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But I can feel it building again already.
That first release? Yeah, that was a drop in the ocean.
My body is still a battlefield - lit up with hunger, heat, and the overwhelming realization that I have, in fact, abandoned my best friend at a gala full of bureaucrats and assholes - butthe scent ofall of themisso thick and full in the airthat it distracts from everything else.
Pine. Smoke. Spice. Leather.
Clean heat and static andalpha.
I never understood how something could burn and comfort at the same time. How something could feel wrong, but so right, too.
I always swore I didn’t want this. Didn’t want them. Didn’t wantanyone. And now look at me -
I wantallof them.
I want to be touched again, held again, scented until I stop thinking. I want their hands, their mouths, theirteeth, and I don’t even know which one I want more.
I can’t choose. Not when everything inside me is pulling in all directions - toward calm and chaos, toward danger and devotion.
But I candothis. I can keep it together.
If I can just get inside - just get through the doors, into a room - lock myself away before it hits again…
“Inside,” Lucian commands. “Now.”
Theo’s arms slide under me, lifting me like I weigh nothing at all as his door swings open with athunk. But I can feel the tightness in him: the coiled restraint, the tension just beneath the surface - as though it’s killing him not to move, not to claim.
I bury my face in his throat, gasping through the heat clinging to my skin.
Kai is next to exit the vehicle, stretching like a cat.
“Well, well,” he mutters, arching his back like he expects applause. “Home sweet hell. Smells like money and unresolved trauma.”
Ash exits last, slow and quiet, gaze locked on me in Theo’s arms like I’m some tactical problem he’s been sent specifically to solve.
He doesn’t say anything, but the air around him crackles with alpha math. I can practically see the equation in his mind:
Omega + Instability + Kai = Security Nightmare.
Lucian doesn’t wait for them. He strides toward the massive black doors like they’re already bowing, all clean lines and unshakeable arrogance.
Kai squints after him. “Does he rehearse that walk, or was he born with a runway complex?”
“Born with it,” Ash says flatly.
“He walks like he’s about to fire someone for breathing wrong.”
“Probably already has,” Ash mutters.
Lucian presses his thumb to a hidden panel.
A soft beep. Then an eye scan.
“Retinal scan?” Kai raises both brows. “What, fingerprint wasn’t fascist enough?”
“I bet it also requires a blood sacrifice,” I whisper against Theo’s shoulder.
“Don’t tempt him,” Theo murmurs back.
