Page 152 of Sweetheart: Part One

EBONY

Waking was disorienting. I blinked in the dim room, eyes bleary. I was more rested than I usually felt waking up.

Was I in a fucking bakery?

Itsmelledlike fresh baking. Raspberry treacle tarts—without a doubt, the best thing I’d ever smelled in my life, and I didn’t have a sweet tooth.

Next, I felt warmth against my skin. Something precious. Something mine.

Silvery-brown waves tumbled around me. Pale skin speckled with faint freckles. Eyes shut. She was… perfect. Except… she was restless, eyes shifting beneath her lids, fists balled in the sheets, restless. She was having nightmares.

Unchecked alpha instincts blitzed past the calm of the morning. Because nothing about this was perfect.

She was in my arms and still unclaimed. With my claim, she would never be afraid of nightmares again.

A growl rose in my chest, and I moved—too fast. I didn’t know what was happening until the tang of iron hit my tongue and a sound ripped me back to the present.

Her terror filled the air, the scent all wrong, a frightened whimper penetrating my daze.

Fear meant vulnerability. Weakness. Something to be cut away or destroyed or used. Except now. Just like it was with my pack, her fear wasmyweakness.

Fuck.

What was I doing?

My aura was out and I had Vex pinned beneath me, my teeth pressed to her throat. Not a bite—not completely—but my teeth had drawn blood. She struggled against my weight, a terrified purr rising in her chest, throaty and uneven.

Horror was like a shock of adrenaline injected right into my hindbrain.

I released her in a moment, staggering from the bed and taking one, two, three steps back. Enough to get a hold of myself.

Never had I been so out of control as I was right now.

Sickness roiled in my stomach as I took her in. It didn’t matter that the room was dim, I could see every detail. Plush lips parted in shock. Her hand clutched her own neck as her chocolate eyes darted desperately between me and the door.

I had been right.

She was an omega.

And I had been so, so wrong: Vex wasn’t just any omega. She was everything Love had feared we’d find, and staring at her now, I finally—finally, understood why.

She was mine.

THIRTY-NINE

VEX

Ebony left me in his room in an unnerving silence.

I’d begged him to keep my secret, to not say anything to Love. He’d said nothing, just staring at me, expression stiff and calculated. Now, I sat alone on the edge of his bed, shivering with adrenaline, unsure what was about to happen. If he told, I would lose everything. I would go back to Alastor.

I couldn’t….

I couldn’t go back.

And I hadn’t been able to tell him that for my commands. Instead, I’d thrown pathetic pleading into the silence between us. At least he hadn’t found the dark bond… The makeup had survived the night, masked just enough by my hair.

Finally, he returned, and in his hand was the makeup bag I’d begged him to fetch for me. The one with my pills and makeup so I could get to my room without any of the others realising what I was.

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