Page 77 of Want It All

After the scent party, I expected that somehow, my life wouldalwaysbe about Tristan Grace, but I tried to push the thoughtaside as the alpha inside me fixed on Rose with an unnerving focus.

Mine, he growled, and I didn’t disagree. I wanted both the omegas with a fire that – for the first time in years – made me feel whole.

I sank to my knees.

Rose’s eyes widened and she inhaled. I caught a hint of her sweet scent in the air as I crawled towards her. My mouth immediately watered; I wanted it stronger, wanted it spread over my tongue, sliding down my throat. I wanted it to fill my lungs and cover my skin.

She whimpered, and I realised that I was lesscrawlingand moreprowling. I’d wanted to show her that I’d do anything for her – that I’d get on my knees for her – but instead I was showing her that even crawling, I was a predator.

I just hoped she knew that I was collared, and that she was holding my leash.

She tilted her head, unconsciously showing me the elegant curve of her throat. It was pretty now, but it would be even lovelier covered in tooth-shaped scars. Sebastian would bite over her scent gland, as was his right, but one day, I was going to make a beautiful chain across her silken skin that would tell any other alpha in no uncertain termsexactlywho had the honour of belonging to the perfect omega.

If she asked me, I’d leave room for Tristan’s bite.

But only if she asked.

I reached the back of the couches when my vision started to go white.

Fists pummelling, knuckles covered in blood, broken moans rising and falling like music to my ears –

I shook my head slightly, swallowing, trying to brush off the memory.

I was close enough to feel the heat pouring off her; I sat back on my feet, looking down at my omega, at my littlequeen. I studied her adorable nose, her perfect jaw, her lovely neck. I took in her pink-tipped breasts, her spread knees, and the curve of her soft belly.

Beautiful.

Dragging him from the doorway of his pack house and throwing him down on the grass outside. Picking him up when he stayed down, when he didn’t get to his feet and face me,me, whose life he’d ripped to shreds with one careless decision –

The white spread.

I tried to breathe through it.The rut is normal,Dr. Ford said in my memory.Natural. A rut helps alphas service their omega through a heat. It helps them protect what is most precious to them.

I blinked furiously, trying to will the mist away, but my vision was clouding. The only thing I could see was Rose, in the same way that the only thing I’d seen on that night seven years ago washim, and the blood on my hands.

The rut is normal, Dr. Ford said again.

But what if this wasn’t a rut?

I inhaled, desperate for Rose’s scent and the peace it might bring me, but all I could taste was copper.

‘Alpha?’ she said tentatively, and reached out to touch me.

What if I hurt her?

I reared back, out of reach. The white spread. Tristan was saying my name, and there was a hand on my back that must have belonged to him, warm against my bare skin. Sebastian sat up, moving towards Rose, and –

What if I hurtthem?

Once the thought had taken root, I couldn’t shake it. The mist thickened mockingly; I blinked furiously, willing it to disappear.

The rut is normal –

‘Get up!’ I roared at him, my voice shockingly deep and shockingly strong, my dominance carried by my bark. I’d never used it before; it scared me and made my throat feel raw. But he deserved it. ‘Get up!’

He did, somehow. He got to his knees, and his body made all sorts of sounds with the movements, sounds it shouldn’t have made, squishing and cracking and everything wrong. He was hurt, badly hurt, and I’d done that to him – I’d done it with my fists. I’d made him this human-shaped pulp, but it wasn’t enough.

It wasn’t enough.