Page 21 of Torment Me Knot
Espie’s knees give out and she drops hard, but he’s already reaching for her. They collide together, clutching tight, her face buried in his shoulder while his arms lock around her like holding on is the only thing keeping either of them in one piece.
Then I scent him.
Warmed cedar and chamomile slices past the fear and the chaos and the dozen other scents clogging the air, and hits me hard. My whole body lurches toward him. Skin goes hot. Teeth ache with the need to bite, to claim, to mark him asmineso no one else can touch him.
Mate. He’s my Omega. The broken male on the floor ismine.
Twenty-eight years of resignation that I'd never find a match. After all, what Omega would want a female Alpha? What biology would pair me with someone I could actually have? And now my body is screaming that I have two.
Two fucking scent-matched omegas.
But he's not looking at me.
He's holding Espie like she's the only real thing in the world. His face buried in her hair. He came back forher.
The three male Alphas move too close, and I'm between them and the omegas in two strides. The growl tears from my throat, a warning that vibrates through my chest and I bare my teeth. “Stay back!”
The dark-haired pulls up short. Pupils blown. Oakwood and whiskey pouring off him. The tall one with glasses has gone rigid, shaking with the effort of holding himself back. The blond one with the set jaw angles his body protectively toward the omegas like he'll die if he can't get to them.
“She's ours.” The dark-haired one's voice comes out guttural, barely human. His eyes are locked on Espie, on my omega. His whole body strains toward her. “The female omega. She's our mate. Ourscent-match.”
No.
No, no, no.
Espie ismine. The snarl that rips out of me doesn't sound human.
“Do not touch her. Don’t lay a finger on her.” The words tear from my throat. “She’s my omega.”
I'm going to kill him. I'm going to rip his throat out with my teeth. He's trying to take my omega, trying to claim the female I've been protecting, and I will end him before I let—
“Kev!” The tall one with glasses grabs the dark-haired alpha's arm, hauling him back. His voice is ragged, desperate. “Kev, stop. Stop! You're making it worse.”
Kev. The dark-haired one's name is Kev. Some tiny rational part of my brain tries to surface. Kev.Kev. Kev Dawson. Head of Legal Affairs for Canton City. You've read his briefs. You've cited his precedents. And his pack—Alexander Cheng, the literature professor. Ezra Whitfield, the trauma nurse. They're the ones who've been working with Adrian Blackwood on omega rehabilitation.
It's not enough. My body doesn't care about their credentials. My body only knows they're trying to take my omegas.
“Aubrey is our scent-match. We havetwo.” The blond one speaks now.
Aubrey.
My hindbrain screams:Aubrey. Aubrey Turns. The omega they found collared at Commissioner Axel Turns' feet.
I know his name. Everyone in Omega Affairs knows that name. The photographs went around every Omega Affairs office in the state once Axel was dead and the evidence got declassified. Aubrey collared on a marble floor. Aubrey kneeling at Axel's feet. Half the agents couldn't get through the file. I got through it. Then I sat in my car for twenty minutes before I could drive.
That's my mate. That broken, brutalized omega on the floor is my scent-match as well as Espie. I'm going to be sick. Right here in the middle of the OHC, I'm going to vomit on the floor.
Gods.
Oh Gods, no.
The fury drains out of me so fast my legs go weak. My hands shake for a different reason now.
No. No, no, no.
While I was sitting in my office in Silverpine, filing reports and attending meetings and going home to my empty apartment, he was being collared and paraded and broken. While I was fighting for omega rights through paperwork and policy, my mate was kneeling on concrete floors in a dog collar, starving, brutalized, destroyed.
I didn't know. I couldn't have known, but it doesn't matter. He was suffering, and I wasn't there. Theybothsuffered and I wasn’t there.
