The room was deadly quite.
The air felt thick, too heavy for words. The biggest room in Jordan's apartment was dimly lit by the faint orange hue of the city lights outside the window. Shadows stretched along the walls like silent witnesses. Skylar paced the cold marble floor, her bare feet tapping rhythmically against the tiles—soft, yet sharp in the silence.
Techna closed her eyes with a groan, her expression pinched with fatigue and irritation.
"Stop moving around—you're making me dizzy… and why the hell are we here at three a.m.?" Her voice was hoarse and raw. She turned to her left, only to freeze at the sight of a small figure curled up on the couch like a broken doll. "And who the hell is she?"
Skylar halted mid-step. The tension in her shoulders made her look like she was carrying the world.
"She's Emma… the girl who saved me. The day I… almost killed myself."
Her voice cracked near the end. Her fists clenched at her sides as she stared at the floor, unable to lift her head.
Jordan, who had been rubbing the back of his stiff neck, narrowed his eyes.
"And why is she here?"
Skylar bit her bottom lip so hard it almost broke skin. Her whole body trembled, the memory of Emma fainting in her arms flashing through her mind like a ghost. She turned her gaze to the fragile girl asleep on the couch, still and silent under the weight of invisible trauma.
"She needs my help… I–I can't leave her like that!"
Her voice rose unexpectedly, slicing through the stillness of the room. Jordan and Techna flinched.
A second passed. Then another. The silence crept back in.
Skylar dropped her gaze again, her voice a whisper now. "I'm sorry." Her eyes stung as tears burned against her swollen lids.
It wasn't just that she'd grown soft for the girl. It was the bruises on her skin, the wounds on her neck, the haunted look buried in her eyes—so familiar it cut Skylar open.
It was cruel. Too cruel.
Even more than what Skylar had endured herself.
Her knees felt weak. She wanted to scream. But who could she scream to?
No one wronged her here. They were kind. Too kind. So kind, it didn't feel real.
No one that kind ever survived. No one that kind ever stayed.
"I'm sorry," she repeated again, barely audible. Her lip bled from biting it too hard.
Techna's sharp eyes softened as she studied Skylar's face. She exhaled.
"What happened to her?" she asked quietly, gaze flicking toward Emma.
Skylar wiped a lone tear trailing down her puffy, pale cheek. Her voice was steady, but her hands shook.
"Look at her gland," she said.
Jordan walked over, footsteps slow and hesitant. The tension in the room wrapped around him like fog. He leaned down, gently shifting Emma's position.
And then he froze.
His breath hitched. His eyes widened, panic blooming in his expression like a drop of ink in water.
It felt like someone had dumped a bucket of ice over his head.
He stumbled back, visibly shaken.
In a hushed voice, he asked, "Who did this to her?"
His eyes were bloodshot, wild, filled with fury.
Skylar's voice turned bitter.
"I don't know… but we all know it was an alpha."
Techna snapped her head up.
"How do you know it was an alpha? It could've been an omega too! Why is everything always an alpha's fault?" Her voice rose, sharp like broken glass.
Skylar parted her lips to respond, but Techna cut her off, rising from her chair.
"Every sin, every crime—it's always alphas, right? I get it. I do. But blaming every bad thing in the world on alphas isn't fair. You don't even realize how much you sound like the people who hurt you."
Her voice shook, but her eyes blazed with conviction.
"Techna!" Jordan snapped, voice trembling.
"What?! Honestly—am I wrong?" she barked, scanning their faces. "Am I?!"
Skylar's voice cracked as she stepped forward, trembling.
"You don't know what we've been through… nothing. You don't know the discrimination we faced just because we're omegas."
Her words were a wound ripped open.
The room was suffocating now. It wasn't just pain anymore—it was anguish, thick in the air, making it hard to breathe.
"I FUCKING KNOW!!!" Techna screamed, her voice raw with rage.
"I watched my omega father get beaten day after day. I watched him sleep on the cold floor. I watched him endure—watching my alpha father cheat on him, humiliate him. And he did nothing. Because he couldn't. I couldn't. Not even when he died in front of me. His eyes—" she choked, "—his eyes stayed open. He died in despair."
Skylar stood frozen. Her breath caught.
She always thought her life was cruel. That luck had spat in her face. But compared to this—her pain felt like paper cuts beside broken bones.
But Techna's story didn't soothe the fire in her chest. It fanned it. Made it burn deeper.
Skylar didn't just want justice anymore.
She wanted revenge.
Cruel revenge.
Silence.
Jordan finally exhaled, then spoke in a low, calm voice.
"You asked how we know it was an alpha… You're right. An omega can mark another omega. But the mark fades eventually. The gland rejects it." He paused. "This wasn't just marking. Her glands are destroyed. And an omega wouldn't do that to another omega. It's against their very nature."
He looked at Techna with sorrow in his eyes.
"So yes, the one who did this… was an alpha. I'm not saying all alphas are monsters. But this one? He is. I'm sorry, Techna."
He stepped forward and pulled her into a slow, steady hug.
Techna gave a faint smile, returning the gesture. But her eyes drifted to Skylar.
Skylar's fists were clenched. Her jaw locked. Her entire frame buzzed with restrained energy.
Techna saw the flame in her eyes. Too young to understand, too hurt to let go.
Techna sighed.
She knew Skylar wouldn't get it now. She hadn't either—not at first.
She just hoped Skylar wouldn't learn her lesson too late… when it would hurt even more.
Skylar had her head bowed, lost in thought, when she sensed someone near.
She looked up—startled. It was Techna.
Her eyes widened for the seventh time that night.
But what Techna said next…
shattered her.
"Let's avenge you… and that little girl," Techna whispered, placing a hand on her shoulder before turning away.
Skylar's lips trembled.
"Thank you," she whispered back.
Techna didn't look back. But she nodded. A small ghost of a smile passed across her lips—one Skylar didn't see—as she walked into the hallway's darkness.