Page 76 of Sawyer

“Look, Shepard…” I swallow back my angry retort because he gives a fuck, and I’m disrespecting his care. He’s all I ever had. Our parents focused all their love on him and our sister. I was the failure, a gamma born of a pack. “I’m sorry. I’m so damn sorry.” For more than I can even say, because I can’t tell him that our pack isn’t even real. I need to follow through with the lie.

“There are no markings on your neck. Not a single bond bite.” He heaves a sigh of relief. “Sawyer, listen, Sin isn’t the kind of alpha you want to bond with.”

“And what kind of alpha should I bond with? If you haven’t realized it, I’m a gamma, so any pack willing to accept me is worth considering.”

“What about a beta pairing?” he counters. “Someone safe.”

“Someone who isn’t Sin, Rumor, and Bryn?” I huff in annoyance, already irritated at this conversation. “You don’t get to tell me who to be with.”

“Legally, I do, Sawyer,” he counters.

Ice runs through my veins. “You wouldn’t dare. Shep” —I try to appeal to him using his nickname from when we were kids— “don’t.”

“Fuck, Sawyer, I’m not sorry. Okay? I’m not, and I won’t take it back. I need to look out for you because you obviously aren’t doing it yourself,” he says, and there’s steel in his voice that tells me this won’t persuade him.

The fact is, I’m the lowest on the totem pole, even below mages. Shep is within his rights to arrange a pairing for me, and it sounds like he’s going to do just that.

Unless I beg Bryn and Sin to bite me, mark me, and make me theirs officially, Shepard will find me a suitor.

“Please don’t do this,” I beg, tears burning behind my eyes. “Shep, don’t. You know how hard I’ve worked for everything I have. Don’t take it away from me.”

“You got where you are because of the stimulants, Sawyer.”

“How could you even know that?” Fear hums in my veins. “Shepard, how do you know that?”

“Sawyer, everything I’ve done is for your own good. You have to understand that,” he pleads. His dark hair flops onto his forehead, the same color as mine, and although he’s frowning, his dimples try to come out. “I won’t have you be on the news because you’re dead.”

“No, you’d rather I wasn’t on the news at all,” I snarl at him.

“You put yourself in danger, Sawyer,” he argues. “I just left Dragonstall Isles, and they even run your news reports there. Everyone knows who you are. You need someone who can protect you, keep you safe, and give you a home.”

“Why can’t you see that I can have that here?” A damn tear spills from my eye.

“They didn’t bond you, Sawyer. Even I can tell that this is all for show,” he says. “I’ll be in town shortly, and you’ll be interviewing suitors. You have until the end of the month to choose, or I’ll make a choice for you. No more of this, Sawyer. I won’t lose you.”

He hangs up on me, leaving me too stunned to speak.

My phone drops from my hands, thudding on the floor.

My body doesn’t even know how to react, but my heart aches.

The scent that flares out of me is like rotten limes, and I can’t control the smell as it lingers in the air.

“Hey, Sawyer, do you want—” Bryn opens the door, and I watch as he takes in my scent and the tears dripping silently down my face. In the next breath, he’s kneeling before me, a growl slipping past his lips. “What is it? Rumor! Sin!” he shouts.

He grabs my trembling hands, his eyes full of worry. There’s more there, though, like dark circles as if he didn’t sleep last night and dirt under his fingernails.

“You have to tell me what happened, Sawyer,” he murmurs.

Rumor and Sin spill into the room next. Good, because I don’t want to repeat this again. “My brother—” The words feel thick and heavy on my tongue. Licking my lips, I continue. “He enacted the ownership clause.”

“What?” Rumor’s voice is heavy with disdain.

I know how he feels. It isn’t something that is enacted often, but it still exists. The monarch can’t get enough votes from the council to get it banned.

“He’s picking suitors,” I tell them.

“But you are a part of our pack,” Rumor argues, but it’s a thin declaration and we all know it.

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