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I whined, another spike of pain was making it hard to focus. All I’d wanted was to show him how much he mattered to me. I wasn’t angry he didn’t want me… I’d just wanted to prove to him I could be as strong as her.

But I wasn’t.

I didn’t think I ever would be, not after what she did next.

Glade reached for the side table, and before Ace could do anything, I felt the sharp prick of a needle in my arm.

“W-Wait!” My voice cracked, but already the world was spinning as she injected me with the sedative. Ace got to his feet, fury in his eyes. He crossed the room.

Oh, he was gonna be so mad…

With me…

With her…

But Glade was on her feet, standing between me and him as she faced him—something most Alphas couldn’t manage.

His hand closed around her throat, voice more dangerous than I’d ever heard it, and that tone promised retribution. Punishment Glade would not escape. “Get. Out.”

Ink seeped into the edges of my vision but I tried to keep her in focus. I’d never seen her like this.

She’d always been quiet. Perfect. Silent when not called on, and deferent when forced to respond. So poised that, even when I knew she was a captive, I’d never caught the faintest trace of her hatred.

It was a mask so absolute I’d been starting to wonder if it was a mask at all. That maybe she was, perhaps, truly his. But that mask shattered now, and I saw the Omega beneath, facing Ace in a way I’d never seen anyone face him.

Before, I hadn’t even been able to imagine it. It was impossible to picture how she resisted him, even if I knew she did.

Blackness was stealing me away now, claws of panic the only thing keeping me from losing consciousness.

Glade… She was gone, I think.

It was only his scent here, now.

“I don’t think you’re weak,” I whispered, my voice shuddering. He had to know that. The world was spinning violently, and finally, it faded, my words the last thing I remembered. “I w-wasn’t trying to manipulate you—I s-swear.”

In the present, Ace’s ice blue eyes were fixed on me, but my own anger boiled to the surface, finding a bit of what Glade had left me with that day. “You lost your pack,” I hissed. “It’s my turn, now.”

TWENTY-SIX

ACE

I felt her now.

Fully.

Pain, rage, and years of resentment. It was all those things I’d been trying to avoid. But she was shoving them into the forefront of the bond, making it so I couldn’t look away.

I stood, the cool stone against my bare feet grounding me.

She followed, straightening, fists balled, anger still flashing in her eyes.

She didn’t have Bunny, I realised.

It couldn’t be far, but it was strange seeing her without it.

That fact was important. It meant something, and I knew what. I wished I could reject it, but that would make me a fool. She was as dependent on it as she was on me.

As debasing as it was, I needed that.