Page 58 of Pack Owned
His crooked smile doesn’t fool me. I know he’s masking a whole hell of a lot of pain. I can see it in his eyes. Feel it in the space between us like a living thing.
“How old were you?”
“Ten.”
Briefly, I place a hand over my mouth. “Oh my God, Ryker. You were a child. And your father should’ve known better.” My stomach roils at the thought of him having witnessed his sister being taken like that.
“Ever since then, I always thought Nexus knew best, that they were the good guys.” Ryker’s voice drops lower, a haunted look slipping over his face. “I believed in the system. Before I experienced this feeling inside being around you, I would’ve handed you over without a second thought. But now...”
“But now?” I echo, feeling a sudden tightness in my chest.
“Now, all I can think is that I don’t want that for you. Can’t stand the thought of you with any other Alpha but me, Dane, and Liam.” His admission hangs heavy between us, and the air feels thick, charged with an emotion I can’t quite name.
“Ryker, I...” I start, but what can I even say to that? The words just kinda die in my throat.
“I won’t let Nexus touch you. Not while I’m still breathing.”
And just like that, the garage feels entirely too small, too intimate. The raw honesty in his voice rattles me more than I want to admit. Ryker, the volatile Alpha with smoke and leather stitched into his scent, has just laid bare a piece of his soul.
I’m standing here, walls still up, trying my damnedest not to let them crumble, wondering why the hell it suddenly seems so difficult.
I nod, swallowing hard against the knot forming in my throat. “Thanks,” I manage to whisper, and I mean it. Relieved doesn’t even begin to cover how I feel, knowing that these three Alphas won’t give me to Nexus. But there’s a but, a huge one, that looms like a shadow over my heart.
I can’t be their Omega. Hell, I can’t be anyone’s Omega.
Not after what that sick bastard stepdad of mine did.
The memories claw at me, threatening to drag me under into that dark, gut-churning abyss. Big, calloused hands roam where they don’t belong. Hot, rancid breath on my neck as he?—
No. I can’t go there, not now.
My lungs constrict as Ryker’s presence envelops me, his heady, visceral scent rolling off him in waves. It should terrify me, an Alpha radiating such overwhelming power as he invades my space. But instead of fear, something else uncurls deep in my core—a primal curiosity, a reckless urge to lean into that scorching heat.
He doesn’t touch me, but I can feel his heat. It should terrify me, an Alpha invading my space like this, but... it doesn’t. Weird.
“We will never let anyone hurt you,” he says firmly, the single word sounding like a vow etched in steel.
I want to believe him, I really do. Part of me is already leaning into the idea of safety, of belonging, but then there’s the other part, the scarred, battered part that’s been on high alert since I was sixteen. It keeps screaming at me to run, to hide, to trust no one.
“Ryker, I…” Flashes of memory pummel me—the shadows closing in, the stench of stale whiskey and sweat, the merciless grip leaving bruises on me as I fight back.
Get it together, Kayla. You’re not there anymore. He can’t hurt you.
But fear’s claws are hooked deep as it drags me back under. I clutch at my chest, lungs screaming for air that won’t come. Darkness creeps in at the edges of my vision.
“Kayla.” Ryker’s rough growl cuts through the panic, an anchor in the storm. “Look at me.”
His eyes bore into mine, blue flames blazing with a raw intensity that shouldn’t calm me... but it does. A strange sort of solace settles over me, smoothing the jagged edges until I can breathe again.
“Trust takes time,” he says, as if reading my mind. “We’ll wait… for as long as you need. We’re here, and we’re not going anywhere. And neither are you.”
Those last words should scare me, and maybe they do, but they also fill me with a strange sense of comfort. For the first time, I don’t feel so utterly alone.
I suck in a breath, trying to steady the tremor in my hands. “I can’t be your Omega,” I manage to say, even as his scent—smoke and leather—distracts me. Making me wish I could.
“Kayla,” Ryker murmurs, his eyes never leaving mine. “You don’t have to decide anything right now.”
It’s as though he’s offering me a lifeline, but I’m too scared to grab it, afraid it’ll burn my fingers raw or pull me under into depths I can’t escape from.
