I watch him try. That's the part that makes me sick. I watch him reach for the defense of her, the instinct that's been running his brain for months, and I watch it sputter and fail. His mouth opens to say something and nothing comes out. He looks at Marie—really looks at her—and then his eyes move to the kitchen behind us.
To the counter where Vee used to bake.
To the empty chair where she used to sit with her knees pulled up and her coffee going cold because she'd forgotten about it again.
The hook by the door where her jacket used to hang.
I watch the fight go out of him.
Not all at once. In pieces. His shoulders first, then his jaw. Then his hands, which unclench and go flat on the counter like he needs it to hold him up.
"It doesn't matter," he says.
Marie blinks. "What?"
"The reason. It doesn't matter." His voice sounds scraped out. "Whatever you did and why you did it—I'm the one who let it happen. I'm the pack lead. I made the calls. I destroyed her nest. I enforced the bans. I watched her get smaller and I told myself it was growing pains."
He's not looking at Marie anymore, he's looking at the empty kitchen.
"She used to hum when she baked," he says. "Did you know that? Early on. Before everything. She'd hum and the whole house smelled like vanilla and sugar and I'd come in and… she'd have this look on her face. Like she'd forgotten to be guarded for a minute."
Nobody speaks.
"She stopped humming before you even got here, Marie. That was me.Idid that. I did that every year she stayed unclaimed. You just finished what I’d already started."
Marie's tears are still falling but her expression is shifting. Hardening around the edges.
"You need to go," Ragon says. It’s not harsh, just tired. The exhaustion of a man who has just stopped lying to himself and is finding out how heavy the truth is. "I need to get Vee back. And I can't do that with you here."
"You think sending me away fixes what you did?"
"No. Nothing fixes what I did. But keeping you here makes it impossible."
Marie breathes deep and then her face goes hard and the tears stop. Whatever was soft in her closes over.
"That's fucking rich, isn't it?" She puts her hands on her hips. "After everything you did to her,nowyou stand up for her? Now that it's probably too late for you? After all the punishments and corrections and denials… and I'll just bet you blame me for everything that happened to her. Yeah I pushed you in that direction but the cold hard fact, Ragon, is that you didn't have to steer the wheel."
"I know," he says.
That stops her. She expected a fight but she didn't get one.
"But fine," she continues, anger tinging her tone. "Cast me out." She looks at him and a coldness moves into her eyes. "You felt the bond and you lost your minds. I felt it too. I just didn't let it make me stupid."
She looks at each of us in turn. Not with anger. It’s worse than anger.
"You had a choice," she says. "Every one of you. And you chose wrong. You failed as alphas on such a fundamental level that I'm glad I'm not going to be stuck with you the rest of my life. A scent match is a scent match. That’s all it is. I think I'd rather take what's waiting for me."
She turns for the door then stops.
"With her gone," she says, almost to herself, "nothing matters anymore."
Nobody says a word.
"You'll stay here until the paperwork goes through. Then you're gone."
She goes back to her room.
We hear her door slam.
