Page 14 of Power Shift

The finger that jabs into my left shoulder blade flips that last fuse. My lip curls as I pivot on my back foot and swipe in the direction of the guy. Instead of a shirt, my fingers clutch air, andI glare at where Ronan now stands, clutching the delivery boy a few feet away.

“Don’t,” he chastises me while giving the kid a rough shake.

I don’t bother hiding how pissed off I am. Each word is spat from behind my teeth. “Don’t. What?”

The delivery boy continues to stare at me in awe despite being seconds away from tasting the rocks on my driveway. It makes me uneasy, but it’s not the first time I’ve experienced this, and it sure as shit won’t be the last.

Ronan might look worse off than I do with his shoulders approaching his ears and eyes narrowed. Even wearing a ripped tank top and a pair of loose sweatpants, he’s the more intimidating one. He’s the guy who constantly finds himself in my current situation. I have a gut feeling he’s going to use this strange occurrence against me someday.

I may be an asshole, but it’s very rare I get violent. Today is a rarity in every single possible way.

A stiff wind pushes past us, forcing the lemon scent from my skin and into the air. I hold my breath, refusing to take any more of it into my lungs as my cock throbs to the point of pain once again. Bitter cinnamon swirls when my scent spikes, and I lurch back from Ronan and the random fuckface who’s still on my goddamn driveway.

There’s a shift around us, a telltale sign that something’s about to go to hell only a second before Ronan’s snarl tears through the yard.

“What is that?” he snaps, stalking across the distance between us. Without a shirt to help disguise the smell, there’s no chance of me avoiding this.

Ronan’s the only one of the guys who’s nearly my height, standing an inch shorter than my six four. He’s also the only one who I know with absolute certainty would and could kick my ass if he knew the truth behind the secondary scent that won’t leavemy skin. Jasper would take a more emotional route, which may even be worse.

Ronan’s nose twitches as he paws at my shoulder and sniffs me. The brown of his eyes gets swallowed up in a sea of black when he gets a good lungful of the omega. A flush builds up the middle of his neck and behind his ears as his entire body quakes.

“What. Is. That?” he repeats, wilder this time. “Who?”

Panic flares low in my gut. The lie escapes before I’ve thought it through.

“I don’t know. Maybe it was someone at the restaurant.”

Ronan cocks his head and watches me, a threat creeping into his pupil-blown eyes. “You’re lying.”

“I was a little preoccupied having our dinner dumped all over me to be paying attention to smells, Ronan.”

He lifts his gaze to my hair, as if only just realizing the messy state of it. “Someone threw it at you?”

“You could say that.”

“Why?”

“I don’t fucking know. For fun? An accident? I didn’t linger long enough to ask.”

No, I only stayed long enough for the omega to fuck with my head and threaten my pack’s trust in me.

“What’s going on out here? Are you inviting the delivery guy to stay for donairs? I’m afraid I only ordered enough for us,” Dash says, strolling toward us at a leisurely pace. He tilts his head, focused on my bare chest. “Where’s your shirt?”

Jasper bypasses us, too concerned with the stranger lingering to pay attention to what’s going on with us. He takes the delivery guy by the arm and swiftly guides him down the driveway.

“Thanks, Jas!” With a loopy grin, Dash leans back on a heel and inspects me. “So, seriously, where’s your shirt? And did youstop to take a bath in my rigatoni? Is that why we had to change dinner plans?”

“Don’t you smell it?” Ronan asks him, still leaning into me, chest heaving. There’s more focus in his gaze now, like the omega’s scent has weakened in the outside air.

Dash sniffs. “The only thing I smell is Landon.”

“Try harder,” Ronan demands.

“Try harder to smell what, Ro? I’m a cinnamon fan, but it’s like someone’s burning a candle and has left it on so long it’s melted all the way through. Wanna chill a bit?” Dash asks me, crinkling his nose slightly.

I’ve hit my limit. Without saying another word, I leave them on the driveway. If, somehow, Jasper gets a whiff of the omega when he returns, I won’t have a chance to disappear like this again. Not without getting the fifth degree from him.

Lying to Ronan is bad enough. But Jasper? Especially about an omega?

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