Page 46 of Pack Frenzy
The question is simple. The answer isn’t. “Getting there.”
He nods, and something in his expression shifts—understanding without questions, acceptance without judgment, and he gives me a nod.
I take a long drink, the cold shocking clarity back into my system. It washes away the last tremor from my hands, the lingering heat from my skin. The TV murmurs in the other room. The house breathes around us like it’s settling, waiting, holding space.
And for the first time since the doomed bus ride and Nexus, the quiet doesn’t feel like a threat.
It feels like the start of something I might actually choose.
CHAPTER 11
ROWAN
I’m still standing in the office, hand half-raised—could’ve stopped her, should’ve stopped her. One word and she would’ve stopped in the doorway. But I let her walk away because forcing an Omega to stay? That’s not dominance. That’s desperation.
Her scent still saturates the room—vanilla, jasmine, a blade of citrus that cuts straight through my control. That citrus note? It’s the laugh she tried to hide earlier, the challenge in her eyes. My brain catalogs it:mine to chase, mine to catch, mine to keep.
Every Alpha instinct I’ve spent years controlling goes feral and focused. I’d want her even if she wasn’t Omega—but she IS, and that truth rewrites every rule I thought I had.
The biology doesn’t make me want her. It makes meneedher. There’s a difference, and it’s the difference between a want I could walk away from and a hunger that’ll follow me into every room of this house.
My cock’s still heavy against the inside of my thigh, proof that control’s a fucking myth when it comes to her.
I picture her heading down the hall—bare feet, looking for something to write the names of her friends. That word triggerssomething territorial and ugly in my chest. Are any of them men?
Has someone else already scented her, touched her, made her laugh that citrus-bright laugh? The jealousy is instant, irrational, and so fucking potent I taste it.
“Shit.”
No. If she had someone waiting for her, Nexus would’ve flagged it. Eli would’ve told us.
Still, the thought roots in my head like a bad weed. Someone else holding her. Touching her. Someone else’s scent on her skin that’s not me or Cassian or Eli.
I drag in a breath that does nothing but pull more ofherinto me.
She’s too new to this place to see the walls yet. To see what she does to all of us.
And I can’t be the first one to break.
I sit, elbows on my knees, hands laced tight. The room smells like her and restraint. Like everything I can’t have.
I need to let her go.
Let her breathe.
But the problem is—I already know what she tastes like.
And fuck, what’s it going to be like when she goes into heat?
I have to get out of here—out of this room full of her scent, her want, and my restraint—before I do something we’re not ready for. Before I follow her scent down the hall, push open her door, and show her exactly what an Alpha does when an Omega tastes likemine.
Before I find out what other sounds she makes when I put my mouth on her in other places.
Jess
Idon’t realize I’m holding my breath until I’m halfway down the hall.
Exhale.
