Page 133 of Knot Their Safe Haven
"I'll be taking a leave of absence to focus on my pack, on my health, on possibly expanding our family despite being told for years I was too old, too damaged, too difficult for such dreams." My hand finds my stomach unconsciously, though there's nothing there yet but hope. "The Haven will continue under Marina's exceptional leadership, with the Noctuary's resources ensuring no omega ever faces what I did—abandonment disguised as love."
The officers begin moving Malcolm and Adyani toward the exit. Malcolm stumbles, his medical precision failing him now when it matters most. Adyani walks with that same royal bearing, but I see her shoulders shaking with sobs the cameras will replay endlessly.
Knox remains on stage, lost, a man without purpose now that his twenty-year orbit has ended.
"Go," I tell him quietly. "Go be the father our son deserves. Stop hiding him, stop hiding yourself. Find someone who makes you brave enough to be seen. You loved me, Knox, but you loved your safety more. That's not evil, just human. But I deserve divine."
He nods once, jaw clenched against words that would change nothing, then walks away with the dignity of someone who knows they've lost everything through their own choices.
The applause starts slowly—one person clapping in the back, then another, then spreading through the conference hall like wildfire until the sound becomes thunder. But I'm not finished. Not quite.
I raise my hand once more, and the room gradually quiets, though the energy remains electric, crackling through air thick with revelation and justice finally served.
"Before we conclude," my voice carries over the residual murmuring, "the world should know—I, Velvet Morclair, am officially taken."
I gesture to my pack flanking me, their presence solid as mountains, eternal as promises carved in stone. "The Alphas standing at my sides are my true pack. We formalized our bonds this morning in a ceremony that was everything I never knew I needed—witnessed, celebrated, and absolutely binding."
Alessandro's fingers tighten around mine, that subtle pressure speaking volumes. The twins shift closer, their combined scent—leather and gunpowder, espresso and cordite—creating a protective cloud. Alexis steps forward slightly, her female Alpha pheromones spiking in a way that makes several nearby omegas unconsciously lean toward her.
"We'll be taking time off to establish our pack properly," I continue, feeling strength flow through our connected hands, through proximity, through bonds so new yet feeling ancient as starlight. "The Haven's expansion will continue under Marina's exceptional leadership, with full support from the Noctuary's resources. The movement we've built doesn't depend on one person—it depends on all of us, working together, refusing to accept limitations placed on our worth."
Marina nods from her position near the stage, tablet clutched to her chest, tears streaming down her face despite the professional smile she maintains.
"To every omega who's been told they're too old, too difficult, too much—" My voice cracks slightly, emotion finally breaking through the controlled facade I've maintained. "To every omega who's accepted shadows because they've been told sunlight isn't meant for them—I stand here as proof that it's never too late. I'm thirty-nine, I'll be forty in months, and I've just begun the greatest adventure of my life."
I turn to look at each of my pack members, memorizing their faces in this moment of public claiming.
"With partners who sign their names boldly rather than hiding behind excuses. Who claim me at airports and in hospitals and in boardrooms where association with me could cost millions. Who see my age as experience, my complications as character, my damage as proof of survival rather than deficiency."
The tears come freely now, but I don't hide them. These cameras, these witnesses, deserve to see truth in all its messy glory.
"So I thank you all—" I bow deeply, formally, the kind of gesture that means something in every culture. "For witnessing this moment. For supporting our movement even when it seemed impossible. For believing that omegas deserve more than what we've been told to accept."
I straighten, squaring shoulders that no longer bear the weight of twenty years alone.
"I hope this conclusion proves that even someone like me can be fated for love at this age, at this stage, after this much damage. As long as we never give up on wanting true happiness. True commitment. True partnership that doesn't require hiding or shame or accepting crumbs disguised as feasts."
The response is immediate and overwhelming. The conference hall erupts in celebration—omegas crying and embracing, Alphas nodding with respect rather than condescension, media frantically documenting this moment that will replay across every platform within minutes. Someone starts chanting "Rebel Queen," and others join until the words shake the chandeliers, rattle the windows, transform from title to battle cry.
Through it all, my pack remains steady around me. Unmoved by the chaos, focused only on me, on us, on the future we're about to build together.
Alessandro leans close, his lips near my ear to be heard over the thunderous approval. "Ready for this new adventure?"
I turn to face him fully, seeing my future reflected in those emerald eyes that first saw me drowning and chose to dive in after me. Behind him, Dante and Damon watch with matching expressions of protective devotion. Alexis stands guard, her presence a reminder that female Alphas can be everything we never thought possible.
The smile that spreads across my face feels like sunrise after the longest night—warm and gold and absolutely inevitable.
"Yes," I breathe through tears that taste like joy rather than sorrow, feeling relief so profound it might require new words to properly describe. The kind of relief that comes not from ending but from beginning. Not from escape but from arrival.
Not from survival but from the promise of actually living.
"Ready to start my own safe haven for my life and my pack."
EPILOGUE: HOME
~VELVET~
The glass house rises from the mountain road like a promise kept—all those windows reflecting sunset gold, the modern lines softened by October's dying light that paints everything in shades of amber and wine.
