Page 65 of Power Shift

It’s a knife in the softest part of my chest. “Why? You don’t even know me.”

I get lost in the perfection of his facial features, so close to him now that I can make out every indent and curve. It’s like he’s been created in my mind from dreams I’ve had ever since I was a little girl. I couldn’t find a flaw if I spent hours searching for one.

I ache so deep inside that I have to plant my feet harder on the ground to keep from jumping at him. The last time I did that, he left me standing alone, rejected.

The words he speaks now may be worse.

“I don’t need to know you. I don’twantto know you. I thought I made that clear when you destroyed my dinner and embarrassed the both of us. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go,” he says sharply, each word a well-aimed bullet.

“Watch your mouth, Landon,” Ronan snarls, suddenly at my side. “What are you talking about right now? You’ve met before?”

His hand steadies me, and I’m too desperate for his support to push him away right now.

Landon keeps his glare focused on me, somehow making it cruel enough that I flinch, my heart all but bleeding in his clenching fist.

Slowly, he drags his eyes to Ronan, the blue burning like a flame. “Do not blindside me like this again. I told you all my stance on this. It won’t change. Not for her or for any other omega you find.”

Dash passes me with a knuckle gliding over my bicep. “Don’t be cruel. That’s not who you are.”

“Isn’t it? Ask your omega how we met, and then decide if you still believe that,” Landon bites out.

“Don’t leave like this again, Landon. We’ll stay down here, just go upstairs or to the gym. But stay here,” Jasper pleads.

Landon hesitates, something heavy passing between them. “Tell me when she’s gone.”

When Jasper warned me that this very situation could happen, clearly, I didn’t take it seriously enough. I hoped that it wouldn’t be as bad as he made it out to be. That maybe Landon would see me and change his mind. But now, knowing that their Landon, the leader of their pack, was the one I met three weeks ago and wondered if maybe he could have been my scent match . . .

I was so, so very wrong.

This is much worse than I ever thought it could be.

22

LANDON

One more secondin her presence and I would have gone into a rut. I’m clawing out of my skin as I heave over my knees at the top of the stairs, needing to get that lemon scent out of my system.

Her voice twinkles up to the second story as she vaguely explains how we met, her voice strained enough to betray her hurt at my actions.

Fuck, I can’t stay here.

The others don’t know how affected I am, and I want it to stay that way. With my eyes closed, I see her again. Every curve of her body and glimmering strand of brown hair almost the same shade of black as mine. The same nose ring I remember from that night is still there, a tiny little diamond twinkling.

I’ve never cared much about the clothes a woman wears, but how the fuck am I supposed to pretend that seeing her in a tiny little sundress the identical pale blue colour of her eyes with lace tights didn’t nearly push me over the edge?

The omega is stunning. Beautiful beyond human comprehension. The earth shook beneath my feet when shestared up at me, her chin lifted in determination. She wasn’t supposed to be here, and she certainly wasn’t supposed to hold such power over me with little reason. We’re not pack, yet she feels like it.

That immediate draw is the worst part of it all. It’s a trick played by our instincts to try and control us.

Chest caving in with the force of my breaths, I lean against the wall and, despite my desire to leave, linger at the top of the stairs.

“I’m sorry,” she murmurs.

“You have nothing to apologize to us for, Petal,” Ronan reassures her, but his voice is tight. “I had a fucking feeling. My gut’s never wrong.”

I expect him to be the first to seek me out, the soothing tone of his voice long gone and replaced with a venom that I’d bet he wished could fill my bloodstream.

Nobody would blame him if that were the case.

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