Page 47

46

A discovery of this magnitude should have me on cloud nine, but as Roman and Cora embrace, I can’t help but feel a pang of jealousy. Cora deserves a pack of her own, and it’s about time Roman pulled his head out of his ass. It’s clear that with or without the ability to bond, they’re forming a pack, even if they aren’t aware it’s already happening. But where does that leave me?

Bear and I have had some hot moments—some very sweet moments, too—but now that he knows Cora is his scent match, will he still fight for me if the rest of the pack doesn’t want me?

Jax pulls Cora away from Roman, keeping a hold of her hand as they walk deeper into the chamber. He throws a wink at me over his shoulder, and my body heats from the attention. Jax is unlike anyone else I’ve ever known, so self-assured and confident, and… hot. Fuck, he’s so hot. And totally out of my league. He might flirt, but I doubt he’s interested in more than that.

The scent of black pepper and honey envelops me as Bear wraps his arms around me from behind, then places a kiss on my temple, his beard softly scratching my cheek.

“You okay, baby?” Bear turns me to face him.

“Yeah, fine. Just… um, it’s a lot.”

“I know. I was so worried back there.” Bear pulls me against his chest and sighs heavily, like he’s trying to release tension he’s still holding.

But it’s not the scorpions, or even almost drowning that has me feeling shaky. It’s the uncertainty of not knowing where I stand. Bear cares about me, that much is clear, but is it enough for the rest of them? For Cora? That’s what I’m really concerned about. That she won’t want me.

I mean, she did nearly jump into my arms when she first scented Bear as her mate, but I was covered in his scent, so it made sense then. And we did have that moment after I fell, but life and death situations make everyone a little extra emotional and vulnerable.

“You sure you’re okay? I’d think you’d be a bit more excited about this.” Bear waves a hand in the air, indicating the room of treasure. “This is the chance of a lifetime.”

“Yeah, but think of all the paperwork,” I try to joke, but it comes out flat. Steeling myself, I reach for his big hand and follow the rest of our group.

All of us are moving slowly, checking the ground before we step to make sure we aren’t triggering any more booby traps. My eyes are trained on the stone floor when Cora suddenly screams.

My heart clenches in fear, and I squeeze Bear’s hand like I’m trying to break it. Cora’s face is buried in Roman’s chest while he strokes her back, soothing her from whatever scared her.

“What is it?” Bear asks gruffly as we approach. Jax is staring at something on the ground, an uncharacteristic frown marring his face. He’s silent. Also unusual. When we get close enough, I see why.

Bones.

Not a group of them like we found buried in the sand, but a single body, the bones still aligned as if they were sleeping on the ground. Mostly intact robes drape over them.

“Ah, fuck.” Bear curses.

Cora’s breathing evens out, and she approaches the group with Roman nearly plastered to her side. “I-I’m sorry. It—they—startled me. I wasn’t expecting to find a b-body in a room filled with sacred valuables.”

“I think she was guarding that.” I say, pointing beyond the skeleton to a pedestal on the back wall.

“How do you know it’s a she?” Bear asks, still staring at the bones.

I gesture to the pelvis that's visible where the ancient fabric had shifted. “Females generally have lower-set, wider hips. You know, for…um, birthing children.” Not wanting to upset Cora even more than she already is, I drop the subject like a live wire and lead Bear to the pedestal.

For as opulent as everything else in this chamber is, the pedestal is made of plain white stone. The surface is free of any blemishes or symbols, except for the bottom. The base of the plinth is inlaid with golden jackals, similar to the ones that stood stalwart by the doors.

“Lunara’s relic.” Cora breathes out reverently. Her gaze is focused on the item atop the pedestal. A half-bust holds a necklace of sorts. That’s the best way to describe it even though it's far more than that.

Intricately woven chains form a bright gold choker, the strands so fine it looks as if the metal is malleable. The braid meets in a swirl in the middle with a centerpiece in the shape of the omega symbol. The pendant is adorned with four blood red stones, set around a larger stone in the center.

