He flinches like I slapped him. "I know. I'm sorry."
"What are you teaching me," I ask. "That my room isn't mine? That my nest isn't sacred? That you can put her smell wherever you want and I have to call it home? That I have nowhere to go at all? Nothing that issafe?"
"I'm teaching you that pack means everyone. That you don't get to hoard your space like it's a fortress. That nest belongs to this pack, not just you."
"I didn't push her. I didn't. I didn't."
"Hush."
His hands close around my forearms and I am such a coward for how my instinct purrs even now. He doesn't twist. He doesn't dig in. He doesn't have to. My body is already adapting:these are safe hands, obey them.
"Jasper."
Jasper's mouth flattens into a bloodless line. "I will write the incident report myself. And if you want me tosign my name under what you're about to do, you're going to be very disappointed."
"You'll hold. Or you'll walk."
Jasper's eyes flick to mine—resignation and promise both. "I'll hold. And I'll file. But only because I don’t want to leave her alone in your care after this."
"File what," Marie scoffs. "A note that Vee made me almost die?"
Jasper tilts his head toward her with a little court-smile. "A note that we ignored evidence in favor of theater."
Ragon throws one last glance at the wall, at the fist-shaped wound in the paint. Then he turns down the hallway.
"Move."
They move me.
It's not like being dragged. It's worse. Eli's hands are steady; Jasper takes a shoulder. They aren't rough. They aren't cruel. My body goes where alphas tell it.
The hall feels longer than it is. Family photos blur. The rug catches at the toe of my shoe and I stumble. Eli tightens his grip and I hate that it soothes me anyway.
Marie limps along on Drake's arm, not looking at me.
Ragon's scent leads the way—heavy, sure, filling my lungs like smoke.
My door waits.
My room waits.
My nest is a quiet shape on the bed, blankets layered the way my body knows how to layer: soft under, weight over, the little curve on the left where Eli's shoulder fits when he's reading me to sleep.
Ragon stops at the threshold and looks at it like a problem he's already solved.
"Don't. Ragon, please. Not there. Anywhere else. Do anything else. But not my nest. It’s all I have left."
Marie inhales.
Ragon doesn't answer me.
He looks at Eli and Jasper instead. "Hold her. She watches."
Eli and Jasper angle me to the chair in the corner like I'm a fragile painting. My knees go weak when they turn me so I'm facing the nest.
"Ragon," Jasper says one last time. "Don't make me have to call OPA."
"Do your job. I'll do mine. She's under my care. In my pack. What's going to be your pack soon. It's my call. The OPA is the one that allows to registry to pick out alpha guardians for omegas. The registry chosemefor Verena out of hundreds of applicants. They saw me as a capable, reliable alpha for her. So go on and call them Jasper. They’ll agree that I know what I’m doing. Vee will be rid of all her jealousy at the end of this. She’ll be better off for it. Happier. She’ll settle down when she learns how to share."
