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He dipped her low like he meant to kiss her but just inhaled deeply into her neck, her eyes scrunched closed and body stiff.

Fucking showman.

When he came back up his pupils were fully blown. “Holy shit,” he whispered. He went in for another sniff, a warning growl reverberating in my packs’ chests he duly ignored. “I’ve never smelled anything like this…”

Each member of the Conclave came up and sniffed her, their reactions more or less the same as Vaughn’s until finally the giant Frost took his turn.

She looked half his size in his meaty hands, and he nearly bent his body in half to stick his nose in the crook of her neck. After hebreathed her in, he roared, the sound so loud some covered their ears. He turned her around, pulling her into his chest as he pawed at her breasts and forced a hand up her skirt while she screamed at him to stop.

Julian and I were on him before he could touch her further, and while I may not have played football since high school, I couldn’t lie and say I wasn’t proud that we were able to successfully tackle the hulking alpha, halfway to a rut, down to the ground.

“Frost!” Thorne barked, standing and pounding his fists on the table. The alpha stopped fighting to get out from under us, his chest heaving as his dilated eyes remained on Marlowe. She was now safely tucked into Nolan’s arms, shaking uncontrollably while Elias stood in the middle, fists cocked.

“Get back to your seat!” Thorne ordered his pack mate.

We got off him and he stood, his composure returning as he cracked his neck, and shoulder checked Julian on his way back to his chair. Thorne gave him a stern look before turning back to us. “My apologies, alphas, I don’t think we were prepared for how… potent your omega’s perfume would be.”

Julian was livid. “You’re apologizing to us? Apologize to her!” He pointed back towards Marlowe. “She’s the one who was just assaulted by that titan creep!”

Snarls and growls erupted between our two packs until Marlowe threw her hands out and barked, “Enough!”

It wasn’t an alpha command, but it certainly grabbed our attention. She took a step forward and out of Nolan’s arms. “Let’s just get this over with, I want to go home. What did you come here for, more statements about the vampyr attack?” She gestured towards the cops standing by the doors. “Just get it from them. We already told them everything that happened.”

The general sat back down and looked to the rest of his pack before meeting Marlowe’s eyes with a sly smile. “You’re correct that this is related to concerns we have about the vampyrs. You see, when we discovered the target of the attack was an omega, our interest was planted. We had already been planning a visit in the near future to officially introduce ourselves, but then we received a rather alarming report of possible omega abuse going on in this town. So we moved our schedules around and made this our top priority.”

I could feel the anger rising inside me, my pulse reaching my ears. “Abuse?” I yelled.

Elias echoed my surprise, while Nolan appeared nervous. Hecleared his throat and began to speak. “Listen, your honors, I’m not sure what incident this report is referring to or who could have sent it, but…”

“I sent it.”

I whipped my head around to a beta male now making his way up front, carrying a laptop. I didn’t recognize him, but the look on Nolan’s face said that he certainly did.

Who was this guy, and what in Moon’s name had Nolan done?

Elias beckoned us over and away from the middle of the floor, as the weaselly-looking beta took our spot. “Last Saturday, our mayor, Nolan Wilk, reminded me of the old laws protecting omegas in our society. Not only through his words, but also his actions, when he attempted to bribe and blackmail me using his omega’s scent.”

Nolan paled and Marlowe gasped. “Nolan, what did you do?”

But he refused to look in our direction, keeping his gaze straight ahead.

I was already so full of fury I didn’t think I had room for any more, but Nolan, my pack mate, one of my best friends, had endangered Marlowe.

I was going to fucking kill him.

The beta male connected the laptop to a large TV screen and played a clip of security camera footage taken somewhere in City Hall.

There was Nolan, in grainy black-and-white, dangling the handkerchief Marlowe had given him with her scent over the beta’s head, who was going crazy trying to grab it. Once he finally had it in his hands, bringing it into his face to breathe in deeply, we heard Nolan speak:

“So, what’s it going to be, Seth? Apologize and I’ll forget this ever happened. Or go forward with this stupid charade, and…”

He pointed towards the security camera.

“Perhaps I’ll leak the video of a certain City Manager creaming his pants over…”

And then the screen went black.

Marlowe winced behind me. “I think I’m going to be sick…”