Page 95 of The Rust in Her Hair

"Yesterday was kind of nuts." I keep my voice low, worried that someone might still overhear. "We all got home yesterday and the whole house was drowned in Lyra’s scent. It was thick." I give Renata a pointed look, letting her know I’m not exaggerating. "Thicker than anything I've smelled in my life, and I've smelled a few things." I shake my head. "Anyway, the second Adrian scented it, he just….lost it. The alpha was gone. We had to wrestle him down and tie him to the workbench out in the garage before he tore the house apart trying to get to her."

Renata stops dead against the railing, her eyes going wide.

"Once Adrian was handled, we went to go check on Lyra, and..." I trail off as the memory of last night swirls in my head.

I see Lyra, laid out in the middle of Nico and Owen's bed. Her perky tits on full display beneath that thin white shirt, her legs parted, and slick dripping out of her. It pooled into a wet spot on the sheets beneath her hips. Waiting for one of us to come in and lap it all up.

My cock stirs inside my shorts at the memory, thickening fast, and I have to shift in my chair, and cross one ankle over the other before it turns into a whole situation.

"And?" Renata leans in, trying to get me to finish the story.

I clear my throat.

"And yeah," I say a little too loudly. "Long story short, we have an omega now. I’m pretty sure Nico put his mark on her, and there ain't a force on God's green earth gonna pry her out of this house now."

Renata's mouth drops open.

For a second, she stares at me, blinking, like the words are taking their time getting from her ears to her brain. Then her gaze slowly moves to the front door. She looks at it like she can see straight through the wood to the other side.

"Ese pendejo," she breathes. Then, harsher, hissed low so it won't carry: "I can’t believe he mated her." She drags both hands back over her hair. "What a fucking idiot."

"Yeah." I scratch the beard along my jaw, but I don’t entirely agree. Lyra is simply…amazing. Keeping her is worth any risk.

But I don’t say that out loud.

"The fucking Van Houtens are probably turning this whole city upside down looking for her." Ren crosses her arms, still glaring at the door.

"Probably." I suck in a deep breath of cool morning air. "But I’m not so sure they’re looking."

Renata’s dark eyes move to me, clearly not believing that.

"It’s been a month," I say plainly. "If they wanted to find her, it would be done by now."

"Yeah, I guess." Renata’s eyes narrow, and she tilts her head like she’s just thought of something. "Or maybe..." A crease settles between her brows, thinking.

"Maybe what?"

"Last summer, there was this omega from one of those old-money families, richer than God." The she-alpha leans against the railing as she settles into her story. "She was snatched right off the street downtown in broad daylight. Some alpha dragged her off and mated her against her will before anybody could do a damn thing. Do you know what her family did?"

"Kill him," I say, because it’s what I would do. "Had him strung up and gutted."

"Nothing." Renata's tone goes sharp. "They did nothing." Her mouth pulls into an angry line. "As it turned out, challenging the alpha’s claim would have meant paying the asshole a settlement to return her. And they weren't willing to spend the money on a daughter they considered damaged goods." Her face twists up, like the words taste bitter. "So they let the claim stand, removed her from the will, told the press she'd left willingly, then went on with their lives like their daughter never existed." She grits her teeth. "It was cheaper to lose a daughter than to pay to keep one."

Something cold turns over in my gut. "How do you know that?"

"Because she went public." Renata lets out an angry breath. "Once the mating settled, the omega wrote about the whole thing online. It went viral, and she gave a string of interviews afterward. And the crazy part is that she wasn't angry at the alpha at all. She said she'd fallen in love with him, and that they were happy together." Her jaw tightens. "It was her parents she went after. She told anyone who would listen exactly what kind of people her family really was."

"Rich people are fuckin' evil," I say quietly.

"Some of 'em." Renata's dark eyes cut to the door again. "Well, most of 'em."

But as horrible as it is, I find myself hoping down to my bones that Lyra's parents are the exact same kind of evil. That they'll decide she's not worth the trouble. That they'll write her out and walk away and never come looking. Because then, Lyra gets to stay.

And she gets to be happy.

Renata's quiet for a while, just looking at the damn front door. Then she turns to me, that dark stare of hers going soft around the edges.

"You okay, Mack?" Her dark eyes flicker toward the house. "Do you want to talk about it?"