The Pack (Completed Series)

Chapter 9 - Aria

The house creaked like it was breathing.

I lay in the dark, staring at the ceiling, eyes dry and burning. I'd tried sleeping. Tried breathing slow. Tried counting the heartbeats in my own chest.

None of it worked.

I didn't know if it was the new space or the weight of everything unsaid—but the walls of this house felt too thin for silence. Too full of things pressing in from every direction.

So I got up.

Bare feet on wooden floor. The only sound was the soft groan of old boards beneath my steps. The hall was dim, lit only by a sliver of moonlight filtering in through a narrow window at the far end.

I didn't know where I was going, just that I needed to move.

My fingertips brushed against the hallway's edge as I padded past closed doors. Ryker's, I thought, was the one with the heavy scratch down the frame. Elias's was the one near the old bookshelf. Kael's—

My steps paused.

Voices.

Low, muffled, coming from behind a door that wasn't quite shut. The study, maybe.

I should've turned around. Should've gone back to bed, respected the privacy of the men who'd taken me in.

But something in their tone—tension, frustration—hooked into me.

I inched closer, pressing my back against the wall near the cracked door. Listening.

Kael's voice came first. Calm, but strained. "She doesn't know what she is, Ryker. You saw it in her eyes—she's terrified."

"She should be," Ryker growled. "She has no idea what's coming. And we're just supposed to play house until she shifts? You think the Blackfangs are gonna wait that long?"

"She's not just a weapon," Elias cut in quietly. "She's a person."

"And that's what's gonna get us killed," Ryker snapped. "You're already soft for her. Both of you are."

"Ryker—"

"No. I get it. She smells like heat and moonlight and she looks at you like she's breaking, and your instincts kick in and suddenly we forget what she is."

There was a pause. A silence so sharp it made my heart race.

Then Kael's voice, low and measured: "What is she, Ryker?"

"You know damn well what she is. She's the omega the Blackfangs want for breeding. The last of the bloodline. The wild one. She's a myth, Kael. She shouldn't exist."

"And yet she does."

"She's a risk."

"She's ours," Elias said softly. "Whether we asked for her or not."

My breath caught.

Ours.

The word pressed into my chest like a bruise. It wasn't said with ownership—but protection. With frustration, yes. Fear. But there was something else too.

I turned to leave, heart pounding—and caught my elbow on the edge of the hallway table.

A sharp clack.

Silence inside the study.

A chair scraped back.

Shit.

I bolted.

I ducked into the guest room before the door opened behind me. I slipped under the blankets and forced my body still, heart thundering like it might give me away.

Footsteps down the hall.

A long pause.

Then the soft click of a door closing again.

I stared up at the ceiling once more.

I wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep tonight.

And now I knew something I couldn't unknow:

They weren't just watching me.

They were already choosing me.

Even if they didn't understand why.