Page 200 of Kingdoms of Night

Also not acceptable, I thought.Why are you dressed?

Wait. Why do I want him naked?

Stop. Thinking.

He held up some fabric. “I found you a sundress. It’s pink.”

Yes. I have eyes,I replied with a look.I can see the color.

“I found a cabin with some canned food, linens, and a few other items. Including a bed. So we can rest there.” He glanced around, his nostrils flaring. “There are no signs of any Infected nearby. No humans, either.” His brow furrowed. “But there’s something…” He trailed off as his nose crinkled. “What is that? It smells…”

My wolf started wagging her tail.

Herfuckingtail.

This is not a good thing,I told her.This is a bad thing.

As evidenced by the way his icy gaze immediately found mine, his nostrils flaring again. “Sweet.”

It took me a moment to understand what he meant.

Then I realized he was finishing his sentence.It smells sweet.

Yeah, because it’s me going into heat.

“Riley…” He took a step forward, the pink fabric fluttering to the ground beside him. “Why do you smell like an Omega?”

Shit.

I stood up, my wolf suddenly relinquishing control back to me.

Maybe because she could sense the aggression pulsing around him, that Alpha anger I’d anticipated upon him realizingwhymy scent had started to change.

I was honestly shocked that he hadn’t realized it while we’d been running.

However, the cramping had only started a little bit ago. Which meant the final vestiges of my suppressants had probably just started to metabolize. So my scent had only recently begun to shift.

Even now, I could still smell some of the sour notes of my forced Beta perfume.

But Jonas was right—my Omega sweetness was definitely taking over.

He moved forward again, and I backed up on instinct.

“Don’t you dare run,” he growled. “Shift back and explain this to me. Right fucking now.”

My wolf whined, wanting to agree.

However, she’d given me back the control I needed to make the decisions between us.

Which meant I was absolutely going with option one—running.

And he knew it, too. His Alpha snarl grew, the sound one that would force my shift if I didn’t react immediately.

So I took off into the woods, not back the way we’d come, but sideways to… I had no idea where.

I didn’t care.

I just knew I had to run.

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