Chapter 29 Chapter 29

Chapter 29 Chapter 29
The handle turned before I could finish opening it myself. Grandmother stood in the doorway, her weathered face creased with worry and something that looked like guilt. Behind her, I caught a glimpse of Alpha Williams, his expression unreadable.
"Imogen, dear," Grandmother said gently. "You shouldn't be up yet. The Goddess warned us you would need time to recover."
"The Goddess warned you?" I laughed, the sound coming out harsh and bitter. "Right. Because apparently everyone knows more about what's happening to me than I do."
I swayed on my feet, and this time I couldn't stop Kyle from steadying me with a gentle hand on my elbow. The contact sent warmth shooting up my arm, and I hated how much my body craved that comfort.
"We need to talk," Grandmother said, her eyes moving between the Williams brothers and me. "About your family's history. About the contract. About why your father made the choices he did."
"Now you want to talk," I said, allowing Kyle to guide me back toward the bed because standing was becoming impossible. "After six years of secrets."
Grandmother's face crumpled slightly. "I was trying to protect you. Your father made me promise..."
"My father's dead," I cut her off, the words coming out sharper than I intended. "His promises died with him. Just like his pack. Just like everything else I used to know about myself."
The room fell silent except for the sound of my ragged breathing. Through our bond, I could feel the Williams brothers' emotions, Kyle's protective concern, Caspian's analytical worry, and Asher's guilt-ridden determination to somehow fix this mess. It was overwhelming, feeling their feelings layered on top of my own chaos.
Alpha Williams stepped into the room, his commanding presence making everyone else seem smaller by comparison. "The pack needs to know how to handle this situation," he said.
“Right, handle this situation, how could I be so selfish. Poor them. After these messages, I really don’t care how they handle it.”
Alpha Williams's words hung in the air, and I couldn't stop myself from laughing, a harsh, broken sound that made everyone in the room flinch.
"Handle the situation?" I repeated. "Is that what I am now? A situation to be handled?"
"Imogen," Grandmother began, but I shook my head.
"No. I'm done. I'm just... done." I pushed myself up from the bed, ignoring the way the room spun around me. "For six years, I've been nothing in this pack. Less than nothing. And now suddenly I'm important? Now suddenly everyone cares what happens to me?"
My legs trembled beneath me, but I forced myself to stay upright. I wouldn't show weakness, not now.
"It's not like that," Kyle said, moving toward me with his hands outstretched. "You've always been important."
"Don't," I warned, backing away from him. "Don't you dare stand there and lie to my face. Not after everything."
The bond between us pulsed with his hurt, but I pushed it away. I couldn't deal with their emotions on top of my own right now.
"The Goddess herself spoke through you," Alpha Williams said, his voice carrying that undeniable authority that had always made me want to shrink into myself. "That changes things, whether you like it or not."
"Oh, I'm well aware," I snapped. "I've gone from pack outcast to pack freak overnight. Lucky me."
My phone chimed again in Asher's hand. His face darkened as he read whatever new cruelty someone had sent my way.
"What is it now?" I asked, not really wanting to know but needing to anyway. "Am I a whore again? A freak? Or have they found some new insult to throw my way?"
Asher's jaw tightened. "It doesn't matter."
"It matters to me." I held out my hand. "Give me my phone."
He hesitated, then placed it in my palm. I looked down at the screen and felt my heart sink even further.
Heard she attacked Xavier Silverclaw with black magic. No wonder her family was hunted down. They were probably all freaks, too.
The words cut deeper than they should have. My family. My pack. The people I'd lost are now being dragged through the mud because of me.
"Enough of this," Alpha Williams said, taking the phone from my trembling hand. "These messages stop now. I'll address the pack myself."
"And say what?" I challenged. "That they should respect me because the Goddess chose me? Because I'm mated to your sons? Because I have some magic I don't understand?"
"Because you are a member of this pack," he said firmly. "And this ends now.”
“Right, well then, I am no longer staying in this room or any of the other brothers’ rooms, the pack already thinks I’m a whore that they pass around when they get bored.”
Alpha Williams looked like I'd slapped him across the face. His authoritative mask slipped for just a moment, revealing genuine shock before he composed himself again.
"No one thinks that," he said, but his voice lacked conviction.
"Really?" I held up my phone, scrolling through the messages that had accumulated overnight. "Because it seems like the entire pack has already decided what happened in this room while I was unconscious."
Kyle stepped forward, his face flushed with anger. "That's not, we would never..."
"I know you didn't do anything," I cut him off. "But it doesn't matter what actually happened. It matters what people believe happened."
Grandmother moved to my side, her weathered hand settling on my shoulder. "There's a guest room down the hall. If you'd prefer to stay there instead, I'll have your things brought over from our house."
I nodded, unable to speak past the lump in my throat. The idea of going back to our small house on the edge of pack territory filled me with dread. If Xavier Silverclaw knew where to find me at school, he certainly knew where I lived.
"I'll show you," Caspian offered, his voice carefully neutral.
I followed him out of Kyle's room, painfully aware of everyone's eyes on my back as I left. The hallway was mercifully empty, though I could hear activity elsewhere in the massive pack house, voices, footsteps, the normal sounds of life continuing while mine fell apart.