Chapter 7 #2
"If Ragon claims Marie and she ends up bonded in," Chase said, "the next thing he'll do is bond Vee in.
You know that, Jas. He'll have his scent match secured and he'll turn to Vee to make the pack official.
He'll want to bond you too. And if you refuse, you're out, Vee's still alone, and the case falls apart.
I know it's a lot, I know how much you care about omegas.
I know how much you like Vee. I like her too. That's why we have to do this."
He stopped.
He didn't need to keep going. He'd made his point.
If Ragon marked Vee, she was lost, fully and permanently. Likely out of even the registry's reach.
"Go back inside," Chase said. "Keep him from claiming Marie. Buy us time. We'll get her out as soon as possible."
I looked at the house for a long moment.
Every instinct I had was pulling in the wrong direction. Or the right one, I didn't know anymore.
I went back inside.
I come back to Chase's office. To Lukas watching me from across the desk and Arden very carefully not looking at me.
“Because I told him to stay,” Chase says, tone hard.
Lukas turns to Chase.
"Jasper staying in that room was the only thing keeping the case alive," Chase says. His voice carries no defensiveness. Just the arithmetic of it. "If Ragon threw him out, we lost our inside source. We lost the only person who was still actively monitoring Vee's condition and reporting back."
He leans forward.
"But that's not the only reason."
"Tell me," Lukas says.
"Ragon was already planning to bond Marie.
The papers were filed and heat was the perfect opportunity.
" Chase's face tightens. "If Ragon claimed Marie with Jasper out of the picture, the next step was bonding Vee in permanently.
If Ragon marked her you know there would be no touching her from there. "
Lukas is quiet.
"Jasper prevented Ragon from marking Marie, even when Ragon's instincts were driving him to." Chase says. "He did what I needed him to do."
"Drake left for water and food once. It was early on.
When he came back, he said he saw Vee and she was fine.
It was the next day I tried—I had my hand on the door.
" The words come out even. I've said them in my head so many times they've lost some of their texture.
"Ragon told me if I walked through it, I was out of the pack permanently.
The other alphas tried too. Ragon barked at them to stay. "
I pull out my phone and find the text exchange then hold it across the desk to Lukas.
Jasper: He won't let me leave. Says I'm out if I leave. What do I do?
Chase: Stay in the room. If you're out, there's no one left to help her later. I hate it too, but you have to play the long game.
Lukas reads it then hands the phone back without speaking.
"Vee went into heat," I say. "We didn't know she was in heat. None of us knew. We were contained in that room and the pheromones were so thick. Ragon had us all contained and by the time anyone surfaced enough to think clearly for more than minute she was already gone."
"Alex's pack had her," Chase says.
"I know." I look at my hands. The knuckles. The old scar on my right thumb from where I cut it two years ago. "I know she was taken care of. I know she's okay."
I know all of that.
I've known it for a while and it still doesn't reach the part of me that replays it. The part that keeps finding the moment I turned around at that door. The moment I chose the long game over the girl standing somewhere on the other side of it.
Vee never knew I was making that choice.
That somehow makes it worse.
Lukas studies me.
"You were in an impossible position," he says finally.
"Yes," I say. "It still wasn't good enough."
He doesn't argue with that. He's been in this business long enough to know the difference between impossible and good enough to understand that they're not the same thing.
"Alphas are supposed to protect omegas," he says. Not an accusation, but a truth that he needs to say out loud. "Not leave them in pain."
I nod. There’s nothing else to say to that.
I feel Arden's eyes on me for the first time since I walked in.
I still don't look at him.
"The recordings," Chase says. "Two of them. Jasper took them with his phone in secret."
The screen flickers to life on the wall.
"This is the first," Chase says.
The bakery. I know it from the ambient noise before anyone speaks. I was at the counter when it started. Marie's voice comes first—the provocation, deliberate and precise. Vee's response before the crash, then Ragon's voice dropping cold and final.
By the time Chase pauses it Lukas has heard everything he needs to hear.
"The bakery incident," Chase says. "Marie provoked her and Vee responded physically. She drew blood in a public setting with witnesses."
"What happened after?" Lukas asks.
"Ragon punished Vee," I say. "Made her kneel in the living room for hours."
Chase hits play.
The audio picks up inside the house later. Voices muffled at first then coming clear.
