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As I approach the crowd, phone gripped in my sweaty hands, my heart is beating so loud I feel like everyone around me can hear it. Maybe they can, with how scared and nervous I am.

Tons of people are blocking my way, but I fight my way through them, fight my way to my mate. According to Lylah, he showed up at the pack house with two Dark Moon scouts he captured along the perimeter that attempted to sneak in. But Theo, of course, instantly got word from his minions that they'd seen Daemon. And now he knows that the brother he'd supposedly killed months ago is still alive.

This won't end well. So I have to try.

When I finally reach the center of the circle, I see it. The Dark Moon scouts held captive by council members that look uncertainly between Theo and Daemon. The air is tense as they glare at each other.

"How the fuck are you here?!" Theo seethes, fists gripped so tightly his knuckles are even whiter than his ghostly pale skin.

"I had to come back. I had to bring them in," Daemon growls, motioning to the Dark Moon scouts. Their is evidence of a fight on both Daemon and them and my heart twinges. Daemon had to fight them on his own. His cheek is bruised and various parts of him are bloody.

"You're not supposed to even be—!" Theo shouts, stopping himself before he exposes himself. Exposes the fact that Daemons not only not supposed to be here, he's not even supposed to be breathing.

"What exactly is going on here?" One of the council members intrudes.

Neither of them say anything. Theo can't, really, without revealing his sinister plan to the tons of people that surround us. I step forward. I'm shaking. I'm so scared. I have to do this.

"T-Theo has been l-lying to you a-all!" I accuse shakily, causing everyone's attention to go toward me.

Daemons head turns when he sees me, eyes wide with confusion and surprise, while Theo looks angry.

"You little—" he stops himself once again, reminding himself that the Council is watching. "You're in big trouble for the stunt you pulled the other day!" He growls.

"I-I shouldn't be. I s-stopped you from doing something v-very bad!"

Theo glances around us, the vein in his forehead close to popping. "The omega must be off his meds. Men, come take him somewhere he can be treated—" he motions to his goons, the line of alphas with dead looks in their eyes, waiting at his beck and call. One of them starts to move towards me.

"Don't even think about it," Daemon says darkly, moving in front of me to block his path.

"We would like to hear what the omega has to say, actually," the council leader, a tall alpha with light brown skin crosses his arms, addressing Theo.

"He has nothing to say!" Theo growls.

"Yes, I do!" I peek out from behind Daemon, insistent.

"Be quiet—"

I hit play on the recording.

"Y-you're poisoning him!"

"I'm sedating him," Theo's voice is cold in the recording, but exceedingly recognizable.

The council members' eyes widen and they all look at eachother.

"Oh, you fucking—" Theo comes towards me but Daemon grabs him roughly by the collar, pushing him back.

"Just because it's not a lethal dose doesn't mean you're not hurting him!"

"You need to keep your fucking voice down,"

"He's your f-father. He loves you! How could y-you do this?!"

"Because he wasn't ever planning on making me the Alpha! He was going to choose Daemon, his fucking bastard son!"

Theo is seething by the time I've hit pause.

"And t-that's not all. Theo not only p-poisoned his father, he tried t-to kill his own b-brother!" I say.

The crowd bursts into chatter, my accusation spurring unsurprising controversy. So I go to play the part where he confesses to this but then one of Theo's goons is ramming into me, knocking the phone from my hands and sending it shattering on the ground. Daemon, having not been able to shield me due to holding back Theo, roughly lets go of his brother and yanks the alpha that hit me away from me, grabbing me protectively. "Don't fucking touch him," he snarls at the alpha and they back off.

My lips trembles, my heart falling at the sight of my broken phone on the ground. All the evidence, lost.

My eyes brim with tears. "What is wrong with you?! You're a murderer! Sooner or later people will know, whether I expose you or not!"

Suddenly a woman steps forward from the crowd. Her eyes are bright with anger as she looks at Theo. "He's the reason Zeke died! I know you got rid of him! You didn't want him to show the pack who you really are when he recovered from the overdose you pressured him in to!"

Theo laughs nervously, rolling his eyes. "I don't know how you can blame me for your mate being a drug addict—"

"Fuck you!"

"No one is going to believe that, darling."

"No. It's true," Tristan is suddenly stepping forward. "Theo gave me the order to kill Daemon. The only reason he's alive is because I helped him get away!"

"You were never trustworthy from the start.!" Theo hisses.

"So you're admitting that this is true, Alpha Theo?" The head councilman asks.

"Oh so what if I tried to kill Daemon?" Theo throws his hands up in the air. "If you all knew why I did it, you'd understand. Daemon was the one protecting him, after all." Theo leers before pointing a crooked finger at me.

