Devany 

Beckett's body tensed, but he didn't move. Bent over me like a shield, his arms pinning me in on either side of my head, his eyes met mine, and for a moment, I could see nothing but the wolf inside him. A very pissed wolf that was a near echo of the snarling creature inside my head. The one demanding that I ignore the intruder and finish what I had started.

"By all means, don't stop on my account."

A shadow fell over us, and all sense of human embarrassment fled. Driven by animal instinct, I raised up and peered over Beckett's shoulder. Seeing the smirk on the bitch's face drew a snarl from my chest.

"Who the fuck are you?" I demanded.

Beckett blinked in shock. Then snorted to hold back a laugh as he finally straightened to his full height. I immediately felt naked and exposed, but his big hand closing over mine to pull me off the desk banished the worst of the feeling.

The woman's eyebrows crawled up her forehead. Without speaking, she took two steps forward and slapped me across the face so hard I fell back onto the desk. Before I could recover enough to even touch the stinging spot on my cheekbone, Beckett had her pinned against the wall. Grey hair sprouted from his skin, and his muscles rippled, preparing for a shift.

"The next time you lay a hand on her, you'll lose it," he said, enunciating each word with a snap of his elongated teeth.

Only when she nodded did he peel his fingers off her throat. Her ashen skin showed visible marks of red streaks that were already turning purple. Massaging her neck, she stayed against the wall, pale brown eyes never leaving him as he returned to me.

"Are you okay?" he asked, gingerly touching my face.

"I'm fine." The ache in between my legs was worse.

"What will the other packs think when they hear the Alpha of the Black Fang pack jumps for a pathetic Omega?"

Feeling near to shifting myself, I gripped Beckett's hand tighter to stop myself from leaping across the room and showing her what a proper blow to the face looked like.

"One more time. Who the fuck are you?"

She refused to look me in the eye. Beckett sighed. "Devany. This is Patricia Greenbow. My step-mother's sister."

"Beckett, you wound me. I'm your aunt."

He muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like 'I think the fuck not.' I might have laughed if not for the predatory way Patricia continued to watch him. That was not the way an aunt looked at her nephew. There was too much hunger. Too much lust.

"Do you not know how to knock, Patricia?"

The question slipped out before I could stop myself. I had never considered myself to be a pushover, but I certainly didn't seek confrontation. This question came from the highly irritated wolf inside of me. And it wasn't just because she had interrupted what was sure to have been a mind-blowing orgasm.

No. My wolf didn't like the way the woman spoke down to us or how she challenged our authority by refusing to answer our questions directly.

Still speaking to Beckett and not to me, Patricia said, "I don't make a habit of addressing Omegas. They're to stay in the shadows unless they're being bred."

"Enough, Patricia."

His voice rolled across the room in a powerful rumble that vibrated through my bones. There was a power in it that made my wolf shiver and finally, finally fall silent.

"Beckett, do you really–"

"You need to leave at once. I don't recall you requesting permission to visit the pack."

"Beckett!"

"You've seen her. Your curiosity should be satisfied. Now, I want you gone."

"If this is about what I just walked in on, no one will know. You wouldn't be the first Alpha, mated or not, to be lured into an Omega's trap. They're designed for fucking. I'm sure Pria would forgive you."

His blue eyes flashed, and once more, he spoke with that strange power. "You will not speak a word about what you saw here. Understood."

Grim satisfaction washed over me as she snapped her mouth closed and nodded. She looked like she was going to be sick.

"Good. Now leave."

Patricia turned on her heel and walked out, slamming the door behind her so hard the frame rattled. Beckett exhaled and dropped his head in his hands.

"Devany, I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?" I whispered. "Sorry for how she treated me? Or sorry for what almost happened between us?"

He jumped up and cupped my face. "I'll never be sorry for that. If you don't know by now how bad I want you, I don't know how else to make it clear to you. I'm only sorry our first time was almost on my desk."

I blushed. Now probably wasn't a good time to mention that wouldn't have just been our first time together, but my first time ever.

"But I am sorry about how Patricia treated you. Unfortunately, most wolves are going to treat you this way as long as you smell like an Omega."

My shoulders drooped. "So, it's true?"

"I didn't notice it before. Might have been a little distracted by other things," he admitted, twirling a strand of lavender hair around his finger and tugging softly. "But it's there."

"I don't know if I can live like this. How am I supposed to settle into this new life when everyone else looks at me like shit on their shoes? I can go back to being a waitress if that's what this is going to be like. It's too much."

"Please, give me a chance to figure something out. At least until Liam comes back with answers. Once I know you're safe, we can remove the moonstone, and you can show everyone the real you. The woman who will make even the greatest Alphas bow and beg."

"Beg, huh?" I liked the image that created. Of Beckett on his knees before me.

His eyes darkened, and that gentle tug turned hard, pulling my head back as he kissed me. As if he read my thoughts, he said, "You're the only one I'll ever get on my knees for, Devany."

A delicious shiver went through me. Giving into this thing between us had to be the worst idea ever, but I couldn't see a version of events that didn't end up with us falling into bed together. No man had ever made me want to take even the smallest risk, and after just a taste, I wanted to risk everything. For that to happen, I had to accept this was my new reality for a little while, and I had to trust that he would fix it. 

Wolf or no wolf, the only thing I was sure of in this crazy new life was this: I wanted this man.