Drake. Angry. "This is bullshit. You're punishing her for defending herself."
"She drew blood. In public." Ragon.
"Marie called her second-hand. She provoked her."
Eli, quieter but firm. "Drake's right. Marie said something deliberately cruel. Vee reacted. The punishment should fit both actions."
"Marie didn't attack anyone."
"Marie attacked her with words. You know how loaded that is for Vee. You know what being returned does to an omega."
Silence.
Then Eli, measured. "You're punishing Vee with hours of kneeling but Marie gets nothing. Not even a conversation about why what she said was wrong. You're showing clear favoritism, Ragon."
"Marie is scared. She's new—"
"She's our scent match," Drake cuts in. "We know it. But that doesn't mean Vee is disposable when she makes a mistake and Marie gets a pass for causing it."
"I'm not giving Marie a free pass."
"You are. You have been since she arrived. Vee sees it. We all see it."
Ragon's voice. Strained. "What would you have me do?"
"Talk to Marie. Give her a consequence. Make it clear that kind of language doesn't belong in this pack. Then let Vee up before you do permanent damage to what's left of her trust." Eli.
"She's been kneeling for three hours already."
"Please let her up."
Silence.
Footsteps.
The recording ends.
Lukas is quiet. "Drake and Eli pushed back."
"Yes."
"And he ignored them."
"He left her kneeling for another three hours after that conversation." My voice comes out flat. I've heard this recording too many times for it to land like it did the first time. Now it’s just noise I listen to. "He never addressed what Marie said. Never."
"How long total?"
"Six hours and seventeen minutes. I timed it."
"You were there?"
"I couldn't comfort her. Ragon had a comfort ban in place, but I could make sure she didn't collapse." I pause. "I don't think she knew I was behind her. She never looked around. I just—stayed close."
Lukas's brows furrow.
He makes a note.
"Pattern evidence," he says. "Favoritism. Pack members identifying it and being overruled. Documented."
"Recording two," Chase says.
The screen shifts to my own face.
My phone is propped against a box on the dresser, camera aimed at me. I look rough in this one. The kind of rough that comes from holding a careful face in place for too many hours and then finally being alone.
My voice on the recording is low and frustrated and raw in a way I would never let myself sound in front of anyone.
"He's banned her from alpha comfort. What kind of alpha takes away something that essential to an omega? I'm done with this, Chase. I'm not going to let him keep hurting her. If he kicks me out, so be it."
The angle shifts. I'd forgotten to turn it off. The phone goes into my shirt pocket, camera facing in, and you can hear my footsteps in the hallway.
Then Ragon's voice.
"Jasper. Where are you going?"
"To check on Vee."
"You can't. She's under comfort ban."
"Banned from basic care? That's not how omegas work, Ragon."
"She's being punished."
"For reacting when someone called her second-hand? For having feelings about being treated like she doesn't matter?" My voice on the recording is sharp. Sharper than I usually let myself get around him. "I shouldn't have to be the one telling you this. I'm not even bonded into this pack yet."
"If you don't follow my rules, you're out. Do you understand?"
The longest pause on the recording.
I remember that hallway. Vee's door. Just a few feet away.
Chase’s voice in my head: If you're out, there's no one left to help her later.
My voice gets quieter. "Understood."
Footsteps retreating.
The recording runs a few more seconds and cuts.
The room is quiet.
I'm staring at my hands.
"Comfort denial," Arden says, clinical and professional. The voice he uses to put distance between himself and what he's saying. "Documented on video. Jasper advocating for Vee's wellbeing. Ragon threatening removal if he didn't comply."
"Textbook," Lukas says. "It will still be tough, but this could move the board, stubborn bastards that they are."
"It has to," Chase says. He doesn't sound relieved. He sounds like a man presenting his second-best case because his best one is locked in a box he can't open.
Lukas closes his notebook. "It's strong.
Strongest I've seen in a while." He pauses.
"But I have to ask. The heat. Vee went through heat alone while her entire pack was in another room.
That's not just neglect—that's abandonment.
The registry would act on that immediately, no hearing needed.
No panel, just removal." He looks at Chase.
"Why isn't that the centerpiece of this case? "
The room goes very quiet.
Chase leans back in his chair. "Because we can't use it."
"Explain."