Movement in the doorway drew my attention, as Theo stepped into the room, his broad frame filling the entrance for a moment before he moved inside. He didn't head for the other chair or stand awkwardly in the corner. Instead, he walked to the opposite side of the bed from where Lucian sat and lowered himself onto the edge, maintaining the same careful distance Lucian had established.
The three of them formed a semicircle around me, protective without being confining. Each was positioned deliberately to give me space while still being present. My gaze tracked from one to the next, noting the way they all held themselves with thatsame careful stillness, like they were afraid sudden movements might spook me.
Kade leaned forward slightly in his chair, his elbows resting on his knees, hands clasped loosely between them. “I owe you an apology,” he said, his voice carrying the weight of genuine regret. “For this morning. For scaring you.”
I shook my head, and started to tell him it wasn't his fault, but he continued before I could form the words.
“I saw that woman grab you, saw the fear on your face, and I just... reacted. My only thought was getting her away from you, making sure you were safe.” His jaw tightened, and I saw his hands clench briefly before relaxing again. “I didn't think about how it might look to you. I'm sorry.”
The sincerity in his voice made my throat tight. I looked down at my hands, at the way my fingers twisted in the blanket, and tried to find words that would explain without blaming.
“I know you were protecting me,” I mumbled. “I do know that. It's just... hard sometimes to separate what I know from what I feel.”
“I understand,” Kade said, and something in his tone made me believe he actually did. “But I need you to know something, Jasmine. I would never hurt you. None of us would. You mean too much to me—to all of us.”
I looked up at that, meeting his eyes across the distance between us. The intensity in his gaze made my pulse quicken, but it wasn't fear this time. It was something else, something I didn't quite know how to name.
“Why?” The question slipped out before I could stop it, small and confused. “Why do I matter so much? I'm just... I'm nobody. A street singer who broke your glass and ran away from help.”
Kade's expression softened, and a small smile curved his lips. It reached his eyes, making them warm in the late afternoon light filtering through my window. “If you don't know right now,that's okay,” he said gently. “But perhaps one day you'll realize who we are to each other.”
I frowned, trying to decipher what he meant. Who we are to each other. The words felt significant, weighted with meaning I couldn't quite grasp. My mind turned them over, examining them from different angles, but understanding remained just out of reach.
The three Alphas watched me with expressions I couldn't fully read. Patient, yes, but something more. Something that looked almost like longing mixed with hope.
My gaze drifted away from them, finding the window instead. The afternoon sun painted everything in shades of gold, beautiful and distant. My mind started to wander down familiar paths, dark corridors of memory that I usually tried to avoid. The pack house. Bane's cold eyes. The feeling of fists connecting with my body. The blood.
I felt myself pulling away, retreating into those memories despite not wanting to go there. My breathing changed, became shallower, and my fingers stilled in the blanket as I got lost in painful places.
“Jasmine?” Lucian's voice was soft, gentle, pulling me back from the edge of wherever I'd been sinking to. “What are you thinking about?”
I blinked, focusing on him with effort. His ocean-colored eyes were full of concern, and I realized my expression must have changed, must have shown something of where my mind had gone.
“Nothing,” I started to say, then stopped. That wasn't true, and somehow lying to them felt worse than the truth. “I was just... thinking.”
“About what?” Theo's deep voice came from my other side, warm and encouraging without being pushy.
I looked between the three of them, saw the genuine care in their faces, and felt something crack open in my chest. The words wanted to come out suddenly, desperately, like a wound that had been festering too long and needed to be lanced.
“I've been told I was safe before,” I whispered, my voice breaking on the last word. My eyes burned with tears. I'd thought I was done crying. “They promised me I'd be protected, that I belonged with them, that they'd take care of me.”
Kade shifted forward in his chair, his body tensing like he wanted to move closer but was restraining himself. Theo's hand moved slightly on the bed, not reaching for me but closer, available if I wanted it. Lucian stayed perfectly still, but his expression had gone tight.
“Who?” Kade asked, though I suspected he already knew the answer.
“My old pack.” The words tasted like ash in my mouth. “The one I ran from.”
The room seemed to hold its breath. Even the afternoon light streaming through the window felt suspended, caught in the moment before everything broke open.
“They hurt you.” It wasn't a question. Theo's voice had gone low, dangerous in a way that should have scared me but somehow didn't. Not when it was directed at ghosts from my past rather than at me.
I nodded, not able to look at any of them anymore, my gaze fixed on my hands instead, on the way they trembled as I held the blanket. “For everything. For being too slow, too quiet, too visible, too Omega. There was always a reason.”
Lucian made a soft sound, something between a growl and a wounded noise. I glanced at him and saw his jaw clenched tight, his hands fisted on his knees.
“I thought if I just tried harder, if I was better, more useful, less trouble, then maybe...” I trailed off, the sentence dyingbecause I didn't know how to finish it. Maybe they would stop? Maybe they would actually care? Maybe I would deserve the safety they'd promised?
“It wasn't your fault,” Kade said firmly, and the conviction in his voice made me look up. His hazel-brown eyes were blazing with something fierce. “Whatever they did to you, however they justified it, none of it was your fault.”
