Page 106 of Ruthless Knot

To the girl who kills without remorse.

To the Omega who's survived Ruthless Academy through violence and ballet and sheer stubborn refusal to die.

To the sister of Knox Eastman—the name that makes even hardened criminals flinch.

But they're about to find out.

They're about to find out exactly who I truly am.

CHAPTER 10

Caged By Choice

~SAGE~

The bond feels like a second heartbeat.

That's the first coherent thought I have before consciousness fully claims me—this steady, rhythmic pulse that exists somewhere in the center of my chest but isn't quite mine. It's softer than my own heartbeat. More chaotic. Beating in patterns that don't follow any logic I understand, skipping and stuttering in ways that feel distinctlyother.

Her.

Seraphine.

I can feel her.

Not just as a memory of time we shared, not just as the lingering scent of cotton candy that's saturated every inch of this room—but as a presence. A constant, low-level awareness that hums beneath my skin like a current of electricity, telling me exactly where she is and what she's feeling even when I can't see her.

Right now, she's feeling... content.

Calm, almost.

A warm, satisfied sensation that floods through the bond and settles in my own chest like borrowed sunshine.

When other Alphas talked about bonding with an Omega, they made it sound like some glorious mastermind had been unlocked. Like being stuck in a maze for years and finally realizing the path needed to be taken to be free. They waxed poetic about completion, about wholeness, about finding their other half, and finally becoming the person they were meant to be.

I thought it was bullshit.

Romantic nonsense designed to make bonding seem less like a biological imperative and more like a cosmic destiny.

But now...

Now I'm lying here, feeling her contentment bleed through into my own emotions, and I'm starting to understand what they meant.

It's not that I'm complete.

It's that I'm accompanied.

For the first time in my entire fucking life, I'm not alone inside my own head.

The realization is staggering.

Overwhelming.

So I do what I always do when emotions get too big—I focus on the physical.

And that's when I notice the handcuffs.

Again.