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Remember the taste and the smell of omega blood.

Remember flashes.

Omegas, eyes wide in pain and fear, bleeding.

I remember the omegas we’ve killed together, and I remember how that feels, and I…

Don’t bite her.

I wrap my hands around her neck instead and start squeezing.

Hervoice is in my head now.That’s my good boy, Arrow, that’s exactly right. You know just what to do with omegas. You kill them. Alphas are drawn to omegas to do exactly that. You’re the best tracker, aren’t you, Arrow?

I have my cock inside Lotus, but somehow now, it’sherhand on my cock, stroking me as she coos to me, calls me the best tracker and the best hound and her own little killer.

I’ll kill this omega for Dr. Acker, because that’s what I do, that’s what I’m trained to do, and that will be exactly right.

Abruptly, Knight’s arms are prying my hands from Lotus’s neck, and he’s pulling my back against his chest.

I thrash against him, confused.

Why is he stopping me?

This is what we do.

We kill omegas.

I get my arms free and snarl at him.

He snarls back, and his teeth are all long and fanglike too. He cocks back his head, nostrils flaring, and he strikesme. He sinks his teeth into my neck.

I come again. My cock spurts inside Lotus, and my whole body jerks, and then I’m limp, leaning back against Knight, gasping for air, my eyes rolling back in my head.

4

lotus

I’M SHAKING. I’Mrubbing my neck, shaking, and I’m stuck on his knot and I can’t get away.

I can’t talk. I can hardly breathe.

I’m still justshaking.

It was so quick, and they haven’t done anything quite that vicious in a long time, and I feel like a really stupid person.

Why did you let him fuck you?

After the thing happened last night, we’ve all been wary, and Striker said we should be careful about sex. We just had that conversation on the porch, all that back and forth. And yet, when I came in here and we all started rolling around together in my new nest, all of that went out of my head, and I let this happen.

Arrow has his head back, leaning on Knight’s shoulder. His lips are parted and his eyes are half-lidded. He looks blissed out as Knight laps hungrily at the little wound he made on Arrow’s neck.

What the hell just happened?

Striker appears in the doorway. “What’s going in here?” He stalks across the room and crawls onto the nest. He seesme rubbing my neck, and he touches my skin, his expression alarmed.

“Who did this to her? She’s bruising up.” Striker’s voice is terrible and it runs through all of us like a rumble of an earthquake. He’s the lead alpha, whatever that even means (It’s something Calix said), and he has an influence over all of us, even me.

Knight continues lapping at the little holes his teeth made on Arrow’s neck, his movements languid. His voice is lazy. “It’s all right. I stopped him. He’s mine now. He won’t do that again.”