Chapter 11 Rose
Rose
My body feels like all eight of Santa’s reindeer trampled me. Every inch of me aches, but none more than my poor back. And that was after one night on the couch. Maybe I should’ve tried the floor.
The alphas all look irritatingly well-rested. Harlan, Logan, and Kai sit around the breakfast table, sipping coffee delivered with the groceries. Evander sips tea, looking like death warmed over—definitely not a morning person. Wyatt’s at the stove making breakfast, which smells unfairly good.
Every day, the stirring of my omega grows more pronounced. It’s like someone hovering between sleep and waking—you can feel they’re about to open their eyes.
I’ve been lying on the couch, scrolling my phone and working up the courage to face my kitchen, and all the alphas in it, when my front door swings open and Sunny comes stomping in.
Oh, shit.
“What did I tell you about scheming with my friends’ emotions and bonds?” she demands, glaring from Logan to Harlan before planting herself in front of me like a human shield.
“Sunny,” I begin, aiming for calm.
“I told you not to! That’s what I told you! Leave them alone! Yet I find out this morning, from Stella, that you’ve been seen with a moving truck in front of Rose’s house?”
“Sunny,” I try again, but she’s on a roll.
“How dare you trick or bribe or threaten my friend into your bullshit?”
“Threaten? We didn’t—” Logan starts.
“Enough,” Harlan barks.
“Do not bark at my wife.” Cole appears behind Sunny, broad shoulders filling the doorway. He’s tall, muscled, gray streaks in his dark hair, dominance rolling through the room like thunder.
Harlan meets it head-on. The air between them turns electric. Before a full-on alpha standoff erupts, I jump up and wedge myself between them. “Sunny! I need to talk to you. Alone.”
She glares at the pack but finally follows me to the bedroom. The second she sees the new pack bed, she freezes.
“Rose, what—?”
Before I can explain, a swell of voices rises in the living room. Not quite shouting, but close enough that Sunny and I trade a look and bolt.
Please, universe, don’t let the Night Pack get into a fistfight with the Sterling Pack.
But the problem is obvious the second we round the corner. Clara has arrived, flanked by her Ember Pack.
“Why is everyone saying you bonded a pack?” she asks. “Didn’t Sunny threaten to cut Logan’s balls off or something?”
I wince. Logan visibly cringes.
Before I can answer, Winnie and Cali squeeze their way in. Cali's pushing, Winnie politely murmuring “excuse me” like this isn’t descending into chaos. The Evergreen Pack follows right behind.
“Good lord, how many people do you know?” Evander mutters from his perch at the counter, watching like it’s reality TV.
“A lot,” I snap.
“And we’re here to kick you assholes out,” Bax, Cali’s alpha, announces.
The sentiment nearly makes me tear up. After a lifetime of having no one but Kai, who disappeared when we went to college, and sometimes my brother, I’ve built a family here. A real one.
Unfortunately, the agreement around the room threatens to turn into an angry mob.
I raise my hands. “No one is kicking anyone out of my house.”
Sunny crosses her arms. Cali looks ready to declare war. Clara’s confused. Winnie looks worried.
“If all the alphas currently letting the warm air out wouldn’t mind, the back patio is open. You can wait there.” I announce.
It’s a clear dismissal. Grumbling, the alphas trudge toward the door.
The Sterling Pack doesn’t move.
“It’s still my house,” I remind them, sharp now. “And I said all the alphas.”
They stare at me, eyebrows raised, testing. My stomach knots. This is the moment. Either Harlan backs me up and I keep my independence, or he doesn’t, and I’m finished.
Harlan gestures for his pack to follow. Relief leaks out of me in a shaky breath.
The second the door closes, my friends descend.
“No, I’m not being blackmailed. No, I wasn’t forced,” I say before they can start.
“Then why in the world are you bonding with Logan’s pack?” Sunny demands. Her sharp tone grates, but I know it’s coming from concern.
I make a choice. Maybe a bad one, but mine. “Because I asked them to.”
Slack-jawed silence.
“Why?” Winnie asks softly.
I take a deep breath, and decide it’s time.
I’ve created the safest situation I can and I don’t want to hide anymore.
I just hope they don’t feel tricked or angry.
I tell them. About my parents. My late designation.
Being locked away. The arranged bonding to a violent pack.
My brother’s help. The fake papers. The experimental drug that let me pass as a beta.
How I survived on odd jobs until I could finally rent this little house.
How I chose Lakeside Point because it felt small and safe.
By the end, the room is thick with shock. Winnie’s hands cover her mouth. Clara keeps mouthing “What?” Cali’s eyebrows are lost somewhere in her hairline. Sunny’s scowl could burn through steel.
“Your parents were just going to sell you?” she snarls.
“It’s fairly common in upper circles,” I say.
No one looks mollified.
“So you pretend to be their omega, and they keep your family off your back?” Clara sums up.
“Pretty much.”
“I still don’t like it,” Sunny mutters.
“It’s not ideal, but it’s better than the alternative. I don’t want to spend my life looking over my shoulder. It has to end sometime, and I want it to end here.” I gesture around the room. “I just didn’t want to have to leave.”
Cali is the first to move, wrapping me in the most awkward hug of my life, her baby bump pressing between us.
“Fine,” Sunny says finally, “but if those fuckers make you uncomfortable, we’re coming for them.”
I laugh. “You’d have to get through Harlan first.”
“For real though, I’m pretty sure Cole’s threatening them as we speak,” she adds.
My eyes fly wide.
We all scramble for the patio.