9. One In, One Out
Chapter nine
One In, One Out
When nobody says a word, I know.
The bark is barely a remembered sting compared to the agony that spears through my chest. I tip forward, folding in half as if I might be able to shield myself.
All roads lead to Rosie.
Except this one.
My mouth opens on a silent, keening sob, lines of pain radiating through my neck.
“Yes,” Jonas says finally. The admission drops into our home, a direct strike to the heart of everything I thought we were. “She is.”
“Take as much time as you need.” Liam’s hand hovers somewhere near my shoulder, dropping back. “And then we’ll talk.”
What the fuck is there to talk about?
I stay where I am, pinning my eyes on the floor as tears drip off my cheeks, spattering my carefully chosen carpet.
Will she keep it, or will she want everything new?
What will my home look like when I’m not a part of it anymore?
Carter shifts in the chair.
I can’t look at him. Every promise he ever made me—a home, a pack, a family, to never be alone again—is burning into nothing but ash, destroying bridges I thought were indestructible.
“Ro?” His voice cracks, and I shake my head.
I can’t.
Not with him.
The arm that slips around me is warm, and strong, and so familiar that all I want to do is fold myself beneath it.
So I let Jonas pull me into him, let him grip beneath my knees and pull me into his chest until my sobs fill the room and my tears soak his t-shirt, my fingers tangling in the material and tugging on it.
“Give her a minute,” Liam says sharply. To Carter or Miles, I don’t know.
A minute.
I need that minute. To pull myself together, to wipe off my face and do it all again, though they swore I’d never have to.
You can do this, Johnson. You’ve done it before.
Another packed bag. Another closed door. It’s been ten years, but you never forget the lesson. Not when it’s built into the core of who you are. Day after day, year after year, life after life.
You never truly forget.
I am always, always, temporary.
My fingers unfurl from Jonas’s shirt slowly. His hair is messy, I notice absently as I push myself upright. His eyes are shiny as I reach out and carefully push it back into place, stretching out the seconds between now and what happens next.
But I can’t stop this train. “When are they coming?”
The room takes a collective inhale.
“Who?” Jonas asks.
It’s easier to ask him. My easygoing alpha. Charming, and funny, even if he looks broken now. “The NOC.”
I’ve never been through the process, but I know how this works.
The scent match moves in, and the previous omega moves out.
They move on to matching events and glossy brochures full of omegas with hopeful eyes and broken hearts, to carefully curated scent cards and a parade of potential homes that might not work out either, but you move through them like revolving doors until someone decides to try you out like a sweater in a second-hand store.
I never thought I would be one of them.
“Rosie,” Liams says gently.
“I’d like it to be quick.” I keep looking at Jonas. His face crumples as I push the words out. “I don’t—I can’t draw this out. You can arrange that for me, Miles. Right?”
Now I understand why he’s here. To manage this, like he manages everything. To manage the optics, the message, to contain whatever media frenzy it’ll cause when the omega that always belonged to the Blackwater Titans gets returned like a parcel.
To manage me, without the messy emotion that goes with an alpha moving on.
I can’t think about that either. About her.
If she’ll stand in my locker room at the start of each season and gift a little bit of scent to every member of my team—to my family—for good luck.
If she’ll sit with Eddie and wrap sticks, if she’ll get lunch with Ness and tease Georgio over coffee every morning and buy jelly doughnuts for Sonny before every match.
I’m going to break. So completely that I doubt there’ll be anything left resembling Rosie Johnson when this is done. “I need to pack.”
“Rosie.” Liam reaches for me, and I flinch. But he takes my chin, nudging it toward him. “You’re not leaving, baby.”
I’m not—
Vicious, painful hope flares brightly before disbelief stamps it out. “I don’t understand.”
“Let them explain,” Carter says tightly. “Please, Ro. Listen to them. It’s going to be okay.”
I don’t acknowledge his words. It hurts more, impossibly more, from him.
It was us first.
But I let my eyes slip to Liam, waiting.
“Yes, Lauren is our scent match.” His hand stays steady on my face, keeping me there when I try to pull away. “Mine, and Jonas.”
My lips part. “And Carter.”
“We don’t know that,” he says roughly behind me. “I didn’t pick anything up.”
“I don’t understand,” I say finally. “She has to be.”
One pack equals one scent match. That’s how it works. How our biology works.
“Maybe,” Carter admits. “I just—I don’t know yet, Ro.”
“It can take time,” Liam says softly. “You know that.”
I know what I’d hoped, but that possibility is gone too. Still, the thought holds, my harsh breathing steadying as my brow furrows and I try to work out where this is going. “So…”
Liam clears his throat. “We can make this work. All of us.”
My stare is uncomprehending.
“A dual omega pack,” Jonas murmurs. He plays with the end of my ponytail, drawing it through his fingers as my head swivels to him. He nods. “We want to try, Ro.”
A dual omega pack.
Two omegas?
I yank my hair free of Jonas’s hands and scrabble off his lap, getting to my feet and backing away from them. “No.”
Absolutely not. To share my pack? My space? My home? My nails dig into my wrist again, scratching until the sharp sting dampens the panic building. “That’s…they don’t work.”
Everybody knows that. Two omegas are a bonfire waiting to happen. A tinder bundle waiting for an inevitable flame. Bile builds. “My whole life would be a dominance battle!”
“Don’t dismiss it yet.” Liam taps his knuckles against the arm of the couch, watching. All of them are watching, even Miles. “I can make this work, Rosie. Don’t believe everything you read in the press. You know that better than most people.”
