Chapter 7
Wreck
An hour later, we were washing down equipment near the supply shed while the last of the smoke drifted across camp.
Cold water blasted over my shoulders from the hose Havoc aimed at me.
“Move your giant ass,” he barked.
“You move yours.”
“Mine’s objectively better.”
“That’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever said.”
“Not even close.”
Justin sat on the tailgate nearby, reviewing reports while occasionally tossing insults into the conversation like emotional support grenades.
The mood should’ve felt normal.
Instead, tension crawled beneath my skin nonstop.
Because in about seven hours?
I was seeing Gia again.
A date.
An actual fucking date.
The word alone made my stomach feel weird.
The Bear was practically vibrating with anticipation.
“You’re staring into space again,” Havoc said suddenly.
“I’m thinking.”
“That’s new.”
I flipped him off without heat.
The Wolf grinned before turning serious.
“So you think she might be yours, right?”
My hands stilled on the equipment harness.
“What?”
“The female.”
He shrugged casually, though his eyes stayed sharp.
“How’s that work? Like fated mates? Holy fuck, is she your Omega?”
“My fucking what?”
Havoc blinked.
Then slowly lowered the hose.
“Dude.”
“What?”
“You seriously don’t know?”
“Know what?”
Justin looked up from the reports now, expression unreadable.
“Oh, this explains a lot.”
“What explains what? What the fuck are you two dickheads talking about?” I snapped.
Havoc stared at me like I’d confessed I couldn’t read.
“Dude, don’t you even know what you are? What we are? Why the fuck our Packs and Clans sent us away?”
I barked out a harsh laugh.
“Because they thought we were dangerous assholes?”
“Yes,” Havoc replied immediately. “But specifically because they thought we were dangerous Alpha assholes.”
The words hit strangely.
Alpha.
I’d spent my entire life rejecting that word.
My father wore it like a crown.
My brother chased it like religion.
And me?
I’d run from it.
“No,” I said flatly. “Bears don’t inherit titles.”
“So what? You were born this way, Wreck.”
He was wrong.
Yes, I was born broken.
But I wasn’t an Alpha.
And I told him so.
“I’m not an Alpha.”
Havoc snorted.
“Bullshit.”
“Look, I never challenged for leadership.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Something shifted in Justin’s expression then.
Recognition.
Old memory.
“You’re what my people call a True Alpha,” the Dragon said quietly.
The words settled heavily between us.
I frowned.
“The fuck does that mean?”
Havoc tossed the hose aside and leaned against the truck.
“Like I said, it means you were born with it. Dominance. Command instincts. Alpha force. Same as me. Same as Sparky here. True Alphas. Scariest motherfucking thing a Shifter can be because we don’t have to challenge for strength or position.
We just have it. And they don’t. They can’t control it.
They can’t control us. So, naturally they hate us for it. ”
“That’s impossible,” I snapped. “How the fuck can three Alphas live together like we do if that was true?”
“He’s an idiot,” Justin said calmly, “but he’s not wrong about this.”
Havoc looked offended.
“Rude.”
The Dragon ignored him.
“In my Clan,” Justin continued, “there were rules about males like us.”
Something dark flickered behind his eyes briefly.
“If there was no Omega to calm the beast, we were cast out.”
Silence settled heavily.
The wind shifted across camp, carrying smoke and pine through the mountain air.
I stared at him.
“So, wait. You’re a True Alpha? And you were exiled from your Clan because of this?”
Justin barked a humorless laugh.
“It was long ago,” he said.
“How long?” the Wolf asked.
Justin turned his draconian glare on him and hissed deep and low, the rumble in his chest made even the ground quake.
“I was cast out before you two were even a fucking idea in your daddies’ ball-sacks.”
“Ew. That was a fucking gross ass description, dick,” Havoc muttered.
I wasn’t paying any attention to their bickering. Not really.
Ever since Havoc mentioned fated mates and Omega my heart had been pounding like mad.
True, my Bear was insisting Gia was mine—but my fated mate? And what the fuck was the other thing?
“Wait,” I snapped before they could derail again. “Tell me what you mean by an Omega.”
The Wolf and Dragon exchanged a look.
Then Havoc sighed dramatically.
“Okay. So. Long story short? Some Shifters are born different.”
“Yeah? No shit.”
