Page 41

“Fuck, I’m coming,” Jace growls, shoving forward one last time, his knot pushing past my entrance and locking inside me as his cock pulses, hot spurts of cum filling me to overflowing.

The feeling of his knot stretching me wide, of his seed flooding my womb, triggers my second orgasm. I convulse around him, walls milking his cock for every drop.

He wraps an arm around my waist, pulling my back tight against his chest, his nose nuzzling the sensitive spot behind my ear.

We’re locked together, his knot ensuring that not a drop of his seed escapes, that it all stays deep inside where it might take root, might grow into the pups Kane is so eager for.

The thought should terrify me, but in the hazy afterglow of pleasure, with the pain of my heat temporarily soothed, it feels right. Natural. Inevitable.

“Better?” Jace murmurs against my hair, his hand splayed possessively over my lower belly.

“Mmm,” I hum, boneless with satisfaction to form proper words. The burning fever of my heat has receded, leaving me warm and content in his arms.

“Good,” he says, pressing a surprisingly tender kiss to my shoulder. “Sleep now. I’ll stay inside you until my knot goes down. Keep you nice and full.”

I nestle deeper into his embrace, savoring the feeling of our intimate connection. My eyes grow heavy, the combination of satisfaction and exhaustion pulling me toward sleep.

I stir awake, stretching languidly in the nest of furs, a smile forming on my lips before I even open my eyes.

My body aches in delicious ways—my pussy still tender from Jace’s thorough attention, my ass bearing the lingering sensation of his exploring fingers. The memory of his knot locking inside me, filling me with his seed, sends a pleasant shiver through my sated body.

Suddenly, an unfamiliar metallic scent tickles my nostrils, sharp and out of place among the usual musk of sex and alpha pheromones that permeate our shared space.

Confused by the sharp smell, I open my eyes, instantly alert.

The scent is strange yet somehow familiar—coppery and rich, with an underlying sourness that makes my newly sensitive nose wrinkle in distaste.

I turn my head to see Kane and Jace still sleeping soundly on either side of me.

Kane’s arm is possessively draped over my waist, his breath steady against my neck, while Jace has rolled onto his stomach, face buried in a pillow, his sandy hair a tousled mess.

The metallic smell is coming from elsewhere.

Carefully, I extract myself from Kane’s hold, wincing slightly as I slide out from beneath his heavy arm. My thighs are sticky with the dried evidence of last night’s activities, and my muscles protest with each movement.

I pad across the cool hardwood floor, naked, following the odd scent that grows stronger with each step. It leads me down the hallway toward the living room, where early morning sunlight streams through the large windows, painting golden rectangles across the floor.

Finn is sprawled across the couch, one arm dangling toward the floor, his chest rising and falling with deep, even breaths.

He’s fully clothed, but his dark shirt and jeans are stained with what can only be blood—matted patches of rusty brown covering most of his torso, splattered across his neck and face, and caked beneath his fingernails.

There is so much blood that it seems impossible it could have come from just one person.

I gasp, my hand flying to cover my nose and mouth, not only from the overwhelming metallic stench but also from shock at the sight before me.

Finn’s eyes snap open immediately, alert despite his apparent exhaustion. He blinks once, focusing his gaze on me, and a slow, lopsided grin spreads across his blood-streaked face.

“Good morning, omega,” he drawls, his voice rough with sleep yet still carrying that quiet intensity that never quite leaves him. “You’re up early, baby.”

“Are you hurt?” I managed to ask, the words coming out strangled and high-pitched. “What happened to you? There’s so much blood...”

Finn glances down at himself as if just noticing his gory state. He stretches, muscles rippling beneath his blood-stained clothing, completely unconcerned.

“Not mine,” he says, and then his eyes rake over my naked form with undisguised appreciation. “Quite a sight to wake up to. Maybe I should shower quickly, and we could...”

The casual way he dismisses the blood, not his blood, but someone else’s blood, sends ice water through my veins. I wrap my arms around myself, suddenly aware of my nakedness, feeling exposed in ways that have nothing to do with my lack of clothing.

“Whose blood is it?” I ask, already dreading the answer. “Finn, what did you do?”

He sits up, swinging his long legs to the floor, wincing slightly as if sore from exertion.

“I took care of your Justin problem,” he says, as casually as if discussing taking out the garbage. “Permanently. You won’t have to worry about him anymore.”

Horror washes over me in a cold wave, stealing my breath.

“My Justin problem?” I repeat my voice barely a whisper. “You... you killed him? ”

Finn’s expression shifts, his brows drawing together as he registers my distress.

“He threatened you,” he says as if this explains everything and justifies everything. “He was going to try to take you away from us.”

I shake my head, taking a step back. “So you killed him? Just like that?” My voice rises with each word, and my hands begin to tremble. “You can’t just... You can’t just kill people, Finn!”

His confusion seems genuine, his head tilting slightly as he studies me. “He was a threat to the pack. To my omega. To our future pups.” He stands, towering over me, blood-crusted hands reaching toward me. “I did what any alpha would do.”

I flinch away from his touch, backing up another step. “No. No, no, no.” Tears prick at my eyes, a complicated tangle of emotions knotting in my chest. “This isn’t right. This isn’t how things work. You don’t just kill someone because they sent text messages!”

