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She squeals, but she manages to speak in that soft, seductive voice anyway. “Shh, it’s okay, my big boy. It’s okay.”

And Knight falters, just like when he tried to kill her last night, just like when she stopped him before.

Dr. Acker scrambles to her feet, brushing at herself, wide-eyed. She licks her lips and her gaze goes elsewhere.

I realize that Striker and Arrow are coming out of the bedroom. Arrow’s naked too, and I notice he’s got a bite mark on his neck. When did that happen? Who did that?

“Stay, boys,” says Dr. Acker. “Stay.” She starts for the door again.

They are all rooted to the spot.

“Knight!” I scream.

He looks at me.

“There’s an omega,” breathes Dr. Acker, pointing at Lotus. “You know what you’re supposed to do when you scent out an omega, don’t you, my good boys? You know exactly what to do.”

And all three of them lunge at us.

I panic, turning my back, wrapping my arms around Lotus, protecting her with my girth and my body, and our three mates tackle us.

Distantly, I hear the door open. Dr. Acker is free.

I do my best to protect Lotus from the impact as we all go down under the weight of the other three alphas, who are growling and making dog-like noises as they try to tear through my body to get to Lotus.

I don’t know what to do, and I just curl around her, wanting to keep her safe as they try to wrench me off her.

Lotus and I move, like we are one person. We crawl together, and I know what she’s going for. It’s in the bedroom, with the few meager possessions my mates brought with them, not that they’d managed to gather much when they went on the run from the facility. They have clothes, and some stacks of cash that they got from various places that Knight had stashed his ill-gotten gains from being a mafia hitman, and…

The stun gun.

As we crawl, our mates pummel and scratch and howl at us.

But we make it, and she gets the stun gun and she puts it into Arrow, and this knocks out him and Knight, who both fall backwards. Then I take it from her and stun Striker, who shrieks and retreats.

My knot goes down.

I pull free of her, stand up and glower down at them holding the stun gun.

They grunt and gaze up at us.

lotus

I’M YANKING ONmy clothes, shouting at Striker and Knight. “You cannot go after her, because she’ll trigger you again!”

“But what are you two going to do against her?” growls Knight.

Calix is already dressed, but he just had to pull up his scrubs.

“I don’t know, stun her, I guess,” I say, checking to see if Calix still has it.

He brandishes it, his expression grim.

I stalk to the open door and go out into the night. This woman could not have gotten far.

Calix and I don’t have to talk about which way to go, we just decide together. We walk over the yard, down to the dirt road and look this way and that way.

There’s no sign of her, just the outlines of the trailers and shacks that make up the compound.