A roar cut him off. "What the fuck!"
Etienne surged to his feet, his chair scraping across the floor. His eyes were locked on my neck, on the claiming mark, and his face had gone pale.
"Etienne—" Hastings started.
"Who claimed her?" Etienne's voice was deadly quiet now, more dangerous than the roar had been. "Who claimed you?"
He turned to Fritz who looked at Hastings, already knowing.
“Me,” Hastings replied.
"We agreed." Etienne's hands slammed down on the table, the dishes rattled. "We fucking agreed that when we found her, when we found our omega, we'd claim her together. As a pack."
"I know." Hastings stood, his shoulders tense. "I lost control. The heat, her scent, the way she looked at me. I couldn't stop."
"You could have stopped." Etienne moved around the table, putting himself face to face with Hastings. "You always have control, Henry. That's your whole thing. Control and logic and never doing anythingwithout a plan. But you took her, marked her, bonded her without even thinking about us."
"I thought about you." Hastings' voice rose. "I thought about you every fucking second. I thought about how you'd feel, how Fritz would feel, and I still couldn't stop because she's mine."
She’s mine.
"She's ours!"
Ours.
My heart missed a beat, a messy, frantic stagger that left me lightheaded.
"I know that!"
"Do you?" Etienne's chest heaved. "Because it doesn't feel like you know that. It feels like you saw something you wanted and took it like you always do."
"That's not fair."
"Isn't it?" Etienne turned to look at me, and the hurt in his eyes made my throat close. "Did you want this? Did you want him to claim you alone?"
I opened my mouth, but no words came out.
Because the truth was complicated. I'd wanted the claim. I'd presented my neck. I'd begged for it in the moment, out of my mind with heat and need and the overwhelming desire to be his.
But in reality, I wasn’t out of my mind with heat. Everything else was true.
And I hadn't thought about what it would mean for the pack. For Fritz and Etienne. For the bond we were supposed to build together.
"Answer me, Princesse." Etienne's voice cracked. "Did you want this?"
"I—" I looked at Hastings, at the guilt written all over his face, then back at Etienne. "I don't know. In the moment, yes. But now—"
"Now you regret it."
"No." The word came out too fast. "I don't regret it. I just—I didn't think. Neither of us did."
Fritz stood, moving to place a hand on Etienne's shoulder. "She's still ours. One claim doesn't change that."
"Doesn't it?" Etienne shrugged off Fritz's hand. "She's bonded to him now. She can feel him. She'll always feel him first, strongest, and we'll be—what? Afterthoughts?"
"That's not how it works," Hastings said quietly.
"How would you know? You've never been in a pack bond. None of us have."