“Cora, don’t!” Roman’s yell pulls me from the trance the relic had me in. Holy goddess, I was so focused on the choker I didn’t notice we had all gotten so close to it. Roman has his hand on Cora’s outstretched arm, stopping her from reaching for the jewelry. He spins her toward him, and she shakes her head, eyes clearing from the haze they just had.

“Oh my goddess.” Cora’s voice is muffled as she buries her face in her hands. “I can’t believe I nearly grabbed a 4000 year old relic. What the hell was I thinking?”

“I-I don’t think you were.” I stutter. “It felt as if the choker hypnotized me, beckoning me like a siren would a clueless sailor on the sea.”

Bear is looking between me and Cora, a confused expression on his handsome face.

“What?” I ask.

“You felt it that strongly? I mean, I felt something but it was more…uh…” Bear tightens his lips and waves toward his crotch, his cock already half-hard under his pants.

“Horny?” Jax so helpfully supplies, as per usual.

Roman addresses the group. “Okay, clearly something’s going on here, and I think we all need to take a step back. I’d say it’s pretty obvious this is Lunara’s relic, does everyone agree?” He gets murmurs of agreement and nodding heads in response. “Great. Now what do we do?”

While Roman’s facing us, Cora turns back to the necklace, that hazy look in her eyes again.

“Okay, little mate. Let’s get you away from the shiny relic before you accidentally unleash a plague of man-eating spiders or something.” Jax gently takes Cora by the shoulders and steers her away from the choker to a pile of rich textiles on the floor, urging her to sit. She complies, taking a deep breath before looking up at us.

“This has to be it,” Cora says as we all take a seat in a semicircle facing her. “Lunara’s relic. It looks exactly like the one we saw in the book. And I can feel it. This could be the answer to all my problems. My lack of heats, the horrible cramps, the mood swings. If it works, we could bond.” She looks around. “All of us. ”

“You want to bond with us?” Bear asks at the same time as I whisper, “All of us?”

“Well, I mean, only if you…” She shakes her head, waving a hand like she’s dismissing a thought. “That’s something we can talk about later. The point is, it could fix me.”

“You aren’t broken.” Roman interrupts her with a growl.

She waves him off. “You know what I mean.”

“No, honey,” Bear says. “You need to stop looking at yourself as damaged. We don’t see you that way.”

“He’s right.” Jax scoots closer to Cora. “All we see when we look at you is our mate. Our gorgeous, kind, brilliant, compassionate mate. We don’t care if you ever have a heat, as long as we have you.”

My breath catches. The alphas all nod in earnest agreement with Jax’s proclamation. If they truly don’t care if Cora ever has a heat, does that mean they may not care that I won’t either? Could they possibly bring me into their pack despite me being a simple beta?

Tears threaten to spill from Cora’s eyes. “I-I just…gah! That’s so sweet. You all are good men, I know you’ll accept me as I am if you have to. But…I have to do this for me. Besides the actual heat, I want bonds and babies, lots of them. I want a pack I know I’m enough for. But most of all, I need the cramps and insatiable cravings to go away. You can’t imagine the pain I’ve lived through. I don’t think I can survive a lifetime like this.” Her tears win, trailing down her cheeks like rain down a windshield. Slow. Quiet. But full of so much hurt .

Jax pulls her into him, gently asking, “What do you want to do, love?”

She looks at all of us. “I need to try it on. I have to know if it wor?—”

“ Absolutely not! ” Roman barks, and she flinches. Bear turns a menacing glare on the professor, his fists clenching like he wants to punch him for barking at their omega. Roman holds his hands up in a placating gesture. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I just can’t let you put yourself in danger.”

“Let me?” Cora challenges him. It's so good to see some of her spark back. I want to see that fire every damn day for the rest of my life. If she’ll have me.

Roman backtracks. “No, I didn’t mean… Fuck, Cora! I thought I watched you die back there in the water. I can’t— we can’t—lose you. Not when I’ve only just accepted that this could be something. I want time to prove to you that I can deserve you. Don’t put that at risk.” His voice breaks, and her face softens.

“You won’t lose me, Roman. You saw the book, this is my answer!”

