Garrett
Chapter twenty
The engine slides into the driveway. I can immediately tell it isn’t one of ours. I dry my hands on the towel, nerves already up like something’s wrong, and circle the kitchen island slow.
Gabriel’s at the dining table, hunched over his laptop. Cyrus is on the far couch, motionless but watching everything. Miles vanished into the pack room an hour ago. Lily? Still in her room, door closed since yesterday.
The doorbell rings.
Gabriel snaps his laptop shut and heads for the entry. I drift closer, stopping in the living room, close enough to see the door, far enough to fake casual. Gabriel opens it and the man on the porch—the sight of him drops my stomach straight down. I already know how this ends.
Brennan Foster. Expensive suit, precise haircut, watch that probably costs more than my truck.
His scent gets there first: sandalwood and leather.
A scent that tries to dominate a room. There’s another packmate in the car, sunglasses, arm out the window.
But Brennan walks up alone. Power move. He doesn’t need backup. He’s not expecting a fight.
“Gabriel,” he says, smiling. Warm. Polished.
“Brennan.” Gabriel’s answer is neutral, flat. Polite but nothing more. Cool businessman at the door. No tells.
Brennan steps in, not quite pushing, not quite waiting for permission. Gabriel lets it happen. That’s how he works: never make a move until you know the game. Measured. Strategic. Lately, so careful it’s starting to crack.
Gabriel leads the way to the living room and points him to the couch. Brennan sits like he owns the place, ankle over his knee, arms stretched along the back, gaze sweeping the room. He clocks me in the armchair, Cyrus on the opposite couch. Decides neither of us matters. He’s here for Gabriel.
Gabriel sits across from him. “What brings you by?”
Brennan’s smile widens. “I’ll get right to it. I’ve heard you’re looking for a pack for Lily Ashworth.”
I should have expected it, but her name still surprises me. Cyrus tightens. I keep my face still, but my jaw aches from the tension.
“That’s correct,” Gabriel says.
“Word travels.” Brennan flicks at his cuffs, casual. “You’ve reached out to most eligible packs in the area. Some farther. I admit, I was surprised not to hear from you myself. My pack is closer to your own in standing than some of the ones you’ve been reaching out to.”
Gabriel waits.
“But what’s more confusing,” Brennan goes on, “is why you took her from the registry if you weren’t planning to keep her. My pack had already submitted for her custody. The registry had practically agreed. Then your request appeared and she was gone. No explanation.”
“I don’t need to explain my reasons for taking Lily in,” Gabriel says, polite but hard. “But she has a prospective pack in line. She’ll likely be going with them soon.”
“Which pack?”
“Not public until both sides decide.”
There’s a crack, just a hairline, in Brennan’s polish. His mouth tightens. His scent turns, an edge of anger under the sandalwood. There and gone, but Cyrus catches it too.
Gabriel tips his head. “Why Lily, specifically? There are plenty of suitable omegas. Your pack’s well known and respected. You could have your pick.”
Brennan’s smile returns, thinner. “I’ve had my eye on Lily for a long time. She’s perfect for us.”
“In what way?”
“It’s a long story,” Brennan deflects. “But my point is simpler.” He leans in, hands clasped, leaning into earnest. “I know your situation, Gabriel. I know you have an omega who likely isn’t adjusting to Lily being here well. It’s been hard, right? Let me help. Let me take her off your hands.”
I watch Gabriel’s face. He’s frozen. That’s when he’s thinking hardest. It means he’s running numbers.
My pulse jumps. I start planning what I’ll say if Gabriel agrees, how far I’ll go to stop it, whether Cyrus will back me. I glance at him. Cyrus is forward now, elbows on knees, fingers loose. I feel it through the bond—the same pressure, the same dread. He’s afraid Gabriel will say yes.
I remember what Arden told me at Lily’s appointment. The withdrawn requests. The packs that showed interest and then vanished. Someone with access, clearing the field. Making sure Lily stayed available.
The rumors. The Foster pack in the Hollows, over and over. The Hollows is where you go when there’s no legitimate channel left. Black market bonds. Underground trade. Alpha fighting rings.
Miles froze when he saw Brennan at a gathering once. His whole body locked tight, his scent turning sour with wariness. He looked at me, quick: You see this, right? You know what he is.