“Why not?” Finn asks, an edge creeping into his voice, a hint of a growl vibrating in his chest. “He hurt you for years. Broke you down until you believed you were worthless. Made you afraid in your own home.” His eyes flash with supernatural light. “He deserved worse than what I gave him.”

The clinical detachment in his voice chills me more than the fact of what he’s done. It’s not remorse I hear, not regret or conflict—just the calm certainty of a predator who’s eliminated a threat from his territory.

“You...” I struggle to find the words to make him understand. “You’re talking about a human life, Finn. A person. However awful he was, he was still a person.”

“He was a monster in human skin,” Finn counters, moving toward me with predatory grace despite his bloodied state.

I press my palms against my temples, trying to process what I’m hearing and what it means. “This isn’t the wild! You can’t just follow animal instincts and kill people who threaten what’s yours.”

“Can’t I?” Finn’s voice drops, dangerous and soft. “What makes your human laws better than our ways? Your police, who do nothing while women are beaten and terrorized in their own homes? Your courts that let abusers walk free to hurt again?”

His words hit too close to home—memories of the one time I tried to get help, the officer’s dismissive glance, and Justin’s escalated rage afterward. But still. Murder. Killing.

“We’re not animals,” I insist, tears now flowing freely down my cheeks. “We don’t just kill. We find other ways.”

“My wolf lives just beneath this skin, always hungry, always protective. Always ready to kill for what’s mine.” He takes another step closer. “And you’re mine. Ours. Worth killing for.”

The possessiveness in his voice, the absolute certainty, makes something in me ache despite my horror. No one has ever deemed me worth such extreme measures. Worth fighting for. Worth killing for.

“You don’t even look sorry,” I whisper, wiping my wet cheeks. “You killed someone, and you’re standing there like it’s nothing. Like it was just taking out the trash.”

“Because for me, it was,” Finn replies, without pretense or an attempt to soften the truth. “He threatened what’s mine. He died for it. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

He reaches for me again, and this time, when I try to pull away, his reflexes are too quick. His blood-encrusted hands close around my upper arms, holding me in place, forcing me to look up into his face.

“Let me go.”

“Surely you couldn’t have loved him,” he says, searching my eyes for understanding. “Not after everything he did to you.”

“I didn’t,” I admit, trying to pull away. His grip is firm but not painful. “I hated what he became. But that doesn’t mean?—”

“That doesn’t mean what?” Finn demands, a growl entering his voice.

“That doesn’t mean he deserved to die for threatening what’s mine?

For promising to drag you back, to hurt you?

” His grip tightens slightly. “What would you have had me do? Wait until he finds you? Until he hurts you? And then put my hands on your bruised body, and knowing I could have prevented it?”

“It’s still wrong,” I whisper, but the conviction in my voice is wavering.

Finn’s expression softens slightly; one hand releases my arm to catch a tear with his thumb, leaving a smear of dried blood on my cheek.

“In our world now, we protect what’s ours. By any means necessary,” he says, his voice gentler now. “I’m not sorry he’s dead, Mia. I’m only sorry it’s causing you pain.”

Justin’s dead. Actually dead.

I collapse against his chest, not caring about the blood that now smears across my bare skin. Sobs tear from my throat, ugly and raw, as the full weight of everything crashes down on me.

“He wasn’t always like that,” I choke out between sobs, my face pressed against Finn’s blood-stained shirt. “When we first met, he was kind. He made me laugh. I don’t know what happened to him, what changed him into becoming so cruel.”

Finn’s arms encircle me, holding me close, one hand cradling the back of my head.

“Some men are good at wearing masks,” he murmurs into my hair. “Until they believe they own you. And then you see who they truly are.”

I cry harder, mourning not the Justin who terrorized me over the past years but the man I had thought he was at the beginning. I grieve my own naivety, the years wasted, and the parts of myself that died under his constant criticism.

“I’ll never have to see him again,” I whisper, a strange relief blooming beneath the horror I felt. “I’ll never have to ignore his texts or calls. I won’t have to worry that he’ll find me.”

“Never,” Finn confirms, his arms tightening around me. “You’re safe now. You belong to us, and we protect what’s ours.”

“I don’t know how to feel,” I admit quietly. “Part of me is horrified, and part of me is... relieved. I don’t know what it all means.”

“Human,” Finn says simply as he cups my face. “Still caught between two worlds. Still learning what it means to be an omega, to be part of a pack. The pack protects its own, Mia. Without hesitation, without remorse. It’s our way.”

I nod slowly, neither agreeing nor accepting but acknowledging. Understanding. This is a world where my alphas will kill to protect me, where moral lines blur under the weight of pack loyalty and primal instinct.

“I need to wash,” I say finally, looking down at my blood-smeared skin. “And you... you need to burn those clothes. And shower. For a very long time.”

“As my omega commands,” he replies, smiling as his shoulders relax. As we separate, I catch his hand, holding it tightly despite the dried blood beneath his fingernails.

“Thank you,” I say softly, the words feeling both right and wrong on my tongue. “For protecting me. Even if I don’t agree with how you did it.”

Finn lifts my hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to my knuckles.

“I will always protect what’s mine,” he says simply. “No matter the cost.”