7. Rhys
RHYS
T he smell hits me before I'm even halfway up the hallway.
I freeze, because if I put my full weight on this floorboard, then it will creak. My coffee mug is halfway to my lips, as every alpha instinct I have suddenly roars to life. The ceramic is warm against my palm, steam still rising from the dark liquid inside, but I barely notice. My entire focus has narrowed to the scent wafting down from the door.
That's not just Eliana's usual sweet vanilla and jasmine signature. Hell, it's not even close. And it's definitely not Fen's barely-there beta scent that most people can't even detect unless they're standing right next to him. This is something else entirely—something rich and complex and so fucking intense it makes my chest tighten.
The scent rolls over me in waves, each one stronger than the last. There's Eliana's sweetness, yes, but it's deeper now, more mature somehow. Layered underneath is something earthier, warmer—something that reminds me of fresh bread and clean cotton and the way the air smells right after it rains.
"What the hell?" I mutter.
I set my mug down on the hall table with more force than necessary, the ceramic clinking against the wood surface. The sound seems impossibly loud in the morning quiet. My hands are fucking shaking, and I have to grip the banister to steady myself.
The scent hits me halfway down the hall. Eliana.
It shouldn’t be this strong — not unless she’s right behind the door, or something’s wrong. I slow down instinctively, every sense on edge. Her room’s at the far end, the door painted white like the others, but now it feels different. It feels important.
The doorknob, rough and tarnished from years of use, catches the light coming through the small window down the hall. I don’t usually pay attention to details like that. But this time, it’s like it’s calling me.
The scent hits me again, sharper this time. Sweet, familiar, but with something I can’t quite place. It’s stronger than before. More intense. And the weight of it pulls at something inside me, something that shouldn’t be this tight.
I stop a few feet from her door. The worn wood feels different beneath my feet, the space closing in around me.
My hand moves toward the doorknob without thinking. I pause, feeling the weight of what’s on the other side. Whatever it is, it’s not what I expected.
There's something layered underneath her omega sweetness, which makes every nerve ending in my body come alive.
My alpha senses are going haywire, trying to categorize what I'm experiencing. But the primal part, the part that operates on instinct alone, and knows exactly what has happened, or rather what is going on.
"Fuck." The word comes out strangled, barely more than a whisper, as realization hits me like a sledgehammer to the chest.
Bonding. They've bonded.
My legs feel unsteady as I make my way down the hallway, my bare feet silent against the worn hardwood. The floorboards are cool beneath my soles, and I can feel every groove and imperfection in the old wood.
I reach Eliana's door and stop, my hand hovering inches from the painted surface. The scent is overwhelming here, so thick I can practically taste it on my tongue. It's like breathing in liquid sunlight and summer rain and everything good I've ever experienced.
Every instinct I have is warring with itself. The alpha part of me has been drawn to Eliana since the day she moved in with her shy smiles and careful politeness—wants to rip this door off its hinges. Not to claim her, because I've always known that wasn't my place, but to protect her. To make sure she's safe. To verify with my own eyes that she's okay.
But the rational part, the part that actually gives a damn about these people as individuals rather than just potential pack members, knows I need to be careful here. This is sacred territory now. Private. Intimate in a way that has nothing to do with me.
I press my ear to the door, the cool wood rough against my skin, and listen. The doors are thin, worn in places, and sound carries through them like the walls are holding secrets. I can hear the quiet stir of movement inside, soft, familiar. Something in my chest eases.
What the fuck?
I can hear soft breathing, almost as if it’s synchronized, and it’s definitely not one person breathing it’s two, because it is so deep and even.
They're asleep, wrapped up in each other and whatever this new bond has created between them. Of course they are—bonding takes everything out of you, especially if it's your first time.
The thought of Eliana going through her first heat, her first bond, without any of us knowing Christ, what if something had gone wrong? What if Fen hadn't been there? What if she'd been alone when the suppressants failed?
