Page 17 of Chain Me Knot

“Are they...” My voice cracks. “Are they hurting you? Dr. Chen, he might be able to help. Like he's helping me. We could run again, Mira. We know more now, we could…”

My thoughts spiral, memories of running through rain mixing with basement darkness. We could hide better this time. Find somewhere remote. Maybe if we—

“Emma.” Mira's voice cuts through my rising panic. She takes both my hands in hers, forcing me to focus on her face. “My mates are wonderful. They're my scent-matches. They love me. They protect me.”

Scent-matches…she found scent-matches too?

I shake my head, unable to process her words because what she’s saying is impossible. “No alpha truly helps omegas. They can't. They don't know how to be anything but cruel.” The evidence is written all over my body, carved into my soul.

“The alphas Haven gave us to were cruel. But they are the exception. Not the rule. I’ve seen what true alphas are like and they are nothing like those inhuman jerkoffs.” The light dims from her eyes as she really looks at me. At the bones pressing against my skin, at the rainbow of healing bruises, at the way I can't stop trembling even now. Her fingers tighten around mine.

Her gaze traces the bandage on my neck, the marks on my wrists where chains rubbed the skin raw. “What did those assholes do to you?”

The question hangs between us, heavy with two years of darkness. But I can't answer. Can't put words to what happened in that basement.

“It's over now.” My fingers squeeze hers. “I’ll never get caught like that again. I won't be anyone's fuck toy ever again.”

A desperate and wild spark flares to life. I'm going to find a beach. A real one. Not just the one in my head but an honest to gods beach with water and sand and no alphas within a hundred mile radius.

“You won't get far without your alphas,” Mira says.

I try to cover their marks with my palm. Their partial bonds simmer in the back of my mind like poison, forever carved there. I’ll never call them my alphas.

They’re a cancer.

“Asher bit you too,” Mira says softly. Not a question.

Surprise jolts through me. “How did you know? How do you know him?”

“He's friends with Adrian, my prime alpha. They've known each other for years.” She leans forward. “Emma, he's destroyed over what he did. He bit you because you're his scent-matched mate. His fated. He'll do anything for you.”

A bitter laugh escapes me, sharp enough to cut. “If he wants to do anything for me, he can forget I exist. I don't need another alpha's version of 'help,' no matter who the fuck he's meant to be to me.”

He's just another alpha who took my choice away. Nothing less. Nothing more. The claiming bite on my neck throbs with his emotions, a constant reminder of my stolen autonomy. One more alpha deciding what happens to my body without my consent. The fact that he regrets it now doesn't change what he did. The fact that he's my “scent-match” doesn't give him the right to claim me without permission.

Haven taught me what alphas are. Pack Carmichael confirmed it. They take. They own. They control. Some do it with chains and darkness, others with pretty words and gentle touches, but the end result is the same… an omega without choices, without freedom.

Scent-match. Just another word for harder chains to break, for bonds that dig deeper, for more complete control. Fate's cruel joke, matching me with yet another alpha who helped himself to what wasn't his to take.

Though... I never felt remorse from Matthew or Derek or James. Never felt guilt or self-loathing or regret through our partial bonds. Asher's emotions are different, layered with something that’s almost like... care?

No. I can't trust that. Can't trust him. Can't trust any alpha, ever again. His actions proved what alphas truly are, no matter how much he might regret them now.

Round and round these thoughts chase each other, an exhausting circle with no exit. Trust and mistrust. Hope and despair. Anger and something dangerously close to yearning.

“I understand. I felt the same way about alphas for years. But Emma... not all alphas are like the ones Haven prepared us for. Things are changing. Haven's walls are crumbling,” Mira says.

I stare at her, uncomprehending.

“Sylvia Mercer is dead, Emma. Mercer isdead,” she continues, and my heart stops. “My alphas fight for me. For all of us. Adrian tore apart his assistant when he kidnapped me, and Asher...” Her voice drops. “Asher shot Mercer himself when she threatened me. He’s one of the good guys. I promise.”

The words don't make sense.

“Wh…what..?” AshershotMercer? The alpha who bit me against my will killed the woman who tormented us for years? My thoughts tangle and snag as I try to reconcile these contradictory images. Asher the alpha who claimed me without consent versus Asher the alpha who put a bullet in Sylvia Mercer.

How can they be the same person?

How can hands that took my choice away also pull a trigger in defense of omegas?

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