Miles knows predators. He lived with them.
If Gabriel says yes, I’ll fight him. I’ll defy my lead and take whatever comes. I look at Cyrus again and I know he’ll stand with me.
Gabriel says, “I appreciate the offer, Brennan. But Lily has shown real interest in the other pack. I won’t take that from her.”
Relief hits, hard. My hands unclench. Cyrus eases back, tension sliding off his shoulders.
Brennan’s smile thins to a razor’s edge. “Interest can be redirected.”
“Not by me.”
“Then maybe I should speak with her directly.”
“That won’t be necessary.” Gabriel’s tone goes cold. “She knows her options.”
Brennan shifts. “Why not reach out to me sooner? Before the Whitfields or anyone else?”
Gabriel fires back: “Why didn’t you actively pursue Lily before my pack got involved?”
A pause. Real hesitation. “I did. She resisted our meet and greet requests. Some omegas are like that—they don’t always know what’s good for them.” He laughs, light, like he’s confiding a joke. “But I’ve seen her at events. She was warming up. It was just a matter of time.”
I need to smash something. Some omegas don’t know what’s good for them. Like consent is a speed bump, not a stop sign.
“So the scent match rumor is true?” Brennan asks suddenly. “Your pack and Lily?”
Gabriel hesitates, then nods. “Yes.”
Brennan’s laugh is low, warm, ugly. “Well, that’s it, isn’t it? If her own scent matches don’t want her, she’s not going to do better than my pack.”
Gabriel says something low. I miss the words, but the line is drawn.
Brennan doesn’t flinch. Instead, his dominance fills the room, slow and steady, like a leak.
Controlled. He’s pushing up against three alphas and he’s not scared.
That means something. Either he’s strong enough—which isn’t likely, not alone—or sure enough of his connections.
“If Lily’s a handful,” Brennan says, “then a four-alpha pack is better equipped. Especially compared to a three-alpha pack already handling a traumatized omega.”
Gabriel growls. Deep, real. “Do not talk about my omega.”
Brennan holds up his hands. “No offense. Just practicalities.”
“We’re done here,” Gabriel says.
Brennan doesn’t move. He shifts gears, drops the charm.
“If it’s about compensation…” he says before trailing off.
My knuckles whiten on the chair arm. The room is airless.
Gabriel stiffens. “Are you offering to buy my scent match from me?”
Brennan holds his gaze, steady. “I want Lily very badly, Gabriel. I have for a long time. I had my heart set on her from the first time she turned me down. It was supposed to be a sure thing at the registry. Then you came along. But I’m prepared to be extremely generous in order to fix this mess. You know my pack has the means.”
Gabriel stands. “Now that you’ve shown me who you really are, let me be clear. You will never get your hands on Lily. I will personally make sure of it. She is not property. If you ever approach me with this again, we’ll be having a very different conversation.”
Brennan stands too. No charm now, only cold patience—the kind that waits out every no until it flips to yes.
“Says the man actively trying to throw his own scent match away,” Brennan says. “You don’t even know what you have, do you?”
Gabriel’s dominance crashes into the room, total and heavy. Brennan feels it; his shoulders tick back, body reacting even if his face doesn’t.
He heads for the door but turns at the frame.
“This isn’t over, Gabriel. I always get what I want. And Lily is my omega. She just doesn’t know it yet.”
He leaves. A few seconds later, I hear his engine rev and the car disappears. The house is silent.
Nobody moves.
Then I see her. Lily, in the hallway by the stairs, back pressed to the wall. White as paper, fists clenched so tight her nails must be biting in. She heard some of it, maybe all. Her face says enough.
She meets my eyes for a heartbeat. Fear and exhaustion. Resignation. Like she always knew this was coming, she’s just been waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Her breathing is loud: fast, shallow, brittle. She’s gone before I can move. Up the stairs, door closed.
I long to follow. Every part of me is screaming to go to her. But Gabriel’s rules are a cage for both of us, and I know what it cost him to let her stay at all.
So I let her go. Again. I sit in the poison Brennan left behind and try to breathe through it.
The three of us wait in the aftermath, nobody comfortable. Brennan’s scent clings to the furniture, the air, the rug. Wrong, in a way that’s deeper than the scent itself.
“There’s something you need to know,” I say to Gabriel.
