CHAPTER 3
MOOD HOOVER
Blake
The man shiveredbeneath Blake’s hand. He was staring up at him with wide, worried eyes despitehimbeing the one who had just knocked them both clean off their feet. A mop of dark hair was plastered against his forehead, and his small, bow-shaped lips parted around panicked breaths.
“I-I…” the lad stuttered, voice so soft it was almost lost on the wind.
Blake huffed and let his hand loosen in his jumper. Leaves were slowly drifting to the ground, a few landing in Blake’s hair and across the other man’s face. Blake’s earphones dangled between them, the heavy metal blasting out sounding tinny in the open air. Drawing back, Blake quickly tucked them into the front of his hoody and stood.
The lad stayed down, and there was no chance on God’s green earth that Blake was helping him up.
Brushing the leaves from his shoulders he jerked around. “George!” he bellowed, keeping one eye on the man as the brown and white corgi came bounding from the trees. “Here! Now!”
A black Labrador with a green collar was hot on his heels, and Blake had to stick out his foot to stop it from jumping up. George wiggled, yapping as he flung himself into Blake’s arms, his fur sticking up at all angles after being unceremoniously dumped into the undergrowth.
When Blake turned around again, the other man was cautiously getting to his feet. The Labrador sat on its haunches, nipping and licking the man’s hands as its owner's eyes flitted nervously to Blake. Green. Like moss. His gaze was wary, razor focused.
Blake’s inner wolf paused, dropping its head to let the man know he wasn’t a threat, but Blake only sniffed indignantly. Which was when he smelled it. The delicate, peach sweet scent of an omega. His fangs immediately throbbed, and his brain conjured images of how they’d slice through the soft, fuzzy flesh of the man’s—Blake expelled a forcefully through his nostrils before stepping back and awkwardly covering his nose.
“Well?” he snapped behind his hand, trying to keep the lad at a distance. The omega still looked like a startled rabbit, all the colour draining from his face. When he didn’t immediately speak, Blake held up a hand. “Look, you?—”
“I’m sorry,” the man blurted, finally finding his voice. “I thought… I thought you were in trouble, I thought?—”
The omega’s scent tickled Blake’s nose hairs again, so he stepped even further away until he was almost back in the woods. A bright pink flush crept up the boy’s neck, but Blake only glared at him, brows pulling into a deep frown.
“So you thought you’d throw me to the fucking ground?” he growled, unable to push down the sudden snap of anger.
“What? I-I… No! I thought you were going to jump!”
Blake let out a breath, eyes flitting towards the steep drop to the town below, then back to the man. The corner of Blake’s mouth twitched, and he purposefully let the point of one fangglint in the early afternoon light. A warning. The man must have clocked it from the way he bent down and wrapped his arms around the Labrador.
“Can’t a man admire the scenery?” Blake said, slowly turning towards the footpath.
He hadn’t been admiring the scenery; he’d been getting ready to shift. He had been in the process of clearing his over-cluttered mind before changing into wolf form, but the blushing, bumbling idiot before him had totally knocked him off his stride.
The omega shivered, reaching behind to pinch the back of his jumper, tugging at it as though it were stuck to his back. Despite being early spring, the dew still clung to the ground, making everything damp.
A series of short, sharp barks cut through the awkward silence. The Labrador was skittering around again and spraying soil onto Blake’s boots. Sighing, he dropped to one knee and held out a hand. After a moment of hesitation, the Labrador took a few steps forwards and sniffed his wrist.
The other man coughed. “As I said, I thought—well, it doesn’t matter. But I’m sorry I pushed you.”
When the Labrador settled, Blake frowned and rose to his feet.
“Next time you feel like going for a walk, perhaps enquire at the local rugby club instead.”
With that, Blake scooped George up and walked off in the opposite direction. He could feel the omega’s eyes glued to his back, but he didn’t call or chase after him.
Thank fuck.
His run was ruined, and his inner wolf was pawing and panting impatiently beneath his skin. He couldn’t justshiftlike he used to, and he’d been working himself up to it for days.
“Fuck,” he muttered, ignoring the low-hanging branches that whipped around his face. Sometimes he cursed being so tall and lanky. Today was one of those days.
In an attempt to compensate for his wolf’s abandoned run, Blake did an extra lap around the woods. Despite the quiet blanket created by the dense trees, after his experience on the hilltop there was no way he was going to be in the right frame of mind to shift that evening.
The new cohort of detectives who had recently joined the Major Crime Unit had well and truly fried his fucking brain, and the stranger on the hill had been the final nail in the coffin. Even as he navigated a path between the trees, he could feel his phone repeatedly vibrating in his pocket. He grumbled, cursing the inspector for putting his contact details up on the whiteboard. As if twenty wet-behind-the-ears graduates having his phone number was going to make the department run any smoother.
