Page 26

“Honey girl, breathe. I knew it the moment we spoke. My heart belongs to you. Stay with me, let’s breathe together.”

I burrowed under the covers, and a wave of heat made my skin feel tight and wrong. How easily I’d folded to my body’s base needs.

Stupid.

Now the voice was vengeful, proved right.

Hadn’t I thought Chase loved me? Was it love I’d felt for the alpha, or giddy lust? I thought it was love. But the aftershock of pleasure drilled deeper than anything Chase had ever coaxed in me. Lloyd knew parts of me that no one else did. Now he knewmy name as well. I wanted so badly to sink into his arms and have him look after me.

I was so tired of being alone.

For once, logic won out. I tossed my foolish heart into a box and locked it. My throat closed, knowing there was nothing more to say. I wanted to feel alive, and I had. But it was too much, too fast. To go down this path was to lead to my ruin.

I’d told Lloyd my first name, but not my last, and there was no promise in the world he could give me to make me feel safe if he found that out.

“I-I have to go.” I canceled the call before Lloyd could convince me otherwise.

The phone was a hot brick in my hand, and my ribs tightened around my bruised heart. I curled into a ball, scrunching my legs tight into my chest. Like I could disappear if I tried hard enough. My breath was hot and claustrophobic under the dark confines of the bedspread. But I couldn’t bring myself to leave.

I turned my head into the pillow and screamed, open-mouthed.

For a moment, I touched the sky. My fingertips tingled from my dive into oblivion, and I wanted to go back. But reality dragged me by the ankle, kicking and screaming. I was a Hartlock, even if I didn’t deserve the name.

I unlinked the WWED bracelet and nudged it away. Esta wouldn’t have fallen for a stranger just because their voice was husky, and they promised not to hurt her. She’d braved wild deserts, humans, and the great unknown. I, as her descendant, couldn’t even protect her heart.

The sooner I earned the money to leave Starhaven, the better.

My stomach rolled, a violent protest. Leaving everything I knew had never mattered before. But what about Lloyd? What if his promises were real? My heart fluttered in my chest just as my phone lit up with a notification.

Alphareadyorknot: What we shared was priceless to me.

Alphareadyorknot: Please, let me be there for you.

Alphareadyorknot: With all your light, and your dark, you can trust me.

Trust?

I’d allowed myself this moment. Let the mask fall and euphoria flood through me. I bloomed, a flower too used to the shade. But the sun burned too. Reality scorched my petals, leaving me parched.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. The word became a throb in my temple. I hovered my finger over Lloyd’s message.

My stomach roiled with nausea, and I screamed into my pillow a second time. My eyelids burned hot with unshed tears. I was a foolish omega, desperate to be loved. My parents never understood my neediness, and it had driven me into someone else’s arms the moment they died. A mistake. I had to kill that instinct in me. I had to find peace in loneliness.

There was nothing else I could do.

I pressed the block button.

The second I did, a loud crash reverberated through from outside and my name bounced off the walls of the apartment. A terrifying screech.

“Tully, get out here right now.”

Fenella was back, and she’d stored all her fury up, ready to flatten me with it

“Start packing your shit.”

7

Tully