The words come out sharper than intended, edged with a bitterness I thought I’d exhausted. Apparently not.
“Your opinion matters because you’re pack,” Logan says, his voice gentler than I’ve ever heard it. “Whether you want to be or not, whether I had the right to make you so or not—you’re one of us now. And that means your voice counts.”
I stare at him, searching for the lie, the manipulation. Finding none obvious doesn’t mean it isn’t there, just that he’s gotten better at hiding it.
“I think,” I begin slowly, “that we’re probably dead no matter which option we choose.”
“We still want to hear from you,” Logan replies softly.
“Don’t,” I say, holding up a hand to stop him. “Don’t pretend you’re offering me a choice when we all know you’ve already decided what we’re doing.”
“But I haven’t,” Logan insists, and the frustration in his voice sounds genuine. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I’m not making this decision alone.”
I laugh, the sound hollow even to my own ears. “Right. The great Prince Logan, suddenly democratic. Suddenly caring what his pack thinks. Suddenly treating me like a person with agency.”
“Maya—“ he starts, but I cut him off.
“No. Stop pretending my opinion matters. I was locked in a cage just a few days ago, if you recall.”
“It matters,” Poe says beside me, his voice tight with controlled fury. “It matters very much.”
I risk a glance at him and immediately wish I hadn’t. The raw anger in his ice-chip eyes is too much to bear, too reminiscent of how he looked in the doctor’s compound when he found me strapped to that table.
“The doctor is dead,” Logan says firmly, as if stating this fact will erase everything I’ve just revealed. “You’re safe now. We made sure of that.”
Cillian clears his throat, his voice steady despite the pain I know he’s fighting.
“The doctor didn’t act alone,” he states baldly. “The king knew exactly what was happening to Maya, along with howevermany other omegas must have been experimented on in the past.”
The room falls silent as his words sink in. Logan’s expression hardens, but Cillian continues unflinchingly.
“Thane might have been dangerous, but he was the tip of a much longer spear.” His gaze sweeps across each face in the room. “You can kill one man, but the system that created him remains intact. Leaving Melilla won’t protect us from that.”
“This is exactly why we need to leave,” Ares says, his voice rough with emotion. “Maya and Cillian will never be safe. We need to get as far away from this as possible.”
“Running won’t stop the king,” Poe says, the words falling into the room like stones. “There is only one way to do that.”
Ares’s voice is unlike I’ve ever heard it before. “You’re talking treason.”
“There is already a resistance forming, small but very real. You’ve spent enough time ferreting out dissidents to know that yourself, Ares,” Poe replies, expression unwavering. “There are people willing to risk their lives to overturn the throne, both outside of the palace and within it.”
“And you’ll get all of them killed, with us along with them, if you make any attempt against King Leopold,” Ares replies, voice incredulous.
Their voices rise in an argumentative cacophony.
Cillian’s voice is soft, but with a note of iron that breaks through the noise. “I want to know what Logan thinks we should do.”
All eyes turn to Logan who only stares back unblinking. My connection to him through the bond is so faint that I can’t sense any particular emotion, just that his mind is a morass despite the lack of expression.
“This is getting us nowhere,” Logan says finally. “We’re just talking in circles.”
“Because you won’t listen,” Poe snaps. “Because you’ve already decided what’s best for everyone, just like always.”
“That’s not true,” Logan insists, but the protest sounds weak even to my ears.
“Isn’t it?” Poe challenges. “When have you ever truly listened to any of us? When have our opinions ever changed your mind once it’s made up?”
Logan opens his mouth to respond, then closes it again, seeming to reconsider. The silence stretches, uncomfortable and revealing. He can’t answer because Poe is right, and we all know it.
