My stomach twisted with a cramp so intense I screamed, doubling over.
Ambrose rushed to me, his arms around me in a second flat. The knife shook in my weak grip, but I brandished it vaguely toward him. It was hard to see through the new flood of tears. “Let me go!” I demanded with as much compulsion as I could muster. It was weak. “He’s going to hurt her. Don’t you love her, too? Let me go!”
“Of course I love her,” he growled.
He moved behind me and his arms banded around my middle, keeping me upright through the pain. He was the only reason I was standing. It was a miracle I had Nyla still. I never would have been able to make it across town, even if he hadn’t stopped me.
“I love her too fucking much to let you give yourself over. She would be devastated, and what would it help? I know you’re not in your right mind now, little omega, but can you tell me how it would help Leighton if you were both imprisoned?”
“Tobias said—”
“I don’t give a fuck what your brother said. He’s a liar and a cheat.”
I bit my tongue, the coppery taste of blood flooding my mouth.
Was I being irrational?
The resounding pulse in my core and unpleasant curl in my stomach told me I was. I wanted Leighton so badly that I’d almost…
“He would have kept us both,” I muttered.
“Yes, princess. He would have.”
I dropped Nyla, the blade hitting the carpet near silently. For the first time since I’d gotten her, I didn’t feel a pulse of emptiness at her distance. Ambrose’s presence was safety enough for me, my body sagging back against his.
Gently, he helped me back into the bedroom and onto the bed. I laid limp in my nest, my heart racing as I came down from the adrenaline of my escape attempt. His scent wrapped me in comfort and arousal, and I did my best to focus on the comfort. Still, I whined.
“It hurts,” I whimpered.
“I know.”
His hand smoothed my sweaty hair back from my face. Another whine scraped my throat. I reached for him, but he pulled back. “You want to wait until we have Leighton back,” he said.
A denial was on the tip of my tongue. My body was ready to give in and take his knot, but my head wasn’t. I forced the words back, nodding instead. “I couldn’t have your scent in the nest.”
He closed his eyes for a second, taking a heavy breath. “Of course.”
“It’s not right if we’re not all here.”
He nodded, pushing to his full height once again. His dark brown eyes focused on me, so full of affection regardless of my inability to be a normal omega—and my tendency to brandish weapons at him. “I’ll just—”
There was a resounding bang that ripped a short scream from my hoarse throat. It sounded like a gunshot—a sound I’d heard frequently enough in my childhood. I scrambled back, holding a pillow to my chest like it would protect me, staring wide-eyed past Ambrose to the door.
Men in familiar black uniforms spilled into the condo, and I realized it hadn’t been a gunshot. The bang was the door hitting the wall. Last time, they’d knocked. This time, they’d kicked it in.
My head spun, the stress making my heat aches more pronounced. Each of my temples throbbed with the beginnings of a headache, the noise far too loud for my sensitive heat brain. Footsteps shook the floor, and when I reached for Ambrose he was pulled away by the men in uniform—the police. I patted my holster for Nyla, horror spreading through my veins when I realized she was still on the floor in the doorway. Ten pairs of boots surrounded her now, and I didn’t have either of my sources of comfort.
A hand grabbed my arm, the touch too coarse and making me hiss. I jerked back, staring at the person. He was an alpha.
No.
No alpha could touch me right now. Only mine. I held my breath, scrambling to the other side of the bed. It was no use, it was surrounded. Ambrose was being pulled out into the living room, despite his shouting and fighting to get back to me. There were only unfamiliar people. Unfamiliar scents ruining my perfectly crafted nest and disturbing my pocket of Leighton memories.
“Get away from me,” I said, glaring at the next person who tried to touch me.
It was a beta this time, his eyes wide. He looked to another man, putting his hands up and backing away slowly.
“She’s in heat,” one of the men said amidst the chaos.
