Page 105

“Heat spikes?”

“They’re like mini-heats. Most omegas only experience them before their normal heat, but you could experience them earlier.”

“Oh.” A bit of fear twists in my gut. The nice thing about my heats, though I’m not sure if I’d call them nice, is that they would happen, and then they’d be over.

I rarely remembered much of anything because of the fever from not having an alpha’s knot.

The thought of having my body having to go through that, god knows how many times before my actual heat, has my perfume souring. My last heat was so painful, it made me wish I was going to die.

CHAPTER 30

Archer

I’m thanking every god out there who could possibly be listening right now.

After learning about what she’s been through, seeing the actual location where her torture took place, and not being allowed to see her, the past week has been absolute torture.

It’s affected all of us.

Luna had this way about her when she was with us at the pack house that started to mend together our broken parts. Madden was getting more confident that he actually deserved to be a part of our pack with an omega. Chase actually had something he cared about, something he believed in. Kane found a source of peace that helped him finally fucking sleep again.

And me?

I saw my future with Luna in our home. A future where our house was warm with bright smiles and laughter. A future where all my pack brothers were happy. Where I was happy.

And then Luna was ripped away.

Even though I know our pack won’t stop fighting to get her back, knowing that we can lose her has left me paralyzed. I have to constantly be doing something to distract myself from the emptinessI feel inside my chest, but there’s only so much I can do when it comes to getting Luna back.

I take a breath. All I can do right now is focus on the present.

Luna is in my arms. I’m holding her. I can feel the weight of her, as slight as it is, on my lap. Her peppermint perfume surrounds me.

The peppermint perfume that’s souring at Charlotte’s comments about her hormones and upcoming heat.

“What’s wrong?” I murmur into her ear.

She stiffens even more at my question, like she didn’t expect me to ask. Like she didn’t expect me to notice.

“I—I’m worried about it hurting.”

“Your heat?”

She nods quickly, her chin falling to her chest and hiding her face from me as a curtain of her blonde hair comes between us.

My hands flex against her waist. Of course she feels that way. I saw where she had her heats. The dark, damp, cold cellar she was kept in would be torturous for an omega to experience her heat in, even with alphas. But she went through her heat without any of the necessary comforts omegas need or any alphas to soothe her. It’s genuinely a wonder she’s survived.

Hormone imbalance in combination with stress can be deadly for omegas. They can go into comas and never fucking wake up, according to Charlotte.

It’s one of the only reasons why we were able to convince my father to let us visit her. We insisted it would help her, especially considering the stress of her removal from our pack house and the police station.

“The medication you have there will help it hurt less,” Charlotte says. “Honestly, your heat shouldn’t hurt at all with the medication, if you’re given a proper environment and support from alphas.”

“S—support from alphas?” Luna says, her eyes growing wide.

“Yeah, that’s the whole reason why we have the selectionprocess we do. Traditionally, packs court an omega and apply to be chosen to help her through her heats.”

“So—So I’ll get to choose?” She asks, glancing at my pack brothers.