He looks at me, eyes narrowing in focus.
“Arden told me, the specialist, at Lily’s appointment. He pulled her registry file. There were a lot of meet and greet requests in her history. Most were withdrawn. The packs pulled their own requests shortly after making them.”
Gabriel frowns. “She didn’t turn them down?”
“No. Lily only turned down a couple that she actually met before. The rest? She probably doesn’t know they existed. The requests were withdrawn before she ever saw them. Arden said it looked like someone with registry access was working against her.”
Cyrus speaks, soft and certain. “The Fosters.”
“That’s what I think,” I say. “Brennan said the registry had pretty much agreed to his pack. Said his paperwork was in before ours. What if he wasn’t waiting for her to choose him? What if he was clearing out the competition until she had no other option?”
Gabriel is rigid, but you can see the thoughts moving behind his eyes. “Why didn’t the specialist tell me directly? I’m pack lead.”
“I brought Lily to the appointment. He told whoever was there.”
“Six years,” Gabriel says. “She was at the registry for six years and barely anyone met her. We thought she was being picky.”
“She wasn’t. Someone was picking for her.”
Cyrus leans in. “His scent is wrong.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrow. “How?”
“Underneath. The top is a mask. Too much, too deliberate. You only push that much if you’re hiding something.” He pauses. “I’ve smelled it before. Not him, but that kind of mask.”
He leaves it there. We all know what he means. People who mask their scent are hiding something biological. Aggression, instability, or worse.
“Why does he want her so badly?” I ask. “She’s a sick omega. Complicated. There are easier targets. Why Lily?”
Gabriel shakes his head. “I don’t know.”
“I do.”
Miles is in the doorway, arms folded, hoodie up. He looks like a ghost who wants you to know it’s there. Nobody heard him come in. That’s how he is: appears when it matters.
He doesn’t sit. He stands, one shoulder on the frame, face stripped of attitude.
“It’s pride,” he says. “Obsession. Whatever you want to call it.”
Gabriel waits.
“I know alphas like him. I bonded with them.” Flat, like reading a weather report.
“Sometimes an alpha fixates on something he can’t have.
Especially if it rejected him. The rejection—that’s the point.
It stops being about the omega and starts being about winning.
About proving he can take whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and nobody can stop him. ”
He pauses, looks down, then up.
“I’ve seen it before. In my old pack. An alpha who wanted something and wouldn’t stop until he got it. And once he had it, he destroyed it, because the chase was the only part that mattered.”
Silence.
“I can see it on Brennan,” Miles says. “Clear as day. He wants Lily. He’ll do anything to get her. Registry manipulation, money, threats. He won’t quit, because quitting means he lost. And men like him would rather burn everything down than lose.”
He slips his hands into his hoodie pocket. Looks at Gabriel, then me, then Cyrus.
“Don’t let him have her,” he says, looking back to Gabriel. “I was wrong before. I was angry when I said it, but not even Lily deserves that pack.”
He didn’t call her the stray. He said her name. Like he’s seeing her as a person right now and not a thief in the night.
Gabriel nods. “We won’t.”
Miles holds his gaze for a long second. Then he’s gone, silent as he came.
The three of us sit there. I look at Gabriel, who’s staring at the empty doorway. I think he’s realized that the ground has shifted under us, and the map we’ve been using doesn’t work anymore.
“He’s never done that before,” I say. “Advocated for her.”
“No,” Gabriel says. “He hasn’t.”
“Something’s changing.”
Gabriel looks at me. Then at Cyrus, who meets his eyes and doesn’t look away. Some silent communication passes there, old as the pack itself.
“Maybe,” Gabriel says. “But not fast enough to outrun Brennan.”
He stares out the window like he’s waiting for that alpha to come back already. “New protocol. Nobody answers the door alone. No visitors without warning. I’ll add cameras to the front and back. Nobody lets Lily near the Foster pack. Ever.”
Cyrus: a single nod.
We thought the danger was inside this house.
We were wrong.
I nod too, but my mind’s on Miles. The way he said Lily. How he looked at Gabriel and said don’t let him have her, and meant it.
He hates her, but he wants her safe.
It’s barely a crack in the wall. But it’s the first one, and I know that’s how walls fall.
I hold onto it. It’s all I have.