I didn't stop to look.

I just ran.

Head down, arms locked around the crushed box, sneakers slipping on the wet grass. Behind me, the crowd had gone silent. I didn't care why. I only wanted distance. A bathroom stall. A locked door. Anywhere their phones couldn't follow.

"Wren, wait!" someone shouted. It might have been Talia. I didn't turn.

Three steps. Four.

Then I slammed into a wall.

Not a wall. A chest. Broad and hard, like running face-first into a door that didn't open. The impact knocked the air out of my lungs. My forehead bounced off solid muscle, and the box jammed between us with a sad little crunch.

Two hands caught my upper arms before I could fall backward.

"Watch it."

The voice was low and flat. I knew that voice. I'd heard it say *no* through a refrigerator door. I'd heard it say *then save him some*.

I jerked my head up.

Kael.

My stepbrother stood over me, close enough that I could see the tiny scar cutting through his left eyebrow. I'd never noticed it before. I'd never been near enough to notice anything. Gray eyes, darker than I remembered. A jaw so tight it looked carved. His fingers pressed into my arms through my sleeves.

"Kael?" I whispered. "What are you—"

I never finished.

Something tore open inside me.

It started low, under my ribs, and exploded upward. Heat. Pressure. A force so huge it felt like my whole soul had been grabbed by the collar and thrown against him. My wolf didn't just wake up. She lunged. She slammed against the inside of my chest, howling one word over and over.

*Mate.*

*Mate.*

*MATE.*

My knees buckled. Kael's grip tightened, holding me upright.

No.

No, no, no. That wasn't possible.

I already had a mate. I'd felt it three months ago outside the gym. I still felt it now. The thread to Jax hadn't snapped. It was right there, aching, tugging back toward the bleachers where he stood with Sienna under his arm.

And now there was a second one.

Thicker. Hotter. Wrapped around my heart like a fist.

"Wren." Kael's voice had changed. Rougher. "Look at me."

I was looking at him. That was the problem.

The two pulls hit each other inside my head like two radio stations playing on the same channel. One dragged me back toward the boy who'd just humiliated me. The other dragged me forward, into the chest of the boy who'd spent three months pretending I didn't exist. They didn't blend. They fought. Every nerve in my body felt stretched between them, pulled so tight it hummed.

I made a sound. Not a word. Just a small, wounded noise.

"Holy crap," someone breathed behind me. "Is that Draven?"

"Why is he touching her?"

"Dude, shut up. Look at his eyes."

I didn't need to look. I could feel his Alpha power rolling off him in waves, the same heavy pressure that had silenced the whole field. But up close, it wasn't just pressure. It was pulling at me. Calling me.

My wolf answered.

Tears spilled over before I could stop them. Not pretty tears. Ugly ones, fast and hot, dripping off my chin onto the torn blue ribbon.

"Don't," Kael said quietly.

"Don't what?" My voice shook so hard the words barely held together. "Don't cry? Don't touch you? You'd hate that, right? Sorry. I'll move. I'll—"

I tried to step back. My feet didn't obey. My body leaned toward him instead, just an inch, like a plant tipping toward a window.

He went very still.

His thumb shifted against my arm. Just once. Then it stopped, like he'd caught himself doing something wrong.

"You're shaking," he said.

"I'm fine."

"You're not."

"Since when do you care?"

It came out sharper than I meant. Kael's nostrils flared. For one second, something cracked behind that cold face. Then it sealed over again.

"Wren!" Jax's voice cut across the field. Lazy. Amused. "Running to big brother? That's cute."

A few people laughed. Not many. Most of them were too busy staring at Kael.

The thread to Jax yanked hard at the sound of his voice. My chest burned. At the same moment, the new bond surged, hot and furious, and I swear I felt Kael's anger flood through it. Not mine. His.

I gasped and pressed my free hand flat against my sternum. "Stop. Stop, it hurts."

"What hurts?" Kael demanded.

"Everything." I laughed. Again. That same awful, broken laugh from the bleachers. "Isn't that funny? I thought this morning was the worst day of my life. And now—"

I couldn't finish. The words jammed in my throat.

He stared down at me. Gray eyes narrowing. Searching my face like he was reading something written there. Then they flicked, quick as a blink, to the place where his hands held me.

And I saw it.

A ring of gold bleeding into the gray of his irises. Bright. Wild. A wolf rising to the surface.

My stomach dropped.

"Kael." I swallowed. "Your eyes."

"I know."

Two words. That was all. But his voice wasn't flat anymore. It was strained, like he was holding a door shut against something that wanted out.

"Do you—" I stopped. Tried again. "Do you feel—"

"Phones down," he snapped over my head. Not to me. To the crowd.

The order cracked across the field like thunder. Behind me, I heard the rustle of a dozen phones being lowered. Somebody's dropped into the grass.

He hadn't answered my question.

He didn't need to.

The gold in his eyes said everything.

My heart pounded so hard I could hear it in my ears. Two bonds. Two mates. One who had just traded me for a cheerleader in front of the whole school. And one who had made it painfully clear, every single day since I moved in, that he wanted nothing to do with me.

How was this fate? How was this anything but a joke?

"Let me go," I whispered.

He didn't.

"Kael, please. People are watching."

"I know."

"Then why are you still holding me?"

His jaw worked. A muscle jumped beneath his ear. He lowered his head until his mouth was close to my ear, close enough that his breath stirred my hair, and the second bond flared so bright I nearly cried out.

"Because if I let go right now," he said, voice dropping to something only I could hear, "I don't think I'll be able to stop my wolf from going after him."

My blood turned to ice.

Over his shoulder, past the goal posts, I saw Jax pull his arm off Sienna's waist. His smirk was gone. He was staring at us.

At me.

And the bond between us pulled tight as wire.