Now, I get it. Why he’s leading this, when it should be Carter. “The NOC will never agree to this.”
The guidelines are strict. And there might be packs that fly under the radar—like Liam’s family—but not us. I seize that thread of hope. “We’re too public. They won’t let this happen.”
Miles coughs. “Only if they find out.”
Liam glares at him. “They have to know. But not until we have things under control. We’ll work this through as a pack. And then, when things are…settled. Before playoffs. We’ll let them know, apply for an ECO.”
“What’s that?”
“Extenuating Circumstances Order.” Liam stands.
I barely hold my ground as he approaches, ducking his head until we’re close to level.
“I can keep us together, Ro. None of us want you to go. If we can prove we’re making things work, they’ll grant the order.
Nobody likes seeing an omega without a pack. ”
My throat is tight. “She’ll never agree to this.”
No omega would. To find your scent matches, and then have to share them? To walk into another omega’s territory and try to carve out a space? Who would agree to that?
“She already did.” Carter finally gets my attention. He scans every part of my face, taking it in. “We worked it out today. It was the only choice we offered. That was my condition.”
Lauren… agreed? To this?
I cup my throat, backing up until my spine collides with the window. I let the cool glass press into Carter’s sweatshirt. “And what if I don’t agree?”
Liam stays where he is. Carter is the one who stands. I plaster myself to the glass as he approaches, turning my head away. He takes my cheeks in his. “Look at me.”
My eyes lift.
“Then we leave,” he whispers. “You and me, Ro.”
A rasping noise comes from my throat.
Our pack… splits. “You would leave?”
His expression softens, but I can see the pain behind it. “No me without you, remember?”
“We don’t want that to happen, Rosie.” Miles stands, pulling his jacket together and buttoning it. “Especially with the season getting underway.”
The final, elusive piece of the jigsaw clicks into place.
Carter would choose me. And Liam and Jonas—they would choose her. Their scent match.
If I leave now, if Carter comes with me, then our pack fractures.
But so do the Titans.
A fractured pack would be carnage on the ice. Their season, their playoff hopes, their chances of lifting the Cup, everything they’ve worked for would be decimated. They are the heart of the team. And that heart would be broken.
I swallow. “You could say no to the match.”
I step out from Carter, feeling his hand brush mine. I approach Liam instead, my tone close to pleading as I twist between him and Jonas, appealing to them both. “You could. It happens.”
I feel selfish for voicing it. Jonas is gentle. “You know what happens if we do that. To do that to her without even trying… it’s cruel.”
There’s a reason nobody rejects their scent matches. But I still asked.
“We can do this.” Liam holds out his hands. “I come from a dual-omega home, Rosie. I’ve seen it. I grew up around it.”
I… knew that. Was fascinated by it when we first met. But I’d respected that he didn’t like to discuss his childhood, though the curiosity had strangled me.
It’s not like I like to talk about mine. “But you don’t ever talk about it.”
He shrugs, his response a mild rebuke that sting my exposed skin. “It’s not a show for entertainment.”
I flush. “I just… I can’t see this working.”
“It won’t be easy.” Liam looks over at Carter. “I won’t sugar coat it. But isn’t it worth a try? To stay together?”
I soften enough not to struggle when his hands land on my hips. Liam pulls me in, his forehead dropping to mine. “This pack—you—it’s worth fighting for. That’s what I want to do. I’m fighting for us here, but I need you to fight too.”
Except my fight will look closer to rolling over and playing dead than actual warfare.
“I don’t know if I can,” I admit to him. “Or…”
Do I want to?
“I’ll help you.” Liam smooths my hair back. “Carter will be tied up with the season. But my focus will be you, and the pack dynamics. That’s how we get through the next few months.”
He should be focusing on the season too. “And Jonas?”
Liam hesitates. “Jo?”
“There has to be a balance, Ro.” Jonas swallows. “Liam will be focusing on you and the wider pack, helping you adjust. But… she’ll need someone too.”
“And you and Lauren will have each other.” Rejection rises to my tongue, but Liam’s finger presses against my mouth.
“Yes. You’ll be working together at the Furnace.
Build your own relationship, Ro. Keeping you apart won’t work.
Get to know each other away from the apartment. We’ll slowly work things in here.”
I hate every word that comes out of his mouth. “She’s going to move in?”
“She is.” His thumb drops to my neck, massaging the pulse there. “I’ll help you through it.”
“And…” My eyes burn. “What about my nest? And… and heats?”
He cups the back of my head. “One thing at a time. Neither of you are due for a while yet.”
They know when her heat is due.
I yank myself back, pulling myself free of his hands. “I need to think.”
And possibly to throw up. Acid curdles the back of my throat.
“Well. It doesn’t feel like you need me, so I’ll head out.” Mile shifts into view. “You’re taking this very well, Rosie. I’m impressed.”
Am I?
“I need to confirm that this will be kept under wraps for the season.” He looks at Carter first. “The last thing we need is NOC controversy following you around.”
Carter looks ill. But he shakes his head. “This is Rosie’s decision. I’ll support whatever she decides.”
All faces turn to me. “I…”
Split them up or share them.
Destroy my family or fight for them.
“Rosie.” Liam studies. “Do you trust me?”
I… do.
And in the end, there really isn’t a choice at all.
“Okay,” I whisper. “Okay.”
And then I vomit all over Mile’s shiny, perfect suit.