Chapter 13
Ragon calls it "an adjustment."
He doesn't say parole, but that's what it feels like.
He tells me in the living room, of course. The place where everything bad seems to get announced lately.
I'm on the same armchair I've been exiled to for weeks, hands folded in my lap like good furniture. The others are scattered around—Eli with his laptop closed for once, Drake sprawled on the couch with one leg thrown over the arm, Marie tucked beside him, Jasper at the edge of the room like an observing shadow.
Ragon stands.
That's how you know it's official. He doesn't sit for this kind of thing.
"We're changing the restriction."
Marie's fingers tighten on Drake's forearm. Eli's shoulders drop a millimeter. Drake's foot stops bouncing.
My pulse spikes.
Restriction.
He won't call it a ban, even now.
"For the last several weeks, we've had a boundary in place to correct certain behaviors."
He doesn't look at me when he says it. He looks out over all of us, voice smooth, explaining a policy, not a punishment.
"You've done better with it than I expected."
I'm not sure if that's supposed to be praise. It sounds like an assessment on a clipboard.
"You've been respectful. You've been helpful. You've accepted Marie's presence. You've focused on constructive outlets."
Constructive outletsmeaning cooking in silence and gardening instead of throwing myself at the walls.
"So we're lifting part of it. The alphas are no longer barred from offering you comfort."
The words hit my body before they hit my brain.
I go lightheaded with want.
Comfort.
Contact.
I feel it like a drug I've been detoxing from.
Eli's scent spikes with something sharp and aching. Drake's does too, briefly, before something in it twists toward Marie where she sits tucked under his arm.
"There are conditions," Ragon adds.
Of course there are.
My eyes fix on a knot in the hardwood so I don't have to look at him.
"This doesn't erase the original lesson. You will remember that there are consequences for lashing out at packmates. You will maintain the respect and restraint you've been showing. If we see the same pattern again, the boundary goes back up. Longer."
"Yes, Alpha."
