"No."
"Did he touch you?" Drake demands, scent flaring.
"Not really. He moved my hair. That's all."
"Not all," Ragon mutters.
Eli's jaw clenches. "Sit."
Ragon's grip on my neck loosens.
I go.
Because of course I do.
Eli pulls me onto the bench beside him, close enough that our thighs touch. His hand slides from my wrist to my knee, grounding.
Ragon sits opposite, posture rigid, eyes still scanning the crowd.
"He gave her a card. I disposed of it."
The sting of that flares again.
It's stupid.
I hated the card.
I wanted it.
I wanted proof that someone outside this disaster could look at me and sayif they don't do right by you, someone else will.
"He said I should call when I've had enough. Said he'd show me how 'real alphas' treat an omega."
Drake swears quietly.
Marie's expression goes complicated—anger, yes, but also fear.
Jasper's mouth compresses. "Recruitment tactics at the zoo. Classy."
Eli squeezes my knee hard enough to border on painful. "You're not calling."
"I know."
Ragon watches me, eyes unreadable.
"Don't wander off again without telling someone. I mean it."
"Yes, Alpha."
He nods once, decisive, and turns his attention back to his food.
Conversation limps back to life after a while. Marie makes a pointed comment about alphas who don't understand boundaries. Drake tries to lighten things with a joke about jealous penguins.
I sit between Eli and Jasper, sipping lukewarm soda, staring at nothing.
On the outside, it probably looks like a normal day at the zoo with a slightly rattled omega and aprotective pack.
On the inside, I am a tangle of contradictory truths.
