Chapter 22
Fucking Kyan might have diverted rut number one, but the stupid fuck was out to ruin me. I couldn’t imagine Zed was holding out well, either.
Kyan had been banging our Omega, loudly, all fucking day, and they were making our home a swamp of sex hormones.
It was late now, and I’d been lying on the stack of mats we used for the gym for hours, tossing and turning, unable to sleep. I didn’t dare go to my room. Proximity was a problem.
Dark cream cardamom and autumn persimmon, two scents designed to burrow deep into my head and torch every last functioning brain cell, were thick in the air.
If Kyan ever climbed back down from that pad, I was going to ruin him.
And her?
Oh, it was a dangerous game to place Glade and punishment in the same line of thought.
There was no way I was ready to face the desperation I’d felt when she’d chained me up and backed away, ready to take our truck and ran.
For a second, it was like she was ripping my heart out again.
She shouldn’t have that power. I wanted to say it was biology, but I’d seen something else in her eyes. I shut mine, shoving the memory away.
How many times had I circled back to this thought?
Sighing, I sat up, rubbing my eyes and trying to dispel the millionth hard on since seeing Kyan and Glade fuck. Sleep wasn’t going to happen, and this rut was fast incoming if I didn’t sort myself out. I got up and grabbed the hand wraps from the training bin.
I’d just finished wrapping my fists when I heard a faint thump, the clink of chains, then silence.
I narrowed my eyes, quietly stepping around the gym and reaching the open door to the inner living space. Sure enough, Glade was picking herself from the floor where she’d clearly just dropped down from Kyan’s pad.
I rolled my eyes, ducking behind the door and waiting until she arrived.
When she edged through, it was all too easy, with the cuffs, to snag the chain on her wrists.
“Fuck!” she hissed, but I had her pinned against the wall in seconds. Her eyes were wide as she took me in. “Do you not sleep?” she hissed, throwing her weight against me, but I didn’t shift. She might be a good fighter, but she was small and chained up.
“How did you get away from Kyan?” There was no way he hadn’t anticipated her running.
She eyed me for a moment as if unsure if she should reply. “You were right about the tasers.”
I almost laughed.
Served him fucking right.
“So you were going to run away in the middle of the night like that? You wouldn’t survive ten minutes.”
Her lips drew back in a snarl. “I can find myself some goddamned clothes.”
“I wasn’t talking about the clothes,” I snorted. “You’re like a walking hormone beacon, demanding to be fucked.”
“I am not.”
I raised my eyebrows, but stepped back, dragging her with me.
She absolutely was.
I knew because even being this close to her was soothing the edges of the brewing Alpha storm that was struggling to get out. A little part of me wanted to do exactly what Kyan had. Not doing so was making this all so much harder.
Actually…I had an idea.
“What are you doing?” she asked as I easily picked her up and tossed her over my shoulder.
I didn’t answer, carrying her back past Kyan’s graffiti wall to the gym.
“You know what we can’t afford?” I asked. “The Brotherhood coming down on our heads when I’m in a fucking rut.”
“So… what?” she asked, looking startled as I grabbed one of the cords from the huge climbing structure and hooked it at the top—far out of her reach.
“What is this?”
“You’re going to sit tight while I sweat this rut out.”
“You can’t sweat a rut out.”
“I can if you keep giving off those…” I waved my hands vaguely. “Siren pheromones or whatever they are.” I adjusted the hand wrap that hadn’t been secured.
She shifted back, satisfyingly affronted. “You cannot use me like some Omega hormone Pez dispenser.”
I felt a smile tug at my lips as I tangled my hand in her hair. “You sure?” I asked, tugging her neck back briefly. “Seems to be working just fine.”
The more pissed she was, the more her hormones were leaching into the space. And fuck me—she was horny—even if she had been trying to run.
Horny and angry.
That’s what I needed—the stronger the better. Well, that’s what I convinced myself of as I leaned down, pulling her neck into a sharper arch and drawing my jaw along hers.
The low whine that rose from her stilled me, chest suddenly tight. Before I knew it, she shifted closer. Her bright chestnut eyes found me in the dim light from the lamp I’d set up beside my makeshift bed.
I couldn’t move. Couldn’t take my eyes from her, and I knew she could feel my reaction to her body, pressed against mine like it was.
It had to be the scent match, but touching her was like taking a shock to my heart. I’d never experienced anything like it. I was drawn to her, unable to shake the feeling that she was made of a million cracks, and with each brush of my skin on hers, I was closing them.
Was that… normal, even between scent matches?
“There are better ways to get rid of that rut,” she breathed.
My fingers dug into her hips. I didn’t know when my hands had moved, but I was enveloped by her entirely for a second, imagining how easy it would be to hold her like this and make her cry my name like she had for him.
“Why…?” The word was rough, struggling on its way out of my mouth, every instinct demanding I claim her without question. “Why do you want us after you left?”
For just the briefest flicker, I saw a shadow cross her eyes, a moment of something pained. She was vulnerable. Wounded.
My girl.
The one Omega that biology had wired me to protect.
To fix or heal.
I’d reached up without realising, palm cupping her cheek, feeling my own energy shift to something gentle.
Then the flash of pain was gone, and her expression hardened. “It’s logical,” she said quietly. “You’re near a rut, I could crash into heat if I’m any more pent up?—”
She cut off at the hostile growl that rose in my throat, fury surging at the idea that this was just… business to her.
Kyan had fucked her.
Kyan, who I’d almost lost after she left.
Her lips parted slightly as she felt the vibration of my fury rolling slowly through me. Her whole body went still in response. The slow rise and fall of her chest came to a halt, and her eyes darted between mine for a moment as she calculated what that growl meant.
No longer a moment between rejected mates.
We were Alpha and prey.
I didn’t know what it was I wanted in response. Fear? backtracking? Just… anything to show an ounce of vulnerability, a crack in her mask.
“Don’t bait me, Glade,” I breathed. “You don’t want what’s on the other side.”
She shivered, then delivered me exactly what I wanted just in time to realise that it was far too much for me to handle. She tilted her head, lifting her chin and revealing her neck to me, eyes dropping. It was the most primal thing I’d ever witnessed, and my rut-fogged brain almost cracked.
My mate.
The Omega I loved, who’d thrown me away like I was trash.
Who’d ruined us.
And she was giving me everything. Permission to ruin her. I wanted to rip the cuffs apart just so when I fucked her she’d have a chance of fighting back.
Instead, I let her go.
“Knight…”Her pupils were blown, and her voice had a little edge of a whine—just like it had when she was getting railed by Kyan.
I shook away the intrusive thoughts. “No.”
With more self-control than I was aware I had, I stepped back.
Kyan.
I had to remind myself of him. Of what she’d done to him. My smile was bitter. “You’re going to sit there, bundle of steaming Omega rage, and settle me down just like that.”
“Fuck you,” she muttered, but she seemed somewhat resigned to the fact we kept catching her, because it didn’t take her long to settle down, cross-legged, glare fixed on me. She had a very cute little fight with the rope she was hooked to, in order to get low enough for her to relax.
I tried not to think about how much it should make me angry—that she wanted us after all she’d done. But if she was nearing heat, she just wanted Alphas.
That was all.
I landed my first punch on the bag, blood boiling in my veins.
And with each hit after another, I tried to sweat this attraction to her into the ground, so it couldn’t come back.
There was nothing between us,I told myself. Nothing but hormones and biology.