Chapter forty
Lily
Iwake up to yelling.
But this isn’t Miles suffering alone behind closed doors—not glass breaking or those gut-wrenching sobs that left me useless last night. This is different. Immediate. Aimed at me.
“What the fuck is this?”
I blink awake, vision blurry, brain slow to catch up.
I’m on the living room floor, tangled in a pile of blankets.
Cyrus’s chest pressed against my back, Garrett’s arm heavy across my waist. At some point in the night I stripped off my t-shirt because I got too hot wedged between them. Now I’m just in a tank and shorts.
Miles stands over us. His eyes flick over the scene, taking in everything at once. He’s completely still.
He’s so pale he almost glows. A furious white, the color of paper before you mark it. Wild-eyed, fists curled, every muscle pulled tight. He’s shaking with anger that’s silent right before it isn’t.
“Miles—“ My voice rasps. I try to sit up, blinking at the sudden brightness. I sound like I swallowed sandpaper.
“What the fuck is this?“ he says again, words harsh, eyes flicking between all three of us: Cyrus shirtless, Garrett shirtless, me wedged in the middle, blankets everywhere. The nest I begged them to build because I couldn’t stand being alone last night.
Because I was scared for Miles. Because I needed to hear him if he called.
But none of that shows on his face. What registers to him is: My omega was hurting and she used it as a chance to curl up with my alphas.
“Miles, nothing happened.” I clutch the blanket tighter, like it might cover something or undo what he’s already seen. “We were just sleeping. That’s all. Sleeping.”
He repeats it, deadpan: “Just sleeping. On the floor. In a nest. Half naked. With my alphas.”
Cyrus shifts behind me, fingers warm on my shoulder. He’s not being possessive. More like he’s anchoring himself, bracing. Garrett sits up too, expression hardening as he catches up.
“Miles, we all slept out here so we could hear if you needed us,” Garrett says, gentle, careful. “Plus Lily was upset. She didn’t want to be alone. We didn’t want to leave her. That’s all. Nothing happened.”
“Nothing happened,” Miles echoes, and his lip curls. “Sure. She just happened to strip down and get between both of you while I was locked in my room with Gabriel. How convenient.”
“I took my shirt off because I was sweating,” I say. “Miles, please—“
He cuts me off. “Or were you waiting for this? Waiting for a chance to get them alone?” He’s climbing now. Louder and meaner. “Is that what you’ve wanted the whole time? Playing the sweet little stray until I was out of the way?”
“That’s not what happened—“
“Were you upset Gabriel didn’t ditch me in my nest to join your little slumber party?” He sneers, the words poisonous. “Sorry to disappoint. I guess he’s still loyal, at least a little.”
“Miles. Stop,” Cyrus pleads. “You’re wrong about this.”
Miles whips around to face him. “Don’t you fucking tell me what I am.”
There are footsteps, soft on the hallway runner. Gabriel appears, sleepy, rumpled, rubbing his eyes as he tries to figure out what he’s walked into.
“What’s going on?” Gabriel asks.
Miles doesn’t even look away from him. “What’s going on is that your scent match seduced your pack while I was in pain. Congrats. She doesn’t waste time.”
“Whoa. I’m sure no one seduced anyone,” Gabriel says, hands up, palms out.
“Miles, that’s not what happened. Lily slept out here.
With them. That’s all it was. No sex. Nothing like that.
You know your alphas wouldn’t do that. Not unless you were okay with it.
Neither would Lily. Think about this, Miles. ”
“You’re defending her.” Miles’s tone drops, quiet and dangerous. “Of course you’re defending her. You’ve been doing that since day one.”
“I’m telling you the truth.”
“The truth is she’s a snake in the chicken coop. I said it from the start and I was right. She wants my pack. She wants my alphas. She’ll do whatever it takes to get them.”
“That’s not true,” I say. I know what’s happening: yesterday shattered his walls, and now he’s trying to rebuild fast, grabbing the first thing he can control. Me.
Garrett and Cyrus stand, both moving toward him, slow and gentle, like you’d approach a wounded animal. Garrett tries to touch his arm; he shoves him away.
“Don’t touch me. Don’t fucking touch me.”
“Miles, we’re trying to help,” Garrett says, but Miles slams his palm into Garrett’s chest. Hard enough to make a point. “You’re not helping. You’re protecting her. Because you want her. You’ve always wanted her. A real omega you can claim. Not the defective version you got stuck with.”
Garrett’s face falls apart. “Miles, that’s not fair.”
He turns on Cyrus, shoving him too. Cyrus doesn’t react. Just absorbs it, face like a blank page. “Traitors. All of you. She’s been here weeks and she’s already got all three of you wrapped around her finger.”
