“So what,” I say slowly, trying to steady my breathing, “I’ve just…activated? Emerged?Bloomed? Because an alpha bit me?”
The words feel unreal as they leave my mouth. Detached. Clinical. Like I’m talking about someone else’s body.
“Yes.”
The answer is immediate. Clean.
My brows pull together. “That doesn’t make sense. It wasn’t even deliberate. It was chaos. I was running.”
“You were running,” he repeats, voice lower now. “Adrenaline was high. I lost control.”
The words don’t register at first.
Then they do.
Youwere running.
Ilost control.
Everything inside me goes still.
I look at him properly then. Not as the steady one. Not as the grounding presence that makes the restless hum in my chest quiet.
As a man who just said something he wasn’t meant to.
“What?” I whisper.
He realises it too late. I see it in the fractional shift of his shoulders. The way his jaw tightens.
“You said an alpha bit you,” he says carefully.
“Yes.”
The floor feels unsteady under my feet.
“And—”
“It was you.” It’s not a question. It’s a blade.
Silence slams into the room.
“You,” I repeat, the word splintering. “It was you.”
He doesn’t deny it.
“I didn’t understand what it would trigger,” he says. “Not fully.”
A brittle laugh escapes me before I can stop it. “Not fully? You sank your teeth into me and you didn’t understand?”
“You were baiting,” he says, a flicker of frustration breaking through his control. “You were pushing. I reacted.”
“I was running,” I shoot back. “As per our agreement.”
“You weresupposedto be a beta. It was supposed to be safe foreveryone.”
The words land hard.
His expression tightens. “I didn’t mean to claim you.”