Chapter 44
FORTY-FOUR
Playing: “we can’t be friends” by Ariana Grande
Opal disappears around the corner, and everything turns to shit.
I turn back to Sam, who is trying his best to keep himself from going into rut.
I’ve never seen it happen so quickly before, but his pupils are dilated, and his green apple scent is the same dark aura that I remember so well; tart, sour, and harsh in the best way.
Seeing my alpha in rut is one of my favorite things, but Sam hates when it happens in public.
He grunts and clenches his muscles as he tries to stay in his body, pointing in the direction that our scent match disappeared.
“She can’t go off by herself,” he says through the pain. He slaps himself, trying to find his center. “We have to find her.”
“I will find her,” I tell him. “But you need to go sit in the car. Please stop fighting it, you need to let your alpha take the reins.”
“I don’t want anyone to see me lose control—” He shakes his head violently before letting out a growl so deep I feel it in my bones.
My hands go to his face and hold him securely. “I need to find our omega,” I tell him, knowing that his alpha is taking over. “Then I will come help you. I promise. Please let our friends take you outside.”
It takes a few moments, but he finally agrees with a defeated nod. “I love you.” I pull him to me, kiss him deeply so that he knows just how much. When I pull back, his eyes are almost completely black and he’s looking at me like he wants to devour me whole.
I turn to Ciro and Jett. “Can you take Sam to our car and make sure he stays put? I will be right out as soon as I find Opal.”
They both agree, taking the situation seriously as they grab the keys from me.
They kiss their omegas goodbye before moving on either side of Sam, shielding him from anyone who wants to see what’s happening.
A few onlookers have noticed the dramatic scene happening before them, but luckily, we’re at the top of the seating, and most people are too focused on the championship match to notice the breakdown happening in the stands.
“Do you want us to come, too?” Stacia asks as she steps forward, looking just as confused about the situation.
“We can’t,” Rory says suddenly, her hand already pulling her best friend back. “Only her mates can help her.”
I take in her stance, how she stays put without any surprise or confusion at all. “You knew.”
Her expression is one of indifference, but I know she’s using her acting skills to stay neutral. “It wasn’t my secret to tell.”
“Secret? What’s going on? What just happened?” Stacia asks.
“She’s our scent match,” I reveal, still feeling shellshocked by it myself. “And I’m going to go get her.”
I make my way up and out of the arena, turning until I end up in the main lobby. It’s almost empty despite a few stragglers, and I’m starting to think I’ve lost her when I see a flash of curly red hair coming out of the stairway.
I catch up to her quickly and when she sees me, she still has that wild look in her eye.
“Fucking… stupid stairs,” she mutters.
I try to crack a joke. “Did you get lost?”
She shoots daggers at me, and I realize she isn’t going to let me lighten the mood. “Please just let me go with a little bit of dignity.”
My brow rises. “What do you mean? Why did you run out?”
“I can’t stand seeing him like that. I should have never kept this a secret for so long. Now I’ve ruined it.”
The statement confuses me even further. Why would she think she’s ruined this? I am the most ecstatic that I’ve ever been. “Opal, what are you talking about?”
“My alpha is angry with me,” she whines, the sound pulling my heartstrings. “I should have known he’d hate me when he found out.”
The misunderstanding hits me right in the gut. “Sam isn’t upset! He is—”
“Are you serious? Did you see him? He couldn’t even look me in the eye!”
Her pheromones take on a dark scent, like she can’t bear the fact that our prime is angry with her. I try again to reach out to her, but she flinches out of my reach.
“Pebble, please let me help you.”
“Don’t call me that,” she says through a sob. “Don’t act like you care about me or that you’re serious about our connection. You have an alpha, and that alpha doesn’t want me.”
“Don’t care about you?” I say incredulously before lowering my voice, cautious of the people around us. “I helped you through a heat spike. How could that be anything but serious? How else can I show you what you mean to me?”
Her eyes pool with tears. “You’re not just you, Kit. You have a pack. One that adores you.”
“They adore you, too. You’re their scent match.”
“And yet, I feel like a complete outsider,” she responds and it breaks my heart. “I could have been a part of this pack months ago, but I was scared. Kit, I may have ruined this for us. I don’t think he’s going to accept me, not now.”
“Opal, please, I promise you that we can fix this. Let’s just go outside so I can show you…”
“And go near him? I can’t! I don’t know what will happen if I even look at him right now.” She continues to back up as a crowd of people leave the arena and nearly get into our path. “I can’t, please let me go.”
The group walks right in between us and a deep, frustrated sound escapes me as they separate us completely.
I push through them, completely ignoring their angry remarks as I try to get to my scent match on the other side.
They continue to not have any spatial awareness and I grit my teeth with irritation.
God, why are there so many of them?
When they all get the hint and start to move away from me, I get to the space on the other side and realize she’s gone. Anger boils inside me at the emptiness that greets me, and it burns even brighter as her scent dissipates with every moving second.
“Fuck!!” I scream out into the open space.
A security guard a few paces away gives me a stern look and takes a step forward.
Normally, that would have me running scared, but I just growl at him.
I don’t even know where it comes from, but my chest emits it so freely that I’m stunned.
His eyes widen at me, but he lets me go about my business as he gets back to his post. I feel like I failed, our omega gone right from under my fingertips.
But I can’t dwell on it, because I have an alpha in rut that I need to help, and then we can figure out where to go from there.