Page 138 of Cost of Courting

I keep my eyes fixed on the other side of the room, watching the stairs and the platform where I can see Hammer glaring down at everyone.

Lasers shoot across the room in time with the music. Beta and omega women dance with hungry alphas. Their hands roving over the women’s bodies possessively.

As my scent hits the first alpha, his scent changes, his attention sharpens, and it causes a cascade through the crowd. I continue walking through them, completely unconcerned or at least in appearance. My palms are sweating, and I feel like I might be sick, but that’s not going to stop me. My head's high, shoulder's back, confident.

Benson’s sitting on his throne looking down at his cult, but he hasn’t seen me yet. He’s got a girl on her knees, sucking his cock, so I guess he’s distracted.

An alpha growls and reaches for me, but I snap out my leg and shove a boot deep into his gut, sending him flying back.

He stumbles back, caught by the crowd that surges towards me.

“Stay back!” I shout.

I keep moving, the heat sweeps through me, and I clench my fingers as a soft moan slips free. It drives them wild. They growl. The leash that Benson put on them is slipping.

Oh, this was a bad idea. I’m going to kill my pack when I have them back.

Slick coats my inner thighs, but I ignore it and keep walking. I get to the stairs and grip the railing, not giving myself a second to think.

Alpha’s growl and follow me up. Each step is agony to take, but I keep pushing. My muscles are so tense, aware of the danger at my back, breathing on my neck.

I want to attack them, fight them, shove them away, but I can’t. To do that would spell my doom, and then Pack Dread would die. There is no backup plan to get them out.

It’s me. That’s the entire plan.

My pheromones sweep through the air-conditioned warehouse and hit every single alpha in here. The growls and groans have the hairs on my body on end, and, somewhere deep in this building, I hear the echo of an enraged growl from one of my alphas.

It’s one of the most dangerous things I’ve done.

I don’t feel any regret.

Luna will be okay if I don’t make it through this, and, no matter what happens to me, I’ll be okay with it just knowing I tried to get them out.

One way or another, we will be together in this life or the next.

I get to the top and see the crowd of his favorites. They part, turning towards me, almost salivating as they realise it’s me that smells so divine.

I ignore them all, focused instead onBenson.

“Selene, what are-” he pauses, his pupils growing dark. The pupils expanding. He inhales deeply, drawing my scent into him. I want to break his nose and watch him drown.

He doesn’t lunge at me like I would have expected but gets up in a fluid movement and stalks towards me. An alpha preening and showing off for an omega. He reaches down and adjusts his cock. His charcoal scent hits me hard, musky, filthy. I have to swallow the bile that chases up my throat.

I want to throw up all over his disgusting face.

Instead, I keep my face blank, rigidly refusing to allow even one tiny crack through my mask. My scent is saying one thing, but, by damn, I am more than just an omega. I’ve proven that over and over.

I am a chosen alpha.

I take care of my own.

I am not a slave to pheromones.

“Selene, Selene, Selene. Have you come here to get some relief? Are you going to get on your knees and crawl for me?”

I don’t let his words even touch me. I can’t. That way lies insanity. I focus on him.

“You have something that belongs to me.”

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