LOGINRONAN The locker room doesn't just shake as Mina pills me into it, metal creaks somewhere on the floor, dust falls from the roof, settling on my hair, shoulders, and my trembling hands.I press myself deeper into the farthest corner of the supply closet. The scent of industrial bleach burns my scent from being too potent, but does not hide the scent of fear wafting off me.I pull my knees tight to my chest and wrap my hands around myself, trying to make myself smaller.I'm safe except for the thin steel door in front of me.That's not Kieran out there, “fuck, I should have listened to Ethan,” I shot a text to him.HELP, EXTRACTION NEEDED FROM THIS WORKPLACE.Thud, thud I hear stomping through the building like a natural disaster.Then his voice comes out. “Whose scent is that?” the mirror over at the sink shatters with a sharp jagged crack through the middle.I squeeze my eyes shut, God he sounds exactly the same, but stronger, deeper and more dangerous, but still him.“THE SCENT!” h
KIERAN The scent I smelled in the hallway seemed like hallucinations more than the real thing now. One second, it's there, then it's gone. I stand in the middle of the hallway, my chest heaving, my claws a bit extended, every muscle locked tight, the employees frozen around me staring at me like a lion roaring at them.Betas kneeling as my scent makes them aroused, nulls not really feeling anything, and pressed up against the way like one wrong inhale might get them killed.But I didn't imagine it or him, but the logical part of my brain says he is a few miles away from me at the neutral zone.Fenrir snarls inside my skull, restless and pacing like an angry beast.Find him, Kieran.The manager steps forward cautiously, hands raised as if approaching a bomb that wants to go off.“Commander ....your suite is ready,” Her voice trembling. She knows what would happen if this goes badly.I retract my claws slowly, the metallic scarpe, but my body still feels hot and unstable, I need to be
KIERAN Two hours agoThe glass cup filled with whiskey shatters in my hand, crushed by me.The sound explodes through my office like a gunshot, and whiskey splashes across the floor in a golden arc, mixing with blood streaming down by palms.I stare at it detached and unimpressed, I don't feel the sting of shards because something blanking my capacity to feel pain.I feel hot, hungry, and aroused. Something is wrong.I drag the scent of jasmine that fills my office, it burns all the way down, like I'm inhaling fire, heat fills my body most the south part especially.The heat is spreading, my muscles tighten, my heartbeat is kicking harder, faster and faster, the lighting in my office starts blaring, bleeding into the edges of my vision as red fills them.Three years of this hell. Since the year he left, my ruts stopped being biological cycles. They are no longer manageable, more temporary, and unpredictable now.Fenrir doesn't want release. He wants him, his scent, a ghost with jas
RONAN My body jerks upright in bed, as my lungs burn, and my heartbeat is so fast, it feels like it might punch out of my skin.My hand is locked around Ethan’s, fingers piercing through my skin.For a second, I don't know where I am. All I see are headlights, all i hear are tires screaming and bones crushingThen the room comes back into focus, the cracked ceiling, the thin blanket twisted around the leg.“Home, I'm home." I mutter fervently, Ethan doesn't pull his hand away.He just sits beside the bed and shoulders relaxed, his eyes fixed on my face before he asks.“Bad dream again?” He asks quietly, his voice very calm, I swallow hard and nod.“Why are you beside my bed?” I ask him at the same time.Embarrassment crawls up my spine, I hate waking up like a child after a nightmare shaking and gasping, while the world keeps moving.I drag a hand down my face, “I'm fine,” I say to him, which is a lie. we both know it, but neither of us calls each other out on it.Silence settles b
ETHAN “It didn't work, did it?”Rhea's lips part, but no sounds come out, her chest rises and falls in short, and shallow bursts like she's drowning, the diamonds at her throat tremble under her fingers as she clutches them with all her strength.I don't move on from her. Everything I know about her is worse.MINE! The words come again, slamming against the walls of my mind, rattling my bones. My wolf surges with terrifying force as it's ready to go hell and back with her.Protect, possess, the desperate urge to step closer, pulling her into my arms, shield her from every threat in the world, even from myself.My stomach churned, “she hit him,” I whisper back to my wolf, so low it barely escapes my throat, while she is high out of her fucking mind. “She watched him bleed.”MINE!!He still repeats. “She left him there.”The bond tightens around my chest like a barbed wire, squeezing until breathing becomes difficult.Rhea stares at me, terror blooming across her face. “You…” her voice
ETHAN The sharp tug on my heart starts before I even reach the gates of the Vale mansion.I sit in the driver's seat of the van I rented, the engine humming low, staring at the gate of the iron entrance.I had already checked the rut centre twice tonight, three guards on rotation on each alpha who sees their ruts there to protect the omegas, the scent filters are installed every week and the emergency exit routes are mapped.Ronan is in safe hands for just one shift, and we're set for life, so why the hell am I here?My fingers tighten around the steering wheel as that invisible rope inside my chest pulls at me harder this time, dragging my attention back to the mansion.My wolf wakes up inside me, whining as a low and restless sound that crawls up in my spine.Mate, he whispers.My jaw locks, not mate. I told him back.I kill the engine, stepping out into the cold air and slamming the door harder than necessary. The sound echoes across the road, “closure, i need to know why she did
Kieran I wake up, as the room snaps into focus, my bed twisted and rough, like I'd fought all night or dragged up from under water, Ronan's bed was empty and his scent was gone.My scent had even faded from the room too, but it should have settled the way it did after a rut ended, instead there wa
RonanThe gates are already open when we reach the The bus, “Tickets out, people keep moving,” The Instructor barks, waving us to move forward as the transport train hums, metal and magic moving us faster than I've ever gone.Noise crashes over me in layers, laughter, shouting. The sound of people
RonanThe gates open after two nights in solitary confinement, the metallic shriek that cuts through the courtyard.I'm already turning, bracing before I know why, I notice his presence in every room first.Kieran steps out first, eyes gaunt, his shoulders squared, posture, immaculate, and his cont
KieranThe pull doesn’t break when Ronan disappears into the crowd. It stretches instead.But I don't chase him, I can feel his presence tugging at something in me, and the air changes. I can hear the trumpets before they even open the school gates.Power.The courtyard becomes silent as students