“Fuck it,” I mutter, my voice shaking. “You want the truth? Fine. I can’t form a mental bond with an alpha. My body and mind are broken. My old pack tried every chance they got, and itneverworked. And it won’t work this time either.”
Their faces blur together—shock, disbelief, pity.
I hate all of it.
“So go ahead,” I say, my voice cracking under the weight of it all. “Reject me now and get it over with. Save yourself the heartbreak.”
No one moves. The silence stretches thin, suffocating. I can feel every breath, every heartbeat.
Because I mean it.
I’d rather be rejected right now—ripped to pieces quickly—than wait for another pack to fall apart around me.
“No.” Tadeo steps forward. His voice is soft, but steady. “We aren’t rejecting you. We’d never,” he says firmly. “You belong to us, Sky. That perfect, beautiful body isn’t broken. It’s ours.”
I lift my gaze to him, and the way he’s looking at me—so calm, so sure—makes my throat close.
Dakota nods immediately, stepping closer, his eyes glassy. “He’s right,” he says, voice shaking but fierce. “We’re not leaving you. Not now, not ever.”
Knox straightens, shoulders square, jaw set like a man ready to take whatever punishment I give him. Alex stands beside him, quiet but unflinching, both of them giving the smallest, resolute nods.
I want to believe them.I really do.
But all I can do is stare, my chest tight and aching, because I’ve heard promises before. They always sound thesame—beautiful and heavy and full of meaning—until they don’t mean anything at all.
“You say that now…” I trail off. “But alphasneeda mental bond. They can’t?—”
“No, they don’t.” Dakota moves to the foot of the bed, then slowly sinks down until he’s sitting cross-legged on the floor. He looks so sweet and nonthreatening. “I’m not marked,” he says as he tilts his head back, showing me his unblemished skin. “Knox has offered, but I don’t need it.” He shrugs, like it really doesn’t matter. “We’re all connected—with or without a mating bite. The same goes for you.”
I want to laugh at him and tell him that’s not how it works between alphas and omegas, but I don’t have the heart to be mean to the beta like that.
Then Alex moves. He settles on his knees beside Dakota, big body folding down so we’re at eye level. The movement feels deliberate, like he’s trying to make himself smaller for me.
“I love my pack,” he says quietly, voice roughened with something raw. “I love them so fucking much. Knox and I have been together for almost fifteen years, and we’ve never shared a mental bond.” He gives a little shrug. “We don’t need one to know how the other feels. Sometimes I think that’s what makes it better—having to actually listen, to choose each other every day, instead of some chemical tether doing the work for us.”
The bitter twist in my chest stirs again, but it’s softer this time.
I so appreciate his attempt to make me feel better, but it’ll only be a matter of time before his biological needs kick in and he’s ripping out my throat too.
Then Tadeo moves closer, lowering himself right beside Alex. “I’ve been with this pack for fiveyears,” he says. “These men love me. They put up with all my bullshit. They support and encourage me every day. And we’ve never had a mental bond.”
I blink, searching his face for any trace of pity, but there isn’t any. Just calm certainty.
“It doesn’t mean we’re not family,” Knox adds simply as he kneels too, like it’s a symbolic gesture. “It doesn’t mean we love each other any less.”
I can’t find the words. My throat feels too tight, my body too small for everything sitting inside it.
They’re all still on the floor—four strong men kneeling like I’m something sacred instead of something broken—and it makes something in me ache so hard I have to look away.
Because I want to believe them.
God help me, I really do.
Sleeping Late
Skyla
The smellof bacon wakes me before the sunlight does. It’s thick in the air—salty, buttery, a little sweet—and for a long moment, I simply lie there, looking at the ceiling.
