Reese (Pack of Misfits #2) - Raven Kennedy Page 0,27
anyone in the eye. A submissive shifter move.
“No one will challenge you here,” she reminds me gently.
I give her a tight nod. This is going to take some getting used to.
Hugo starts talking, explaining to the others who I am and that I’m the newest member of the pack. Instead of sneers or hostility, instead of sizing me up and wondering if they’re going to challenge me now or later, they smile and welcome me. This pack is weird.
I’m half-listening as Hugo tells them about Sid and Rick, mostly because just thinking about them gives me a stomachache. The enforcers all take on sharp, professional looks as they listen to their alpha explain. Or...our alpha, I guess I should start thinking of him as. That’s also going to take some getting used to.
I start to feel warm as I continue to stand there, and the side of my neck prickles uncomfortably, like I’ve fallen asleep outside and woken up with a sunburn. I cup the spot with my hand, letting my fingers run over the irritated spot.
“—and Reese will tell us what she can about that, as well.”
I blink, realizing I haven’t been listening at all, and make it a point to try and pay attention. The shifters’ gazes are bouncing between me and Hugo, and even though Addie told me not to, I keep finding my own gaze lowering every time I see someone look my way.
The burn at my neck spreads, my fingers following the trail of uncomfortable heat as it extends down to my chest. Hugo’s words become garbled. Am I having an allergic reaction to this shirt that Addie lent me?
I glance down, discreetly picking at the collar so I can peek down, but there’s no rash. If anything, I just look slightly flushed. Probably just from shifting into my human form after so long.
“Is that right, Reese?”
My head snaps over to Hugo. “Umm, yep. Right.”
I have no idea if that’s right, but I just go with it to look less like an idiot.
Oh, crap. They’re all still looking at me. What did he say? What should I say? I obviously missed something.
I clear my throat. “Sorry, I’m not—” The burn at my neck and chest morphs, and then there’s an ache there instead, something that seems to sink in from my skin to my bones.
I feel Addie nudge me. “Are you okay?”
No, I suddenly realize. I’m not. Something is very, very wrong.
10
Reese
My teeth ache. Which is just friggen weird. And the light inside this gym is suddenly too bright. And all of the scents, which I’d managed to block before, rush at me in an assault of the senses, and it makes the breath in my chest fall out of me with a wheeze.
I start to get embarrassed because, challenges or no challenges, I don’t want my new pack mates to see me like this. I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I’m so off-kilter, I can’t even think straight. I try to clear my head, to banish whatever weird things are happening to me, but then my nose twitches. My rat perks up from where she’s been lazing inside of me.
I lift my head up, nose in the air, twitching it like a...well, a rat.
I smell...I smell…
Holy shit, what is that smell?
I take in a huge sniff, and my eyes inexplicably close of their own free will so that I can inhale the scent and let it take over every other sense I have. Mother of cheeseballs, that is good.
Something fires off inside of me, and that burning ache in my chest grows. Throbs, almost, like a rapid-fire vibration. Hundreds of scents try to filter in, but I ignore those, homing in on the one that makes my nose tingle and my skin flush.
Snapping open my eyes, I don’t recognize the burning sensation of my pupils dilating—blowing out despite the bright lights in the room. I don’t recognize the heat that spreads down to between my thighs. I don’t recognize the sound that comes from somewhere deep in my chest, rumbling out of the ache, sounding like an animal whining. I sway on my feet.
I feel Addie’s hands coming up around me as I all but fall into her.
“Reese?”
Her voice sounds far away, like on the other end of the tunnel. I can’t answer her, though. I’m too focused on the scent. The scent and the delicious warmth. Why did I ever think the heat felt uncomfortable before? This is...this is...exquisite.