Chapter 4
June
“Sinclair Parrish will be your alpha.”
Ms. Arkwright’s voice circles me like a shark, biting my ankle and dragging me under.
Wearing a darker, puffier version of the lilac dress I wore to the ball last night, I stare dumbly at the imposing head of Haven Academy.
Last night, as she marched me across the school grounds and back to the dorms, I told her about the alpha I met and us being scent matches.
She nodded at all the right moments, thankfully not asking why I smelled like I had been up close and personal with an alpha.
And I had been intimately rubbing up against one, but I didn't tell her that part.
I just told her we talked and hugged a bit.
She seemed like she was listening to me, so this afternoon, while I packed my clothes and my parents' servants came to collect them, I wasn't worried about not seeing Torin again. Clearly, she understood that whatever alpha she had in mind for me wouldn’t work out.
I mean, I have a scent match, and I found him. That changes everything.
So when she called my name, I left my parents and River, my little sister, standing near the back of the ballroom, nervously smoothing away the creases from my dress as I hurried to the front of the room, excited to see Torin again.
But she just… doesn’t care that I found my scent match? How can she not care about something so rare and precious that it doesn’t happen for everyone?
“But I—”
She pats my arm condescendingly, and when she smiles, it doesn’t reach her eyes. “Trust us to know what’s best for you, Juniper. Sinclair is the perfect choice.” She nudges me toward the auburn alpha, a gesture that may seem gentle, but her firmness warns me there’s no use arguing with her.
Behind me, the omegas waiting for their mate bonding whisper among themselves. My parents and River are back there, and I swear I can feel my mom’s silent disapproval. It’s somehow louder than any of the whispers spreading through the ballroom.
My gaze moves from Ms. Arkwright to Sinclair, the man with the burnished red hair and the small brown eyes. I’m supposed to walk up to him and let him bite me.
He isn’t the alpha I want. I don’t even remember dancing with him at the ball last night, yet I’m supposed to turn my back on my scent match for him?
“Miss. Harrington!” Ms. Arkwright snaps, her patience running out.
I jump. Swallowing around the object lodged in my throat, threatening to choke me, I reluctantly walk toward Sinclair.
The long silk skirt of my dress rubs erotically over my thighs, and my thoughts keep drifting to sex.
Since meeting Torin last night, my mood swings between desperate fear that I might never see him again and arousal.
He’s awakened something inside me, and I can’t turn it off. What will happen to that need—and my connection with Torin—if I let this alpha glancing at his watch as if he has somewhere else to be, bite me?
I think of Torin, and I feel my nipples pebble. Sinclair’s gaze drops, his eyes hungry as he licks his lips. But when I stop two feet in front of him, and his gaze lifts to mine, it’s cold again. Bored.
I want to kick off my heels and run away, but hundreds of eyes are on me, and this is what I came to Haven to do. If I let Sinclair bite me, Torin won’t want me. Not when I have another alpha’s bite on my neck, especially with Sinclair’s wild licorice pheromones marking me as his.
I wore my hair up tonight. All omegas have. Now I wish I had left my long, wavy blonde hair down to serve as a shield between his teeth and my throat.
Sinclair moves toward me. The scent of his skin suffocates me, his impending claim over me like a chain snapping around my wrist and panicking me.
I back up as he leans his head toward my throat. “Wait! Just…” I lick my dry lips, keeping my palms up to hold him back. “Just wait a second. This is happening too fast.”
All my life, rules have defined me, and I believed they always would. A Harrington omega attends Haven Academy, meets an eligible alpha, has omega daughters of her own, and the cycle repeats. That has always been what is expected of me, and of River, my little sister.
I have had the best money can buy. Private tutors at home and expensive nannies to care for my sister and me until we perfumed and came to Haven Academy. Those rules now threaten to separate me from the thing I’ve always dreamed of: love with my scent match. Something no amount of money can buy.
How can I turn my back on my dream for the empty future I’ll have with Sinclair Parrish, who looks at me like I’m property before he’s laid one hand on me?
“This is what we’ve been preparing you for the last four years.” Ms. Arkwright doesn’t even try to hide the bite in her voice.
I don’t dare look at my parents. I feel the sharp sting of their disappointment as I let them and the family name down. A Harrington girl does not disappoint her alpha, and she never causes a scene like the one I’m about to. I want Torin, and I can’t give him up. Not even to please my parents.
“I can’t do this,” I whisper, and a shocked gasp rings out.
