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I’m halfway across the parking lot when I spot the man leaning against my door, spotlighted under a pole light. I don’t need to see his features to know what’s waiting.
I haven’t crossed paths with my father since shit went down. Hunter broke the news to the dads.
He didn’t update me afterward, but I don’t need the minutes.
Breaking the pack is the same as shattering their legacy.
It must’ve been a shitshow.
Scorpio’s dominance makes me feel ten years old again, caught playing with Orion’s video games instead of studying wilderness survival.
The light catches the silver threads in his dark cropped hair, casting his hard-ass face in deep shadows. “You took leave.”
“I lost my pack bond and my mate. I need a few days.” Weeks, years. It takes how long it takes to fix my mess.
Scorpio straightens, a shadow in black camo. “Need you back at the ranch. We’re negotiating—”
“No.”
“No isn’t an option.” Scorpio quirks a don’t-test-me brow. “Unless you want your leave to be permanent.”
There’s a sick roar in my stomach or maybe in my ears. It’s the rush of everything I built collapsing. “I thought you wanted me to mate Lilah.”
“Of course. She’ll be a fine mother to our next generation.” Behind his words is a clatter, more bullshit falling away.
Lilah isn’t here for us to breed.
She’s our salvation. “This is where I need to be.”
He makes a noise in his throat. “You can mate without abandoning your work. You’ll be off duty for her heat. Once the four of you fix your bond, you’re boots on the ground. We have too many fires to put out. Can’t leave our best team on the bench.”
The sound in my ears reminds me of being dropped in the woods with a map and a mission to find my way home. After a rough night in the worst downpour, a patch of forest overturned. All these big, ancient trees groaning and splintering in a haunting roar as their trunks fell and their roots overturned.
Scorpio’s words are just as devastating.
Already lost my mate, my pack, my role.
Now I’m losing my father—or at least my respect for him and it’s the same goddamned thing.
“There’s five of us.” I shake off his dominance and hit him with my own.
Scorpio jerks. “Excuse me?”
“Six counting Lilah. Four alphas, two omegas.”
“Drop the farce with Orion. Keep him on the side if it makes you happy, but not in your bond. It’s his fault the pack was weak.”
“It’s my fault,” I grit out.
“Noble of you to take responsibility.” Scorpio bears down with a hit of authority that’s lead in my gut. “But this is the chance we’ve been waiting for. Assert your dominance, reclaim leadership, and rebuild. You four will be stronger once the girl’s claimed.”
“No.”
Goddamn fucking shit.
Is this what I sound like to Hunter?
To Lilah and Orion?
