Page 16 of Reckless: Chaos

The office feels smaller than usual, more cage than room. Ryker takes his place behind the desk—power move, establishing dominance—while the others find their positions like planets settling into orbit.

Finn stands beside me, close enough that our shoulders brush. His presence grounds me even as it complicates everything. Because now I know how his skin tastes, how his careful control breaks under the right touch. Now I know too much and not enough.

Jinx prowls the edges of the room like a storm about to break. The baseball cap is gone, showing the wild mess of his black hair, the dangerous gleam in his amber eyes. His energy calls to the chaos in my soul, making my skin prickle with awareness.

Theo perches on the arm of a leather chair, all artistic grace and omega allure. The clothes I wore yesterday—the ones he stole for his nest—carry his scent now. Mark me as his in ways I’m only beginning to understand.

“Let me get this straight.” Ryker’s voice cuts through the tension. “Not only did you break quarantine, but you did it for an unauthorized training exercise that involved throwing her out of a plane?”

“Technically,” Finn’s accent wraps around the words like silk over steel, “she jumped quite willingly.”

A muscle ticks in Ryker’s jaw. “This isn’t a joke.”

“No,” I cut in, because I can’t let Finn take this alone. “It’s not. It’s about living. About taking chances before—” I cut myself off, but everyone hears the unspoken truth.

Before the virus takes more betas. Before Sterling Labs wins. Before we run out of time.

“You put the entire pack at risk.” Ryker’s words land like body blows.

“The pack?” Something snaps inside me. “Or your perfect control? Because last night you made it very clear where the line is. Your pack.” I gesture to the others. “Not me. Never me. I’m just the beta you have to protect.”

The silence that follows feels like drowning.

Then Jinx moves, fluid and dangerous. “That’s not true.”

“Isn’t it?” I laugh, and it sounds like breaking. “I’m not pack. I’m a responsibility. A duty. A fucking complicated equation you’re all trying to solve.”

“You’re ours.” Theo’s voice carries omega certainty. “Whether you want to be or not.”

“But that’s just it, isn’t it?” I look between them—these four men who’ve crashed into my life and rearranged everything. “I’m not meant to be anyone’s. I’m a beta. We don’t do pack bonds. We don’t feel what you feel. We’re not built for this.”

“And yet,” Finn’s hand finds mine, warm and steady, “here we are.”

“Here we are,” I repeat, my voice shaking. “With me breaking all your careful rules. With Finn risking pack safety for a sunrise. With Theo stealing my clothes and Jinx looking at me like he wants to devour me and you—” I meet Ryker’s steel gaze, “you trying to protect everyone from what I’ll eventually do to them.”

Because that’s the truth, isn’t it? I’m not just a beta—I’m a hurricane. A system crash waiting to happen. And they’re all in my path.

“You think that’s what this is about?” Ryker stands, his presence filling the room. “Protection?”

“Isn’t it?” The words taste bitter. “Isn’t that why you’re so angry? Because Finn and I risked your perfect system?”

“I’m angry,” he moves around the desk with predatory grace, “because for three hours, we didn’t know where you were.Because anything could have happened. Because—” He cuts himself off, jaw working.

“Because what?” I challenge, stepping away from Finn’s steadying presence. “Because I proved you right? Proved I’ll always choose freedom over safety?”

“Because I felt it.” The words explode out of him. “Through the pack bonds. Finn’s joy. His peace. His...” He glances at Finn, something complicated passing between them. “Everything. And I couldn’t reach either of you.”

Oh.

“We all felt it,” Theo adds softly. “Like sunshine breaking through clouds.”

“Like falling,” Jinx’s voice carries understanding that makes my chest ache.

I look at Finn, who watches me with those storm-blue eyes. “You didn’t tell me.”

“That pack bonds work both ways?” His thumb traces patterns on my palm. “That they’re not just about alphas and omegas? That betas can be the heart of a pack just as easily as they can break it?”

The weight of it all crashes over me—the responsibility, the power, the terrifying possibility that I’m not as immune to pack dynamics as I thought.

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