The Omni-Wolf’s Choice novel Chapter 33

Chapter 33 The fallout I can’t outrun..

Connor’s POV

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The last day has been brutal. I have been punishing my body in the gym through the night, then shifting and tearing along the entire border like I can outrun my own head. Drake has been riding me nonstop.

I understand why. I feel it too-her. My mate. It is nothing like anything I have ever carried in my chest. My heart has been slamming so hard it feels ready to crack my ribs.

I have lived inside this pack my whole life, so how did my eighteenth birthday come and go without the bond snapping into place? I should have felt her then. I should have known who she was, so I would

have acted like someone worth finding.

There is no universe where the Moon Goddess looks at me and thinks, yes, that one deserves her.

Evelyn makes me lose my mind, and she should have far better than an asshole like me.

That dream keeps replaying. The field. The kiss. It has felt more real than most of my actual

memories-her scent, her taste, the warmth of her under my hands. When I woke up and went straight

to her room, her skin had been flushed in every place my mouth had touched in that dream. So I had

known she felt it too.

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I was the adult. Dream or not, I should have stopped myself. I swore to Ryder-my Alpha, her brother-

that I would protect her, and I have already failed. The next morning I couldn’t meet Ryder’s eyes. He has noticed something is wrong; I know he has. I have been spared only because his own mate has been pulling his focus.

So I have thrown myself into being better. Better than this. I have been working even harder, forcing my attention back onto the job: Beta. Keeping every species here safe. That is the point. That has to

stay the point.

But during the meeting-trying to hold the line with Alpha Zachary and the White Moon Pack- watching Evelyn sit there had been ripping me open. Her scent has been there, faint but unmistakable.

Honeysuckle.

At one point I had actually trapped myself in conversation with Zachary just to avoid her when I saw her walking toward me.

Yeah. I know. I’m a coward.

‘If you ruin this for us, I will never forgive you,’ Drake growls.

‘I’m doing what’s best for Evelyn. She deserves the best, Drake. You know that.’

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‘The Moon Goddess matched us. That means it is what’s best for her.’

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He isn’t wrong. It’s just that the truth doesn’t change the way unworthy feels. Evelyn walks into a space and the entire mood lifts like someone turned on lights. Her smile softens the hardest faces. She is, without exaggeration, the best person I have ever met.

And me?

My reputation has never been a mystery. I have never belonged to one woman. I have roamed, taken

what was offered, enjoyed what I was invited into. I have seen the world and a whole lot of beautiful

women, and let’s not pretend otherwise-they have usually been interested. Some call me a man-

whore. I have always called it freedom. I have never disrespected a woman’s choice.

But Ryder and I made a pact months ago: no women from our own pack. Since then, I have cut off anything local and kept it to travel. And then that dream happened, and it was like ice water over my

head. Since then, every breath has been her. Every thought has been her.

“How are we looking?” I slow at a checkpoint and address the patrol.

We have tripled numbers-warriors, plus Royal Guards who have been vetted and folded in. With so many high-status wolves inside our territory, everything has to be airtight. Tonight is Evelyn’s grand ball. It’s also the formal presenting of Bridget-confirmed Omni-Wolf, future Luna, power level: terrifying. She is learning control, sure, but as a general rule? Do not piss her off.

“Beta,” Raymond reports, “no signs of other species. Almost no movement. Systems are stable. Ten-

mile perimeter is active.”

Raymond is one of our sharpest tech minds-freshly graduated, now upgrading our entire network with

a team Ryder approved.

“Good.” My voice comes out hard. “You message me the second anything feels wrong. I don’t care if it seems microscopic. Understood?”

“Yes, Beta.”

“I’ll sweep the west border before meetings,” I say, mostly to air.

Even I can hear how much I’m trying to justify staying in motion.

Raymond and Frederick exchange a look. I catch it.

“Something to say?” I ask. “Go on. Speak freely.”

Frederick hesitates until Raymond nudges him.

“Well… Beta Connor…”

< Chapter 33 The fallout I can’t outrun..

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“I said speak.” The command lands heavier than my title-Alpha blood in my veins, old authority making them straighten.

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“Sir, you’ve been out all night. We’ve seen you basically every hour of our shift. We want you to rest, sir. Respectfully.”

Normally I would have snapped. But I asked for honesty, and a second-in-command who can’t hear

his people is useless.

They aren’t wrong. I have been burning down both ends and pretending it’s discipline.

“Fair,” I tell them. “Thanks for saying it. I’ll head back, shower, and reset. If anything changes, you

contact me immediately.”

Both of them visibly breathe out and give respectful nods.

I turn toward the pack house and take the back way up, straight to my floor-straight to where my thoughts have been circling all night.

