vision bleeding red.
Want to hurt them, punish them.
Tear them apart.
My omega.
Mine.
Roar, slam fist into tree trunk.
Bark splinters, tree groans.
Pain bolts up my arm, grounding.
Breathe.
Just breathe.
Rasping, panting through the tubes of my mask.
Can’t think like this.
Can’t be like this.
I have to be more than a monster.
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Thane’s scent on the wind, pine and smoke.
Getting closer.
Tense, grip rifle tighter.
‘Wraith.’
His voice, low and calm.
Wary.
Like speaking to a rabid animal that cannot think.
Maybe it’s true.
Turn to face him, a snarl building in my ruined throat.
He stands there, arms loose at his sides.
Not a threat.
Never a threat.
‘Why don’t you come inside?’ he asks. Understanding in his dark eyes. ‘Ivy was asking for you.’
Ivy.
Her name, a balm.
A scourge.
A long breath pours out of me.
Want to go to her, see her.
Breathe her in, bask in her presence.
But can’t.
Not like this.
Not with the beast.
Cage rattling, howling for blood.
For her.
Shake my head, a sharp jerk.
Thane sighs, runs a hand through his hair.
‘I know it’s hard,’ he murmurs. ‘Her scent, the pull… it’s like nothing I’ve ever felt before. And I know you’ve never experienced an omega in heat before, so…’
Heat?
What is ‘heat’?
He blinks at me, slowly.
Realizes I don’t understand.
‘It’s… complicated,’ he says. Gives up right away.
Heat.
Is that what it is?
Heat is… fire.
Fire, burning inside me.
Can’t think about anything else.
Can’t smell anything else.
Her.
Just her.
Growl, turn away, raking hand through black messy hair.
‘She needs you, Wraith,’ he adds. ‘Needs all of us.’
I close my eyes, clenching jaw, sinew.
I know.
I know she needs protection, needs safety.
Why I have to stay out here.
More threat than her guardian.
But kill all who trespass.
Open my eyes, slowly.
Meet Thane’s gaze.
He stares, watches, and nods.
‘Alright,’ he says. Resigned acceptance. ‘But if you change your mind…’
Won’t.
Can’t.
Not until her scent goes back.
Vanilla and sunlight.
Not… this.
Burning, hot, molten amber.
Tempting me.
Tempting to let the monster rule.
Thane turns, heads back inside.
Back to Ivy, back to pack.
I stay in the cold.
Where I belong.
Where I’ll always belong.
Pacing, growling, fighting the beast.
Waiting for dawn, for release.
For her scent to fade.
For peace.
But it never does.
It lingers, taunts.
A promise and a curse.
Ivy.
Mine.
But not mine.
Never mine.
Endure, resist, fight.
For her.
Even if I shatter.
Will not let the monster win.