Page 91 of Reckless: Chaos

The nursery plans spread across his drafting table mock me with their hope—architectural dreams weighted down with coffee mugs and colored pencils. Binary code murals intertwined with fairy tales, because of course Theo would find a way to merge our worlds into something beautiful. Something I’m about to corrupt with deletion.

“Your anxiety is throwing off my tempo.” His fingers never stop their dance, but the melody shifts into something that carries questions in its undertones. “Either come sit down or stop hovering like malware in my system.”

“I don’t want to disturb your practice.”

His laugh holds none of its usual music. “Darling, you’ve been disrupting my carefully ordered world since the moment you arrived. Why stop now?”

He shifts on the bench, making space beside him, and I find myself moving before I can execute better judgment. His scent wraps around me like encrypted code—vanilla and night-blooming jasmine with an undertone that whispers of secrets we’ve both kept too long.

“Tell me,” he says as his fingers paint devastation in perfect pitch, “are you here to talk about what’s eating at you, or to pretend everything’s fine?”

The question hits like a system crash. Trust Theo to see right through my defensive programming.

“Can’t I just enjoy the music?” I settle beside him, our shoulders brushing. “Maybe I just wanted to hear what you’re working on.”

“Liar.” But his smile holds fondness as his hands move across keys. “I’m composing a piece about a beta who thinks she has to save the world alone.”

“Sounds derivative.”

“Sounds like someone I know.” The melody shifts again, something haunting that makes my chest ache. “Someone who’s been watching me draw nursery plans with heartbreak in her eyes.”

“Theo...”

“Did you think I wouldn’t notice?” His voice stays gentle even as his music carries storms. “The way you trace every detail like you’re trying to memorize it? The way you look at all of us lately, like you’re taking photographs with your eyes?”

I watch his hands move, creating beauty I’ll never fully understand. “You see too much.”

“I see exactly enough.” He turns those dark eyes on me, fingers never missing a note. “I see a woman who thinks sacrificeis her only option. Who can’t understand that sometimes letting people help isn’t weakness.”

“Some things can’t be helped.”

“Some things,” his shoulder presses against mine, “need to be fought together.”

“Not this.” I stand, needing distance from his gentle understanding. “Not when it’s my father. Not when every beta who’s died is because of my blood, my legacy.”

“You think that matters to us?” His hands still on the keys, silence filling the space between notes. “You think we care who your father is?”

“You should.” The words taste bitter. “Everything I touch leads back to him. Every system I hack, every attempt to help—it all feeds his program. My own code betraying everything I try to protect.” I gesture at his nursery plans. “I can’t... I can’t let him use me to hurt anyone else. Especially not the pack.” I glare at his nursery plans, poking one with my finger. “Though I’m definitely vetoing the Disney princess theme if you’re really planning on subjecting innocent children to that. Even my dubious genetics deserve better than talking mice on the wall.”

“So you’ll what? Face Sterling alone? Try to out-manipulate the master manipulator?”

“I’ll face my father.” The words come out stronger than I feel. “Clean up the mess my own blood created.”

Theo’s laugh holds no music. “You sound just like Jinx after Emma died. So convinced his chaos would destroy everyone he loved that he tried to run.” His fingers trace a single minor key. “Want to know how that worked out for him?”

“That’s different.” I wrap my arms around myself, trying to hold in all the broken pieces. “Jinx had history with the pack. Had earned his place. I’m just... I’m the daughter of a man I’ve never even met. A man who’s been hunting betas while I played house in his shadow.”

“Never met?” Theo’s hands still completely on the keys. “Then help me understand why you think you have to face him alone.”

“Because...” The words stick in my throat. “Because maybe if I face him, if I look him in the eyes, I’ll understand why. Why he let my mother run. Why he’s doing this to betas. Why he...”

“Why he didn’t want you?”

The question hits like a knife, precise and devastating. Trust Theo to find the wound I’ve been trying to ignore.

“I spent my whole life thinking the name Sterling was a coincidence.” My laugh sounds hollow even to me. “Now I find out he’s been watching me? Using me? That every time I tried to help someone, I just led him straight to them?”

“And you think facing him alone will what? Give you answers? Redemption?”

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