CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Bo
The drive back from the chem labs usually calms me down. Windows down, country music turned up, nothing but quiet campus roads between me and whatever's waiting at home. But tonight, something feels different before I even pull into the driveway.
The house is too quiet for a Friday night. No music blasting from Beckett's room, no sounds of Zane baking, no arguing over video games. Just an eerie stillness that makes the hair on my neck stand up.
I grab my overnight bag from the truck bed and head inside through the back door. The moment I step into the mudroom, it hits me.
The scent.
It's everywhere - thick and heavy and unmistakably changed. Sex, yeah, but something more. Something that makes my Alpha instincts roar to life before my brain catches up.
"What the hell..." I mutter, dropping my bag.
Following my nose, I head toward the kitchen where I can hear quiet voices and movement. The scene I walk into looks normal enough - Jackson leaning against the counter while Eli makes coffee, Reese perched on a barstool stealing bites of leftover Chinese food.
But everything about it is wrong. Or different. Or... something.
Jackson looks relaxed. Actually relaxed, not the fake version he usually puts on. His shoulders are loose, his expression open in a way I haven't seen since... ever, actually. Not even before Riverside. He's watching Eli move around the kitchen with this soft look that makes my chest tight.
Eli's different too. There's a confidence in his movements, a settled quality that wasn't there this morning. He brushes past Jackson, their hands touching briefly, and neither of them tenses up.
And Reese...
She's glowing. There's no other word for it. Her cheeks are flushed, her eyes bright, and she keeps touching them both - little casual touches like she can't help herself. Her hand on Jackson's arm when she laughs at something. Her fingers brushing Eli's when he hands her a water glass.
They look like... a unit. The three of them moving around each other with the kind of synchronization that usually takes years to develop.
"Hey, Bo," Reese says, turning on the stool to smile at me. "How's your mom?"
The movement shifts her hair, and that's when I see it.
The mark.
It's not subtle. Not something that could be explained away as a hickey or bruise. It's a claiming bite, deep and deliberate, right where her neck meets her shoulder. The skin is still red around the edges, the teeth marks clear.
"Oh, fuck."
The words escape before I can stop them. Reese's hand flies to her neck, trying to cover the mark, but it's too late. I've seen it. And worse, I can smell it now that I know what to look for. Jackson's scent wrapped around her so tight it's part of her now. Claimed. Bonded.
"What?" Gray's voice comes from behind me, and my stomach drops.
He must have come in behind me. I didn't even hear his car. He steps into the kitchen, messenger bag still over his shoulder, and I watch the exact moment he processes what I already know.
His nostrils flare. His eyes go wide, then narrow to slits. His gaze zeroes in on Jackson with laser focus.
"You didn't." His voice is deadly quiet.
Jackson straightens from his lean against the counter, and for the first time in years, I see him meet Gray's authority head-on. There's something almost smug in his expression, a satisfaction that says he's not sorry. Not even a little.
"I did."
Gray moves so fast I barely track it. One second he's in the doorway, the next he's got Jackson by the collar, slamming him back against the refrigerator hard enough to rattle the bottles inside.
"You selfish fucking—"
Eli's between them before Gray can cock his fist back, wedging himself into the space and shoving Gray backwards with all his strength. Gray steps back up to him chest-to-chest, looking down his nose at him, but Eli doesn’t back down.
It’s the closest thing to a challenge I’ve ever seen from one of the guys.
"Back off, Gray."
"Move, Stone."
"No."
That's when Gray sees it - the mark on Eli's neck. Not a claiming bite, but deep enough to bruise, to mark him as taken. Gray's eyes go even wider, looking between the three of them like he's seeing something impossible.
"What the fuck is happening here?"
"What's happening," Eli says, still pressed between him and Jackson, "is none of your goddamn business."
"None of my—" Gray's voice rises to a roar. "He claimed her! Without discussing it with the team, without thinking about the consequences, without—"
"Without your permission?" Jackson cuts in, his voice sharp. "Sorry, Captain. Didn't realize I needed your approval to follow my instincts."
Gray lunges forward again, but I catch his arm this time, using my size to hold him back. "Gray, stop."
"Stop? He just destroyed everything! Our season, our futures, everything we've worked for—"
"STOP!"
Reese's voice cracks through the kitchen like a whip. We all freeze, turning to look at her. She's standing now, hands clenched at her sides, and there's something different about her. Something that makes my Alpha brain sit up and pay attention despite everything.
"Just... stop," she says again, quieter but no less firm. "Please."
The front door opens, and I hear voices - Zane and Beckett coming back from wherever they were. They stop dead in the hallway, probably hit by the same scent bomb I walked into.
"What the—" Beckett starts.