“No one is choosing Lily over you,” Gabriel says, quiet and wary, like he’s cutting a wire on a bomb. “No one is choosing anyone. You’re hurting from yesterday and you’re lashing out at the only person who’s close enough to hit.”
“She has to go,” he says. Cold. Final. “Get her out of my house.”
“Miles, come on.”
“Get. Her. Out.”
“She doesn’t have anywhere to go,” Gabriel says.
“I don’t care. Drop the stray on the street. There’s always someone who will take in a homeless dog.”
The blood drains from my face. Stray. Homeless dog. He’s called me stray since day one, but now he means it for real. He’s using it to cut me loose.
I cry, just a little. A single tear. He notices. He pauses—brows together, lips parted like he might take it back. But the wall slams back down.
Gabriel cuts in. “You’re being unreasonable. You had a major shock yesterday and you’re not thinking straight. I’m not letting you make a permanent decision like this.”
“Then I’ll make it for you.” He sounds cold as ice. “Either you get rid of her now, or you choose her and get rid of me.”
Gabriel looks like he’s been punched. He goes dead white. “You’re the one who told her she could stay. You can’t ask me to do that now.”
“I’m not asking. I’m telling you. Her or me.”
“Miles, you’re unclaimed. If you leave—“
“I’ll request registry return. You never marked me, Gabriel. I’ll push it until you sign over custody, even if you try to say no. I’ll make a scene everywhere I go. Contact news stations, whatever it takes. How would it look for a big shot philanthropist to keep an omega against his will?”
Gabriel’s face changes. The usual calm, the steady pack lead persona, slips and underneath is pure fear.
“Is that really what you want?” Gabriel asks. “If Lily goes, there’s no coming back from this. You get that, right?”
“Get the stray out of my house.”
Gabriel looks at me.
I’m on my knees, wrapped in the messy blankets, tears running down my face. I shake my head. No. This can’t be happening. Not after everything. Not after the bonding, the nest on Sunday, the hand squeeze under the blanket, the dumb argument about the cat.
I look at Miles. “Please, Miles. I didn’t try to take anyone. I’d never do that. I swear.”
“Everything Gabriel said about you was true.” His eyes find mine and they’re empty, flat. No warmth at all. “You’re unwanted. Worthless. Why would I ever want to keep a reject?”
The words go straight for the sore spots.
The old wounds. Unwanted. Worthless. Reject.
The same things Gabriel said. The same things I was thinking before I ever heard them out loud.
I never thought I’d hear them from someone I loved.
And that’s something I have to admit now that I’m faced with leaving him.
I love him. Despite how we started, despite where we are now. I love this omega.
“Miles, that’s enough,” Cyrus says. “Stop. You’re going to regret this.”
“You’re only defending her because you want the scent match,” Miles fires back. “A real omega. Not the broken one. Don’t pretend it’s about loyalty.”
Garrett sounds strained. “That’s not fair and you know it.”
“It’s her or me. Choose.”
The alphas look at each other, at me, at Miles. Silent.
Garrett turns to Gabriel. “I’m not going to let you dump her off somewhere.”
It should feel good to have someone in my corner. But it doesn’t. It feels like the verdict’s already in. They’re trying to protect both of us, and in Miles’s world, that means they’ve failed him.
My heart is still on the floor, trampled.
“Of course I’m not going to dump her off somewhere,” Gabriel says. He closes his eyes for a second. Just one. “I’ll call the Carrs.”
Panic hits and I’m scrambling. “No. Gabriel, please, don’t. Not when everyone’s this upset. Please, can’t we just talk about it? Slow down, please.”
Gabriel looks at me. It’s all on his face: want, regret, the agony of doing something awful because the alternative is worse. He glances at Miles, who’s nothing but stone wall.
Then he looks back at me. “I’m sorry, Lily. My omega comes first.”
He pulls out his phone and disappears into the kitchen.
I force myself up, legs shaking. I go straight to Miles, stand in front of him, look up into his face. I try to find the real him, the one who held my hand under the blanket, who wanted me in his nest, who cared.
“It’s not true,” I say. “I’m not trying to take them. I want to be with all of you. I’ll stay away from the alphas if that’s what you want. I’ll only be yours. You can be the only one who touches me, I swear. Please don’t send me away. Jeremy will mark me and there won’t be any going back.”
He stares down at me, silent.
“I love you, Miles. I know it’s soon, but I fucking love you.“ My voice barely makes it out.
For a second, his expression softens. I see him, the real Miles, the one who wanted me to stay.
Then it’s gone just as fast and the barrier’s back.
Everything goes cold again, right down to the air in my lungs.
Right down to his heart.
“And?” he says. “I don’t love you, Lily. I was just using you to get off. Why would I love a rejected stray?”
My brain goes dark.