Page 197 of Beautifully Scarred Omega

CHAPTER 49

Max

I’m watching Sophie when she comes back to me. Her lashes flutter first, then the small furrow appears between her brows as she tries to orient herself.

We’re in the omega room. We brought her home after Pack Hayes finally left—after twenty minutes of me standing between her and three Sentinel operatives with my teeth bared, after Ethan calmly explained exactly what was happening until Griffin finally backed down. Finn carried her out of the basement without a word.

Ethan stands at the window, the pale light catching the tension in his jaw. Finn is on the other side of the bed, one knee on the mattress, close enough to reach her the second she needs him.

Her eyes find mine first.

“Max.” Her voice is rough with sleep and heat, barely a whisper.

“I’m here.” I lean forward, bringing my face closer to hers. “We’re all here.”

She blinks slowly. Her hand moves across the sheets, and Ethan is beside her almost immediately, crossing from the window to take it. Finn reaches for her other hand.

“What happened?”

“You fainted.” I keep my voice even. “Griffin and his team found us in the basement.”

“I remember.” Her eyes sharpen a little. “Where are Lucy and Fabian now?”

“Griffin’s team is tracking them,” Ethan says. “They won’t get far.”

“And the samples?”

“Ethan got the temperature controls back online,” Finn says. “The thermal buffer held. Equinox is safe.”

Sophie takes that in.

And then, for once, she lets it be enough.

She simply lies there and breathes, and some of the tension she carries so naturally begins to ease from her shoulders.

Then the heat takes her again.

It happens fast—one second she’s lying still, her eyes clear, and the next her whole body locks and she whimpers. Her fingers twist into the sheets, and the flush that had faded while she was unconscious comes rushing back up her throat and into her cheeks. Her scent floods the room—rain and crushed rose petals, so suddenly and so intensely.

I can taste her at the back of my tongue. I can feel the pull of her low in my body, deep enough to make every muscle tighten.

“The heat,” she breathes. “It’s—” she stops. Her head drops back slightly, her throat exposed, and I can see the rapid flutter of her pulse just below her jaw. “It’s so much. I can’t⁠—”

The rut hits all three of us at the same time.

I feel it lock into place at the base of my skull, something ancient and instinctive taking hold before thought can catch up. My vision narrows. Every cell in my body orients toward the omega in distress on the bed in front of me.

Mate. Protect. Claim.

Ethan is already pulling his shirt over his head. Finn follows, and I’m moving too—shirt, jeans, boxers, everything gone in seconds. Three alphas, naked, surrounding our omega, and the rightness of it settles into the room like gravity.

Her gaze moves over our bodies, her pupils widening as her scent deepens around us. Rain and crushed rose petals, richer now. Her nostrils flare and a moan escapes her that is pure omega. Her slick—I can smell it, thick and sweet, soaking through her underwear—floods the room alongside her scent.

“We’re here,” I say. “Your alphas are here, little one.”

“We’ve got you,” Finn murmurs, climbing onto the bed beside her, his hand finding her face, stroking her cheek. “We’ve got you, sweetheart. Let us take care of you.”

“I’m so hot,” she gasps, pushing the blanket away. She reaches behind her for the clasp of her bra and Ethan’s hands are there immediately, unhooking it for her. Finn slides her underwear down her legs. She’s bare now, her skin flushed and burning, her body trembling, and the three of us surround her—touching, stroking, our hands moving over her in slow, soothing patterns. Finn’s palm on her stomach. Ethan’s fingers in her hair. My hand on her thigh, grounding her.