Please don’t let that be my mother and please don’t let her faint. Dad will blame me, and he’d be right to.
“This is the alpha Haven has chosen for you.” Ms. Arkwright delivers her harsh whisper right into my ear as Sinclair’s lips flatten.
What I want isn’t important. What she wants will happen.
She continues in a more persuasive tone when her threatening tone doesn’t get me moving. “This is what’s best for you, Juniper. He will give you everything you need and want.”
“Except love and passion,” I whisper as I bury my nails into my palms, taking a breath and releasing it as I prepare to fight for this thing I don’t just want. I need it.
I’ve tested Sinclair Parrish’s patience for long enough. I see it in the flicker of humiliation in his eyes and the tightening of his jaw before he steps toward me. I step back as Sinclair reaches for me when several things happen at once.
A strong, tanned hand reaches around me, grabs Sinclair’s wrist, and wrenches to the right. Hard. Crack.
I wince.
Wild forest and maple syrup.
The most delicious scent washes over me as a velvety soft voice vibrates with menace. “Touch her, and I will break every bone in your body.” The, freezing Sinclair in place.
No one in the room moves—just me, and only to swivel my head to the side.
A black t-shirt clings to muscled shoulders as cold, golden eyes flare with heat the moment my gaze lands on him. Shock has a hold of my tongue, and it won’t let go. I don’t know who this man is; I’ve never seen him before, but his scent calls out to me so loudly that he must be mine.
Scent match.
Out of the corner of my eye, Sinclair backs up, cradling his broken wrist. But Sinclair no longer exists to me anymore. From the moment this alpha appeared silently beside me, his scent has never stopped screaming at me.
I have two scent matches. Having one is rare. But two? I’m the luckiest girl in the world.
I stop breathing, watching as my scent match raises his hand. His fingers halt an inch from my cheek. His thumb caresses my bottom lip, and I let out a soft moan I can’t quite suppress.
“Did he hurt you?” he asks, softening his voice for me.
Shaking my head, I whisper, “I’m June. I’d tell you all my other names, but I have so many you might regret breaking that other guy’s wrist for me.”
One corner of his mouth turns up in a surprisingly sweet, crooked smile. “I know them. I’m Archer.” He stares at me as if he doesn’t believe I’m real. “Torin warned me to watch out for stilettos.”
I let out a laugh. “He told you about me?”
They must be pack mates.
Archer nods, lowering his arm so reluctantly that it’s obvious he’s forcing himself to. “But he couldn’t find you again. None of us could.”
I wish he would touch me again, more than just his thumb on my mouth. But maybe he shouldn’t. Maybe it’s a good thing he hasn’t when my body is softening in ways that don’t care we have a roomful of people watching.
With a silent scream, I pull my gaze from Archer as reality intrudes.
And reality, in this case, is Archer tucking me behind him as Ms. Arkwright approaches with a security guard.
Ms. Arkwright demands, voice shrill. “Who do you think you are to force yourself in here like this? You weren’t invited to this ceremony.”
Everyone is staring. My mom is probably in the back of the room, dying of shame while telling everyone who will listen that she only has one daughter now.
A familiar, beautiful amber and cinnamon scent tickles my nose, and I grin, delighted when Torin appears. “Hey.”
“Hey, beautiful. I told you I’d find you.” Torin dips his head to steal a soft kiss that I definitely shouldn’t be leaning into like this. “Got those stilettos?”
“Ready to use as a weapon if needed,” I say.
He grins down at me and then steps forward to join Archer.
“We are Pack Wells, and Juniper Edith Alicia Mabel Harrington is our omega,” Torin says.
I’m too stunned by the pack name to remind Torin that I don’t like anyone throwing all five of my names around like that. It’s not just a mouthful. It’s downright embarrassing.
I thought the whispers before were loud. They’re nothing compared to the gasps and exclamations that follow that announcement.
Everyone has heard about Pack Wells. Ms. Arkwright blanches when she realizes who she was getting ready to throw out for gatecrashing my mate bonding ceremony.
Her job is to get omegas matched with the most eligible—and wealthy—alphas in the city.
Pack Wells could buy this school three times over if they wanted to.
Three alphas. Two sons from the city’s most influential families, and one alpha who looks like a fallen angel with a background so mysterious no one knows where he came from.
No one knows why they banded together to form a pack separate from their families.
Wait—there are three alphas in Pack Wells. Where is—
Ginger and warm vanilla.