Page 206 of Unmarked

But then I hearhim.His voice slices through the rest - cold, clean, and final.

“I’m not tying myself to something unstable. I don’t mark illegal Omegas, and I don’t take what three other Alphas have already touched.”

And just like that, my soul falls through the floor.

I don’t gasp. Don’t scream. Don’t even blink. I just… fold. Emotionally. Internally. Like one of those fainting goats that hears a loud noise and drops dead.

I slap a hand over my mouth before something escapes - a sob, a scream, a very justified stream of profanity. My other hand clutches Lucian’s swamp-shirt like it’s riot gear.

The bond flares in my chest like I swallowed a firework - sparks, smoke, no oxygen.

And yeah, I’m aware I shouldn’t be eavesdropping.

But he shouldn’t be an asshole in surround sound.

Used. Illegal. Unstable.

What am I, an unlicensed nuclear reactor?

A flare of scent breaks off me, raw and unfiltered, a wounded snarl of pheromones spilling into the air at his rejection.

He doesn’t want me.

My legs feel like they’re made of glass. Not in a poetic, tragic-heroine kind of way - more like I’m two seconds from face-planting and possibly taking a sconce down with me. I press harder into the wall, forehead against the cold plaster, trying not to let the sound of Lucian’s voice echo through my skull like a migraine in progress.

I want to scream. I want to cry. I want to sue for emotional damages.

I want to set this whole goddamn house on fire and watch it burn down to ash and ego.

Instead, I pivot like a woman possessed, Lucian’s tragically oversized shirt billowing around me like the world's saddest superhero cape. My bare feet slap the tile with maximum drama. I don’t slow down. Don’t rethink it. Don’t even pull the shirt down even though it’s clinging to parts of me like it’s emotionally attached.

Screw dignity. I’ll circle back to that later.

My bare feet slap the tile, echoing louder than they should, but I don’t care.

Let them hear me coming.

Let them know I’m done hiding.

I storm into the sitting room like I’m headlining a very unstable TED Talk.

Four Alphas. One Omega. Zero chill.

Their voices cut off the second I step through the archway. I stride in, all feigned confidence and determination - like I’m not half-dressed, like I don’t still smell faintly of heat and heartbreak.

Like I’m not hanging on by the thinnest thread of self-control I’ve ever had.

Theo’s eyes widen slightly, and he's already moving like he wants to come to me, check on me. Ash sits up straighter in his chair, brows low with concern, and Kai’s mouth drops open into a half-smile, caught somewhere between impressed andoh no.

Meanwhile, Lucian looks at me like he can’t believe I had the audacity to exist.

I plant myself in the center of the room like I belong there.

(Narrator: She did not belong there. She was mostly legs, hair, and spite.)

“Everyone good?” I ask brightly. “You all got your dramatic alpha monologues out of your systems?You all got your jabs in already, or should I leave and come back later with popcorn, wearing something tighter?”

Theo flinches. Ash coughs. Kai makes a sound suspiciously like a laugh he’s trying to eat.

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