Page 79 of The Rust in Her Hair

"Nico." I keep my voice calm and hushed as I search his face. "Can you—" I can barely make myself say it. "Is she…in heat?" The word comes out small. Almost scared.

While I know it’s not true, it’s hard to ignore decades of propaganda screaming about how a pack of alphas can easily rip an omega in heat to pieces.

It’s all lies, I tell myself. My mates aren’t those kind of alphas.

"Nicolas?" I say his full name, begging him to answer me.

Nico drags in a slow breath through his nose, testing the air, his jaw working.

"No," he says finally, his voice incredibly deep. "I don't think she’s in heat. I'm not getting pheromones." But his voice is strained, pulled tight as wire, and the tendons stand out along his forearm where he's gripping the door. Whatever he's smelling, it's clearly affecting him.

"Then what⁠—"

Adrian and Mack come through the door together, their big bodies bumping into each other. They’re both smiling, but the second their feet touch carpet, their smiles drop.

Mack’s eyes go wide as he tilts his head back, scenting the air. "What the fuck?"

But I'm not looking at Mack.

I'm looking at Adrian.

The dark-haired alpha has gone completely still, his chin lifted. His chest rises slow and deep as he pulls the air all the way down into his lungs. His grin falls as his face goes smooth, every easy line of him goes slack, and then his eyes drift half shut like a man sinking into warm water.

"Adrian?" I whisper as my lungs fill with his crisp pine scent. But it doesn’t smell right.

He smells sharp and hot and heavy, thickening in the small space until it crowds against Lyra's sweetness and tangles with it. It’s all so much, it makes my eyes water.

And through the faint thread of the bond I share with him, the one that only ever carries the loudest things, a single pulse cuts clean through.

Mate.

The emotion is raw and enormous and nothing like the gentle alpha I've known for the last seven years. And then it's gone, our bond going quiet again. Dead silent.

And it scares the shit out of me.

"Alpha." Nico’s gaze moves over my face as he takes a careful step toward Adrian.

I know Nico can feel my fear and confusion right now, telling him there’s something very wrong happening inside Adrian’s head.

"Adrian," Nico slowly lifts his hands. "Come on, man. Talk to me."

But Adrian doesn't answer. He doesn't even look at the pack alpha.

"Hey." Mack takes a slow step in from the side, his palms open, easing into Adrian's line of sight the way you'd move around a spooked horse. "Hey now." His drawl comes out low and careful, stripped of all its usual play. "It's just us. You're alright. Whatever you're smellin', it ain't going anywhere. Look at me a sec."

For one breath, I think they might be able to calm him down.

Adrian's head even turns a fraction toward Mack's voice.

But then he growls.

It’s low and vicious, straight up out of his chest. His lips peel back off his teeth, and his whole body goes taut.

Then he breaks.

Adrian lunges for the hall, all that long-limbed power thrown forward at once. Nico moves at the exact same instant and drives his shoulder into Adrian's chest, slamming the alpha sideways. The two of them crash together so hard, I’m shocked the walls don’t shake.

I scramble back, my heel catching the couch. I go down hard, catching myself as my glasses fall down my nose.