Ryan POV
Ryan's phone buzzed at eight forty-five.
Sarah's text said Emma looked flushed during dinner. Said her heat might be coming early.
He read it three times. His heart started moving faster.
Early. That meant soon. That meant within hours, Emma would need to isolate. And before she did, Ryan had planned to be there. He had the letter. He had six years of waiting and protecting and love stored up like a dam about to break.
Ryan moved to his private quarters and locked the door.
His room was neat. Everything in order. Beta training meant discipline in everything, even spaces nobody saw. But there was one thing on his desk that violated that order. The letter. Handwritten. Rewritten a hundred times. Each version saying the same thing.
I love you. I've always loved you. You deserve someone who sees you as a person.
He'd written the first version when Emma was sixteen. She'd been crying in the kitchens because someone made a cruel comment. Ryan had found her and just sat with her. Said nothing. And in that moment, watching her try to hide her tears, he understood that his entire life would revolve around this girl.
The most recent version was on top. Ryan picked it up and held it to his chest.
His wolf vibrated under his skin. Actually vibrated. The animal part of him was responding to the knowledge that Emma's heat was starting. That his chance was finally here. That after six years of protecting her, he could finally ask her to choose him.
Ryan wasn't an alpha. That was the problem. Alphas could bond with omegas permanently. Betas could offer loyalty but not the kind of bond that was legally recognized. Emma deserved an alpha.
But Ryan had something no alpha had. Six years of knowing her. Six years of choosing her when he didn't have to. Six years of loving her without asking for anything in return.
That had to count for something.
Ryan tucked the letter into his pocket and left his quarters.
He moved through the compound corridors toward the kitchens. Emma usually finished around nine. He could time it right. Catch her as she was heading to her basement room. Tell her before her heat got too intense for rational conversation.
The hallways were quiet. Most of the pack had settled in for the evening.
But as he turned the corner toward the kitchen level, he froze.
Emma's scent hit him like a physical force.
Not her normal scent. Something stronger. Something that pulled at his wolf in a way that made his teeth ache. Her heat was starting. But there was something else underneath it. Something that made his stomach drop.
The scent was moving. Not toward the heat chambers where it should be going. Moving up. Toward the higher levels.
Toward the alpha's quarters.
Ryan's feet stopped moving.
That wasn't possible. Emma knew protocol. Omegas in heat isolated in the designated chambers. It was law. You didn't wander around the compound burning with heat and no control.
Ryan started moving again. Faster.
Emma's scent was marked on every wall, every corner. It was like she was following something. Like something was pulling her toward a specific location.
Toward a specific person.
Ryan's pace turned into a jog. Then a run. He took the stairs two at a time, his beta strength pushing him forward. The letter in his pocket felt like it was burning.
Emma's scent got stronger as he got closer to the alpha's private level. It was all over the upper corridors. Fresh. Desperate. Pulsing with heat and need.
He stopped in front of Jake Stone's door.
The door was closed but Emma's scent was right there. Like she'd been standing at this door. Like she'd knocked. Like she'd—
The door opened from the inside.
Ryan didn't see Emma at first. He saw Jake Stone standing in the doorway. The alpha's eyes were silver. Glowing with that impossible color that only showed up in mate bonds. His hands were gripping the door frame hard enough to crack the wood. His entire body was tense like he was fighting something from inside himself.
Behind him, in the shadows of his private quarters, Ryan could see Emma's silhouette.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Ryan understood what was happening. The mate bond. The thing he'd been waiting for Emma to avoid. The thing he'd hoped would never happen because it would mean she was tied to someone else forever.
The mate bond had happened.
And it was with Jake Stone.
Jake looked at Ryan.
There was no recognition in his eyes. Just the feral awareness of an alpha who'd found his mate. Everything else, including a beta he'd worked with for five years, was irrelevant.
"She's not for you," Jake said quietly.
It wasn't a threat. Threats had feeling behind them. This was just fact. Emma Clarke was not for Ryan Hayes. The decision had been made by something older than pack law or five years of loyalty or six years of love.
Ryan looked at Emma, still shadowed behind Jake. He tried to make eye contact. Tried to send her something. Some message that said he was still here. That he still loved her.
Emma didn't look at him.
She was looking at Jake like he was the only thing that existed.
Ryan's hand found the letter in his pocket. All those words. All that time. All that hope.
Worthless.
Jake closed the door.
The sound was quiet but it echoed through the empty corridor. Ryan stood there staring at the closed door. Staring at Emma's scent fading as she moved deeper into Jake's quarters. Moving into a bond that would remake her entire existence.
His wolf was howling inside him. Not with rage. With loss. With the understanding that something he'd built his entire adult life around had just been decided by biology he couldn't control.
Ryan pulled the letter out of his pocket.
He read the opening line in the dim hallway light. "Emma, I have loved you since we were fourteen..."
Ryan tore it in half.
Then he tore it in half again.