Chapter 58
chapter
fifty-eight
I was never the type of moony asshole who imagined finding my mate.
I didn’t think about it much at all, really. What good would it do? I figured it would happen the way it happened— if it ever did.
I didn’t even want it to, once we found Bridget.
All her fretting? Colt’s brooding? Adrian and Jesse and their murmured reassurances?
I thought they were all a smidge dramatic , to be honest.
Cristo .
How fucking stupid am I?
This feeling isn’t human. It isn’t even earthly .
My body is my job. Honing the muscles, training the reflexes. But my entire being suddenly feels alien. Like someone plucked out my mind and put me into a foreign form. One that twists and smokes and sparks.
All because I dared to breathe .
Fucking fuck . It is so good .
My lungs flip inside out. Throbbing on shallow scrapes of the sweetest air I’ve ever tasted. Mind-bending. Life-ending. Pure electricity, thundering through my veins.
But— no .
No, goddammit.
I feel my soul snap forward, reaching, reaching. But my heart slaps it down. No , I say again.
Because I promised Bridget I would.
Because I looked into her blue, blue eyes and I swore she was the one I wanted.
My Alpha can go to hell and take my stupid knot with him. I don’t care that my mouth is watering. I don’t care that my teeth ache. I don’t care how pumped up my sticky mango scent is.
I have an omega.
And I love her .
I love her .
The colorful room— Bridget’s colors—blur around me as I lock my muscles down. Fighting the beat rearing up in my center. Automatically wheeling around to find my packmates. Hoping I’m the only one. Praying I’m wrong .
They all feel it, though. The absolute focus etched into Adrian’s features. The desolation in Colt’s burning gray gaze.
And—ah fuck —Jesse. Snapping into a rut .
Everyone stares. Whispers and shocked sounds filter out of the crowd shifting around us. Backing up and off, leaving our pack in a pocket of open space as the voices rise higher.
“That alpha is in a rut .”
“One of them said ‘ mate .’ Their match must be here.”
“Oh dear, isn’t that Bridget Woods’ pack? Her fiancés ? And their mate is someone else ?”
Holy shit.
This is her nightmare.
And it’s actually happening .
Fisting my packmate’s jacket, I hold my breath, doing everything I can to avoid the scent attempting to wrap itself around my soul. “ Jesse, no, ” I bark, trying to keep quiet. “No. What about?—”
“ Bridget .” Colt croaks the word, pure pain breaking over his face as he scans the hundreds of people watching us. “We need to get out of here.”
Adrian shakes off his self-imposed lockdown, nodding. Opening his mouth to speak. But Jesse suddenly rips himself out of my hands, turning to the source of the heavenly, silken scent.
And lunging with a roar.