Page 131 of Feral Alphas

“Har.”

I press into his neck and stroke his jaw, smiling. “Yes, hair.”

His arms slide down my back and tighten around me. “Ros.”

Tears prickle behind my eyes but I’m too tired and dehydrated to cry. “Yes, Zane. I’m your Rose.”

I drift off in the arms of my feral alpha.

Chapter fifty

Colt

I swear at the mess of twisted steel and shattered glass as I park up in the middle of the lane and flick my lights and sirens on. The last thing I need is a traffic accident between me and home when Rose is there on her own, but here it is, in smoking glory.

How could I forget Kye was going out? He clearly told me last night, but I tore out the door this morning and it wasn’t in my calendar.

Because a certain man wasn’t there to add it for me. I thump the steering wheel.

I’ve become so dependent on Luka I don’t even know how to shine my shoes and iron my shirts anymore. Turns out change is harder than I imagined for this old man. So is losing a part of yourself.

I choke back the thoughts as I grab my responder bag from the trunk and run forward to turn the engine off the upside-down car. “Stay calm, ma’am,” I call to the crying beta inside “I’m here to help.” Metal screeches as I get the buckled door open and safety glass crunches under my shoes. “Ma’am, do you know your name?”

“Kirsten,” she huffs, dabbing at blood along her arm. I run through the list of checks and get a neck brace strapped in before someone rushes over.

“I’m a doctor from St Catherine’s. What’s the status?”

“Thank God,” I mutter. “My first aid’s feeling a bit rusty.”

The man rests a reassuring hand on my arm. “Good job with protecting the neck.”

I nod and help him get the woman out of the driver’s seat so he can lay her down. I circle the vehicles and grab her purse and then set up emergency traffic control so the backed-up freeway can start moving again. The other driver and their passengers have got themselves out of the wreck.

More sirens join the ones on my patrol car as a traffic officer arrives, followed soon after by an ambulance. I breathe a sigh of relief as a fire truck and two tow trucks roll in to help clean up the mess. It’s a busy road and the traffic keeps piling up.

I approach the traffic officer, who’ll handle the incident. “I’d like to give my statement and get out of here. Sorry to fly but I’ve got an omega situation at home.”

He lifts his hat to scratch his hair before resettling it. “Sure, I appreciate you being here.”

My patient smile might fool him, but inside I’m champing at the bit. Rose has never been left completely alone before, and she’s especially fragile right now with one of her alphas missing. There’s no telling what she might do.

I’ve asked myself over and over if I have the right to separate them, but the Omega Center entrusted her into my care and that’s my responsibility. Rose has been used and abused all her life, so I cannot allow herto experience that again, even if it tore me apart inside to throw Luka out.

The officer groans as he surveys the mess. “If you wait a few minutes, I’ll replace your traffic barrier—”

I raise my hand to cut him off. “No need. Which depot are you from? I’ll swing by in a day or so to collect them.” Every minute is a lifetime too long to waste.

Finally I get on the road, tapping the steering wheel with impatience as the traffic clogs around the accident site. If I hadn’t already told the transport officer I was leaving for an omega matter, I’d throw my lights and sirens on. But I’ve already abused my privileges once this month, not to mention sudden absences in the office.

The moment I step into the house, I sense the wrongness and my instincts clamor in alarm. Complex scents lay thick in the air, and I can hear one of the alphas growling, low and menacing. A few steps forward brings me into the line of sight of their cells and my heart misses a beat at the sight of brick and plaster tumbled around a hole in the wall of Zane’s cell. Adrenaline dumps through my system.

Across the hall, Scar—no, Uno, as Kye said his new name was on our call an hour ago—paces his room, shoulders hunched and body rigid with silent aggression.

I spin around and run to Rose’s room with my heart in my mouth, unholstering my gun as I sweep the door open. Her scent hits me first, thick and needy enough to make my knees go weak. I know that scent.

“Don’t come in,” she whispers huskily from where she lies in the darkness, wrapped in the feral alpha’s arms. I stagger, bracing myselfagainst the doorframe. The worst possible scenario has happened; a feral alpha broke loose and attacked my omega.

I lift my gun, aiming it to her left at the mass of dark hair and bare olive skin.

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