Page 170 of Sweetheart: Part One

Then a gentle touch brushed my flaming hot skin.

“...You okay…?” The words were hard to follow.

Jasmine, something smokey, and rainfall. Those were soothing scents in the air, but… No…no no… I tried to blink my eyes open, to drag them into focus.

What I saw sent a shot of terror through my veins.

The contents of my pouch were scattered about the floor. The scent dampeners, the contacts, the heat suppressants—all of it.

Damning evidence.

A silky feminine voice was speaking. “I’ll go and get help—”

No!

“Wait!” It wasn’t my voice saying that. It was the second person here. I’dtriedto say it, but my vocal chords weren’t working. I tried to reach for the cap of the bottle with my other hand, but the movement sent another shooting pain into my stomach and I groaned.

“P-please…” I think this time, I think I managed to speak.

No one else could know.

No one could find out I was an omega. And if they discovered I was gold pack… if that got out…

“No…” The second voice faded in again, a low hiss. “Those are contacts. Do you know what that…?”

Again, my attention drifted, but I knew what that last part meant. Another choked sob came from my chest, dread seeping into every pore. I tried to lift the bottle again. Then it was being tugged from my grip, and all I could manage was another whine.

Then my vision was filled with the unmistakably bright eyes of a gold pack omega. Firm hands were helping me up. “Do you need to take this?” Her voice was smokey, just like her scent. Rainfall and firewood.

I tried to nod. I think… I managed it.

“She’s with a pack.” The two women's scents were finally detangling, and the other—jasmine and myrrh—was saying. “I can go and find them—”

“Not until she says so,” the omega said.

Finally, tears began tumbling down my cheeks and, blessedly, I heard the sound of the bottle crack open. “You’re okay,” the omega whispered, pressing the pill to my lips. I opened my mouth with a sob of relief. The pill dissolved beneath my tongue instantly. The omega glanced behind her, the movement a blur of messy chestnut hair. “Get the rest back in the bag and lock it up.”

When she turned back to me, I saw the flash of patterns on her neck. Live, shimmering bite marks, bonding her to a pack that loved her, and beneath were the dusky traces of a dead dark bond.

“It won’t take long to kick in,” she whispered.

All I could do was nod.

I knew who she was… I couldn’t take my gaze from her pretty golden eyes, ones she wore with such boldness even in a place like this.

“You’re going to be okay,” Havoc Saint whispered, twining her fingers in mine and squeezing tight. And somehow, hearing those words from an omega who’d conquered the very thing I was being crushed by, I believed them.

Even if just for a second.

Even if Havoc Saint had been backed by the one thing I now knew I’d never have: mates ready to tear the world apart to save her.

LOVE

I expected Vex to return at any moment.

I was on the edge of my seat, trying to keep my expression neutral for my pack, my side of the bond locked down. All I could do was anticipate what had to happen when we got home—the impossible conversation I was going to have with Drake. I tried my best to ignore the hollow pit in my chest, aching for the truth I’d discovered.

Later…

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