“I know you need this, well, you think you do.” Roman pulls at his hair. “But we can’t do this down here, hummingbird. What if it does work? Or what if it hurts you?”

“Do you… do you not want to bond me?” Cora’s voice wavers.

“Fuck, of course I want to bond you. You’re my scent match. But we’re just getting to know each other. And we’re several stories underground in an unpopulated desert with no supplies and no way out. We can take the necklace with us, maybe you can try it when we get up?—”

“No!” Cora cries. “No. You know as well as I do that if we show up with the relic they’ll immediately take it for research. It’ll go under lock and key, maybe even end up in a museum or a laboratory, if it actually has healing properties. This is my only chance!”

Roman looks like he may counter again, but Bear beats him to it.

“Okay, everyone, let’s take a step back. We’re all tired, hungry, just escaped multiple instances of death, and aren’t thinking straight. Let’s find a way back up to the pools and our supplies first, then we can figure out what to do with the necklace. Deal?”

Cora sniffles, but agrees. We all decide it’s best to check the room for another exit before attempting to brave the scorpions again, so we spread out, carefully searching for any signs of hidden doors or other passageways.

I’d bet good money there won’t be any. It’s clear to me that this is a vault. The fewer entry points the better, but it seems to make everyone feel better to have something to do.

Even as I search, I find myself looking at the necklace every few seconds, captivated by it. I picture it around Cora’s slender throat, bouncing against her breasts as I fuck her while Bear takes me from behind. The image is so vivid I gasp.

“It’s mesmerizing, isn’t it?” Cora says from beside me. I’m not sure when she got so close, or when the two of us moved within arms-length of the choker. Bear, Archer, and Jax are on the other side of the room.

It’s the first time we’ve been marginally alone since she discovered Bear’s her scent match, and my mind spins with all the things I want to know. All the things that are causing my gut to churn with anxiety. Heart thumping loudly, I take a deep breath to fortify my resolve. “So… scent matches, huh?”

“Yeah.” She drags her attention away from the relic to look at me, her eyes still a little glassy, but her lips tipped up into a soft smile.

“What’s it like?”

“What’s what like?” She turns back toward the relic.

“I mean, what’s it feel like to have a scent match? How did you know? Was it as instant as all the stories say?” Goddess, is that a stupid question? It probably is. Fuck .

Cora gives me a confused look. “Don’t you know?” Her hand moves back and forth in the space between us, then toward the three men still searching the other side of the chamber.

I bring my thumb to my mouth and chew on my cuticle, shaking my head. What is she implying?

“I thought… I mean… you smell…” Her nostrils flare, and she sucks her pretty pink lips into her mouth, then looks at her feet and shakes her head. “Nevermind.”

“No, please. I want to know. I… I need to know what you mean.”

“Archer, did you forget when I pretty much climbed you like a tree by the pools? Your scent, mmm, green tea and raspberries. I couldn’t resist. First Bear’s scent hit me like a punch to the gut, then yours wrapped around me like the sweetest comfort.” She worries her bottom lip with her teeth. “Did you…did you not feel it, too?”

She’s so vulnerable at this moment I want to tell her yes! I felt it—not right then when her scent was still too subtle to catch, but later. And now. Shit, she smells like a dream. But…

“Betas don’t have scent matches,” I hedge, staring at the choker, wondering what it would be like to feel its weight around my neck.

“Who says?” She takes my hand and brings my wrist to her nose, inhaling deeply. The touch warms my skin, heat radiating up my arm and down to my toes. “Standard convention is proven wrong all the time, you of all people should know that.”

Her eyes lift to meet mine.

Her scent thickens, like late summer hikes through the forest. Elderberry, fresh from the bush, rosehips as red as her lips. Something wild in my chest ignites.

Somewhere behind us, Jax and Bear laugh, but the sound seems far away. Everything is muffled by Cora’s sweet breath, the intensity in her gaze. I turn our hands over and bring her wrist to my lips, kissing the smooth skin. My tongue, darting out to taste her. We lean toward each other, and I feel as if my body is expanding, reaching for something. For her.

