Chapter 46
SIN
It was too late.
There was no stopping her heat.
We only needed to survive a few more hours, but that seemed impossible now.
The only thing that gave us a shot was that her scent blockers were holding for the moment. Close to her as I was, I could tell. Her scent of roses and cocoa wasn't seeping down the hallway like I knew it would be soon enough.
“Sin…” She was clutching me, nails digging in deep enough to cut. “I'm scared.”
“Look at me, Firefly,” I nudged her chin up to face me. “We have to get somewhere safe.”
I did an analysis of the space, mapping out where we were in Anarchy. There were resident rooms down the next hallway, and... okay. Wakefield pack's cell wasn't far.
Unease twisted my stomach at the thought of it, but the Emerald pack cell was too far, and I still had my gun. And I knew the Wakefield pack was often out during the night.
We couldn’t stay here, that I knew.
We’d both taken scent blockers, and they were still active, but heat would blitz through them quickly—and I didn’t want to be in this small space when they did. Any passing alpha would know.
Crescent's whimper cut off the thought instantly. We didn't have time. If I could get her to their cell, they could try to find the others.
I ran through the drugs we had back in the cell—none would stop her heat once it started…
This was going to be painful, but I didn't have another answer.
She was strong. Strong enough to hold out for now.
“Crescent,” I whispered. “I have a plan. I need you to hold on, okay? Anything you can do to hide it.”
I could see the fear in her eyes as she looked at me, but there was something else, too—trust. Trust I didn't know I deserved as she bit her lip and nodded.
I wanted to pick her up and carry her.
I wanted to let her sink into my arms, taken care of and sure she was safe. But I couldn’t offer her that. Instead, I squeezed her fingers in mine, letting her get her feet under her, and led her.
No one could know.
She was so strong.
I know she’d done this before—survived this pain for hours, or days. That was far more than I could say.
Her grip was deathly tight in mine, but she stayed straight as I led her down the next hallway. The shouts and bangs of anarchy echoed around us.
It didn't take long to get to the Wakefield pack's cell. It wasn’t my first choice, but they were the only allies we had that frequently left their door open at night.
The alphas who’d attacked us were from Holden’s pack, and I knew they’d still be on the hunt, so I didn’t have time to figure out other options.
To my relief, the door was hanging half open.
I banged on it, trying to see inside.
“Sin?” I spun at the sound of a familiar voice. Sterling, the Wakefield pack lead, was walking down the hall towards us, a frown on his face.
“What’s going on?” His eyes jumped between us as he neared, and I caught the faint trace of that stale iron scent from the braided, blood-stained cord he wore around his neck. “Are you in trouble? Not used to seeing you without your alphas.”
Crescent hung back, still clutching me. Both our scents were hidden, but he knew we were omegas, and I had a feeling he knew exactly what was happening.
“Why did you leave it unlocked?” I knew it wasn’t unusual for them, but suspicion was warring with desperation, alarm bells ringing in my head. And it didn’t seem like any of their alphas were inside.
He shrugged. “You know Ben gets up early—likes to work out in peace. Not like we have anything of value in there.”
My jaw clenched as I glanced into the room, mind trying to work out if that sounded right. “Calling in a favour.”
Lucian and Finnian—Sterling’s packmates—came around the corner, catching up to him.
“I thought you said it was Ben that works out in the morning, not you guys?” I asked, glancing between them, eyes snagging on the familiar paint stains always marring Finnian’s arms as if I was searching for something suspicious. My instincts were on edge.
Alphas prowling by for hours…
All night, their footsteps passed us by. So close…
“Yeah. Not long until the cells open,” Sterling said, raising an eyebrow. “Don’t like a busy breakfast.”
I had to stop being so paranoid. We were out of options.
“I need a safe place to wait, and I need you to find my pack.”
“Why don’t you come with us, then we can protect you while—”
“We’re staying here.”
Sterling snorted. “That’s not a good—”
“We’re staying.” I was tense, alarm bells still going off.
Sterling’s eyes flicked down to where my hand lingered, as if he knew I had my gun in my waistband. He looked calculating for a moment, then shrugged. “Alright.” He glanced between us again, then nodded. “Is this what I think it is?”
“No questions.”
“Alright.” He snorted, stepping back, nodding to the room. I followed him, pulling Crescent in with me. Lucian's eyes were fixed on us, and I had to catch a growl on the way up my throat as they lingered on her.
I looked around, rational considerations of alliances flickering out for a depraved, feral fear that was rattling loose in my chest.
“Finnian will wait outside—”
“No. You all go.”
It was a gamble, but there was no reason for anyone else to come in here, right?
“How long ‘til the doors unlock for the day?” I asked.
Sterling shrugged one shoulder. “Couple minutes.”
Not long enough. But maybe just long enough to keep Crescent safe.
The alphas left, and I made sure the lock clicked into place behind them, but we were in a room filled with scents that didn’t belong to us.
I sat on the one bed with the least scent of others—possibly the bed of the alpha who’d died in a bad rut brawl a few months back. I didn’t remember his name.
“Do you think they knew?” Crescent whispered.
I opened my mouth to lie but halted. Even without her scent, the context was clear. “You did so well hiding it,” I told her instead, cupping her cheek. That was the truth. She’d held herself perfectly. “If they knew, I don’t think they knew which of us it was.”
She frowned, and liquid gold irises held mine, as if she was unsure why that mattered.
It did, though.
I realized I hadn’t even understood why until I focused on it like I did now.
If they didn’t know which of us it was, it gave me another chance at protecting her.
Charred and insane instincts were sinking their claws in, dragging my mind into chaos. I was becoming something else—more desperate than I’d ever even heard an alpha describe in the face of their omega in heat.
