Page 152 of Daisy
They all look up when I walk in. They know who I am.
Good.
"Boys," I say, settling into a chair facing them. "Got a job."
I lay it out. Simple. Direct.
The corruption. The rigged system. The way elite families control everything while beta-born alphas die in warehouses for their entertainment.
"You're talking about war," says Knox Mason. An alpha whose left eye never quite healed right. "War against unlimited money."
"Talking about fighting back," I correct. "Might get us killed."
At least we'd die for something that matters instead of beating each other bloody for scraps.
The room goes quiet. Just the sounds of fighting from below. I watch them process it. These are men who've never had real choices. Never had anyone offer them something bigger than survival.
What's bigger than survival?
Purpose, I guess.
"Bullshit," someone mutters from the back. "You think we haven't heard this before? Revolution talk from guys who disappear when it gets real."
A few others nod. Yeah. They've been burned before.
"Fair enough," I say. "But I'm not asking you to trust me. I'm asking you to trust yourselves. You know what this system does to us."
The room stays tense. Suspicious.
"What do you need?" asks Jake Rolie. Former construction worker. Started fighting when the Governor redirected infrastructure funds and left him with nothing.
"Bodies. When we move, we'll need people willing to stand between the elites and their private armies."
"When?" Knox asks.
"Soon. Months, not years. Got people working on it."
That's when I feel it.
A pulse through the pack bond that hits me like a tidal wave Heat. The heat is starting.
Fuck.
My whole body responds. Every instinct I have screaming at me to get home. To get back to my pack.
I stand abruptly. Can't help it. The need overrides everything else.
"Need an answer. You with us?"
The men exchange looks. Survival instincts warring with something else.
Hope, maybe. Hard to tell.
"Cassian," Knox says slowly. "If we do this... what happens to us after? Assuming we live."
Shit.
They've never had anything resembling a future.