The scenarios that flash through my mind make my blood run cold. Heat without a compatible partner can be dangerous, even deadly. Omegas have been known to hurt themselves trying to find relief, or worse. The fact that she had someone, that Fen was there to help her through it...
I lean against the wall, the plaster cool and slightly rough against my shoulder blade. I run a hand through my hair, still damp from my morning shower, as I try to process this.
Fen and Eliana. Beta and omega.
It should be impossible, or at least highly unusual. The textbooks all say beta-omega bonds are rare, that omegas need the hormonal response that only alphas can provide. But the evidence is right there in the air around me, thick and undeniable and absolutely fucking beautiful.
Underneath my shock, underneath the protective alpha instincts that are making me want to check on them both, there's something else. Something that feels suspiciously like relief.
But Fen gets her. He has always gotten her, from the moment he rescued her in the snowstorm, maybe that’s the problem. He thinks that it’s fate which brought her to us, whereas Kael has been dubious about her presence and even if I was keen on having an omega at first, then Kael has given me his insecurities. He’ s an alpha like me, so he thinks that we can’t have any.
He stops when he sees me standing in the hallway like an idiot, his nostrils flaring slightly as he catches the scent. I watch his expression change as his brain processes what his nose is telling him. Confusion first, then recognition, then something that might be hurt shifts across his features before he locks it down.
"What—" he starts, his voice still rough with sleep, then stops mid-word as understanding dawns. His eyes widen, pupils dilating as the full impact hits him. "Is that...?"
"Yeah." I nod toward Eliana's door. "They bonded."
Kael's face goes through about five different expressions in the span of two seconds. Surprise, confusion, something that definitely looks like hurt, and finally settling on that carefully neutral mask I know means he's processing something difficult.
"When?" His voice is carefully controlled, but I can hear the underlying tension. The slight roughness that means he's fighting to keep his emotions in check.
“It must have been last night when we were sleeping. Probably during her heat cycle." I study his face, trying to read what he's thinking behind that impassive expression. "You okay with this?"
It's a loaded question, and we both know it. Because Kael's been interested in Eliana since day one., but in the way alphas are naturally drawn to unmated omegas. Yet, that stubborn part of him doesn’t want to admit it. He's quiet for a long moment, staring at Eliana's door like he can see through it to the couple sleeping peacefully inside. When he finally speaks, his voice is softer than usual, lacking its typical commanding edge.
"She's been afraid of me."
It's not a question, and I don't insult him by denying it. The truth sits between us like a stone.
"Yeah, she has been."
I can see him swallow hard, his Adam's apple bobbing. There's pain in his dark eyes now, real hurt that he's not bothering to hide. "I would never hurt her. Any of you. You know that, right?"
"I know that. But Kael, your alpha presence is intense even for me, and I'm used to it. I've been dealing with your overbearing ass since we were kids." I try to inject some lightness into my voice, but it falls flat. "For an omega who's already anxious, you need to…”
There’s a time and place for everything and the last thing I should be doing is blaming Kael, especially when I’m an alpha too and she didn’t bond with me.
I let the sentence hang, watching him process the implications. His jaw clenches, the muscle jumping beneath his skin. I can smell his scent shifting, becoming sharper, more distressed. It's like standing next to a storm cloud.
He nods slowly, understanding dawning in his dark eyes. "And Fen doesn't have that problem. He's safe."
"The safest person in this house, probably." I glance back at the door, catching another wave of that intoxicating bonded scent. "Which makes this make a lot more sense, actually."
Fen's never been threatening to anyone. Even other alphas barely register him as competition, which has always frustrated me because they're missing so much. They see his compact frame and quiet demeanor and assume he's weak, forgettable. They don't see the steel in his spine or the fierce loyalty that runs through him like bedrock.
But Eliana saw it. Of course she did.
We stand in the hallway of the cabin, still as the storm outside, neither of us speaking. The air between us is thick—too quiet, too charged. Something’s settled over everything, something permanent, like the whole space is holding its breath. The kind of quiet that only follows a shift too big to take back.
