The words hit me like a physical blow.
I step back instinctively, my heel catching on the edge of the rug.
"No," I whisper, the sound barely audible even to myself.
I don't want a new pack.
I don't want another house, another hierarchy, another set of eyes deciding whether I'm too much or not enough. I don’t want to go through something like this again.
Ican’t.
I just want to be left alone.
Ragon roars.
The sound shakes the room, raw and furious. "No oneis taking my omega from me."
Chase lifts a hand calmly. "We'll discuss options when we can speak formally."
Marie moans again, another surge of slick spilling as her body convulses.
Chase turns to his team. "We're leaving."
They move quickly, efficiently, already filing toward the door.
Ragon doesn't take his eyes off me.
"We'll talk," he promises, his voice tight but certain. "As soon as she's taken care of."
He gestures toward my room. "Stay in the house. I'll check on you."
Then he turns away.
All of them do.
One by one, the alphas disappear down the hall, guiding Marie toward her room as she whines and cries, the scent of heat clinging to the walls long after the door closes behind them.
The house falls silent again.
I stand there for several seconds, unable to move, my mind reeling.
The video. The truth. The heat. The threat of being sent away.
I thought Chase was my friend.
My legs almost give out beneath me.
I retreat to my room on autopilot, closing the door, crossing the space to my chair like it's the only solid thing left in the world.
I sit.
And I stay there, staring at nothing, trying to process a morning that has already changed everything.
***
The noises coming from Marie's room don't stop.
They change, shift, swell and ebb like weather—whining, the occasional sharp cry, the low rumble of alpha voices trying to soothe and contain, the creak of a bedframe, the thud of footsteps pacing.