“Cora!” Bear’s voice slaps the air. He grabs her and tugs her a step back. Disoriented, she blinks multiple times in a row.

“Do you even realize what you almost did?” Bear spins her to face him .

“W-what?” She looks around like she’s trying to remember where she is.

“You were about to touch the necklace.” Bear’s thundering voice is loud enough to draw the attention of Jax and Roman.

“No… I…” Cora glances nervously between me and the relic. “Was I?”

Of course our moment wasn’t real. It was a result of the relic, nothing more.

“What’s going on?” Jax asks.

Bear ignores the question, pulling Cora into his chest. “We don’t know what that thing can do or if it’s booby trapped like the rest of this place. What if… you could have been hurt.”

“We need to get out of here.” I cast a quick glance back at the relic, then turn away from it lest it pull me back under its spell.

“ With the relic,” Cora says.

“Maybe we should just figure out how to get back to the pools and then come back for the necklace,” Roman says. “Now that we know where the traps are set, we can bring torches to scare off the scorpions and come back when we’re more prepared.”

“I’m not leaving without it.” Cora squares off with Roman.

“Did you find another way out?” I ask.

“Nah, probably have to brave the scorpions again.” Jax shrugs. “Hopefully they’ve gone back to their nests by now.” He sounds cavalier, but then his gaze lands on Cora, and his scowl makes it clear he doesn’t really like the idea of her facing the death-trap hallway again .

“There is one place we haven’t checked for another exit.” Bear points to the red glow in the middle of the room.

Roman walks over to the edge of the pool, staring intently at the water as if he can see into its depths. “You think there’s a passage underneath it? I guess it’s possible that they could have built a waterway to serve as an emergency exit of some sort, but only if it opens into a passage with an airway.

“I doubt they’d want this place to have more than one way in,” I muse.

“Worth a look.” Jax throws off his shirt and strips out of his pants so fast I barely have time to realize what’s happening before he’s jumping into the ominous pool.

Seconds tick by without Jax coming up for air. My eyes scan the surface of the water for any sign of movement, but not even a bubble breaks through the glass-like appearance. I feel like I’m holding my breath right along with him. It’s been too long. What if he’s stuck down there? Hurt? The treasure hunter has grown on me over the past twenty-four hours. He’s part of this group, and if anything happened to him… “Should one of us…?”

Bear starts to strip out of his shirt to go in after him, but just then, Jax breaks the surface with a gasp. He takes a few deep breaths as he swims over to the edge and lifts himself out, chest heaving, muscles rippling as the water sluices down his body. For all his faults, the man is a beautiful specimen of masculine power.

“There’s a pipeline, letting water in, but it’s not big enough to get through,” he says, breathing heavily. “Searched as far as I could hold my breath, but nothing. ”

I stomp up to him and smack him in the chest with the back of my hand. Jax’s eyes open wide in surprise.

“Don’t you ever scare us like that again! Do you know how distraught Cora would have been if something happened to you?”

“Cora, or you?” Jax smirks, pulling his pants back on over his wet thighs.

I roll my eyes. “Keep dreaming.”

Jax leans so close, his lips brush my ear. “Oh, I will.”

Goosebumps rise on my skin from his proximity and implication. My gaze flicks to Bear, worried that he might not like Jax flirting with me, but he doesn’t look upset. His head is tilted to the side thoughtfully, desire in his eyes. It’s probably just that damn necklace making us all horny. It’s highly unlikely that I could have more than one person in this soon-to-be pack—if I can even be a part of it.

Roman clears his throat. “Well, looks like we’re gonna have to go back through scorpion city. Maybe there’s something else here we can use to keep them at bay. Some way we can light a fire maybe.”

“A blow torch would be nice.” Jax rubs his hands together.

“Right, yeah.” The sarcasm is thick in Roman’s voice. “I think I saw one of those over—” he points behind us, but cuts off abruptly.

We all turn to look and find Cora holding the choker against her neck. “Just to be clear, if this makes me go into heat, I want all of you.” Her gaze turns to Jax with a shy smile. “No condoms. Uh… if you want.”

Then she snaps the choker onto her neck.