I looked down at my body. Five bite marks decorated my skin. They should have been wounds. Instead, they looked like art. Like brands that marked me as thoroughly as the rings in their eyes marked them. I checked my wrist and my bond mark was complete too. Five arcs creating a perfect circle on my wrist, I loved it all.
Omega.
The word rose up from somewhere deep inside me. Not a label. Not a classification. An identity. A truth I'd been running from without even knowing it.
I was an Omega.
And I finally understood what that meant.
The power unfurled inside me like wings I'd never known I had. Not the desperate, consuming heat of the last few days—something steadier. More fundamental. I felt the bonds stretching out from my chest like golden threads, connectingme to each of my mates, holding them steady, keeping them anchored.
I could feel their emotions now. Really feel them.
Not echoes. Not impressions. The full weight of what lived inside each of them, as clear as my own heartbeat.
James burned with fierce, possessive satisfaction, a wolf who had finally claimed what was his. Neal's wonder was soft and bright, the scientist in him marveling at something that couldn't be measured or explained. Cal's contentment ran deep and quiet, a river finally reaching the sea. Cole's love was overwhelming. Ancient. Like he'd been carrying it for years before we ever met, just waiting for somewhere to put it down. And Stone—Stone's relief was so profound it bordered on grief. The kind that came from holding your breath for so long you forgot what air tasted like.
And underneath all of them, I could feel myself.
The heat had finally broken. Not faded—broken, like a fever snapping in the night. In its place was something I'd never experienced. A calm that lived in my bones. A settled certainty that had nothing to do with answers and everything to do with belonging.
I wasn't just their mate.
I was their center. Their anchor. The heart of a pack that would have torn itself apart without me.
I'd spent so long thinking that need was weakness. That requiring others meant I wasn't strong enough on my own.
I was wrong.
This wasn't weakness.
This was strength I'd never known I had.
"Lumi." Stone's voice was wrecked. Raw. He was still buried inside me, his arms still wrapped around me like he was afraid I'd dissolve if he let go. "Tell me you're okay."
I turned my head. Found his eyes—gold fading back to gray, but that new ring around his pupils catching the light.
"I'm not okay," I said softly.
His face crumpled.
"I'm better than okay." I lifted my hand, touched his cheek. "I'm finally whole."
The men shifted around me—not pulling away, but rearranging. Stone stayed where he was. James curled against my back. Neal and Cal settled on either side, their hands finding mine. Cole lay facing me, his forehead pressed to mine.
We were a tangle of limbs and sweat and bite marks. Exhausted. Sated. Complete.
"How do you feel?" Cole asked softly.
I considered the question.
The fever was gone. The desperate, clawing need had faded to a warm hum of satisfaction. My body ached in a thousand places—well-used muscles, tender flesh, the throb of healing bites. But underneath all of that was something new.
Power.
I felt it coiled inside me like a sleeping dragon. The ability to calm. To anchor. To hold an entire pack together through sheer force of presence. I understood now why the council had feared Omegas. Why they'd hunted them to extinction.
This wasn't just biology. This was something fundamental. Something that couldn't be controlled or contained.
