Jayme POV:

Artificial rain poured down, hiding my tears. Autry was on top of me, shielding me. His heart hammered against my chest—a rhythm I knew too well.

His pupils were blown wide. Even rejected, biology is a stubborn thing.

He leaned down, gaze dropping to my lips.

"Jayme," he breathed.

He was going to kiss me. After the humiliation. After treating me like garbage.

I felt sick.

I shoved his chest. "Get off me!"

Autry blinked, looking wounded, as if I were the traitor. He rolled off, groaning.

I scrambled up. Kenan was running over, fury on his face.

"Hurt?" Kenan asked, ignoring Autry. He wrapped a towel around me, his pine scent cutting through Autry's pheromones like a knife.

"I'm fine," I shivered.

"Look at that!" Cassie screeched, snapping photos of Autry on the ground. "My hero! Saving the clumsy help."

That night, my world imploded again.

My phone blew up.

BREAKING: Disgraced Omega Jayme Barnes caught in scandalous orgy with Rogues!

Grainy photos. A woman who looked like me entangled with three rough men in an alley.

User1: No wonder Autry dumped her.

User2: Slut.

"No," I whispered.

I zoomed in. The woman's back was smooth.

I ran to the mirror. On my left shoulder blade sat a crescent birthmark.

It was a setup.

I stormed out, heading for Autry’s villa.

I didn't knock. I shoved the doors open. The guards stepped aside, sensing the murderous intent rolling off me.

"Autry!"

The house smelled of musk, sweat, and post-coital wolves.

I walked into the living room. Autry was buttoning his shirt. Cassie lounged on the sofa in a silk robe, smirking.

Autry looked up. Fresh red scratch marks marred his neck. Cassie's claim.

"Jayme," Autry said, annoyed. "You shouldn't be here."

I held up my phone. "Did you do this?"

He glanced at the screen. Not surprised.

"The PR team thought it necessary," he said calmly. "The council asked why I rejected a Fated Mate. We needed a cause. Moral turpitude was the easiest path."

The room spun. "You... you framed me as a whore? To save your poll numbers?"

"It's just a story, Jayme," he stepped closer. "Nobody takes Rogue rumors seriously. Disappear for a few years. I'll wire more money. Take the blame, and this goes away."

He reached for my shoulder.

Smack.

I slapped his hand away.

"I thought you were a victim of tradition," I whispered. "But you're just rot, Autry. You're a disease."

"Careful, Omega," Cassie giggled.

I turned to her. My vision went white. A surge of ancient, cold power rushed through me.

"And you," I said, my voice sounding doubled, resonant. "Enjoy him. You deserve each other."

I walked out.

"Jayme!" Autry roared. "I command you to stop!"

His command was wind against a mountain.

I walked into the night. I was done being a victim.

Jayme POV:

The night air bit, but the fire in my chest burned hotter.

"Jayme!"

Autry grabbed my arm, spinning me. His composure was cracking. "You don't walk away when I'm speaking."

I looked at his hand.

"I am not your pack," I said, dangerously calm. "Your commands are void."

He flinched. "I'm protecting you. That scandal... it will ruin you if I don't manage it."

"Manage it?" I laughed dryly. "Like you managed our bond? Like you replaced me before my scent left your sheets?"

I unclasped the silver star necklace—his gift from when we were sixteen. It felt like holding a lie.

"Take it," I shoved it into his chest.

"Jayme, don't. That was a promise."

"A promise you broke."

I walked to the old Moon Temple ruins at the edge of the property. I fell to my knees, digging with bare hands until I found the red prayer knot I’d buried three years ago.

"Look at the stray dog digging for bones."

Cassie.

She leaned against a pillar. "Pathetic. He chose me. He chose a Beta with connections over a bloodless Omega."

She kicked dirt in my face.

Something snapped. Not anger. Something older.

I stood up.

"You think you won?" My voice vibrated.

"I have the Alpha," she reached to shove me.

I moved faster than thought.

Crack.

My palm connected with her cheek. The force lifted her off her feet. She crashed into the stone pillar.

I stared at my hand. Omegas don't do that.

Cassie slumped, bleeding, terrified. "You..."

Autry burst into the clearing. He saw Cassie, then me. He opened his mouth to roar, then met my eyes.

He froze. He didn't see a weak girl. He saw an apex predator he didn't recognize.

I pulled the muddy red cord from the hole.

"This is what our bond is worth," I said.

I ripped it.

Snap.

At the same moment, a loud POP echoed. The wooden prayer beads on Autry’s wrist exploded, scattering like hail.

He gasped, clutching his wrist in horror.

"Goodbye, Autry."

I dropped the torn cord and walked past him. The air around me was too heavy, too charged. He didn't dare stop me.

Jayme POV:

The adrenaline crash left me shaking.

I sat in a taxi, deleting every social media account. Erasing Jayme Barnes.

"Blue Note Jazz Bar," I told the driver.

Neutral ground. Run by humans, frequented by the supernatural underground.

Chloe, a witch posing as a bartender, vaulted over the bar when she saw me.

"Honey," she breathed. "You look like you've been through a war."

"I need to disappear," I said. "He's coming. His wolf... I saw it. He won't let go."

Chloe dragged me to the back. "The bond snapped violently. An Alpha's wolf takes that as a challenge to hunt."

A low growl vibrated through the floorboards.

"He's here," I whispered.

The scent of Hunt —musk and aggression—seeped under the door.

"Go," Chloe pushed me toward the alley. "I'll cloak your scent."

I ran into the rain.

A shadow detached itself from the darkness at the end of the alley.

Autry. Eyes glowing gold, canines extended. Feral.

"Mine," he growled. Not a word, a vibration.

He lunged.

He moved faster than human sight. He was going to drag me back to his den.

I backed against the brick wall. "No!"

As he reached for me, my chest exploded with light. A rejection of his very existence.

BOOM.

A shockwave of pure white energy blasted outward.

Autry was thrown backward like a ragdoll. He slammed into a dumpster, stunned, the gold fading from his eyes.

I stared at my glowing hands.

I didn't wait.

I ran. Chloe's magic must have held, or the blast confused him. I made it to the airport.

One ticket. Marseille.

As the plane lifted off, I looked down at the shrinking city lights.

Jayme Barnes died in that alley.

Whoever landed in France would be someone else.