Chapter 21
My focus narrowed in on the ceiling. The chocolate scent was completely gone, leaving me with a hollow sensation.
The last however many hours my heat had lasted flooded through my head. No more of their scent because they’d taken supps.
Motherfucking suppressants.
I couldn’t believe it. The conversation I’d overheard was undeniable. But how long had they known?
My stomach became a bottomless pit.
If I hadn’t caught them, they wouldn’t have said a word. They would have sent me off without a hint. My own Scent Matches would have watched me leave.
Not smelling them after being engulfed in their scent left me bereft. Like something had been physically ripped out of my body.
I pressed my palm to my chest to make sure there wasn’t a hole there. I sat up, taking in the nude Alphas sprawled around me.
Elias hugged a pillow to his chest, his face slack, and his hair as messy as I’d ever seen. Kyan slept on his side, curled toward me, while Sinclair was tucked between my body and Elias’, his large, tattooed hand on my thigh.
They’d rejected me. Not in words—but in their actions and lies.
I nudged Sinclair’s hand off me and scooted to the end of the bed. At some point during all the fucking, they’d brought me into Sinclair’s bedroom.
How did I know it was his? A huge New Zealand flag was stretched across the wall over his television. There was also one of those posters that tended to be in adolescents’ rooms, with a busty woman in a bikini holding a beer.
She looked nothing like me. We weren’t even the same ethnicity. Sinclair let out a deep snore and fell silent.
A pinch at the side of my neck brought my hand to my throat. I felt around, and the memory of Elias’ teeth sinking into my throat flashed through my head.
He’d claimed me in the throes of fucking.
How dare he?
I plucked a robe off the back of the door and shrugged it on.
A swell of rage choked me, and I left the bedroom, heading for the kitchen.
I yanked open all the cabinets until I found a decent-sized, deep pot.
I carried it to the sink and turned on the icy water.
The faucet filled the pan quickly, and I lifted it so easily it could only be my rage driving me.
I ignored the pinch in my arm and returned to Sinclair’s bedroom.
With as much strength as I could muster, I hoisted the condensation-coated pot, tossing it up and aiming for the bed. Some droplets fell on my fingers, telling me how cold it was.
Icy water flew across the Alphas, drenching them.
Sinclair sat up with a ragged gasp, sputtering from his mouth, while Kyan jolted, his eyes popping open. I swirled the last few inches of water that hadn’t made it out of the pot, took one step to the side of the bed, and poured the rest over Elias’ head.
He shouted, rolling off the mattress. I just managed to avoid him landing on me.
I tossed the pot, and the ringing of metal colliding with the hard floor echoed off the wall.
Three pairs of eyes blinked at me owlishly. It would have been comical if I weren’t so angry.
“When did you find out I was your Scent Match?” I didn’t recognize my rough voice. Kyan looked away, his eyebrows furrowing and lips turning down with displeasure.
“We didn’t know,” Sinclair blurted, his nostrils flaring. Was his panic all for show, too?
I looked at Elias. His focus had settled on the bite mark on the side of my neck that would become a red claiming bite, his jaw moving from side to side, still not saying anything.
Suppressants took a few hours to hit . . . “When I first went to The Bordello, did you make me wait in the lobby because you needed the suppressants to kick in?”
Again, silence.
The Scent-Be-Gone in the lounger room. They had to wait for the suppressants to hit.
I clenched the robe sleeves and crossed my arms. Did it matter when they knew I was theirs?
All that mattered was that they knew and never said anything. I’d spent close to two weeks with them . . .
“Never mind.” I turned my back on them.
“Briar,” Elias said. I ignored him. “Stop.”
I stopped a few feet away from the door.
He’d used his fucking Alpha bark.
“We’ve known since you published the article.”
My shoulders jerked with another well-placed hit.
“Oh.”
“Sin and I broke into your place. You’d just left, your pheromones lingered . . .” He continued speaking, but I was already checked out, lost to my thoughts.
Memories flickered through my head. After I was fired, while I was living in my car, and then when I was trying to clear my name. Then, when I first saw them and how they treated me. They were fighting their attraction to me. It had been their Alpha instinct urging them to claim me.
I tucked my arms under my armpits, squeezing.
I was falling apart. The shadows crowding closer and closer. As was Elias.
His mouth kept moving, but now he approached. And he just wouldn’t stop talking.
All fucking excuses.
I avoided him reaching for me and backed up into another hard, tall body. I stepped to the left. Kyan stared at me with eyebrows knitted together.
His mouth moved, too.
He might have said something, but I still couldn’t hear; their words were muffled by the roar in my ears.
I have to go.
My mouth refused to work.
I backed up another step.
They all smelled like any other Alphas again; their delicious scent masked.
Because they’d never wanted me. Because they’d hidden their scent from me.
I turned my back on Kyan and Elias. Sinclair was there to catch my arm in a hard, almost punishing grip. I shoved at him, but his hold didn’t give.
“I need space,” I wheezed, shoving him again.
“You need to understand—”
“Space,” I screamed, my voice turning hoarse. It worked to silence them, though, so the discomfort was worth it. Kyan grabbed Sinclair’s arm, and finally, he let me go.
They’d had all of it planned.
Scent Matches were revered, not treated like something you could discard. Not that they ever wanted me. Kyan’s expression was tense, pain rippling over his furrowed brow. I turned to Sinclair, grabbing onto my other arm, his jawline ticking. Elias stayed feet away, refusing to look at me.
I didn’t say anything, just numbly walked away. My heart splintering more by the second.