My mind flickered back to the last look Sterling had given me before the door closed.
I was being paranoid.
I took a breath, holding her closer, cycling through the nagging feeling and trying to puzzle it out.
Her breathing was picking up, and I heard her bite down a whine. She was fighting an agony I knew, and she was doing it with more strength than I’d have.
How could I not be paranoid?
She was the most precious thing in the world, shivering in my arms as she waited so patiently.
She trusted me perfectly—her imperfect mate.
The one about to let her down...
I wouldn’t let it happen.
“They’ll find them, right?” Crescent whispered, voice weak.
“They will.”
They had to.
“There’s only three of them. What if they get in trouble?”
“It’s going to be okay.”
But there it was. The thing that was nagging at me.
Sterling hadn’t hesitated—hadn’t wanted to know what kind of danger the others might be in. They hadn’t even asked if we knew where they might be…
I frowned, analyzing the whole conversation. They said they’d been coming from breakfast? But the cafeteria… it was in the opposite direction from where they’d been walking.
I got to my feet all of a sudden, lifting her with me.
“Sin?” she asked.
“Come with me.” I stepped toward the Wakefield pack’s rut box.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I think your blockers are fading,” I told her. It wasn’t true, though I was sure it wasn’t far off, but I needed her not to question this. “They’ll be contained in here. I don’t want anyone passing by outside realizing.”
“Okay.” I pulled the door open, leading her in. She followed me without question.
The rut boxes could be locked, but they wouldn’t keep us safe. They were designed to keep the occupant in, not those outside out.
“That’s better.” I could see the agony in her eyes as she looked up at me. “Can we...?” Her fists closed in my shirt, pulling me closer.
“Not yet, Firefly,” I whispered.
Her lip wobbled, but she nodded.
It wasn’t because I didn’t want to—my hairs were on end, every nerve raw from the war I was waging not to do what she was asking of me. But if I so much as brushed my lips to hers, it would be over. Heat wasn’t something you could just switch on and off.
The pain she was surviving right now was nothing compared to what it would be if I started and then stopped.
We just needed to make it to the morning.
Wait for the others to find us.
Get to the appeal.
But this heat was a beacon to every alpha in Anarchy, and we might all be dead by the end of it.
All of us but her...
“They’re coming back,” I told her. “And we’re going to keep you safe.” I drew her closer, dragging my teeth along her neck instead. Not a full bite, but something...
When I did, though, she let out a whine, and her scent blockers finally broke down. Thank god we were already in the box. It should stop her scent from getting out into the hall.
But as the flood of roses and cacao hit the room, I almost lost myself entirely.
My breath hitched as I caught the full desperation and pain within that scent.
My mind didn’t cave to it, though. Instead, it flashed back to the last look Sterling had given me.
Danger…
Those alarm bells sounded again, and it was easier to remember why I’d brought us in here. Just a feeling, but in Anarchy, I’d come to learn that my instincts were sharper than any calculated thought I could string together.
“I’m...” I drew back. “I’m going to leave a note,” I said. “So they don’t panic if they come in and don’t see us.”
She nodded. “That’s… a good idea.” She was fading. I could see it. Waves of pain becoming her whole world as she fought off the agony of a heat I knew she’d already put off so many times.
It meant she didn’t clock the weakness of the excuse.
When I let her go, she all but collapsed, and I had to help her to the metal floor, where she hugged her knees to her chest, tears finally glittering in eyes that were becoming more blank by the second.
“I’m going to keep you safe, Little Firefly,” I whispered. “That’s my job.”
When I got to my feet, I had to pull my wrist from her rigid grip, but I don’t know if she’d heard those words.
It was better if she didn’t. Better she didn’t hear the shake in them—the doubt at what I was about to do.
When I stepped out of the rut box, I turned back around. Crescent was curled up, shivering.
My perfect omega.
I loved her so fucking much. More than I’d known I was capable of.
So it was the hardest thing I’d ever done, closing my fist around the door handle.
I never should have hesitated. I never should have given her a chance to look up. I’d locked my end of the bond down, but maybe I slipped in the moment.
Piercing, glittering, golden eyes met mine for just a moment, before I knew if I didn’t do it right now, I’d be too late.
Her lips parted in shock, terror hitting her expression like a bolt of lightning. We were suspended for a moment as her sweet roses and cacao scent turned bitter, her pupils shaking back and forth rapidly. Then she let out a whine of fear, scrambling toward me—
Slam!
My heart broke and my breath caught as the huge metal door crashed closed on her. I almost undid it that second, panic crashing into me as she lost control of her end of the bond, too.
Her terror tried to drown me, but I kept the door shut. She was so small, and these rut boxes were designed for huge alphas with auras. It was strangely eerie in the room alone.
I hated this place.
I hated what it forced me to become.
She was mine, and I should be able to take care of her. And instead, this was what I was forced to do.
I shut the window that showed into the rut box. She wasn’t tall enough to look through it, but I couldn’t risk it.
With ears ringing, I searched the room quickly, but Finnian carried his knife around with him, and I had no luck finding spare weapons.
Unsuccessful, I sank down onto the bed we’d been on together and waited.
My hands were shaking, which was good.
I needed to burn through my scent blockers—and so many hours had passed, I might have already. There was only a trace of her scent in this room from opening the rut box for a moment, so mine might drown it out.
I stared numbly at the door as the seconds ticked by.
One day she’d forgive me. I knew she’d hate me if I was wrong—for locking her in alone when our pack was just minutes away.
I wouldn’t risk it, though.
The truth was, my instincts had never been wrong before, even when I doubted them.
And as the door to the cell creaked open, the lock unlatching for our last day in Anarchy, my heart sank.
Today wasn’t the day that streak was broken.