Page 95 of Heat & Deceit
Drawing in a sharp breath, I shove away from the table and stumble slightly. Chairs scrape across the floor.
“Rain?” Lycus asks, so many questions tucked into that one.
“I have to go,” I say around a gasp. Sweat breaks out across my forehead and pools at the small of my back. Suddenly, my clothes are too tight, too restrictive.
“Is this what I think it is?” This from Javier, a hint of disbelief coloring his words.
No, no, no. I don’t want to disappoint him. I don’t want him to know the truth. I don’t want him to hate me.
I pinch my eyes shut, despising the tears that threaten to spill over. “I’m so sorry. I have to go,” I manage to say before bolting.
“Carmine!” Rome.
He knew what I was.
“Stop her!” Lycus.
He wants me.
“She’s an omega.” Javier.
He hates liars.
My heart seizes in my chest as I rip open the door and race outside. Without thinking or stopping for my things, I start to run. I push through the pain. I push through the desire. I run until my lungs feel like they’re going to explode. I run until the cars that honk as they pass jar enough sense into me to slow down. Glancing around, I find myself in some industrial district. I’m so far from home.
A cramp hits my core, and I double over.
I need to get home. I need my phone. I need to call a car. I need, need, need. I reach for my purse, only to remember I didn’t grab it before I ran away from the alphas. I don’t have my things. A sob builds in my throat but morphs into a scream as another desperate ache tears me apart. I suck in a breath. Hurt. It hurts so much. Pain rips through me as my core clenches, demanding a knot.
I stumble into the side of a building, panting until I can stagger a few feet forward. I fall into a door, and it swings in, opening to a dark and musty building. Glancing around, I take in the scattered papers and overturned furniture.
Discarded belongings.
Whatever business was here isn’t anymore.
With shaking limbs, I shuffle inside and pull the door closed. There’s a flimsy loop-and-hook locking mechanism. My fingers tremble as I close myself in. It’s not enough to keep people out. If someone finds me like this... A whine builds in my throat, and I growl at myself, grabbing the edge of a desk and dragging it over to the door, barricading myself inside this shitty building.
I drop to the floor and curl into a ball, taking shallow breaths as the worst pain I’ve ever felt ricochets inside me.
Twenty-Seven
ROME
She never answered my question, but I knew it was true. The moment my hands held her wrists, and she all but collapsed against my chest in submission, the more feral part of me knew that Carmine is an omega. Sweet lilac and cherry blossom scented air hangs between us. We’d all been too stunned by her perfume to immediately run after her, and by the time we got enough sense to go find her, her scent was lost in the wind. I ran around the neighborhood and the nearby neighborhoods, sucking in lungful after lungful of air, desperate for more of that delicious scent.
I make it back to the house at the same time as Lycus. His face is bright red in the porch light and he swings his gaze back and forth, growling where he stands. Javier comes next, features dark and stormy.
“She lied.” He stops in front of us, scowling at the ground.
“She had a reason,” I say.
“How do you know that?” Lycus snaps. “What the fuck did you do?” He stomps over to me and grabs my shirt, yanking me toward him.
Time for a confession. Javier might be pissed at me by the time I’m done telling them, but I had my reasons for keeping my suspicions to myself. I move into Lycus’s hold, bumping my chest against his and growling, letting him know that, even though we’re pack, he can’t throw me around. I’ll lay him out if I have to. It might be good for him.
He releases my shirt. “Say whatever you have to say, Rome. Have you been keeping secrets?”
“I’ve been keeping suspicions to myself. I didn’t know Carmine was an omega until tonight.”
