Page 23 of Prodigy & Tybalt
“Murdery.”
I remembered the depth and ferocity of his growl in the bookshop, and I swooned again. As much as I distrusted alphas in general, I was beginning to trustthisalpha. I knew I was safe with Prodigy, because if he had nefarious plans he’d have taken advantage of my hormones already. And the combination of feeling safe but knowing an alpha would kill to keep you… that shit was crack to my omega.
A purr swelled in my chest, but I choked it back. It was too soon to purr for an alpha I’d met days ago.
“If anyone else entered my nest, I’d be the murdery one,” I admitted, willing myself to move out of his arms.
“Territorial?”
“A tiny bit.”
His laugh warmed my chest. “I sense an understatement, Miraya.”
“Miraya,” a low, velvety voice repeated, and I jabbed Prodigy’s side.
“You knew he was there,” I accused.
“I may have done,” he admitted. “Tyb, meetMiraya.Miraya, you know Tyb. You’ll never guess his birth name.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Tybalt rumbled. “Asshole.”
“Is it Derrick?” I asked, pulling myself from Prodigy’s arms with reluctance so severe the burn in my soul spiked. Hisattention and closeness lulled the pain into background noise, but now I choked back bile as it hit me again, all at once.
Tybalt stood a few feet away, his arms crossed over his chest, ink exposed by the sleeveless shirt he wore. The expression on his face could only be described with the word unimpressed. I smirked, and continued.
“Dave? Herbert? Gerald? Barbara?”
That got him to break, and a laugh filled the courtyard, filled my chest.“Barbara?Fuck off, warrior.”
I smirked, a spill of warmth in my chest. “You sound a little tetchy, Barbs. Something wrong?”
Darkness filled Tybalt’s eyes, inky and absolute, and my heart skipped. Common sense would assume the heart-skip happened because of fear, but that didn’t explain why my stomach cramped and a fresh spill of arousal dampened my underwear. His nostrils flared, and mortification killed my lust in a heartbeat. I accepted the bag full of books Prodigy removed from the top box and hurried towards the clubhouse’s door.
I needed to lock myself in my nest until this was all over. I needed—
You want me and Tyb to help you through it?
Whatever you need, tell me and it’s yours.
I needed bravery to accept that, to admit it to them, but all my courage had fled, my strength used up on the ride home. It didn’t help that Prodigy’s protective growl had worn off, and logical Miraya was in the driver’s seat, not hormonal Miraya.She’dbe able to beg them for help in a heartbeat. Hormonal Miraya would get on all fours right now in the courtyard and whine for a knot.
My gut cramped.Shit, don’t think about knots.
One more day, I told myself, a bastardised version of my old motto. A day would come alright, and I’d be in pain and misery and spiking, delirious need for the foreseeable future.
I sighed when boots scuffed the steps close behind me, a full shiver moving through me when Tybalt caught my elbow and drew me to a halt on the landing in front of the clubhouse door. “Need to burn off some energy, warrior?”
I just glared at him, my skin tingling under my borrowed jacket right where his hand rested, my body so hot I expected curls of steam to waft from my skin. I was surprised I wasn’t too hot to touch.
He seemed to realise I was suffering, because the wicked amusement on his face eased to something softer. Not all the way soft—I didn’t think Tybalt would ever be completely gentle for anyone, even an omega this close to my heat—but the combatant edge left his features, and his voice was a low rumble when he spoke, gravelly but warm.
“I got this from that piece of shit’s apartment,” he said, and held out—holy shit, my phone.
I snatched it in an instant, my mouth parting in surprise, a tightness unravelling in my chest. I wanted to call Mum and Aunt Teja all day, but I hadn’t found the nerve to ask for Prodigy’s phone again, and it was too awkward to ask any of the other women or bikers when I barely knew them. I barely knew Prodigy and Tybalt too but… it felt different.Theyfelt different. My instincts, my omega, all my gut feelings told me I could trust them. If I hadn’t already met my mate and been rejected, I might have thought they were both mine, both woven through my soul.
“Anything else?” Prodigy asked, jogging up the stairs towards us, my red dragon plushie in his hand. Something in me tripped up at the sight of it, this powerfully dominant alpha who’d growled another alpha into submission, who led a biker club of men fully loyal to him, carrying the plushie he bought me simply because the texture gave me comfort. It was such an alpha move—a true alpha, not whatever those fucked up auction staff and my buyer claimed to be—that I swooned on the inside.
“A few things,” Tybalt replied, still holding onto my elbow. In case he hadn’t noticed, I held still, not wanting to spook him and lose the contact. “Nothing concrete, but worth looking into. I left some shit on your desk.”
