“Enough,” Rowan growls. “Mine.”
He nudges Luca back out of the way—only to dive back in, this time taking Nix’s dick into his mouth at the same time. A low, rumbling growl of contentment vibrates through him as he pumps out a thick cloud of his spiced rum scent. It is designed to mark his mate, saturating the air—but even then, it can’t mask Nix’s scent entirely.
Finn holds his breath, a strange mix of dread, excitement, and protectiveness surging in his belly.
“Well?” he asks Luca, already knowing the answer.
Luca can only nod.
The others had spent every moment with Nix over the last three days, and they might not have noticed his changing scent—or, at least, not consciously. The textbooks call itbeing nose-blind.
But it all makes sense: the short heat, the enigmas’ over-protectiveness, and Jay’s drop into an almost base-level alpha mode. Even Nix’s increased interest in food and meat consumption had been a subtle sign.
“Is there something wrong?” Jay asks.
He’s at least smart enough not to get in Rowan and Nix’s way. Their omega has his hands buried deep in Rowan’s hair, scratching his scalp—an answering purr rumbling in his chest—seemingly uncaring that the world as they know it is changing fast.
Again.
Gideon stops pacing abruptly, and Finn sees the exact moment he gets it. “Holy shit. Holy fuckingshit.”
“Someone better tell the rest of us before Jay wolfs out,” Leo advises, as Jay’s pine scent bursts into flame.
Finn is less worried about Jay than Grayson, who has added his growl to Rowan’s—only his is distinctly less pleased and much more menacing.
Luca recovers from his scenting overload and the shock. Dancing place as if someone just announced that pants were outlawed worldwide, he claps his hands.
“You guys, you guys! We’re having a baby!” he squeals, and for a moment, time stands still.
Chapter Twenty-Six: Jay
Luca squeals in glee. “We’re having a baby!”
Jay’s brain takes a full five seconds to process that sentence. The individual words make sense, but together?
No. Impossible.
But Luca wouldn’t joke about something like that.
Jay’s omega is pregnant.
Sure, Jay’s rut had been crazy. Overwhelming urges to fuck—he was used to those. The desire to mark his mates was always strong, and by the looks of them, he’d been rougher than usual.
Although, that’s the thing—he doesn’t remember most of it. Yes, he remembers Finn’s call and then running almost all the way.
Maybe he’d lied about that part. He’d only taken an Uber for the last six miles.
He hadn’t wanted anyone who might follow him to know he had a mate in a vulnerable state—because he’d felt followed all day.
Leo had stayed with his father to talk about Carnell instead of going with Jay to the police station to see the investigators on Hayes’s case. They’d been nice enough but had politely confirmed that there had been no crime committed where Carnell was concerned, so their hands were tied.
It had rubbed his wolf the wrong way—raising his proverbial hackles even further than they’d already been—and that was even before he spotted the occupied black sedan across the lot from where he’d left the Genesis.
There had been two men inside, and Jay was damn near positive they were the same two from the video who had broken in that day looking forNix.
He had said nothing about it to Gideon and abandoned the Genesis as soon as possible—his only thought was to get home to his omega.
When he arrived home, the musky, heady vanilla of Nix’s heat scent had triggered something wild in his alpha. It pushed everything that wasn’t him out of his mind. After that, it was just bits and pieces, like a movie flickering in and out of focus—just a base-level need to protect his mates, show them who the best wolf was to lead them, and a burning desire for his beloved.
