And he… heshouldn'thave.
I thought so, now.
I… I hadn’t wanted it. And he should have known because I’d never said anything to him.
He hadn’t been my pack. He hadn’t been Chosen—like Vandle was.
My fist tightened in Sin’s shirt, and his arm came around me, as if he knew.
Hedidknow. He was so tuned in.Anotheromega, not one with golden eyes—and one who knew what he was doing, who commanded respect. Who understood who and what he was, and I wanted that.
He was the most grounded person I’d ever met, and he’d been so angry when I’d told him, it had changed me deep down. As if there had been something wrong with me for not understanding before now.
I didn’t want him to ruin it for me. For my pack…
But still, the shame I felt from all of it… bile rose in the back of my throat at the thought of being so exposed in front of a crowd of howling alphas like the last time. But if I closed my eyes like I had before and did… that… there was only one thing I could remember.
Sin was leading me from the room, and I realized I hadn’t heard the end of the conversation. He leaned close, desert eclipse smothering me like a blanket, so absolutely sure.
“We’ll find another way, firefly.”
I brought my stack of finished library books to Phantom that afternoon, holding it out for him to take.
He blinked down at me, hesitantly taking the books with a faint frown. “Did you… not like them? Were they not sweet like you wanted?”
I shook my head. “No, I liked them a lot.”
“Then why are you handing them to me? You can keep them for a few more days, Little Omega.”
“Well, I’m done. And I guess I could reread them all, but they had a lot of books in there, right? Surely there are more that I could try?”
He looked at the stack of books, all with thick spines and pages full of happiness. “You’ve read them all already?” he confirmed.
“Yes. Uh, is that… bad?” I sank my teeth into my bottom lip.
Maybe it wasn’t convenient to go back today. I grabbed for the books, intending to take them back, but Phantom swept them up and out of my reach. “It’s not bad. I just think the Archiva pack is going to be impressed. They might quiz you on what happened in each of the stories to make sure you read them.”
I beamed. “I could answer any questions they want.”
“Then let’s take them back and exchange them.”
Slipping my feet into my shoes, I bounced through the halls beside Phantom. This time Vandle had stayed back in the room, leaving us with a couple of members of the Emerald pack for protection. When we turned down the hall to the library door, Phantom stopped short, pushing me behind him before I could see what was going on.
“Someone stole the fucking keys!” An angry roar echoed down the hall to us.
My mouth went dry.
The… keys?
Could it be the keys that I… A memory from the day before rushed up and threatened to bowl me over.
I sat on the couch while Tyler grabbed me books that he thought I might like, his pack playing chess on the coffee table. A setof keys sat on a side table, silver glinting in the fluorescent overhead lights.
They kept catching my eye. My fingers inched toward them every time no one was paying attention to me, and I wanted to just… touch them. They were shiny, and a fundamental part of me needed to feel the cool touch of the metal against my fingers.
It had taken Tyler a long time to get all the books.
Vandle was with him in the stacks, talking in hushed tones.