"Holy shit," Zane breathes.
Cameron appears from the back deck where he's been smoking, drawn by the shouting. His eyes take in the scene - Gray still straining against my hold, Jackson pressed against the fridge with Eli shielding him, Reese standing there with a claiming bite visible on her neck.
"Well," Cameron says quietly. "This changes things."
"Changes things?" Gray wrenches free from my grip, spinning to face the room. "This destroys things! Do you have any idea what you've done?"
"What needed to happen," Jackson says simply.
"What needed—" Gray looks like he might actually have a stroke. "Torres is watching us. The administration is looking for any excuse to shut us down. And you just gave them the biggest violation possible!"
"It wasn't planned," Reese says softly. "It just... happened."
"Claiming bites don't just happen!" Gray roars. "They're a choice! A commitment! A—"
"Something you wanted to do yourself?" Jackson cuts in, and the room goes silent.
Gray's jaw clenches so hard I worry he'll crack teeth. "That's not—"
"Isn't it?" Jackson steps forward, Eli moving by his side like they're attached by invisible string. "You've been circling her since day one. We all have. The only difference is I actually did something about it."
"You did something selfish," Gray spits. "Something that affects all of us without—"
"Without committee approval?" Jackson laughs, but there's no humor in it. "Sorry I didn't fill out the proper paperwork before claiming the woman I—" He cuts himself off, jaw tightening.
"The woman you what?" Gray challenges.
Jackson's eyes flick to Reese, then Eli, something raw and vulnerable flashing across his face before his walls slam back up. "The woman who chose me. Who chose us."
"Us?" Beckett asks, looking between the three of them. "Wait, are all three of you...?"
"Together," Eli confirms, his hand finding Jackson's. "Yeah."
The silence that follows is suffocating. Everyone processing, calculating, trying to figure out what this means.
"We're fucked," Tyler says from the doorway.
None of us even heard him come in. He's got his laptop bag over his shoulder, looking exhausted from his study group.
"The probability of keeping this hidden from Torres is essentially zero.
Claimed bonds change everything - scent, behavior, biological responses.
We have maybe 72 hours before it becomes impossible to hide. "
"Less," Cameron adds. "48 at most."
"So we're done," Gray says flatly. "Season over. Careers over. Everything we've worked for, gone. Because Jackson couldn't keep his dick in his pants."
"Gray," I warn, seeing Jackson tense.
"What? It's true! One moment of weakness and he's destroyed nine futures—"
"It wasn't weakness," Reese interrupts, her voice steady despite the tears I can see gathering in her eyes. "It was the opposite. It was Jackson being brave enough to take what we all want but are too scared to admit."
"Brave?" Gray laughs bitterly. "There's nothing brave about giving in to base instincts—"
"Isn't there?" She steps forward, and even from here I can smell how Jackson's claim has changed her.
She smells like pack now. Like home. Like everything we've been pretending we don't want.
"You've been holding yourself back for weeks, Gray.
Killing yourself with need. We all have.
At least Jackson had the courage to stop pretending. "
"Courage," Gray repeats, voice dripping with disbelief. "You think this was courage?"
"I think," Reese says carefully, "that we were already past the point of no return. This just makes it official."
The truth of that settles over the room like a weight. Because she's right. We've been a pack in everything but name for weeks now. The claiming bite just makes it impossible to deny.
"What do we do?" Zane asks quietly. "How do we fix this?"
"We don't," Jackson says simply. "We deal with the consequences."
"Easy for you to say," Beckett snaps. "You got what you wanted."
Jackson's expression darkens. "You think this is what I wanted? To put her at risk? To destroy the team? You think I wanted—" His voice cracks slightly. "I fought this harder than any of you. But sometimes fighting isn't the answer."
"Then what is?" Gray demands.
Nobody has an answer for that.
I look around the room at my teammates - my family, really.
Gray vibrating with fury he’s desperately trying to hold onto.
Jackson standing straighter than he has in years despite everything.
Eli positioned protectively between them.
Reese marked and claimed and looking somehow more herself than ever.
The others scattered around the kitchen, lost and afraid and hurt.
"Maybe," I say slowly, "we stop trying to control something that was never meant to be controlled."
Gray turns on me. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means we're a pack," I say simply. "Have been for weeks. Fighting it is what's been tearing us apart. Maybe it's time to stop fighting."
"And lose everything?" Gray asks.
I look at Jackson, Eli, and Reese - the way they're standing together, connected in a way that goes deeper than anything rules or policies can touch.
"Maybe," I say quietly, "we already have. The question is what we're going to do about it."
The silence that follows is heavy with possibility and dread in equal measure. Because I'm right, and we all know it.
Everything just changed.
And there's no going back.