Jace

But the systems that ran the world, they were a different ball game. Betas had locked down tight the banking systems and databases on the other side. It wasn’t easy to gain access to their world in any capacity, particularly not the data.

We weren’t uncivilised here, despite how the media depicted us. For the most part, we played the game, but now I was ready to bend any and every rule to get what I needed—namely, my little omega back where I could protect her.

Why the fuck had I hesitated to mark her?

But I knew. Everyone knew.

Biting omegas, tearing their delicate skin with fangs that ached to mark them, scarring them forever, declaring to the world who they belonged to… I heard my heart thud, deep and loud in my chest. I’d seen marks plenty, littering my sister’s lily white flesh. Marks she didn’t ask for. That was what alphas did. Half out of their fucking minds with potent hormones, they took and they took and they took, and fuck what anyone else had to say about that.

Fuck, this was a mess. I felt dirty, grubby, and out of sorts, like there were ants under my skin. I could take five minutes to shower and put some fresh clothes on.

I stalked toward the bathroom, but the moment I stepped inside, I was bombarded by fantasies of her in the shower, plump arse just visible through the steamy stall door.

After I had fucked her all night, I’d figured she needed a rest, figured I needed to feed her, my alpha instincts clamouring for me to pamper and coddle my charge as much as the rutting. Besides, I’d pla

What I wasn’t expecting was for her to hightail it and run. She had taken her bag too, so I couldn’t even rifle through it for information. With a frustrated growl, I began stripping out of my clothes, T-shirt, pants, shoes, kicking them off, tossing them towards the hamper.

Then I stopped dead. There, hanging over the side of the basket, was yesterday’s pants, the ones that I’d been wearing when I found my Sloane, and poking out the pocket was her panties. I walked over like a man on dead feet, reaching the hamper, and carefully pulled them out.

The scent hit me immediately, not as strong as yesterday, nor anywhere near as potent as it had been from the source when I’d had my head buried between the thighs, lapping up her sweet slick. Jesus, my mouth watered for the taste of her again. An alpha was ever addicted to eating omega pussy.

My hand shook as I lifted her panties to my nose and drew in a deep, ragged breath. My cock instantly hardened, pumping full of blood, engorging with the need to serve my omega—an omega who wasn’t here where she belonged.

I closed my fist around my dick as I drew another deep, shaky breath in. Fuck that felt so good. My fingers worked up and down the shaft, pre-cum already making it sticky as I readied myself for her. Only she wasn’t fucking here.

That thought should have cooled my heated blood, but it didn’t. It just made my frenzy even worse. My fist made wet sticky noises as I pumped up and down roughly, imagining Sloane on her hands and knees, ready for me to take her from behind the way omegas instinctively needed when they were in heat. So I’d heard, anyway. I’d never rutted an omega through her heat. I’d never tasted an omega pussy, nor felt the hot clenching sheath before either, and now, there was only one that I wanted ever again.

The scrap of lace under my nose, I breathed deeply, filling my lungs, even as my fingers gripped and jacked my cock wetly. I tipped straight over the edge, coming in great jets all over the tiled floor and the bathroom cabinet, too far gone to give a fuck.

I growled, then my growl turned into a roar. The raised ridge where my knot would swell ached like a bastard. It needed her cunt squeezing me to completion. Mark, breed, claim, my beast said ominously, a threat as much as a promise.

This was the last time we did this, spilling our seed alone in the bathroom. It was for her now, all of it, all that we were.

I breathed deeply, letting my hand lower from my nose. I felt empty, but not in a good way, and my cock hadn’t softened much. I shuddered. I’d made a nice mess, but a part of me hated it, that it was on the floor and the cabinet, wasted, when it belonged to Sloane and should’ve been inside her. I didn’t care about where—her pussy, her arse, or deep down her throat maybe. She would be greedy for it. I wanted it in every way. I wanted her spread out so I could eat her up. I wanted her to beg.

She’d begged so sweetly yesterday.

Was it only yesterday she’d crashed into my life?

I hadn’t bitten her, she wasn’t yet marked, but there are already co

Maybe it was all in my head? Maybe I wanted this to mean something. Maybe I should have fucked an omega once in my damn life so I wouldn’t be fucking unhinged.

Instinctively, I knew she would be hurting like I was hurting, and the thought of her being alone and… Or some other bastard tending to her. No.

I sucked in air, my hands planted against the side of the basin, leaning over it, gripping until my fingers ached and my knuckles turned white. My damn cock was still bobbing hopefully, and it stirred a rough chuckle that died as swiftly as it arrived.

She wasn’t here. I didn’t know where the fuck she was.

I took my shower fast and efficiently, cell phone sitting on the side ready, in case there was a call. No one called or messaged. I threw on some sweatpants and a clean T-shirt, then returned to my bedroom. Here, I resumed my pacing.

If I had to rip the city apart to find her, that was what I was go

8

Sloane

I woke up groggy and thirsty, although I’d drank the whole two-litre bottle of water that Emma had left for me. It was dark outside, the kind of dark that told me it was the middle of the night. I felt like I’d been hit by a train repeatedly, like I’d been torn inside out and then somebody had given me a beating for good measure. Plus, I was hot, sticky, and a little bit crusted in places, and I had a bad feeling that it was my slick. Jesus, I was a mess.

I could hear the mumble of voices beyond the door as I pushed the covers back, relieved, despite the pain, that I didn’t feel any of the burning need. It was there, simmering under the surface, but at least it wasn’t incapacitating me.

Hands trembling, I gathered my dressing gown from the chair and slipped it over my shoulders before pulling the belt tight. My eyes went unerringly to the bed—nest, I amended—a great jumble of clothing pilled deeply, then on to the decimated closet, where I’d tossed my rejected clothes to the floor.

The ground felt like it was shifting underneath me as I came to terms with what I had done, how I’d behaved, making me question who I was, because a stranger had invaded my body and taken it for a wild ride. Only it wasn’t a stranger and these urges were now part of me, had always been part of me, lying latent and unrealised, until I’d met Jace.

The sound of a cell ringing on the other side of the closed bedroom door drew my attention, and I padded over, ears straining, but I didn’t want to open it. What if it was him?

“Aren’t you going to answer that?” I heard Jude say. “I don’t know why you’re playing hard to get. We both know you want him.”

“It’s not that,” Emma replied. “I just—”

“What?” Jude demanded. “Girlfriend, he’s been wearing out that ringtone all day long. Why don’t you put it on mute?”

Suddenly, the ringing stopped. I thought at first that she’d answered it, but then it went quiet.

“I’m going to head off,” Jude said. “Are you sure you’re go

“Yeah,” Emma said. “I’ll go and check on her in a minute.”

“Good,” Jude replied. “Maybe take some more water.”