It’s her birthday. My wolf is practically singing at the fact she’s close, at the pull of her wolf, Zephyr. Drake has already dug up her name, and he has been vibrating with satisfaction about it.

take the stairs too fast, three at a time, and before I realize it I’m at my level. My feet carry me to a door I hadn’t planned on visiting-until my fist is already knocking.

My father’s office.

“Son,” he says when he opens it, relief and annoyance mixing in his expression. “There you are. Come in. I’m meeting with council members soon, and I wanted you sitting in with me in an hour. What’s

going on?”

Beta Curtis Reynolds is basically me with time added. Same olive skin. Same green eyes. Same dark brown hair-mine short and wavy, his starting to silver at the edges. We both wear a beard and

mustache; mine kept neat, his fuller. Both of us just shy of seven feet, broad enough that people step

aside without thinking.

We could pass for brothers. Goddess help me if I ever say that out loud-his ego would explode. My

wolf thinks I’m bad? Ivory, my dad’s wolf, is the cockiest creature I have ever met.

But

my dad is also my best friend. The one person I can speak to and trust to stay honest without

stopping loving me. That has to be why I’ve ended up here.

I shut the door, trigger the soundproofing, and punch in the code.

Worry flashes over his face as my heartbeat spikes.

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“Are you okay?” he asks, then his tone turns into an order. “Sit.”

I nod, but I can’t. Not yet.

“I found my mate,” I say, and the words land like a blow. “And I have to reject her.”

My legs nearly give out. He’s at my side instantly, catching me by the arm.

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“Sit down, damn it.” He guides me to the couch-same couch I used to climb over as a pup, pretending

it was a ship. I would play pirate and swear I’d save someone from some evil captain.

Now I’m about to talk about something that will crush someone for real.

He hands me a glass of water. “Explain.”

I glance at the whiskey in his other hand. He pulls it away like he’s reading my mind. “After you tell me,” he says. “If I decide you should.”

“It’s Evelyn,” I say. “I’m ninety-nine percent sure. The honeysuckle. The way I can’t get a full breath unless it feels like it’s her. I have been dodging her, but she’s still in every corner of my head.”

I swallow hard. “If I’m really her mate… how do I do my job? How do I stay a Beta when my instincts are going to have me trailing her like some pathetic lovesick pup? If I lose focus, the pack suffers. People die. That becomes my fault.”

I drain the water in one go and reach toward the whiskey like it’s air.

My dad doesn’t flinch. “You think you’re the first wolf who’s wanted his mate? The first who’s craved

her so much it hurts?”

He leans forward. “A mate doesn’t weaken you. She makes you harder to break. Knowing what you’d do for her safety-and for the pups you’ll have-creates strength you didn’t know you had.”

Then his eyes narrow. “So. Try again. Why do you want to keep your mother and me from meeting Evelyn as our daughter?”

Of course he sees the real problem. Of course.

“Dad… I’m being serious. Maybe I’m not built for this.”

“Bullshit.”

He stands, and before I can even process it, he tips the whiskey into the trash. A glass that has been aging for two hundred years-gone.

“You tell me,” he says, voice steel. “Or I call your mother in here, and she’ll have the truth out of you in

under a minute.”

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My mother spent years as the pack’s interrogator. She trained most of us. Vicious when she needed to be. The kind of woman you respect or you learn to regret it. Being her son has never meant I could get

away with anything.

I blow out a breath, defeated. I can’t have this conversation with her. Not when I’m still the son she

thinks walks on water.

“Fine. Okay.” My hands flex on my knees. “I can’t be with Evelyn because I have been with… too many women. Too many. If there was a warning sign in the women’s bathrooms, it would be my face.”

I grimace and push on. “I have slept with more women per capita than any male in this state. And, Dad

-this is California.”

He barely reacts. “And?”

“And Evelyn has been protected-locked down-from me, from the warriors, from everyone,” I say. “She deserves a prince. Not a worn-out, still-desirable, ran-through wolf with my history.”

My throat tightens. “I can’t dump my baggage onto her the way Bridget has had to deal with hers. We are already scrambling to save an alliance because of what we’ve done. Evelyn should get her degree. She should choose who she loves. She should have as many pups as she wants.”

The thought of that being with someone else makes my stomach turn.

‘You’re really going to ruin this for us,’ Drake snaps.

‘We have to think about her,’ I shoot back.

‘Maybe you should have thought about her a few thousand she-wolves ago,’ he fires, then slams a wall

between us.

And he’s right.

My dad studies me, then shakes his head. “Son, don’t you think you’re assuming a lot? Yes, you’ve treated her like a princess in a tower.” His mouth quirks. “A princess with powers, by the way. But how

do you know she hasn’t lived the same way you have?”

I’m all for equality. I believe women can do anything I can and more.

But the second those words leave his mouth, something in me goes cold.

I’m done sitting.

I’m getting up.

I’m going to find my mate.

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And I’m going to see who I need to kill

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