I swallow. “I don’t.”
“Then whatdoyou want, Ranier?”
Nobody’s ever asked me that before. Not in a way that actually matters.
I shake my head. “I want to keep this family from burning to the ground.”
“Which family?” Emery asks. “Yours, or the pack?”
Fuck if I know.“The pack matters to me just as much as my parents and siblings, Emery.” Which is the truth. I just don’t know how to move forward without losing one or both.
She smiles softly. “You want to protect us. The pack.”
I bristle. “Don’t make it sound noble. I just want to survive the waves being made.”
Emery shrugs. “Same thing. But I’m not some demon. I’m just a commoner omega who worked her whole life to get into this position. How is that so scary?”
I can’t tell if she’s mocking me or trying to help.
Emery reaches out and taps the phone on the desk. “Wyatt’s been looking for that, by the way.”
“I’ll give it back to him in the morning.”
I look at her hand, the slender fingers resting on the screen. I want to take her hand, pull her onto my side of the desk, and see if she’d let me hold her down. I want to see what she’d do if I told her the truth: that she scares me more than any Council directive, and far more than the prospect of dying alone, packless, in this mausoleum of a house.
Instead, I say, “You’re not what I expected.”
Emery leans in. We’re close enough now that I can count the freckles on her nose. “Neither are you. I was hoping for noble alphas intent on truly forming a pack. Not trying to fit in while also being ousted at the same time.”
Her words are like a knife to my heart. We did that.Idid that.Fucking hell.I squeeze my eyes shut and roughly scrub my forehead with the palm of my hand.
All I wanted was to make the family and our legacy proud.
“Do you know what your problem is, Ranier?” she asks with a voice so soft, I’m not sure I would’ve heard her if we weren’t so close. But she’s confident, too. Even.
I exhale, impatient—mostly with myself. “Enlighten me.”
“You think you’re the only one who can fix things. But sometimes you just have to let them happen.”
I wish it were that easy. “Is that what you do?”
Emery laughs. “I’m an omega. My job is to make a mess, then act cute until someone else cleans it up.”
I want to hate her for that, but all I feel is relief. I sit back, exhausted. Emery has seen right through me. So far, she’s not running away. But I have no idea how to carry on from here.
Emery straightens and for a second I think she might vault over the desk and kiss me. Instead, she says, “You should get some sleep.”
I nod, but neither of us moves. As she looks down, I see them. Bite marks on her neck. Fresh.
Bastion and Wyatt have staked their claim. Without me.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
This is inevitable.
Terrifying.
Wonderful.
