Chapter 15
Atlas
I was going to kill Dorian Bailey.
But I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
Opal was a dark angel. A raven-haired goddess.
Dorian clung to his girly ropes, spinning my girl around the room.
He made it look like she was flying. The loose black dress she wore floated in the wind they created.
He held her in a way that made her weightless—not that she would weigh much anyway—but she looked so delicate and fragile up there. On stage. In his arms.
His hand was fixed to her small wrist. Her ankle hooked around his. The silk rope was tight in his fist as he climbed the two of them higher, wrapping her arms around his neck and then pushing her legs off so that my mate hung suspended in the air, trusting him as she clung to his neck.
I was going to be sick.
And it wasn’t just the utter lack of safety. Opal was a shifter. She wouldn’t be fatally hurt from a fall at that height. But he could still hurt her. If he did, I’d kill him.
It was the look on her face that had my stomach twisting in knots.
That smile.
She looked so carefree.
Something tugged in my chest and I rubbed the ache there, doubt creeping in.
Could I give that to her?
We’ll give her everything she needs. But first we need to get her down.
The Lunas in the crowd weren’t quiet in their bitterness as Dorian twirled Opal through the air. The scent in the auditorium was growing more tantalizing by the minute. Warming brown sugar. Maple syrup. Opal’s arousal was evident for every broke-dick Alpha to smell.
When one Alpha poked his head through the curtains beside me and sniffed, I growled, sending him scurrying back.
I recognized that scent for what it was.
A punch to the gut.
My Omega was sending out heat pheromones.
She needs us. My beast snarled.
I barely held him in check as a few of the bolder Alphas came forward to investigate. That bastard, Dorian, seemed oblivious to every real threat as the song ended and they touched the ground.
The director was already trying to stage the next scene. The dancing finale Dorian had choreographed, meant to make us prance around the stage like show dogs.
I hadn’t intended to take part in the ridiculousness anyway, but now, with the panting Alphas on my heels, and Dorian standing there nuzzling Opal’s neck like a damned fool, I had no choice but to leave.
I balanced on a tightrope of self-control and animalistic instinct as I raced to Opal’s side, not giving the cameras enough time to react to my shifter speed.
“What the fuck?” Dorian growled, baring his teeth as I stole Opal from his grasp.
She was in my arms in no time, safely where she belonged. I motioned with my chin to the stumbling Alphas behind Dorian, who were missing their marks and confused.
“Idiot,” I hissed through clenched teeth. “Fix this mess.”
“Fix… What?” Dorian staggered back, shaking his head to clear it. “What happened?”
He could figure that out on his own.
I had to get my mate out of here.
Opal didn’t protest as I carried her bridal-style off the stage, heading down the hall and straight for the elevator as a camera crew hurried to unplug and follow us.
“Are you okay?” I asked as I punched the elevator button door closed, breathing a sigh of relief as it shut out the cameras just in time.
She’s in heat, my wolf howled.
It was an effort to not inhale her scent in the small space. To not set her down and spread her legs, to taste that sweetness coating the air—
“I’m fine. It’s not a full-blown heat,” Opal murmured as she rested her head against my chest and reached up to play with the loose button on my shirt.
That action made me feel ten feet tall even as she destroyed me with her next breath.
“That was the most romantic moment of my life.”