Rose POV
The room was nice. Too nice.
That was the first thing Rose noticed when they brought her here. It wasn't a prison cell. It was an actual bedroom with a bed and windows and a bathroom attached. There were soft blankets and pillows and someone had even put fresh clothes on the bed for her.
It didn't matter how nice the room was. It was still a cage.
Rose sat on the edge of the bed and tried to process what her father had told her on the drive here. She was a shifter. She was an omega. She had a scent that was rare. She belonged to the Alpha now. That's what pack law said. That's what everyone kept repeating. She belonged. She was his.
No one was asking her what she wanted.
There was a knock on the door.
Chase walked in like he already owned the place. Maybe he did. Maybe he owned everything here, including her. He looked different than he had in the courtyard. Less angry. More controlled. Like he'd put walls back up around himself.
"How are you feeling?" he asked, but he didn't sit down. He just stood there, keeping distance between them.
"I want to go home," Rose said immediately. "I want my dad. I want my old life back. This is crazy. I'm not supposed to be here."
Chase's expression didn't change. "You're an omega. That means you're special. Your scent is something the pack has never encountered before. It's rare enough to matter."
"I don't care if my scent is rare. I want to leave."
"That's not possible anymore."
The way he said it made Rose's stomach drop. Not possible. Like it was a law of nature instead of a choice someone was making. Like her life wasn't hers to decide anymore.
"Pack law is very old," Chase continued, still calm, still cold. "It says that rare omegas belong to the Alpha. They belong to me. You're pack now, Rose. You're mine. The decision has been made."
He wasn't being cruel about it. He was just stating facts. Like he was telling her the sky was blue. Like her entire future was something that had already been decided before she was even born.
"What if I don't want to be yours?" Rose asked, and her voice was shaking.
Chase looked at her for a long moment. "Then you're going to be unhappy for a while. But eventually you'll understand. The bond will explain things your mind can't understand right now."
He left without waiting for her to respond.
Rose sat in that nice room and cried. She cried for her old life. She cried for the girl she used to be. She cried because everything had changed in one night and no one was asking her permission.
Hours passed.
It got dark outside the window. Rose lay in the bed and tried to sleep but her body wouldn't cooperate. She kept jumping at every sound. Every shadow looked like a threat.
There was a soft knock on her door around midnight.
Rose sat up, her heart racing. She thought it was Chase again, coming to explain more pack law, more rules, more ways her life wasn't hers anymore. But when the door opened, it was Kade.
He looked different than he had before. His hair was messy. His eyes were dark and wild. He looked like someone who'd been fighting with himself and losing.
"Hi," Rose said quietly.
Kade didn't answer. He just walked in and closed the door behind him and the moment he was standing in front of her, she could see something change in his face. His nostrils flared. His jaw clenched. His hands turned into fists like he was trying to control himself.
"You smell like my mate too," he said finally, and his voice sounded broken.
Rose didn't know what that meant. She didn't know anything anymore.
"What's wrong? What's happening to you?"
Kade laughed but it wasn't a happy sound. It was jagged and hurt. "Something is very wrong with your scent. Both of us are smelling you like you're ours. That's not supposed to happen. An omega is supposed to have one mate. One Alpha. Not two. Never two."
He sat down on the bed like his legs wouldn't hold him up anymore.
"I've been loyal to Chase my entire life. Since he became Alpha. I've never questioned him. I've never wanted more than what he gave me. But then you showed up and suddenly everything I believed in doesn't matter anymore."
"Kade, I don't understand. I don't want any of this. I want to go home."
He looked at her and his eyes were so sad it made her chest hurt. "You can't go home. None of us can go home. Not anymore. You've changed everything just by existing."
Rose moved closer to him without thinking about it. She wanted to comfort him. Wanted to make the pain in his expression go away. Wanted to tell him that it was going to be okay even though she knew it wasn't.
Her hand reached out and touched his.
The moment their skin connected, electricity shot through both of them. It was like touching a live wire. It was intimate and powerful and it changed the entire room around them. Rose gasped. Kade's entire body went rigid.
"Don't," he whispered, but he didn't pull his hand away. "Don't touch me like that. It makes me want things I shouldn't want. It makes me think about things that will destroy everything."
But he was holding her hand like he never wanted to let go.
The door to her room swung open so fast it hit the wall.
Chase stood in the doorway and his entire body was vibrating with anger. His eyes were completely black. His hands were clenched at his sides. He looked at their joined hands and something inside him seemed to crack.
"What are you doing?" Chase's voice was quiet, but it sounded dangerous. It sounded like someone who was barely holding onto control.
Kade pulled his hand away from Rose immediately, like touching her had burned him. He stood up and faced the Alpha and Rose realized she was looking at two men who were about to destroy each other.
"Nothing," Kade said, but it was a lie and they all knew it.
"It didn't look like nothing." Chase walked into the room and his presence filled it completely. He didn't touch her. He just stood there between them, claiming the space, reminding everyone who was in charge.
"She's your mate," Kade said, and his voice was getting harder. "According to pack law, she belongs to you."
"Yes. She does."
"Then why do I smell her like she's mine?"
Chase didn't answer. He just looked at Rose and his expression was complicated. Angry. Confused. Want. Fear. All of it mixed together in his dark eyes.
"That's a very good question," Chase said finally. "And I don't have an answer yet."
Rose looked between them and understood something that terrified her. She'd created a problem that the pack didn't know how to solve. Two of the most powerful men in the compound both wanted her. Both could smell her as their mate. Both were about to tear each other apart because of her.
And she couldn't go home.
She couldn't escape.
She could only watch as the two men she'd somehow bonded with looked at each other like they were deciding whether to fight or completely lose their minds.
"We need to tell the council," Kade said finally.
"No," Chase said immediately.
"We have to. They need to know what she is. They need to know that the bonds are wrong."
Chase looked at Rose and for a second, she thought she saw something like possession in his eyes. "If the council finds out about this, they'll declare her an abomination. They'll want her executed."
Rose's stomach dropped.
"Then what do we do?" Kade asked, and he sounded as lost as she felt.
Chase didn't answer. He just kept looking at her like she was a problem he had to solve. Like she was a beautiful disaster he couldn't look away from even though it was destroying everything around him.
"We tell no one," he said finally. "Not yet. Not until we understand what's happening."
Kade looked at Rose and she could see the conflict in his expression. The war between his loyalty to Chase and what he was feeling for her.
"And what about her?" Kade asked. "What do we tell her?"
Chase finally moved. He reached out and touched her face, just the gentlest touch along her cheekbone. It sent electricity through her entire body.
"We tell her the truth. She's ours. Both of ours. And the pack can never know."