Eloise sets her mug down and takes mine before pulling me into a tight hug. “Your parents want nothing more than to see youhappy. And if they’ve been watching the news until today, they’ve seen that, Emery. Let’s focus on you for right now. What do you want to do?”
“I have no idea.” I should call my alphas and sort things out. I should ask Wyatt if hewashacked, and apologize for what I said and for leaving. But all I want to do is stay here in Eloise’s home with her and hide until the virality of that post dies down. I want to run until the confidence of the omega that walked into Selection Day returns to me.
Eloise levels me with a stare. “You can stay here as long as you like. But you’ll have to talk to them at some point.”
“I know.” Maybe Ranier changed his mind again after claiming me with his bite mark the other night. Maybe that was just for show, or torture now.
I’ll never know if I don’t ask. But I’m not ready to. Not yet. Panic still swells within me, brighter than the sun, and my tears are still falling. I need to regroup. “Okay. Can we at least spend a few hours here before anything else?”
“Of course.” Eloise stands up and begins tossing pillows and blankets around to make her couch up to its maximum coziness level. “Pick a movie and I’ll get us some ice cream.”
I smile warmly at my best friend. “That sounds perfect.”
While she’s gone, I try to wipe my face and fail. There’s still paint under my nails. I think of the ruined canvas back at the pack house, the streaks of color and the way I’d felt holding it. That might all be gone now. I want to feel angry, but there’s nothing left but empty space right now.
If Royals Anonymouswashacked, there is hope.
If it wasn’t… My fairytale is over.
Eloise returns with a pint of chocolate and two spoons, plus a bottle of wine. She sits next to me, pulls the lid off the ice cream, and hands me a spoon. We watch trash TV until the room is dark except for the glow of the screen. Just like we used to.
My phone buzzes but I just ignore it. There will be time for everything else later.
I’m right where I need to be right now.
CHAPTER 30
Ranier
The sittingroom has always felt like an exhibit of someone else's nostalgia—a place where the idea of family is more important than the actual family. The sofas are firm, the rugs too thick. The portraits along the wall all composed by an artist who was paid by the hour, not the emotion.
I stand at the window, watching the garden flood with morning light, waiting for the inevitable.
It’s not a surprise when he walks in without knocking. My father hasn’t believed in privacy since the first time I disappointed him. He’s wearing an expensive suit but his hair is undone, like he’s been raking his hands through it all night. He takes in the room, then me, with the precision of a man looking for cracks.
“Ranier.” My father’s tone could sandblast the paint off a battleship. “Do you want to tell me what the hell happened?”
I don’t move. “You read the viral posts.”
My father laughs, but there’s no humor in it. “Posts? You mean the front page of every news site in the country? You mean the trending tags about how the Everhart pack is a joke, a failed dynasty, and—my personal favorite—a cautionary tale for why Council rules should be enforced with actual teeth?”
He’s warming up, a conductor leading his own anger. I wait for the rest.
My father strides to the bar and pours himself a drink. It’s too early for most people, but not for him. He throws it back and then slams the glass down hard enough to make me flinch.
“I did not risk my standing and my reputation for you to become a punchline, Ranier. I did not lose half a decade to the Council’s endless demands, just so you could hand over the last of our credibility to a commoner omega. Acommoner. Do you know what they’re saying about us?”
I turn from the window, slow and controlled. “That we were desperate. That we took in an outsider, and she ruined us.”
He points a finger at me, his hand trembling. “Exactly. Do you know what you’re supposed to do with an omega that doesn’t fit? You send her back. You cut her out before the infection spreads. You don’t coddle it. You don’t give it air. What thefuckwere you thinking?”
He expects me to snap back, to explain myself, to justify every single decision from the moment I let Emery Grey into this house. But I don’t say anything. Because for the first time in my life, I have no idea what I’m supposed to do. But I do. Idoknow.
Everything has been leading to this precipice. I should’ve tumbled off it far sooner.
My father crosses the room and looms over me, breath sharp with expensive gin. “You are the last Everhart worth a damn, and you’ve been acting like a second-rate beta. You let her in. You let your own pack get soft. Now look at us.” His hand makes a vague gesture at the air, encompassing not just the house but the entire legacy he thinks he built.
I think of the last time I saw Emery. Her hair wild, paint on her arms, eyes bright with the kind of hope you’re not supposed to find in this city. I think of Bastion, fist clenched, holding back the urge to hit something because he knew it would make thingsworse. I think of Wyatt, hunched and apologetic, the look on his face when he realized he’d betrayed her.
