Chapter 23
TWENTY-THREE
LAUREL
I stumbled up to my villa. It took two tries before I swiped the card correctly.
I didn’t bother to turn on the light as I sank against the door, setting my bag down with a thump.
Muppet, all anxious floofball, came running up to me, pushing his way onto my lap.
I needed him, and I buried my nose in his soft fur as the tears came.
He let out a mrew and started butting my head.
I sat there for a bit, stroking him, before I noticed something was wrong.
After pushing Muppet off my lap, I took a shaky breath and tried to focus. It should only be my scent here, but I was catching scents that didn’t belong.
One was heady and sharp, ripe persimmon and the bite of lime, bright and tangy in the air. The other was bittersweet, a lingering dark scent of absinthe with crackles of static that almost burned in my nose.
Alpha scents.
They were fresh, and breathing them in seemed to wake up my brain. They were invigorating, refreshing. They made me slightly dizzy and summoned a warm pulse of yearning in my core.
I stilled as my brain caught up to my body, shoving away the arousal and replacing it with fear as I realized this must be the rest of Ocean’s pack.
In my home.
Panic started in my veins, a fast flutter that put every nerve on edge.
How? How had they known so quickly?
My line of thought was cut short as I heard a floorboard creak near the patio.
I swallowed, my heart beating like crazy, trying to keep the fear out of my scent. There was an emergency button in the bathroom.
If I could make it there…
My eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and I crawled along the floor into the kitchen, pressing my back up against the island and listening. Muppet was following me, green eyes wide, but luckily, he was quiet.
I froze, my scalp prickling as footsteps padded across the room toward the front door. I controlled my breathing, trying to stay quiet.
The footsteps stopped by the entrance behind me, and I heard a chuckle that made my blood turn cold. “Are you here, Duchess?” a male voice hissed as I edged along the island, trying to make it to the corridor. I heard him start to walk again, singing as he sauntered closer.
“Where is the Duchess, walking free?
Or hiding away where nobody sees?”
I edged along. The bathroom was at the end of the corridor. Probably about fifteen feet away.
“I’m coming,
She’s running
Trying to survive.
One,
Two,
Three, four, five.”
On five, he lunged around the edge of the island, his pale face glinting in the dark.
I caught the flash of his teeth before my body screamed at me to run.
I launched forward, my feet scrabbling to get a grip.
I could hear him behind me, but the bathroom was so close now, if I could get through the door.
A pained cry came from my lips as he crashed into my shoulder, my already battered body flaring with pain as we fell to the floor.
“Got you,” he hissed. His scent surrounded me, the absinthe and static a chilling burn in my nose. He smelled like sharp flames, poisoned wormwood. The brink of insanity and crackling anger.
Anger at me.
I whimpered, every instinct in me longing to roll over and try to settle him.
He let out another laugh as he stood, dragging me up by my arm. I whimpered again as his fingers dug into one of the fresher bruises, but he didn’t let up. I only had one thought as I was dragged along.
Was I about to be killed by my scent matches?