Chapter five #2
I stop short when his scent hits me. Honey and sage.
Warm. Familiar. As sweet as his smile. It isn’t the jolt I got from Gabriel last night—he isn’t the lead, doesn’t carry the same charge—but my instincts don’t care.
They tug me closer, make me want to nestle against his chest and just breathe, let it fill me up.
His nostrils flare. He’s catching my scent too. He’s just as drawn in as I am.
“You must be Lily.” He sounds comfortable. “I’m Garrett. It’s really good to meet you.”
He holds out his hand, and when I take it, I get a zap that startles me. My omega recognizes him, and from the way his eyes go a bit wide, he feels it too.
“It’s good to meet you as well,” I say.
“Come in.” Garrett holds onto my hand a second too long, then lets go. “I’ll show you around, introduce you to the others—“
He stops, suddenly, looking at something behind me. His smile slips, just a hair.
I turn, and nearly run into a wall of muscle.
Cyrus looks even bigger up close. He fills the doorway, his black hair tied back the same way it was last night, tattoos running down his neck and under his shirt. His eyes are dark, and he stares at me, not blinking, not moving. I can’t read him at all.
For a second, no one says anything.
Then he scents the air, nostrils flaring, and his face changes. Becomes… interested?
“Omega,” he says, his voice so deep I feel it through my bones.
“Cyrus,” Gabriel says, a warning.
But Cyrus doesn’t move. He only watches me.
“She smells right,” he says at last. Garrett laughs, startled. Gabriel makes a noise that might be agreement.
He smells right too. Black pepper and leather. It’s strange at first—spicy, masculine, an odd combination, but on him it… works. My instincts don’t read him as a threat. Just the opposite.
“Come inside,” Garrett says again, stepping back and waving me through. “We’ll do introductions in the living room. And then...” He looks at Gabriel. “Then you should meet Miles.”
The inside of the house is as fancy as the outside, but somehow not cold. High ceilings, light everywhere, furniture that looks expensive but lived-in. Alpha scent is everywhere. I have to concentrate on breathing evenly and not just giving up and melting into the floor.
Garrett leads me through a big entryway and into a living room with windows that look out onto the trees. There’s a stone fireplace, leather couches, and shelves full of books and art that probably costs more than everything I’ve ever owned combined.
“Sit,” Garrett says gently, pointing to the couch. “Can I get you anything? Water? Coffee?”
“Water would be nice. Thanks.”
He heads off to the kitchen, and I perch on the edge of the couch, hyper-aware of Gabriel and Cyrus. Gabriel’s by the fireplace, arms crossed, watching. Cyrus sprawls in an armchair that looks tiny under him, eyes fixed on me.
No one talks. There’s a clock ticking somewhere.
“He’s upstairs,” Gabriel says. “He knows you’re here. He’s been... getting ready.”
Getting ready to see the omega who’s about to crash his life. Getting ready to see the threat.
Garrett comes back with water, handing it to me with a smile. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m okay.” The lie is automatic. “It’s a lot.”
“I bet.” He sits next to me, close enough that I smell him—a warm, herbal scent, soothing and safe. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad you’re here. It’s not ideal, but...” He looks at Gabriel, then at me.
Before I can answer, there’s a sound in the hallway and everyone goes still.
Footsteps. Light and fast.
And then Miles is there, in the doorway, and everything stops.
He’s beautiful. That’s all I think of for a second.
Tall for an omega, way taller than me, with high cheekbones and wild, dark curls that spill into his face and nearly hide his glasses.
He’s wearing a massive sweater, the sleeves hanging past his hands, and he looks like he’s been built out of all edges and shadows.
Fragile-looking, though I don’t think he’d break easy.
There’s nothing fragile about the look in his eyes.
They pin me with pure, undiluted hatred—fierce enough that I shrink back into the couch.
His nostrils flare wide, inhaling the space, the tension between me and his alphas hanging in the air like a storm.
I see his expression harden, hatred twisting into something worse.
Fear. Betrayal. Fury.
“YOU.” He barely sounds human—he snarls it, harsh and raw, tearing the word out of his throat so violently that everyone in the room goes completely still. “You’re her. The scent match. The one who’s trying to take them from me.”
“Miles.” Gabriel doesn’t raise his voice, doesn’t even sound mad, just firm with a little warning underneath. “We talked about this. She’s not trying to take anyone. She’s—“
“GET OUT!” Miles isn’t listening. He’s up and moving before I even think about getting away, launching himself at me with a speed that doesn’t look possible in someone so lean, so slight.