“True Alphas. We don’t need to challenge for position, it simply is what it is. We are what we are. Dominant. Stronger,” Justin clarified. “More aggressive. More territorial. More unstable.”
My stomach tightened.
That sounded familiar.
“Without balance,” the Dragon continued, “True Alphas become dangerous. To themselves. To everyone around them.”
“And the balance is an Omega?” I asked slowly.
Havoc nodded.
“In the old legends, Omegas were created by the Fates specifically to anchor True Alphas.”
The words hit me hard.
Anchor.
Gia’s scent.
Gia’s soft body in my arms.
The way the Bear calmed instantly when I held her close.
Oh fuck.
If I was a True Alpha and Gia Anatoly was my Omega—then I was fucked. And so was she.
Not yet, the Bear growled darkly beneath my skin.
The sound of it scraped through my skull like claws over stone.
Claim her.
“No,” I muttered harshly, pacing away from the truck before I put my fist through the fucking side panel.
“Yeah,” Havoc said behind me.
I rounded on him instantly.
“No.”
The Wolf crossed his tattooed arms over his chest, golden eyes steady and far too knowing.
“Wreck—”
“She’s not a fucking solution to my problems!” I snapped, voice echoing across the mountain clearing hard enough to scatter birds from nearby trees. “How the hell could I ask that soft, sweet woman to give up her life for me? No. No fucking way.”
The second the words left my mouth, the Bear surged violently.
Mine.
The possessiveness behind that single instinct nearly dropped me to my knees.
Jesus H. Christ.
I dragged both hands through my hair, chest heaving while the thing inside me tore itself apart.
Because the truth was worse than fear.
The truth was, I already wanted her too much.
Too fast.
One scent and my entire goddamn world shifted around her.
One look at her curled unconscious in my arms and suddenly every instinct I’d spent decades burying woke up starving.
And that terrified me more than any wildfire ever could.
Justin watched me silently from the tailgate, gold eyes narrowed slightly.
“You’re wrong,” he said finally. “That’s not what this is.”
I barked out a sharp laugh devoid of humor.
“Then what is it?”
Silence stretched.
The mountain wind carried smoke through camp while my pulse hammered so hard I could feel it behind my eyes.
“I just want to fuck her,” I bit out viciously. “That’s it.”
Even as I said it, I knew they could smell the lie.
Hell—I could smell the lie.
The Bear exploded in fury.
Mine.
Bite.
Claim.
Mate.
The beast clawed at me from the inside, savage and relentless, hating every word coming out of my mouth.
Hating the idea of touching her without meaning it.
Of walking away afterward.
Of pretending she wasn’t already rooted somewhere deep inside my fucking chest.
The pressure behind my ribs built hard enough to hurt.
“You done?” Havoc asked quietly.
“Fuck off.”
“No.”
The Wolf stepped closer, boots crunching over gravel.
“You carried her out of a fucking blaze like you were hauling your own goddamn heartbeat around in your arms.”
I looked away immediately.
Because he wasn’t wrong.
“You scent-marked her.”
“I did not.”
“You absolutely fucking did,” Justin cut in dryly. “The entire cabin smelled like you when we circled back and checked the perimeter.”
Fuck.
The Bear made a pleased sound at that.
My stomach twisted violently.
“You don’t understand,” I said finally, voice rougher now. “Males like me don’t get happy endings.”
Havoc’s expression changed slightly at that.
Less teasing.
More recognition.
Yeah.
He understood that feeling too.
“We’re all Monsters here,” he said quietly.
“No,” I snapped immediately. “You’re not like me.”
The words hit harder than I intended.
The Wolf’s jaw tightened.
Justin’s gaze sharpened.
But I couldn’t stop now.
“My fucking Clan took one look at me and decided I was too dangerous to exist near them,” I snarled. “You know what fifteen grown males look like trying to chain down a sixteen-year-old boy?”
Silence.
Heavy.
Ugly.
“My Bear has been trying to tear its way free since the second I scented her. And you think I’m going to let him near her? Think I’m supposed to drag some sweet female into my shit life?”
The Bear roared in disagreement.
Not some female.
Mate.
Omega.
Mine.
I slammed both palms onto the hood of the truck hard enough that the metal dented beneath my hands.
“Fuck!”
Justin finally moved then, hopping down from the tailgate with slow, deliberate calm.
