Page 191 of Beautifully Scarred Omega

“Of course you are.” He cups my face with one hand, his thumb wiping the tears. “You are worth everything, Sophie. Everything.”

I breathe. Let it move through me. The grief, the truth, the weight of it finally setting down. Max’s hand on my back, Finn’s palm warm on my knee, Ethan’s hand against my cheek. The four of us on a concrete floor in a room that’s getting warmer by the minute, and none of it mattering except this—the feeling of being held by three people who’ve seen all of me, every scar, every broken piece, and still choose to stay.

And then I feel it.

A warmth that starts low in my belly and spreads outward—a heat I have never felt before, radiating through all of me. Every nerve ending in my body ignites at once and my blood turns to liquid fire and there’s a sudden sharp ache between my legs that makes me gasp and grip Ethan’s arm.

Then my scent breaks free.

Rain and crushed rose petals pour off me in waves so thick and potent that the sealed room fills with it in seconds, saturating the air, clinging to every surface. It’s the strongest it has ever been, laced with an ancient, primal note I don’t recognize.

I feel all three of them inhale.

And go very, very still.

CHAPTER 47

Finn

It hits me before I even realize what’s happening.

I’ve been smelling Sophie’s scent for two weeks now—rain and crushed rose petals, breaking through her suppressants in waves, stronger every time we’re close to her. I thought I knew what she smelled like.

I was wrong.

Her scent explodes into the sealed room—rain and crushed roses, amplified a hundred times over, laced with something more potent underneath that I’ve never smelled before. It pours into every corner, saturating the air until I can taste it on my tongue.

Every muscle in my body locks.

I’m on my feet before I know I’m moving, putting distance between myself and Sophie, my back hitting the shelving unit on the far wall hard enough to rattle the cases. Across the room I see Max do the same—spinning away, one hand braced against the glass door, his jaw set so tight I can see it from here. Ethan hasn’t moved at all, his hands flat on the floor beside him.

Sophie looks up at us. Her eyes move from one to the other, confused, still raw from crying, her cheeks flushed.

“What—” she starts.

“Sophie.” Max’s voice comes out rough. Controlled, but barely. He’s still facing the door, his shoulders rigid. “We need you to stay where you are.”

“Why are you⁠—”

“We’re going into rut.” The words come out like gravel. He turns just enough to look at her, his green eyes dark and dilated. “Your scent. It’s—we need distance. Right now.”

“Sweetheart,” I say, and my voice doesn’t sound like mine. “You’re going into heat.”

I watch her face change as she understands. The confusion is replaced by fear, there and gone, and underneath it something that isn’t fear at all and that I absolutely cannot think about right now.

“Okay,” she says softly. “Okay.”

I move to the far end of the glass wall and press my forehead against it. The cool of it does nothing—the room is already warming from the disabled temperature control, the air thick and close, and Sophie’s scent is inescapable. There is nowhere in this sealed, insulated room that is far enough away. I know this. I lean harder into the glass anyway and stare out into the empty corridor and will someone, anyone, to appear at the end of it.

Nobody comes.

“Finn.” Ethan is on the far side of the room now, both hands braced on the shelving unit, his head bowed. His voice is steady but thinner than usual. “Breathing through your mouth will reduce the olfactory input.”

“Thank you, Ethan,” I say through my teeth. “Incredibly helpful.”

I try it anyway. It makes no difference. Sophie’s scent has already saturated my lungs, my blood, every nerve ending I have—it’s not something I can breathe around, it’s something I’m swimming in, and my body has very clear ideas about what it wants to do about that and I am using every resource I have to override them.

“Sophie.” Ethan again, still measured. “Can you tell me how you’re feeling?”