Claimed by the Beta fate

Chapter two

Seraphine POV

I lowered myself onto the couch and tried to think clearly. I needed food, painkillers, and sleep, in some order that my body wasn't going to let me negotiate. Going back out was not an option I'd been awake for over thirty hours, and the shock that had been holding the worst of the pain at bay was finally beginning to dissolve.

I dug my phone out of my pocket and pulled up Takymora's delivery site, relieved to find it still running. I put together an order enough food to last a few days, basic medical supplies from the pharmacy in town and then let myself drift until I heard tires on the road outside.

I was on my feet before I was fully awake, moving to the kitchen by reflex, choosing the largest knife in the block. I cracked the door and pulled in a slow breath.

Not Seth. Not Jem. Not Hayley. The scent was familiar in some distant, unsettled way I couldn't immediately place.

I pulled the door open wider.

A teenager stood at the top of the steps blond, blue-eyed, freckled, caught somewhere between lanky and the person he was about to become. Give him two years and he'd look completely different. Right now, he just looked startled.

"Seraphine? Is that actually you?"

I hadn't counted on being recognized this fast.

"Jase?" I said, and as I said it, I could see it Sofia's little brother, who used to steal our bras in high school and thought it was hilarious.

He looked at me the way someone looks at a car accident. "God, Seraphine. You look terrible."

"Appreciate that." I kept my voice flat. I needed him gone. "Are those my bags?"

He was already frowning, already moving forward. I could hold the doorway or step back and let him through. I wasn't ready for anyone in my space, but I was even less ready for a standoff, so I retreated. Jase took a brief look around, moved to the kitchen, set the bags on the counter, and started unpacking like he'd been invited.

"Anyone else here with you?" he asked, putting the cold things into the fridge.

"Pretty sure Takymora just does a drop-off."

"Things change." He was looking at me the way his sister did when she'd already made a decision. "Seriously, Seraphine."

"You already said that."

"I know." He closed the fridge. "You're going to tell me who did this? Because your brother's going to lose his mind. And Cassian's going to"

"They cannot know I'm here." I raised the knife with my good arm and pointed it at him. "Swear it, Jase. Right now. Or I will take you apart in ways that would genuinely upset Sofia."

He grinned and raised both hands. "Same Seraphine. Alright. You have my word."

I held the look for a moment, then lowered the knife.

"And ease up on the swearing. Your sister would have something to say about it."

"You should hear Sofia these days. She works at the Bottley Bar now she's picked up a vocabulary that would genuinely surprise you."

That did surprise me. I hadn't spoken to Sofia since I left too afraid Jem would use the connection to find me. But I could picture it easily enough. Sofia had always been the kind of person who could hold any room without raising her voice.

"That arm needs to be set," Jase said, moving toward the medical supplies.

I looked down at it. Seth had grabbed me and twisted, and it hadn't worked right since. My clothes were stiff with dried blood. My shirt was torn in two places. I could feel what my face probably looked like from the way it was sitting wrong.

"I can handle it."

"You really can't." He started laying things out on the counter, efficient and calm in a way that made him seem older than seventeen. "Sofia would never forgive me."

"I'm fine, I just need" The floor tilted. I went down hard, bad knee first, and the pain detonated up my entire leg. "damn it"

Jase had me off the floor and onto the couch before I could protest, steady and careful in a way that briefly broke something open in my chest. "Who's talking about swearing now?" he said.

"I hate you," I said through my teeth.

"Sure." He took hold of my wrist with one hand, my shoulder with the other, and gave me just enough time to understand what was coming before he moved.

The pain was catastrophic for one instant total and white and absolute. Every nerve I had lit up and then, mercifully, everything went quiet.

Then I came to, Jase was standing over me, his phone in his hand.

“No! You promised,” I growled at him. I would have leaped up and snatched his phone away, but my body was not cooperating right now.

He looked at me, his face full of indecision.

“Please, Jase.” I softened my tone. “I can’t deal with all their bullshit. I just want to recover and move on.”

Jase sighed. “I’m going to tell Sof, but I won’t let the big guys know.”

“Deal.”

Jase disappeared out of my eyeline and came back with painkillers, water, and a blanket that smelled of Jem. I took the pills and lay down with the blanket.

“You’re a good kid, you know that?”

Jase snorted. “Seraphine, I’m really not a kid anymore.”

“You’ll always be a kid to me and Sofia,” I mumbled, as sleep called to me.

“Feel better, Seraphine. I’ll be back tomorrow to check on you.”

I drifted off to sleep, the painkillers making my thoughts muzzy. I thought of this flat and how happy I’d been here while my parents were alive. I’d believed nothing could ever touch me here. I thought of Jem and how much he changed when he left school and was working his way up the ranks.

How he’d devoted all his time to making it to Alpha and had left me in Hayley’s care.