"You may look like an innocent omega, but I know what you're hiding under that shirt—"

"Theo!" Daemon roars, eyes blazing red. Theo's goons stand on either side of the evil man, ready to pounce.

"That's right. Little Ash has been hiding a very big bad secret from you all," Theo sneers.

I look around at everyone's eyes on me, my friends, my school mates, people I've become acquainted with since coming here. They're all going to know. Know that I've been lying since the start. I look away from Lylah and Wren, who watch, confused. I'm too ashamed.

No. It will be my choice to reveal it. He won't take this away from me. "Yes," I say, "I have,"

Theo raises a questionary eyebrow.

"Yes. I am from the Dark Moon Pack. Yes, I have been hiding it."

A collective round of gasps comes from the crowd.

"Ash—" Daemon starts, looking terrified that I've revealed myself. But Theo was going to do it anyway.

Then I do the one thing that I never thought I would do, especially not in front of this many people.

I take off my shirt.

I strip the fabric off me that always acted as a protective covering, bearing it to the world—my Dark Moon pack mark and the horrible scars that will never go away as long as I live. I'm hyperventilating, my mouth and throat gone dry. There's no going back in time. Everyone's seen it. People will always know. They'll know about the one thing I used to swear I would keep secret the rest of my life. All the disgusting abuse I went through, the physical evidence forever on my body. I take a deep breath.

"I ran away from Dark Moon," I say, looking around as everyone stares with wide eyes. "Because in that pack I was abused every day of my life. On the night I left, the person who was supposed to take care of me hurt me so badly I was going to die."

"I would've," I look up at Daemon, my lip trembling. "But my mate saved me."

His eyes are filled with emotion as he takes me in, letting me put my hand in his. He squeezes it tightly, as if saying "I'm here", and it's all the comfort I ever needed. He lets me speak my truth. It was my decision to make.

Silence. The council members faces have gone slack in awe and sadness. Even Theo's goons seem to have regained some of their humanness back, a glimmer of emotion flickering in their eyes behind the blank stare.

"So you can punish me. I am an enemy in your territory, after all. Do whatever you want to me!" I exclaim.

"Ash.!" my mate tries to stop me, obviously not liking what I'm suggesting.

"But don't hurt Daemon," I shake my head, tears rising to my eyes, "He did nothing wrong. All he ever did was protect me—protect his mate like I know any one of you would have done if you were in his position!"

"See?" Theo turns towards the council. "Traitors! Both of them!"

The leader has a hard look on his face as he surveys Daemon and I. I clutch Daemon tightly, worried that if I let go for even a second he'll be locked up and I'll never get to see him again.

"Please." I beg. "Don't punish him!"

"Ash, I don't care about being punished. If they lay a hand on you—" Daemon once again tries, but the leader holds up a hand, signaling us all to be silent so he can speak.

"A breech of pack security, by no other than a Dark Moon pack member, is a grave offense of all parties involved."

Theo smirks, obviously happy with the answer.

I deflate, my stomach coiling with dread. Why did I think this would work? All I ever do is mess things up. I tried my best, yet I still failed. I'm such a screw up—

"However," the leader starts, "If what the omega says true, we cannot penalize someone for protecting their mate. The moon goddess's wishes are far more sacred than our pack laws. Not to mention the fact that Daemon has captured two Dark Moon scouts, something that benefits us greatly."

The feeling of dread halts. A coil of hope erupts in me and I wait expectantly, needing an answer.

"And as for the omega. Well...we certainly have laws when it comes to enemies infiltrating the pack...but none for a person seeking asylum. The council will have to convene later on and take a vote on the proper course of action."

"What?! You're going to consider this? That's bullshit! You should have them both executed!" Theo shouts.

"It looks as if you already tried that, Theo," the leader counters, "And were thankfully unsuccessful. Do you not understand what you have done? You have committed treason. That is a far more serious offense than either of these two individuals have committed."

"I am your Alpha!"

"You were. Now your title is revoked."

"Excuse me?! Men!" Theo orders the drugged alphas to move in on the council but all of the sudden there are tons of people coming out of the crowd, restraining them. Tristan gives a slight nod to us, signifying that he arranged this. Theo is pressed to the ground and handcuffed, shouting all the while. "You're gonna pay for this, omega! You're gonna fucking pay!" He shouts, eyes zeroed in directly on me. I flinch, looking away in fear and hiding my face in Daemon's chest.

"It's over," I hear my mate say, holding me against him. I look up at him and he cups his hands around my face. "I have you again," he says, voice taut with emotion.

Within seconds he's picking me up into his arms and kissing me like the world isn't there, like there isn't a crazy mob of werewolves surrounding us, apprehending Daemons evil brother. My eyes flutter closed, melting into it as tears seep down my cheeks, my heart full—so happy and in love that everything up until now seems worth it. He was worth it all.

