Marie does the crashing for me.
Her expression goes from stunned to furious in a heartbeat. "Why does she need to be bonded at all?"
The temperature in the room drops ten degrees.
"Marie," Drake warns, low.
"No, I want to know. You're my alphas. I'm your scent match. That's supposed to mean something. Bonding another omega—marking another omega—on top of that? It feels—"
"Careful," Ragon says softly.
"—disrespectful. To me. To what we are. Vee doesn't have to be bonded to stay. Plenty of packs keep spare omegas without marking them. It doesn't mean they're loved any less."
My stomach turns.
Spare omegas.
Loved any less.
My fingers tighten around Eli's hand until my knuckles ache.
"Marie," Eli says quietly. "Don't."
She barrels on, maybe because she's too upset to stop, maybe because the part of her that is still scared and hungry doesn't know how not to bite.
"I'm not saying kick her out. I'm just saying there are other options. She's been here, she fits, fine. But if you mark her, if you give her the same status as me, what does that say about the importance of a scent match? About what you and I have?"
"That it's not a throne you sit on alone," Jasper says mildly.
She shoots him a look. "You could be my scent match too. You should understand."
"I understand scarcity. I don't endorse hoarding. You’re trying to hoard the alphas of this pack. Including me."
Ragon's patience snaps like a dry twig.
"Stop it," he says, and the words carry command.
Marie's mouth clicks shut, but the anger is still in her eyes, bright and wounded.
"You're being territorial. And jealous. And unfair."
Her scent spikes with protest. "I'm being honest. No one else is saying it: she doesn't have to be bonded. You chose me knowing she was here. That should have meant—"
"I chose you knowing she was here. And I told her from the beginning that she would be bonded in whether we ever found our scent match or not. I also told you before you came that we would all be bonding. Including Vee. I am not going back on that."
My lungs forget their job.
He told her that?
He told her up front?
Marie's lower lip trembles. "You'd mark her. Even if I said it makes me uncomfortable."
"Yes. Because I'm not going to build stability for you by tearing it out from under her. You are not a queen claiming a harem. You're one omega in a pack that existed before you and will exist if you leave. You matter. Youdon't get to rewrite the terms of everyone else's lives because you're scared."
The room crackles.
Her eyes fill with tears—furious, hurt. "I thought I mattered more."
