Page 46 of Knot Your Fated M.U.S.E.

"The omega thing was just the universe's idea of a cosmic joke. We managed to keep it hidden for years – not hard when you're scentless like me. Could have passed for a beta indefinitely if not for the heats." Her smile turns knife-sharp. "But there's always someone waiting to stick a blade in your back, isn't there?"

"Your sister," I say softly, the words pulled from me by something in her expression.

"My sister." Azurite's eyes soften in a way that seems wrong, like watching poison turn to honey. "I was actually scheduled to be claimed by a pack. Not a prestigious one, mind you – they had their own mafia connections, and were considered the dregs of society. The kind of alphas even the government steers clear of because they're too feral to control."

She laughs, but there's no humor in it.

"My dear sister couldn't stand it. The idea that someone like me…what she called unworthy and disgusting…might be chosenby any pack, let alone one with that kind of raw power…well, it was more than her delicate sensibilities could bear."

The silence in our prison cell grows heavier as she continues.

"I think she wanted them for herself. Thought if she could get rid of me, they'd see her instead. So she called the authorities, told them I was psychotic, hearing voices." Another knife-sharp smile. "Said I'd threatened to rip her eyes out."

"Did you?" Riot asks suddenly, leaning forward with keen interest.

"Did I what?"

"Rip her eyes out." Riot's multiple piercings catch the light as she grins, showing too many teeth.

Azurite's answering smirk is a masterpiece of controlled malice.

Our little circle erupts in dark smiles, recognizing the unspoken confession in her expression. Even the shadows seem to laugh, appreciating the poetry of her revenge.

Luna's giggle breaks the tension, high and musical.

"Well, I suppose she won't be enjoying the view of that 'tainted' pack she betrayed you for."

The laughter that follows is startling in its genuineness – four broken things finding momentary joy in shared darkness. I let the sound wash over me, foreign but not unwelcome.

How long since I've heard laughter that wasn't cruel? Since I've felt anything close to camaraderie?

Remember this.How strength can be found in strange places.

My gaze settles on Riot, taking in the defensive set of her shoulders, and the way she tries to make her multiple piercings and tattoos into armor.

"Your story?" I ask quietly.

She huffs, shoulders hunching further.

"It's stupid."

Two words, and yet they carry worlds of pain beneath their dismissive surface.

I study her face – the way she won't quite meet anyone's eyes, how her fingers keep touching the rings in her lips like checking that armor is still in place.

"Why?" The question is simple and direct.

Sometimes the shortest path to truth is through the smallest door.

We wait in the growing silence, four broken pieces trying to form something whole, while Riot wages some internal battle with her own demons.

Riot's sigh seems to carry the weight of generations as she crosses her arms, the gesture more protective than defiant.

"Listen. I'm black." She pauses, then corrects herself with bitter precision. "At least...originally. My mother hated herself. Hated our skin tone." Her fingers unconsciously trace one of her arm tattoos, where ink masks whatever shade her skin might have been before. "We don't do well in this world. You know the usual shit. Racism probably doesn't affect you guys, at least not to the full extent as us."

The raw honesty in her voice makes even the shadows still their restless movement.

"Being black sucks when everyone and their aunties and uncles are insulting you for being born in the darkest color palette in the neutrals department."

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