The glass bottle hit the kitchen island, and he stared at me. “Bad was the last thing it was. It was…” He ran both hands through his hair and huffed a breath. “I need you to smell me.”

I chuckled. “Why?”

“Just do it,” he said. “Now, before it fades.”

Taking a sip of my beer, I circled the island and leaned in, doing as he asked. We’d done weirder things in our pack life.

It hit me all at once. Sweet floral fragrance lined with a deeper tartness. Powerful and heady—in no way should a scent be that strong when it was just a remnant. I blinked and inhaled again. It was there, a gorgeous thread which made my Alpha stand up tall and pay attention.

Omega.

“Holy fuck.”

“Now you get it.”

I’d never scented anything like that before. Omegas always smelled good, but that? That was something else entirely. A scent which told me it was mine and I needed to claim it. I needed to bury my nose in it and never stop breathing in.

“PACK ASSEMBLE,” Bennett called, stripping the shirt off over his head.

I raised an eyebrow. “You couldn’t have done that before you asked me to smell you?”

Bennett snorted. “I’m barely keeping my focus together long enough to talk to you all instead of finding her again right now, Luke.”

I knew what he meant. If this was my secondhand reaction, being in her presence must have been incredible. More than incredible. We walked to the living room, footsteps clunking from elsewhere in the house. “You going to tell us why her scent is all over you too?”

“Yes.” He glared at me and tossed the shirt onto the coffee table. “I will.”

Rylan came in, shirtless and mussed, clearly blinking sleep from his eyes. “Pack Assemble? What are we, superheroes?”

A growl rumbled from Bennett. “You might feel like it in a second.”

“Probably not in the same way,” I muttered. Rylan was a Beta. The only Beta in our pack. I didn’t doubt the scent would be good for him, but it wouldn’t have the same impact as it would on the rest of us.

I took another sip of beer in an attempt to keep myself from snatching Ben’s t-shirt off the table again to inhale the scent which was already imprinted on my brain.

Kade and Avery entered together, looking at us expectantly.

“Is this where Bennett spills his feelings about being invited to a fancy party and how awful it was?” Kade asked. None of us really liked the party scene. At least not that party scene. But it was a good opportunity for Ben—for all of us—so he’d reluctantly agreed to go. Now I was fucking grateful he had.

“Smell the shirt,” Ben said.

Avery raised an eyebrow. “What?”