Outside, snow lashes against the windows, driven sideways by wind that screams through the trees. The storm’s only getting worse. We’re locked in now, buried under feet of snow in the middle of nowhere, and she’s in the other room— Eliana . Sleeping off shock, a crash, and a bond that none of us saw coming.
The cabin feels different. Smaller somehow. Like the walls have moved closer, like they’re listening. Bonds do that. Especially the real ones. They don’t just link you—they claim you. Change everything. And judging by the scent still hanging in the air, curling into the beams, thick in my lungs, this one isn’t just real. It’s strong. Too strong. That scent is soaked into the cabin like smoke, a mix of omega heat and something deeper, something primal. It shouldn’t hit this hard, not this fast. But it does. And I can’t ignore it, even if I want to.
The morning light doesn’t reach far through the thick snow, just a pale, tired glow filtering through the frost-lined windows. It catches on the dust floating in the air, glinting off the edge of the kitchen table, the rough-hewn floorboards. The fire in the stone hearth pops and crackles, its warmth just enough to chase the chill off our skin but not the tension from the room. We’ve lived through worse than blizzards. But this? This is different.
Kael finally breaks the silence, his voice low, calm—too calm. That alpha control he leans on like armor. “We need to talk to them. When they wake up. Because this doesn’t feel right.”
I don’t look at him. Not yet. “What part?”
He lets out a quiet breath through his nose. “All of it. We were supposed to meet an omega in Millbrook. Instead, one crashes her car half a mile from our land—during the biggest storm of the season. She gets brought to our door, and now Fen’s bonded to her before we even get the chance to ask a single question.”
His words echo in the cabin, and I finally meet his eyes. I know that look. That edge behind the control. He’s already walking the perimeter of the situation, testing for weak spots. He’s not angry. He’s calculating .
“She’s hurt. Alone. She didn’t plan this,” I say, though there’s a thread of uncertainty in my voice I can’t hide.
Kael doesn’t blink. “Maybe. Or maybe she’s exactly where she wanted to be.”
I hate how much that hits. Because Fen believes her. He feels the bond—raw, fresh, blinding. But Kael’s not worried about Fen’s honesty. He’s worried about his judgment. And I get it. A bond that strong can cloud instincts. Can override good sense. And if she’s not who she says she is, if she was sent here for a reason...
Then we’re already vulnerable.
“She could’ve been followed,” he adds, voice harder now. “Or worse, sent ahead. To get close before the real danger shows up. She bonds with Fen, gets inside our defenses, and we don’t even question it.”
I run a hand through my hair, pacing a step, then stopping. My pulse is heavy in my chest. The scent still hangs in the air like a memory, and it messes with me. It stirs that instinct to protect. To claim. Even though everything else in me is screaming wait . Watch . Be sure.
I glance toward the small guest room at the end of the hall. The door’s cracked just enough to see the edge of the blanket hanging off the bed. She looked so fragile curled up there last night—bruised, shaking, wrecked. But underneath all that softness, there’s something else. I saw it in her eyes. She’s not helpless. And she’s not innocent. She’s surviving. Maybe manipulating. Maybe both.
“If she’s a threat,” I say quietly, “we’ll know soon enough.”
Kael’s jaw tightens, but he nods. “And if she is, I don’t give a damn about Fen’s bond. We handle it.”
The storm rattles the cabin walls, wind shrieking past the chimney. Snow has half-buried the windows. We’re alone out here. No roads open, no backup coming. Just the three of us—and her.
This is what makes it dangerous.
If Eliana’s playing a game, she chose the wrong alphas to snow in with. We’ve protected this land, this pack, with blood and bone. We don’t get second chances. We don’t take risks on strangers.
The bond complicates everything.
She might not know it yet, but being trapped in here with us isn’t her salvation.
It might just be her reckoning.