Page 100 of Sweetheart: Part Two

“He’s mine!”she snarled, grabbing me by the shirt. “He’s mine and I’m telling youit’s too much!”

There was a deadliness in her eyes, and I couldn’t explain the power she had. She was beautiful, wild, and I could swear her golden eyes were almost their own source of light in the dim viewing area. Then, she was gone, back at the bars, screaming his name as Rook crashed to the ground once more.

“No one’s gone this long before,” Drake hissed. “We don’t know he won’t get hurt. That’s how alphas die in these things. Take too many hits while the adrenaline’s high.”

“Drake!” I snapped. She didn’t need more panic. “Enough. You shouldn’t have brought her!” I turned on Love. “Why would you come? He’s going to be fucking fine.” Hewouldbe. The death rate was lower than ruts dealt with out of cages.

Though Drake… fuck. Hewasright. No one had gone this long before.

“You think I can control her—?” Love began.

“I think she deserves better than this—”

“This is not better!” Drake spat.

“I didn’t know he was going to lose his fucking mind. He was too late for proper drugs. Would you rather he ended up burning through sedation in one of those clinics?Un-fucking-natural, that’s what—”

“VEX!”Drake’s shout cut me off, his aura splitting the air.“NO!”I looked over to see him diving toward the edge of the viewing ring.

Where was—?

My blood chilled as I spotted her, a rare moment of absolute fear spiking my system and not just Drake’s and Love’s through the bond. My own terror flooded through me as my aura flared.

Vex had climbed the viewing ring’s bars, fast—much too fast.

At the top, the bars were wider—still not enough that one of us would have fit though, but Vex was tiny. Drake moved quicker than I’d ever seen him, climbing the cage after her. But she was through, leaping from one set to the next right as Drake reached out for her.

“NO!”Drake’s bellow was lost in the roar of the crowd. He was too late. Vex didn’t look back. Her eyes burned with determination, fixed on her mate.

She slipped through the last bar and I thought my heart might have stopped as my mate tumbled down into an arena with three rutting alphas.

Rook was down, I realised. He was shaking, aura flickering in the air.

Vex threw herself between him and the two alphas, shielding his body with hers as she turned on them. Her scent hit the arena like a bomb, golden eyes blazing with a wildness I’d never witnessed before, and it was as if the whole world came to a stop.

TWENTY-SIX

ROOK

I was in the dream I’d lived a thousand times in the last hour.

She was there, screaming my name.

Her fists closed around the metal bars separating us, only… she looked too upset. She’d been calmer in the previous visions. I didn’t want her to be upset.

With the ringing in my ears, it took me a long time to understand.

Get out?

She was asking me to stop?

What kind of vision was that? I could keep on. I had more to give. More to prove.

You might die…a little voice whispered.

No…no no no. That wasn’t the plan. I mean… I deserved it, sure. But… but she didn’t. If I died, the loss… with just the four of us… it was possible I could shatter the scent profile, destroy the match.

But… Well, I wasn’t pack lead.

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