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“She’s burning up,” Theo snaps, jaw clenched. “Maybe try being useful instead of mouthy.”
Kai snorts. “Trust me, my mouth isnothingbut useful. Besides, I’m keeping the mood light. It’s called morale support.”
Ash appears in the doorway like a storm cloud in a black t-shirt. “Shove yourmorale supportup your ass,” he mutters.
“Everyone’s a critic,” Kai throws up his hands. “But she smells like lightning about to strike,” he adds after a beat, eyeing me with something sharp and unreadable. “And if she combusts, then I call dibs on the first scorch mark.”
“JesusChrist,” Theo mutters under his breath.
“I’m just saying,” Kai grins, dropping onto the arm of a nearby chair. “There’s enough pheromone in here to knock out a small country.”
Lucian stays by the door, eyes tracking every movement like he’s doing threat analysis on a woman who is literally vibrating with heat on a couch.
“This is a containment issue, not a comedy show,” he says.
Kai shrugs. “You say containment, I say divine intervention.”
Ash crosses his arms. “Why do I get the feeling that you saydivine interventionabouteverything?”
“Well, sometimes I’m right,” Kai shrugs.
I groan, burying my face in my hands.
I’m unraveling. Splintering.
The orgasm in Theo’s lap wasnothing. A taste. A tease.
It opened the floodgates.
“She’s peaking again,” Lucian says.
Theo doesn’t blink. “I know.”
“Smells like horny despair and cinnamon,” Kai adds. “Not the worst combo.”
“We move her to the isolation wing,” Lucian commands, ignoring Kai. “Now.”
“Nothing like a good old-fashioned Omega extraction,” Kai nods. “Shall we chant or carry her in a velvet chaise?”
“Keep talking andyou’llbe the chaise,” Ash snaps.
“I'll carry her,” Theo says, already bracing to lift me.
We step out into the hallway again, and I just about manage to register Lucian as he moves to a sleek panel on the wall and flips a fancy-looking switch.
I swear that the entire house hisses, then clicks like it’s sealing for launch.
Doors lock. Lights shift. Air cycles.
“You’re locking me in,” I whisper.
“No,” he says without looking back. “I’m locking everyone else out.”
“Oh great,” Kai mutters. “She’s in heat. He’s in dictator mode. I’m not wearing deodorant. We’re all gonna die.”
“You’re not helping,” Ash tells him
“Just saying: if the OMB tracks us here, I call dibs on pretending to be the butler.”
