Page 96 of Pack Frenzy
Ihit send before the rain even starts.
Message to Nexus Security:Need internal review—bus transport, unbonded Omega #3127, unauthorized use of taser by guard on duty.
A beat later, confirmation ping. Filed, timestamped. Official now.
Doesn’t matter that she asked me not to. I can’t let it slide. Someone in Nexus used unnecessary force to keep her in line, and I’m not built to ignore that.
Rowan’s the first to notice me staring at my phone.
“Work?” he asks, tone casual but eyes sharp.
“Follow-up,” I say. Then, quieter, “The guard who tasered Jess. I logged it.”
Cassian’s head snaps up from the couch. “You serious?” His whole body goes tight, coiled energy in motion before thought. “Who the fuck—tell me who and I’ll taser his ass. Or better.”
“Don’t know yet,” I say, keeping my voice level. “That’s why I sent the inquiry request and a full investigation. It wasn’t in her file.”
Cassian’s fists clench. “Itwasn’t in her filebecause someone wanted to cover their ass. A guard tasers an unbonded Omega in heat and no one thinks to document it? Bullshit.” He’s on his feet now, pacing like a caged animal. “If I ever find out who?—”
“Cass.” Rowan’s voice cuts in, low and dangerous. He’s standing too, the storm flickering in his eyes. “You’re not the only one who wants blood.”
He drags a hand over his mouth, then mutters something in Russian that sounds like a curse. “She flinched when I brushed her shoulder earlier. I thought it was just nerves.”
“It wasn’t,” I say. “The worst of the bruising is yellowing out. You can barely make out where the taser hit—just two faint shadowed spots from when she was brought into Nexus which isn’t standard protol.”
Rowan turns toward the window, muscles locked tight. “They need to know she wasn’t the problem. They need to know what they did.”
“They’ll know.” I lock my screen, pocket the phone. “They’ll see it in the report I turn in.”
Cassian’s breathing roughens. “A report’s not enough.”
“No,” I agree. “But it’s the start of a trail that leads back to whoever thought hurting her was okay.”
The silence after that is heavy. Rowan’s still staring out the rain-slick glass, jaw hard enough to crack teeth. Cassian’s hands flex at his sides, knuckles white.
For a second, I think they might both explode—and maybe part of me wants them to—but then Rowan exhales, slow and lethal.
“Good,” he says finally. “They won’t bury this.”
Cassian scrubs both hands through his hair, still vibrating with it. “They’d better not. Whoever did this is gonna pay.”
“For now,” I say, quieter. “This is how we hit back—on record.”
I shove the anger down where I keep the rest of it and force my tone lighter. “Movie in half an hour. We need a reset before one of us drives to headquarters and commits a felony.”
I pocket the phone, shove the anger down where I keep the rest of it, and look for something lighter to hold on to.
Because I need something between me and the part of my brain that’s already writing the ending—the one where Jess figures out what every Omega after Meredith did. That I’m optional. That biology’s got a ranking system, and I’m not on it.
Meredith didn’t make me feel like a placeholder. But Meredith’s dead, and hope’s a stupid thing to hoard when you’ve already watched it bury you too many times to count. “Non-negotiable,” I add, forcing brightness I don’t feel. “I picked a good gateway.”
Rowan’s still by the window from before, sleeves shoved to his elbows like he’s ready to punch something, or rather, whoever the asshole was that tasered Jess.
Jess… pulls on a hoodie, and Cassian places his hand on her lower back, guiding her out to the car.
When Rowan gives me a look—soft, concerned,knowing—I shake my head. Can’t deal with sympathy right now.
Can’t let him hold me and kiss away the pain, because if I do, it’ll feel like surrendering to the truth I’m trying to outrun: that I’m the odd man out in our pack, and comfort won’t change biology.