Suddenly he’s all claws and teeth, pure rage.
I barely get my arms in front of my face before he’s on top of me, knocking me flat against the couch, his hands fisted in my hair, yanking so hard my eyes blur.
“GET OUT! YOU CAN’T HAVE THEM! THEY’RE MINE!”
Pain blazes down my cheek as his nails rake over my skin. I scream—a sound I barely know is mine, thin and panicked, echoing in my own ears. I try to shove him off but he’s stronger than he looks, so much stronger, and the terror in him has made him wild, impossible to budge.
“THEY’RE MINE!” He’s not even looking at me anymore, just screaming it at the world, and then his teeth sink into my shoulder, hard. I feel the skin break, blood pooling immediately.
Suddenly there are hands everywhere, not mine.
Garrett wraps his arms around Miles’s chest, pinning him, and Cyrus grabs his wrists, wrestling them away from my hair.
They’re both fighting to hold on to him, to contain the thrashing, snapping little omega who’s gone completely feral.
His glasses are hanging half off his face, his eyes wide and wild and wet.
“LET ME GO! SHE HAS TO LEAVE! SHE HAS TO—“
“MILES.” Gabriel’s voice slices through everything and just like that, the room freezes. He’s still standing by the fireplace, hasn’t moved an inch, but the weight of his authority drops over us so heavy it’s hard to breathe. “Enough.”
Miles collapses. One second he’s all fury, the next he’s gone limp in Garrett’s and Cyrus’s grip, sobbing, shoulders shaking.
“Please,” he whimpers, and now he isn’t dangerous at all, just devastated, just a broken omega who’s terrified of losing everything.
“Please, alpha, don’t let her take you from me. You promised. Please.”
“No one is taking anyone.” Gabriel moves now, slow, stopping in front of Miles, completely calm. “Look at me, Miles.”
Miles does. His eyes are huge, red, wet. The raw fear in them makes my chest ache, even with my shoulder still burning and blood running down my cheek. He looks at Gabriel like he’s the only thing left keeping him from falling apart.
“You are ours,” Gabriel says, soft but unshakeable. “You will always be ours. Nothing changes that. No one changes that. Do you understand?”
“But she—the bond—I can sense how much you want her—“
“It’s complicated. But you are not complicated. You are pack. You are mine.“ Gabriel holds Miles’s face between his hands, gentle but firm, making sure he can’t look away. “I need you to trust me. Can you do that?”
There’s a long, shaky pause. Miles stares at him, trembling, then breaks, sobs shaking out of him as he folds himself against Gabriel’s chest.
“I can’t lose you,” he’s saying, barely there through the tears. “I can’t. I can’t. I won’t survive it.”
“You won’t have to.” Gabriel wraps him up, big arms holding him close, and gives Garrett and Cyrus a look. “Take him to the pack nest. I’ll be there in a moment.”
Garrett nods, face tight with worry, and he and Cyrus help Miles out of the living room, still crying. I barely watch them go; my hand is pressed up against my cheek, trying to stop the bleeding, shoulder throbbing where the bite left its mark.
Suddenly it’s me and Gabriel, alone in the mess of what was supposed to be my new, even if temporary, start.
“I’m sorry,” he says, and he sounds so tired.
“I knew he would react, but I hoped…” He shakes his head, like maybe if he shakes it hard enough he can make this whole thing disappear.
“I hoped he might be able to control himself long enough for us to talk. I didn’t expect him to attack you physically.
He can be… volatile sometimes, but he’s never been violent. ”
“I thought,” I begin, words shaking a little.
“I thought you brought me here to protect me. You’re supposed to know him.
Why would you let him get that far? He bit my shoulder like…
an alpha would. What if there’s a permanent scar?
I’m already unable to find a pack, but now they might look at this and think there’s damage or history. ”
Gabriel glances at my shoulder. At the blood seeping through my shirt.
He looks pained, his eyes flicking from the wound to my scent gland.
“I’m sorry, Lily. He honestly caught me off guard.
He doesn’t have the canines to permanently scar you.
And it’s close to your scent gland, but not on it.
You should be fine Though I truly am sorry. ”
“Right.” I say it because I don’t know what else to say, even though it isn’t even a little bit right. “I get it. He’s scared. He’s protecting what’s his.”