Page 50 of Reckless: Collision

“How’s pack life?” Willow asks Aria as we begin, and something in my chest tightens.

Fuck, this is going to take forever.

“Amazing.” Aria’s voice carries that dreamy quality of the truly content. “It’s everything I could have asked for and more.” She nudges Willow. “How’s dating?”

“You’re dating?” My head snaps up. Willow’s dark hair falls forward, trying to hide the blush creeping up her neck.

“I downloaded a few apps.” She shifts, uncomfortable under our collective attention.

“Are you looking for a pack or a guy?” The question comes out sharper than I intend, but fuck—I need to know my friend is being safe.

Trust no man.

Willow shrugs, the movement small and uncertain. “I don’t know if I’m pack material.”

“Did you get tested?” Aria asks the question we’re all thinking.

“For what?” I battle with a knot that refuses to cooperate.

“Latent omega genes.” Ginger supplies the answer like it’s not a bomb in the middle of craft night.

Willow blushes harder, her usually confident demeanor cracking. “I didn’t.” A sigh escapes as her shoulders slump. “I can’t decide if I want to know or not. Did you two get tested?”

Ginger answers first, wrinkling her nose. “I did. All beta, all day.”

“I didn’t.” I finally free the stubborn knot, focusing on the new row like it holds the secrets of the universe. “I know I’m a beta, and I’m okay with that.”

Though having a super sniffer would be nice.The thought slips through before I can catch it.

“Ugh.” Willow’s grunt carries years of pain. When I look up, the sadness in her eyes hits like a system crash.

It doesn’t take a genius hacker to decode that kind of hurt. “You loved an alpha and didn’t present.”

“Cayenne!” Aria’s hand connects with my arm.

“I’m not trying to be cruel.” I drop my half-formed bracelet, suddenly tired of pretending. “I’m just reading her.”

“That doesn’t give you the right to be a bitch.” Ginger’s words cut deep.

Shame burns across my face. My mouth running faster than my brain—a fatal flaw in both coding and friendship.

“It’s okay.” Willow’s voice comes soft, measured. “I fell in love with an alpha and the pack he was forming in college.” Her gaze drifts to the window, seeing something beyond the city lights. “It was long before we knew latent omega genes were a thing. But,” her eyes find mine, carrying a weight I’m not sure I deserve, “it doesn’t matter now because I spent four years with them. And not once did I magically turn into an omega.”

“I’m sorry.” The words feel inadequate, but I mean them. “That’s why I’ll never choose pack life.” Emotions I thought I’d encrypted and buried try to force their way through my firewalls. “I’m a beta. Falling in love with a pack means always living with the fear that I’ll be kicked out for an omega. And I won’t willingly choose that life.”

I choose me. Every time.

The memory fades, leaving me alone in my basement prison. My head falls back against the door with a thud that echoes my heartbeat.

“What are you doing, Cayenne?” My whisper fills the empty space where my friends should be. Friends I put in danger. Friends who had to kick me out of my own apartment to protect themselves.

Because you gave them no choice.

Guilt rises like corrupt code, threatening to overflow my emotional buffer. I won’t let it. I made my choices. I have to own them.

But playing house with Pack Locke? Training sessions and trust falls and family dinners? I can’t. I have to remember why I’m here—to survive, to expose Sterling Labs, to protect other betas.

Not to fall for a pack of broken alphas and their beautiful omega.

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