Jax didn't stay at the bleachers.

He shoved off the rail and started across the grass. Slow. Hands in his pockets. Like he was strolling to the cafeteria line. Sienna trotted after him, ponytail swinging.

"Well, well," he called. "Look at this."

The crowd turned with him. I felt it before I saw it. Dozens of eyes swinging off Kael and landing on me, heavy as wet sand.

Kael's fingers flexed on my arms. He didn't move.

"Ten seconds," Jax said, loud enough to carry. "That's how long it took. Ten seconds, and she's already climbing on another Alpha."

My mouth fell open. "What?"

"Don't play dumb, Wren. Everybody saw it." He spread his arms wide to the crowd, like a game show host. "She cries, she runs, and boom. Straight into Draven's arms. Real smooth."

"I tripped," I said. "I ran into him. You know that's not—"

"You *tripped*." Jax laughed. "Into the one guy on this field who outranks me. What are the odds?"

Somebody near the front snickered.

"Oh my God," a girl whispered. "Is that true?"

"I mean, she *is* still holding onto him."

I wasn't. Was I? I glanced down. My free hand had curled into the front of Kael's hoodie. I hadn't even felt myself do it. I yanked it back like the fabric had burned me.

That only made it worse.

"See?" Jax pointed. "Guilty."

"You were kissing *her*," I said. My voice wobbled. I forced it louder. "Two minutes ago. In front of everyone. And I'm the one who's guilty?"

Sienna rolled her eyes. "Here we go."

Jax didn't even blink. "I was saying goodbye to a friend."

"With your tongue?"

A few people laughed at that. Real laughs. For one hopeful second, I thought maybe someone was on my side.

Then Jax's face went hard.

"You want to do this? Fine. Let's do this." He stepped closer, stopping just outside the reach of Kael's shadow. "Everybody here knows what you are, Wren. You're an *Omega*."

The word hit the air and hung there.

I felt the shift in the crowd. Not loud. Just a ripple. Heads tilting. Eyebrows going up. Most people at Ridgemont hadn't known. I'd never said it. I'd kept my scent quiet, kept my head down, kept my mouth shut.

Jax had known. I'd told him. In his car, the second week, holding his hand. *Please don't tell anyone. They treat Omegas different.*

He had kissed my knuckles and promised.

"An Omega," he went on, slow, enjoying it, "who got lucky. Got claimed by an Alpha she had no business standing next to. And instead of being grateful, instead of knowing her place, the second things get a little rough—" he jerked his chin at Kael "—she goes shopping for an upgrade."

"That's a lie," I said.

"Is it?"

"You *know* it is."

"Then why does he smell like you?"

I froze.

Because Kael did. I could smell it too. My scent, soft and sweet, soaking into his clothes where I'd crashed against him. And worse, under it, his scent sinking into me. Pine and cold rain and something sharp I didn't have a word for.

Behind me, someone sucked in air.

"Wait, that's her *stepbrother*."

"Dude. They live in the same house."

"Oh, that's so gross."

"No wonder she moved in so fast."

"Her mom married the dad, and she went after the son? That's—"

"Stop," I said. Nobody heard me. "Stop, that's not—"

"Two Alphas," a boy said, grinning. "Greedy little Omega."

"Bet that's why Jax dumped her."

"Bet she was doing it the whole time."

The words came from everywhere. Left. Right. Behind. I spun my head trying to find the faces, but they blurred together, mouths moving, phones creeping back up even after Kael's order. A red recording light blinked at me from the third row.

My chest heaved. Both bonds yanked at once. Jax's thread twisted tight, and it *hurt*, because some stupid, broken part of my wolf still wanted him to stop. Still wanted him to take it back. The other bond burned hotter, so hot I felt sweat prick along my neck.

Jax smiled at me. That same lazy smile from outside the gym, three months ago.

"Honestly, Wren," he said, softer, like he was being kind, "I'm not even mad. I just think people deserve to know who they're dealing with."

And that was when I stopped crying.

Just like that. The tears dried up mid-cheek. My eyes went hot and empty.

"You told them," I said quietly. "You promised you wouldn't, and you told them."

For a flicker of a second, something passed over Jax's face. Not guilt. Annoyance. Like I'd gone off script.

"Nobody's going to believe her," Sienna said, linking her arm through his. "She's literally still standing in his arms."

I was. Kael hadn't released me. His hands were still locked around my arms, and now I could feel them. Not gentle anymore. Rigid. His whole body had gone so still beside me it was like standing next to a statue.

I didn't dare look up at him.

What if he believed it? What if he was standing there thinking the same thing everyone else was? *Desperate Omega. Clingy stepsister. Throws herself at anything with Alpha blood.*

He already hated me. Now he had a reason.

"Kael," I whispered, without turning. "I didn't—I swear I didn't—"

He said nothing.

The silence from him was louder than all of them.

"Look at her," a senior said, laughing. "Begging."

"Draven doesn't even want her."

"Somebody tell her to stop embarrassing herself."

"Hey, Omega!" A voice from the back. "Which one are you going home with tonight?"

The crowd howled.

My face burned so hard my ears rang. My knees felt like water. I wanted the ground to open. I wanted to disappear into the grass and never come back to this school, this town, this life.

Jax tipped his head toward the crowd, soaking it in. Then his green eyes cut back to me, and he spoke loud enough for the very last row to hear.

"Go ahead, Wren. Tell them. Tell everybody which one of us you really belong to."

The field went quiet. Waiting.

Every eye on me.

And above my head, so low I almost thought I imagined it, Kael let out a sound I had never heard from a person before.

A growl.

Deep. Rolling. Rising from somewhere inside his chest that didn't feel human at all.

His hands slid off my arms.

He was letting me go.

And I suddenly understood that was the most dangerous thing that could happen.