The Dragon approached like he did everything else—controlled. Dangerous. Ancient in ways the rest of us weren’t.
“You misunderstand me,” he said quietly.
I laughed bitterly.
“Enlighten me.”
“Your Bear is aggressive,” he continued. “Growing more so every day.”
No point denying that.
We all knew it.
The nightmares.
The territorial moods.
The way my instincts rode too close to the surface lately.
The violence was getting harder to contain.
“And what?” I shot back. “You think I’ll subject her to that? To me? You think she’s some magic fucking fix that’s gonna make me normal?”
“No.”
The Dragon’s answer came instantly.
Cold certainty.
“No, I don’t think she’s going to fix you because you are not broken.”
I stilled.
The words hit strangely.
Wrong.
Impossible.
My whole life people looked at me and saw something malformed. Something dangerous.
Wrong.
Hybrid.
Monster.
Mistake.
Even now, I still carried those words around like chains under my skin.
Justin stepped closer.
“You’re a True Alpha.”
The title settled heavy in the air between us.
Ancient.
Violent.
Real.
“And what you don’t understand,” he continued, voice lowering slightly, “is a mated Alpha doesn’t become less dangerous after finding his Omega.”
Something moved behind his eyes then.
Old memory.
Old grief.
Old blood.
The mountain suddenly felt quieter around us.
“He becomes even more dangerous for her.”
The Bear surged so violently I staggered back a step.
Protect.
Claim.
Destroy threats.
The instincts detonated through my nervous system all at once.
Everything suddenly made horrifying fucking sense.
The possessiveness.
The scent fixation.
The way every male near her immediately registered as a threat.
The instinctive calming whenever I touched her.
The unbearable need to keep her close enough I could hear her breathing.
Mate.
Omega.
Mine.
My pulse thundered hard enough to hurt.
“No,” I whispered.
But it sounded weak now.
Hopeless.
Because deep down?
I already knew.
The Bear had known from the start.
Havoc laughed softly nearby, though there wasn’t a damn bit of humor in it.
“Yeah,” he muttered. “Welcome to the worst club on earth.”
I didn’t have it in me to laugh with him.
Didn’t have it in me to breathe properly either.
Because the terrifying part wasn’t the bond.
It wasn’t the Alpha instincts, or the claiming urges clawing through me.
It was this one little bitty fact.
I already cared.
Too much.
The thought of something happening to her made my vision sharpen dangerously.
The thought of another male touching her made violence crawl up my spine.
And the thought of dragging her fully into my world?
Into this?
Into me?
That made something dark and sick twist through my chest.
Because Gia Anatoly deserved softness.
She deserved safety.
A future untouched by blood and monsters and the constant battle against instincts that never truly slept.
Not a male who woke up every morning fighting himself.
Not a hybrid beast one bad day away from becoming exactly what his father always feared.
My hands curled into fists.
The Bear snarled in warning at the direction of my thoughts.
Mine.
“She deserves better,” I said quietly.
Havoc’s expression hardened immediately.
“That’s not your decision to make.”
“Yes, it is.”
“No,” Justin corrected coldly. “It’s hers.”
I looked away.
Toward the mountains.
Toward Ember Hollow, hidden below the tree line.
Toward the female waiting for me somewhere too close for comfort, probably wondering what the hell kind of male forgot his own coat because he couldn’t stop staring at her mouth.
Pain spread slowly through my chest.
Raw.
Unexpected.
Because I knew what I had to do.
And it was tearing me the fuck apart already.
“I can’t do this,” I said finally.
The Bear went ballistic instantly.
Mine!
“I can’t.”
You promised.
The beast’s fury shook through me hard enough my bones ached.
Protect her.
Keep her.
Claim her.
But all I could see was my old Clan. The Bears of Forest Ridge.
Chains.
Fear.
My father looking at me like I was something born wrong.
I would die before I let Gia look at me that way someday.
Before she realized exactly what kind of monster she’d bonded herself to.
“I’m standing her up,” I said hoarsely.
Havoc cursed immediately.
Justin went very still.
But neither of them stopped me when I turned away.
Maybe because they smelled the truth bleeding off me already.
This wasn’t rejection.
It wasn’t disinterest.
It was fear.
Pure fucking terror.
Because for the first time in my life, I had something to lose.
And losing Gia Anatoly would destroy whatever was left of me.