Page 47 of Pack Frenzy
It doesn’t help. My lungs still ache like I left something vital back in Rowan’s office—something he touched when he kissed me, and now it belongs to him. That’s the part that scares me. Not the kiss. The fact that I want to go back for more.
I should keep walking. Pretend my heart isn’t still racing, that my body isn’t still tuned to the sound of his voice saying my name like a promise he regrets making. But the air in here is thick with his scent—sandalwood and rain, and that dark heat underneath that makes my stomach twist.
I press my palm to the wall and breathe shallow.
It doesn’t matter.
It can’t.
He’s an Alpha--powerful, controlled, permanent. I’m whatever the hell I am right now. Temporary. That’s what I am here for. What I’ve always been everywhere. How I didn’t matter to my mom or dad after Sabrina disappeared.
My hands still shake. I stare at them—these traitorous things that won’t obey me even now—and all I can think about is how steady his were. How careful. Like he’d done this before: touched something breakable and didn’t let it shatter. I’m not breakable.
I’ve survived all these years proving it. But the way Rowan kissed me? Like I was something precious instead of something they’d experimented on? That could break me. That could make me forget what I am.
I’m supposed to be looking for a pen. Paper. Writing down Casey, Danica, and Kayla’s names.
Yet, I’m standing in this hallway replaying a kiss I shouldn’t have wanted. A kiss that didn’t feel like biology. That felt likechoice.And choice is the one thing I never thought I’d have as an Omega.
My pulse spikes again, unfurling low and wrong. I’ve felt this before, the edge of it, back at Nexus when they said I was “stable.” But stable doesn’t feel like this. Stable doesn’t make your body hum for someone who barely touched you. That should terrify me. It does terrify me. But not enough to make me stop wanting it.
I shove off the wall and start walking—fast enough that my bare feet slap against the floor, that maybe I can outrun the want curling through my veins. But I already know the truth: You can’t outrun biology.
And you can’t outrun something that’s already caught you. Rowan caught me the moment he looked at me like I mattered. And I’m not sure I want to be let go.
CHAPTER 12
ELI
Jess rounds the corner and crashes into me.
“Jess—hey.”
Gasping, she jerks back like I burned her. “Sorry, I didn’t see you.”
“You okay?” I keep my voice low. Calm. Neutral. The same tone I used back in Nexus when the Omegas came out of sedation and didn’t know where they were.
“Fine.” Too quick. The word shakes like it’s balancing on something fragile.
The air says otherwise.
Rowan.
His scent clings to her skin, clean rain and sandalwood under her own softer notes. No need to guess what happened.
I hesitate…go to Rowan or stop Jess before she locks herself away.
While I’m debating, she skirts around me to her bedroom.
She slows at her door, fingers white on the frame. Pausing, she turns back once with a white-knuckled grip, eyes closed like she’s gathering herself.
Then she’s gone.
The door clicks shut, quiet and final.
I exhale through my nose and count to five. Rowan’s never been careless a day in his life. If he kissed her, it wasn’t an accident.
And if she’s trembling like that, it wasn’t nothing.
