"We are not sending you back," Ragon says, and the command in his voice finally breaks through my spiral.
I stare at him, gasping for air.
"We are not sending you anywhere," he repeats, slower, deliberate. "You are staying here."
"But you found—"
"Yes," he interrupts. "We found a scent match. And yes, we're going to bring her into this pack."
The confirmation is a knife between my ribs.
"But you are not leaving," he continues, voice steady and sure. "You are not being replaced. You are staying. Both of you will be here."
I blink through tears. "Both?"
"Two omegas," Eli says quietly, his hand still on my back. "One pack."
My brain struggles to process. The panic starts to recede, but something sharper rushes in to fill the space.
Anger.
"You want to keep me." My voice flattens. "Even though you have her. Your scent match. You want both of us."
"Yes," Ragon says simply.
"You want me to stay here and watch you bond her. Mark her. Smell like her. Watch you give her everything I've been waiting five years for."
Silence.
"You've been seeing her for two months," I continue, and the anger is building now, hot and bitter. "Two months. You've been hiding her from me for two months while you figured out if you wanted to keep your scent match. And now you're telling me I should what—be grateful you're not throwing me away? That I should welcome her with open arms and smile while you give her everything I wanted?"
Drake's face crumples. "Vee—"
"Shut up. Just—shut up for a second."
Eli's hand hasn't moved from my back, but I can feel the tension in his fingers.
"We didn't tell you right away because we wanted to have answers first," he says carefully. "We didn't want to come to you with this half-formed—"
"It would've been honest."
"It would've terrified you," Ragon says flatly. "For no reason, if it turned out to be a fluke."
"But it wasn't a fluke, was it?" My laugh is bitter. "So instead I get the concentrated version. Surprise, we've found the miracle omega, and by the way we've already had two months to get used to the idea. Two months to fall for her."
"We haven't fallen for her," Drake says desperately. "We barely know her. We've been trying to figure out what the hell to do—"
"While I what? Hummed in the kitchen and made you dinner and thought everything was fine? While I slept in your beds and thought I was safe?"
"You are safe," Eli says fiercely.
"Am I?" I demand. "Because this sure feels like you picked her, and now you're trying to figure out how to handle me without feeling guilty."
"We are not sending you away," Eli repeats. "Not now. Not ever."
My laugh breaks on a sob. "That's what the last pack said."
Silence slams down.
