Jayde POV:
The silence in my head was a relief.
Disconnecting from the Mind-Link was rebellion. It was for traitors and ghosts.
Ten days left.
I carried a black trash bag toward the incinerator. Inside were my childhood treasures. Stuffed animals. Dried flowers. And a wind chime made of small bones.
Brendan had made it for me when he was fourteen. His first kill. He'd drilled the holes himself.
So you can hear the music of the hunt, he'd said.
Now, it was dead weight.
I rounded the corner and slammed into a hard chest.
"Whoa."
Brendan steadied me. Sparks-the Mate Bond-zapped my skin through my sleeves.
He pulled back like he'd been burned.
"Watch it," he grumbled. He looked stressed. The Alpha weight was heavy.
"Sorry."
"What's that?" He nodded at the bag.
"Trash. Cleaning out my closet."
"Finally getting rid of that hoarding pile?"
Hoarding pile.
"Yes."
He grabbed the bag. "I'm heading past the chutes."
"No!" I reached for it.
"Don't be ridiculous."
He opened the industrial hatch and tossed it in.
Crunch.
The compactor activated. The sound of shattering bone and snapping string echoed up the shaft.
My wind chime. Crushed into a cube of garbage.
Brendan dusted his hands off. He didn't know. He didn't care.
"Mother wants you in the ballroom. Seating arrangements."
I stared at the closed hatch. Something inside me finally broke.
"I can't."
"Excuse me?" The Alpha tone crept back in.
"I don't care where they sit," I said, meeting his eyes. "I don't care about the napkins or the flowers or your damn coronation."
Brendan stepped closer, looming. "Watch your tone, Omega. You will serve."
"Serve," I repeated. "That's it, isn't it? I'm a prop."
"You are family," he growled. "Stop acting like a victim. You have food. You have my protection."
"Your protection?" I laughed, a dry, hollow sound. "You just threw my protection down a garbage chute."
Confusion flickered in his eyes. "What?"
"Nothing." I stepped back.
"Jayde," he called out as I turned. "Chloie says you've been... distant. Disrespectful."
"Chloie says a lot of things."
"Be nice to her. She is going to be your Queen."
"She's your Queen, Brendan," I whispered from the shadows. "Not mine."
