ear, snickered. “You thought Ethan was cold?”
I bit my lip, feeling like a dumbass too, even though Austin didn’t exactly phrase my ignorance that way.
My heart was still pounding when Ethan turned away from me, and I realized Eli had told the crowd something else because, out of nowhere, the men began undressing. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen Ethan naked, thanks to how they all would shift and could reappear sometimes nude, but my eyes definitely widened at the sight of Ethan’s bare back being revealed to me in front of this large crowd of people. My tongue cleaved to the roof of my mouth at the sight, and I almost moaned when I saw his ass flexing as he pulled down his jeans.
Brandon was a handsome guy, I guessed, but his ass and dick held no interest to me.
What did?
Ethan and his nakedness, but not just the fact that I was attracted to him. But the fact that other women were too.
I had no idea how I knew for sure, I mean aside from the fact that he was gorgeous like a Hollywood movie star and there were women with pulses in the vicinity, but something else—
“You can scent their arousal,” Eli told me matter-of-factly.
The soft remark had me gulping.
“You can also feel their arousal because of what you are,” Austin stated calmly.
Both of them were so fucking serene that it made the anger burning in me, the sudden wrath, feel all the more ridiculous.
I stepped forward, but it wasn’t of my own volition. I hadn’t wanted to move, but I had anyway—the she-wolf made me.
Austin grabbed me, Eli took hold of my other arm, and then they dragged me back, and it was definitely dragging.
They had to hold me back, because the thought that these women could see my man’s swinging dick? Pissed. Me. The. Fuck. Off.
Especially when they hated him for being a twin!
Hypocritical bitches!
I snarled under my breath, and it echoed around the circle. People flinched at the sound and began cowering like I’d waved a gun at their faces. I jerked back when Eli, who’d been at my side, was suddenly in my face.
“Calm. Down.”
The words were stony, but I saw sympathy in his eyes, even if he had to control me.
I growled, “They can see him.”
Austin assured me, “They can, and you’re his, he’s yours. He doesn’t want them. He wants you.”
His rationale, this time, didn’t come in handy.
I wasn’t feeling logical.
If anything, I was feeling all kinds of things I’d never felt before!
It was so confusing, but more than that, it was exhausting.
Eli reached up, cupped my chin, and his thumb drifted across my cheek. “Let them carry on with the challenge, and the second you do, it’s over, and we can cement the ties between us. You’ll feel better then. You’ll know what we’re saying is the truth, and you’ll be living it rather than hearing it and having to believe in it because we told you.”
My throat felt thick with emotions, and I had to admit, it was a strange sensation because I wanted to cry, while also wanting to tear someone’s hair out.
The only saving grace?
The arousal I’d scented in the air—whatever it was that tied me to these people—it abated and was replaced with fear.
I hated that.
I’d been controlled through fear.
Been made to cower before it.
And that, more than my mates’ words, more than the logic they were trying to feed me, worked.
I’d been a victim. I’d been the underdog. I had no intention of making these people feel that way.
So, I relaxed.
I forced myself to do so.
I let the tension drift out of my shoulders, inhaled several times, and only when, after staring into my eyes for a good thirty seconds, Eli stepped back, did I realize he was satisfied.
The crowd was no longer jubilant or thrilled with the idea of the fight ahead. If anything, they were cowed, and they were eying the ground before shooting me wary looks.
Apparently, they’d just received their first taste of their new omega, and the last thing I’d done was impress them.
I wanted to close my eyes with disappointment. As a first impression, it couldn’t have gone much worse.
Austin’s arm tightened around me, and he hugged me into his side. “Don’t worry. They’ll understand when we claim you.”
Something about his words had my shoulders straightening again.
“Why will they understand? Will they feel a connection?”
“They’ll watch—”
My mouth dropped open at that. “No way in fuck.”
Eli cut us both a look,