One look from Tobias shut her up, and she turned on her heel.
Leaving me.
With the man whose arms she’d pushed me into.
I wasn’t surprised, but my stomach clenched anyway. A tight ball of betrayal. Blood relations meant nothing to her and I knew that. Yet even I hadn’t seenthiscoming. I’d thought she only stopped me because she was furious about the scene we’d all made.
Not because she knew Tobias needed me.
Burying all the things I wanted to say, curses I wanted to throw, and tears I wanted to let fall, I tried one more time to detach myself from the Ashby pack. A hoarse shout left my throat as I moved away, but there was even more chaos now. Another alpha fight. More people leaving.
No one to hear that I was being pushed unceremoniously toward the same emergency exit Kiara had fled from.
I fought until we were in the alley, letting my aura go wild and trying to get them to release me, even for a second. With so many people holding me, it was impossible.
A van was waiting at the mouth of the back alley, guys with guns inside. They pointed them and I slumped, because this was the moment when I’d lost.
I’d never be able to escape with a gunshot wound in my leg, and Tobias didn’t need me in one piece to lure Kiara in. He only needed me alive.
I just had to hope that the guys didn’t let her try and save me, because she wasn’t equipped.
And I would rather die here than have her forced to mate with someone she didn’t want.
FIFTY-TWO
KIARA
I didn’t want to be in heat anymore.
Dash’s cock was lodged inside me in the backseat of their sports car, but I was furious that I’d lost my head and given in to the desire.
He’d been fucking me up against the outside of a building while Leighton had been getting kidnapped.
How fucked up was that?
Dash was holding me close, but his expression was oddly blank. He was unreadable—I tried to gauge how he was feeling through our bond, and that didn’t work either. There was nothing from him that I could comprehend.
At least, not now.
Not while slick was sliding down my thighs and desperation was curling my insides. I could hardly focus on anything other than the ache in my core. I wanted his knot to slip out so we could go again, so I could beg Mercury and Ambrose to take me too.
Except,no.
This wasn’tright.
Leighton was supposed to be here, with me. She was supposed to experience all my firsts right beside me, especially my first heat.
We’d pulled into the underground parking at Leighton’s apartment building when Dash’s knot finally deflated enough to leave me. I let it slide out, our combined release spilling over his thighs. This should have been a comfortable moment where I simply cuddled more against him, but it wasn’t.
Of course my brother had ruined this for me, too.
Dash had told me he loved me, and I’d said it back, and now it would be forever marked by the fact that Leighton…
Tears welled in my eyes and I got off Dash’s lap, letting my dress fall to cover me. Ambrose had barely stopped the car before I was opening the door and getting out, rushing for the elevator. I stabbed the button, wrapping my arms around myself.
I wanted the perfection of my nest that I’d built with her things.
If I was surrounded by her scent, I could pretend she was still here, and this was still the heat that it should have been. The experience that I’d been hoping it would be, even though I’d known we were still in danger. Stupid. Stupid of me to think that I could have everything I’d ever wanted without consequences.