His lips meld and move perfectly with mine, desperate for me as he deepens it and I let it happen all too eagerly, my arms tightening around his neck. When we reluctantly part, we're both panting and he sets me back down, still holding my hands in his own. I look up at his face, the one I'm so familiar with. The chiseled jaw and the full lips and the adorable stubble and his warm dark eyes that tell me everything I need to know about how he feels about me. How lucky I am, for him to look at me like this again. Like I mean something to him.

"You saved me, Ash," he says softly, "You did it,"

My lip trembles and I give him a teary look, the threat of crying again still prominent. He chuckles, hugging me close. "Awe, my little crybaby," he says in adoration.

"S-shut up.!" I sniffle, pouting up at him.

He leans down and gives me another small peck, putting his jacket over me as my shirt is long gone, lost in the crowd somewhere.

"Let's get you home,"

*

On the way there, he tells me everything. Tells me how Theo threatened him, locked him up, forced him to comply with his plan so I wouldn't be hurt. How he had to fend for himself for three months out of the pack, staying with bands of rogues out in the woods. How it was agony to be away from me, every waking minute consumed with the pain of being separated from his mate. My heart breaks for him a thousand times over.

We stand on the sidewalk now, in front of the house, the place where he was taken away from me months ago. The place where I thought all hope was lost.

"H-how could—" I sniffle, "H-how could you go through all that for me?!"

"It was the price to keep you safe. Nothing is more important to me than that," he says, hand cupping my cheek.

"How can you say that? You could've been hurt! Or k-killed!"

"For the same reason you just told all those people you don't care what they do to you as long as they don't hurt me. It's what a mate does. It's what I'll always do, when it comes to you. You're all that matters to me, shortcake. I hope you know that,"

My heart soars at his words and I don't even know what to think I'm so overwhelmed with all the good feelings that have been absent from me since he left. It's like the light is back inside me and I can breathe again. I love him so much. I love the way he makes me feel. And I want him to know that I appreciate him, that I believe him—not the bogus shit Theo told me!

"I-I do! I never should have doubted you. I-I'm so sorry for all the mean things I said. And I was o-only pretending like I slept with Jay. I would never do that to you. I just wanted to make you jealous and it was so stupid and—"

"Baby," he stops me, a small smile twitching in his lips, "I knew that,"

"W-what?"

"You may be the cutest thing I've ever seen but you're a terrible liar,"

"B-but you were angry—"

"I was angry at the thought of it, of course," he continues, "But if you had been telling the truth I would've done what I did to the chair to Jay's balls."

My eyes go wide before I burst out giggling, clutching his chest for support as he chuckles along with me, the grins on both our faces so wide I feel like my face will crack.

"You need to stop wrecking furniture," I giggle up at him, "And people,"

"Even if it's for my shortcake?" He cradles me against his chest fondly.

I sigh, wrapping my arms tightly around him. "Daemon...you went through too much for me. I know you're strong—but it just hurts so much to think of you suffering all alone."

It really does hurt. I never knew how much your mate hurting could hurt you until now. He didn't deserve any of it, yet he took it. For me.

He kisses the top of my head, stroking his hand over my back. "You in my arms is more than enough to make up for it,"

Inevitably the waterworks are back and a small sob escapes me. "Daemon.!" I cry into his chest. "Promise me you won't go again. I won't let you!"

"I'm never letting you go, baby," he tilts my chin up to face him. "Never,"

"R-really?"

"Really."

I love you. I so desperately want to say it. I want to.

But I look like a mess, and I'm all shaky and sweaty, and my face is covered in tears and probably extremely red. And I don't want the memory of Theo to be anywhere in the night that I say it.

So instead I ask, "What happens now?"

He thinks for a moment. "I really don't want to...but I think I'll have to go back down to the pack house to explain everything."

Immediately I deflate. To be away from him so soon after reuniting...even the thought is torture.

"Do you really have to go?" I ask sadly, the disappointment evidence in my voice.

"I'm sorry, my mate," he says sincerely, "I hate that we have to spend any more time apart. But Tristan and I have tons of intel about what Theo's been doing and I'll also need to talk to them about you,"

"I understand," I nod sullenly. "I just wish you could stay the night."

"If I had the ability I would keep you in my arms forever," he presses a tender kiss to my lips.

"Daemy~" I whine childishly, helplessly trying to convince him to stay with me. I was hoping to glue myself to him for the next week. And I was also kind of looking forward to making up for lost time tonight...with our bodies.

"Don't tempt me," he says endearingly, before leaning in to whisper huskily into me ear, "And don't worry. When this is all over I'm fucking you on the nearest surface we can find."

Good grief. I couldn't stand Theo anymore. Now get ready for some major smut next chappy ❤️