Dionne I sat in the living room, my mind struggling to grasp the reality of what had just happened. I held onto my chair, trying to steady myself, but the room still seemed to spin. My thoughts were scattered, crashing into each other like waves hitting rocks as my eyes moved around the room. I noticed my mom, standing at the far end of the room, talking to Marcus. They were whispering as if they didn’t want any of us to know what they were talking about, but I could see my mom’s hands gesturing as if she was pleading, while Alpha Marcus folded his arms, looking annoyed, his eyebrows saying it all. I caught a few snippets of my mom’s voice, words like “It’s not the right time” and “Can’t you see she’s traumatized” registering in my head. I knew they were all going to blame me for this,

