Chapter 38: Sadie: True Alpha

SADIE

Paige opens her mouth, closes it, then tries again, looking between Trey and me.

His arm is still locked around my waist, and every small shift brushes his fingers against the bare strip of skin beneath my top as he stares her down.

"Why is his arm around her?" someone asks from the crowd.

"Are they hooking up?"

"I thought he didn’t date."

"Damn, Paige looks pissed."

"So she wasn’t lying?"

The comments keep coming from every direction, but I’m frozen at Trey’s side, my heart still thrumming as goosebumps spread over my skin. Every brush of his fingers makes it harder to think, let alone figure out what I’m supposed to say.

"You invited her?" Paige swallows, her voice smaller. "Are you sure? Or are you just doing this so she doesn’t look pathetic in front of everyone?"

"He’s just desperate for my attention."

The accusation sails over her shoulder.

"If picking up my leftovers is what it takes to get a reaction out of me, I guess he’ll take what he can get."

The crowd parts for Ezra as he strolls forward with both hands tucked into his pockets. My teeth grind together the moment I see him, and Trey must feel me tense because his hold on my waist tightens.

"Oh, shit. I knew I recognized her."

That’s all it takes. More whispers break out as people start connecting me to Ezra.

Paige lets out a sharp laugh. "Oh my Goddess. So that’s what this is?" She gives me a slow once-over before facing the room. "Going after two brothers? Girl, how badly do you need people to notice you?"

The noise swells as Paige faces Trey with a smile that’s far too satisfied.

"Did you even know she’s your brother’s ex-mate?"

"Ex-mate?" I don’t even stop to think. "And what exactly proves that? Him standing there saying it?"

Ezra’s smug expression slips. He rubs a finger beneath his nose and lets out a disbelieving tut. "Proof? You’re asking me for proof?"

"Yes."

Well. I’ve already started digging this hole and might as well just jump in. Besides, Ezra spent three years making sure nobody knew about us. Somewhere beneath the panic, I’m counting on that now.

I straighten as much as Trey’s arm allows. "Show them, then. Show everyone your claim mark on me. Your scent. Anything that proves I was ever your mate." The longer I talk, the steadier my voice gets. "You spent years stalking me, and now you get to stand here and call me your ex-mate because you said so?"

Paige’s expression darkens. "Stalking you?"

She steps closer, and a hot, sharp pressure explodes at the back of my head, making me recoil and clutch Trey’s shirt.

For a moment, I think the noise and heat have finally gotten to me, but the burning keeps building until something else pushes through. A presence presses forward inside my head, unfamiliar and vicious, narrowing everything down to Paige.

The need that comes with it is violent enough to steal my breath. It doesn’t just want her away. It wants her gone, and my fingers dig into Trey’s skin as uglier thoughts take shape in my head.

Fear cuts through the anger because none of this feels like me.

"Ezra Mercer stalked you?" Paige echoes.

The disbelief in her tone draws a few laughs.

"Girl, please. An Alpha’s son chasing an omega for years and somehow nobody knew about it?" Her mouth twists. "If you’re going to lie, at least don’t make yourself sound fucking delusional."

"Then why would he publicly claim me as his ex-mate?"

I hear myself say with the strange sense that I’m only half involved. Thoughts keep flitting through my head too quickly to hold onto, and somehow the cruelest one keeps making it to my mouth first.

"If I’m just some omega he would never chase, why is he so desperate for everyone to believe I belonged to him?" I add.

Ezra inches closer. "Say that again." His smugness is gone now, anger taking its place as he fixes on me. "Go on. Do you dare?"

The room barely feels like a party anymore. No music, no side conversations, just hundreds of people waiting to see whether I’ll back down.

Before I can answer, Trey does.

"You denying it now?" His voice stays flat. "You had no problem calling her your ex-mate when you thought you could use her to piss me off."

"Wouldn’t surprise me," someone mutters.

"Bro’s always hated Trey."

"Because Trey’s better than him."

Someone laughs. "Isn’t Ezra half-blood anyway?"

"He doesn’t even have full Alpha blood."

I study Ezra properly for the first time in years. Maybe I never thought about it before because I had no reason to, but now that everyone is talking about Alpha blood, I can’t believe I never noticed.

His eyes aren’t green. They never have been, and after all these years, I’m only just realizing what that means.

Ezra isn’t a true Alpha.

The realization settles in, and a small, mean satisfaction rises with it. A part of me wants to laugh in his face. I hate that part of me a little. I’ve spent my whole life on the receiving end of exactly this feeling, and I still can’t quite make myself let go of it.

So that’s where he stands. Not beneath everyone, but still outside the one place he desperately wants to belong. Close enough to Trey’s status to see exactly what he’ll never have.

"Enough!" Ezra shouts, those nearest to him flinching. He swings toward the audience. "What the fuck are you all staring at? There’s nothing to watch here. Party’s over. Go find something else to fucking do."

Nobody moves. If anything, the silence gets worse.

His hands come out of his pockets. I don’t think he even notices they’re shaking.

His chest rises sharply as he turns, taking in the faces still fixed on him and the phones that haven’t been lowered. Whatever restraint he had left disappears.

"I said there’s nothing to see!" He whips back toward Trey. "Fuck you."

He lunges before anyone can react.

Trey shoves me away from him just as Ezra reaches him, and the second they collide, the whole room breaks into shouting as they rush to get out of the way.

Paige comes through the opening they leave behind and heads straight for me.

"You did this," she spits, reaching for me with fury all over her face.

Her fingers barely brush me before that foreign presence inside my head surges forward again, and suddenly my body is moving faster than I can follow. I catch her wrist and wrench it aside, my other hand closing around her arm before a loud crack cuts through everything else.

I should let go. Instead, whatever is inside me takes over completely.

Everything around me blurs after that. One second I’m holding Paige’s arm, and the next she’s on the floor.

Blood runs from her nose and smears across her mouth. One arm is tucked against her chest at an angle that makes my stomach turn, and she’s staring up at me with a kind of fear I’ve never seen on her face before.

My own breathing sounds too loud. I look down at my hands, at the fingers trembling in front of me that don’t even feel like mine, and for a moment I can’t connect them to Paige lying at my feet.

When I finally raise my head, everyone is staring at me.

Faces surround me from every direction, some shocked, some afraid, all of them watching me like I’m the strangest thing they’ve ever seen. The room starts closing in until I can’t tell one person from another anymore. Their faces blur together, mouths moving, phones raised, every pair of eyes narrowing down into one unbearable stare.

I have to get out of here.

I stumble backward, nearly losing my balance as I search for a way through.

"Sadie!" Lola’s voice reaches me from somewhere behind me. "Sadie, wait!"

Even with my limp, I force my way through the nearest opening and head for the kitchen. The back door comes into view, and I make straight for it, shoving it open and hurrying outside without looking back.