Page 208 of Unmarked
“Damn, Bambi,” Kai breathes. “Remind me never to get on your bad side.”
Ash exhales hard. “That wasn’t… gentle.”
“Wasn’t meant to be,” I say, turning back toward the three remaining alphas. “And for the record, I may not know what thehell’shappening to me, but I’m not going to let anyone decide my worth for me. Not Lucian Vale. Notanyone.”
Kai slouches deeper into the arm of the couch.
“You know, you’re terrifying when you’re pissed. In a hot way.”
Ash snorts. “Shut up.”
Theo stops just close enough to touch - but doesn’t. Not until I nod.
His fingers brush the back of my wrist. Light.Steady.
“You didn’t imagine any of it,” he says gently.
“Thank you,” I say, then clear my throat. “Look, I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know what this makes me. Rare-pack Omega? Illegal? Instinct-blown wreck in heat? Maybe all of the above. But I’m not going to sit here while someone else tries to decide I’m not enough.”
“You are,” Ash says simply.
“I know,” I say. “But it helps hearing you say it.”
Kai clutches his chest. “You guys are gonna make me feel things. Gross.”
“Good,” I tell him. “Maybe start with accountability.”
They laugh, and the tension ebbs. A little.
Not fully, but enough.
“Okay,” Kai says, raising both hands. “So what’s the play here? Lucian’s out, the rest of us are in, our omega’s wearing nothing but a war crime of a shirt -”
Ash growls. “Shutup, Kai.”
Theo just looks at me.
No.
Not even close.
But I nod again, because for the first time in a while, I don’t feel like I’m disappearing.
“I’m getting there.”
My jaw aches from clenching it so tight. My eyes burn.
“I just… I need time. Okay? I need to be alone. For now.”
Theo’s face softens. “Of course.”
“You know where we are,” Ash says.
Kai just salutes me with two fingers, weirdly gentle for once.
“You earned your silence, Bambi.”
I leave the room without another word.
