Seraphina sends a text:12 packages collected. You saved lives today.
Then another:Student council is drafting new protocols for omega safety. You should be part of that conversation. When you're ready.
Gideon calls with an update. His voice sounds lighter than before. "Her confession was recorded. Your phone caught everything."
"I'm sorry it took so long," I say.
"Eighteen months." His voice cracks slightly. "Eighteen months of knowing something was wrong and hitting walls everywhere. Now it’s over." He pauses. "Thank you. For caring."
After we hang up, we sit in comfortable silence. Exhausted but relieved.
"I keep thinking about what she said," I admit. "That multi-alpha bonds will destroy me."
"She was wrong," Calder states immediately.
"Was she?" I look at them. "She believed it completely. What if?—"
"Stop." Julian's turn to interrupt. "She was ideologically poisoned long before she poisoned anyone else. Traditional doesn't mean correct. Old ways aren't always better."
"We're not destroying you," Tyler adds gently. "We're building something with you. There's a difference."
Calder pulls me against his side. "Four people died because someone decided their choice was wrong. Don't let her poison reach beyond her arrest. Don't doubt what we've built."
He's right. Robbins was sick. Her beliefs twisted into justification for murder. It doesn't make those beliefs true.
"I need to call my grandmother," I realize. "Let her know we're safe."
Mira answers on the first ring.
"It’s over, little one." She knows somehow.
"How did you?—"
"I felt the weight lift." Her voice is matter of fact. “You're safe now."
I tell her everything, and she listens without panic, steady as mountains.
"I'm proud of you," she says when I finish. "I always knew you hadthe Rowan strength."
"Do you want me to come home?" My chest tightens at the thought.
"Are you happy where you are?"
I look at my pack, at Calder's solid strength, Tyler's sunshine warmth, Julian's careful devotion. The greenhouse where we've built something real. The campus that's become home.
"Yes. I'm happy here."
"Then stay. Rowans choose their own path. You've chosen well."
After we say goodbye, I find my pack watching me with varying expressions of hope and anxiety.
"We would never have let you go," Calder says.
Then he kisses me, fierce and claiming, all the fear and relief of the past days pouring into the press of his mouth against mine. His hand cups the back of my neck, thumb stroking the scent gland he’s yet to mark, and I shiver at the promise in that touch.
When he pulls back, Tyler's already there, turning my face toward his with gentle fingers. His kiss tastes like sunshine and joy because we have all the time in the world now that the danger's passed.
"Missed this," he murmurs against my lips. "Missed you without fear."
