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None of them answer. They don’t need to. I can feel it - thickening in the air, coiling around us.

Mine. Mine. Mine.

Mine.

“We need to get her out of here,” Lucian says, tone clipped.

Ash nods. “She’s not safe.”

“No shit,” Kai mutters, raking a hand through his hair. “She steps outside and someone else catches that scent, it’s over. Omegas in heat aren’t exactly inconspicuous.”

Lucian’s frustration bleeds through as he turns to Theo.

“Carry her out to my car.”

Lexi throws her hands up. “Okay! Yes! Great plan, love the initiative - but let me just check if I’m hallucinating, or did you four very large, very hormonal alphas just suggest kidnapping my best friend?!”

Lucian barely spares her a glance.

“I have a property just outside the city,” he says, voice cold as steel. I can't figure out whether he's saying it to the other's, or for Lexi's benefit. “Gates. Privacy. Land. No neighbors.”

Lexi gasps. “Oh my god, you’ve thought about this.”

“Iplan,” Lucian says simply, as if that’s supposed to be reassuring.

Theo’s hand is still steady on my back, a single point of contact anchoring me through the rising storm. The chaos doesn’t disappear, but it dulls.

Enough to think. To breathe.

“You okay with that?” he asks.

I want to say no. I want to scream. I want to claw back the mask I’ve worn for years and pretend this isn’t happening.

But I can’t.

Because I know what happens to unclaimed omegas in heat who get caught.

And there’s no other alpha I know, never mindtrustto carry me through it. No Beta who could survive it.

No bond. No anchor.

Only instinct. and these four standing between me and the system that would chew me up and spit me out.

“I…” I start, but Lexi cuts me off.

“Wait,” she says, eyes wide. “Shit. One of the OMB guys is still at this party.”

“Fabulous,” Kai exhales. “Nothing like a little light government surveillance to spice up the evening.”

Lexi’s voice pitches. “So unless you want my girl hauled off by collar-happy bureaucrats who wear matching suits and probably track orgasms for data points, we move.Now.”

“Wemove.” Lucian says, his eyes cutting sharply to Lexi. “Youstay. Get back to the ballroom. Distract the OMB.”

Lexi chokes on air. “I’m sorry,what?”

“We need a cover,” Lucian says briskly. “A scene. Something loud enough to keep them looking the other way while we leave.”

“I am not your personal diversion!” she snaps, outraged. “This isn’t a stupid action movie - I’m not gonna throw a glass of champagne and scream ‘he slept with my sister’ just so you guys can smuggle my best friend out of the building like a heat-struck art thief!”

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