The Lost Pack (Paige) novel Chapter 2

** Poppy’s POV **

I mull over Ronnie’s words. Even though I’d already started piecing it together, hearing the words spoken aloud lands hard.

Collides… like we’re something dangerous and unstable. As if we’re the problem.

My stomach twists. “So what? We just… stay away from each other?”

Ronnie’s gaze hardens slightly. “For now? Yes.”

“That’s not a solution,” I snap, heat flaring under my skin. “That’s avoidance.”

“It’s containment,” he corrects gently.

Leo steps behind me, close enough that I can feel the heat of him at my back. His hand rests on my waist, steady and grounding. He doesn’t try to silence me, and he doesn’t interrupt. He just stays.

Jake exhales slowly. “You said it was escalating,” he says, eyes fixed on Ronnie. “Why?”

Ronnie doesn’t answer immediately. His gaze drifts to the fractured glass on the desk, then to the splintered wood along the wall, as if he’s piecing it together.

“Because whatever this is,” he says finally, “it’s not meant to exist separately.”

A cold chill slides down my spine.

“What does that mean?”

“It means,” Ronnie continues, looking back at me, “that what you’re feeling, this surge, this instability, isn’t just power waking up.”

He pauses.

“It’s power looking for balance.”

Jake goes still, Leo’s grip tightens, and I don’t like where this is going.

“Balance with what?” I ask, even though I think I already know.

Ronnie’s gaze flicks briefly toward the door Paige just walked through.

“With the thing that both matches it… and challenges it.”

Silence drops, thick and heavy.

“No,” I say immediately, shaking my head. “No, that doesn’t make sense. We’ve always been fine. We’ve never…”

“You’ve never been like this before,” Jake cuts in quietly.

That shuts me up. Because he’s right. I haven’t.

“This only started after the bond,” Jake continues, glancing briefly at Leo before looking back at Ronnie. “After her power started changing.”

“And after the first shift in her energy,” Ronnie adds.

Jake nods once. “And it’s getting stronger.”

“It will keep getting stronger,” Ronnie says calmly.

The certainty in his voice makes something in my chest tighten.

“Until what?” Leo asks, his tone low and controlled, but there’s an edge there now. A warning.

Ronnie meets his gaze without flinching.

“Until it either stabilises,” he says, “or it breaks something.”

My breath catches.

“Breaks what?”

His eyes settle on me again.

“You,” he says simply.

The word hits harder than anything else so far.

I swallow, my throat suddenly dry. “That’s not happening.”

“It already is,” Ronnie replies, not unkindly.

My hands curl into fists at my sides.

“I’m fine.”

Jake’s expression tightens slightly. Leo doesn’t say anything, but the way he pulls me closer says enough. Ronnie watches all of it, then he exhales slowly.

“There is a way to stabilise it,” he says.

Everything in me tenses, bracing for what comes next, Jake’s gaze drops to the floor as if he already knows, and I get the sense I’m not going to like it.

Leo straightens slightly. “How?”

Ronnie’s gaze flicks between the two of them, Leo, then Jake, before settling back on me.

“The same way Paige did.”

My pulse starts to speed up. “Then what was it?”

His gaze locks onto mine. “You.”

The word hits like a physical blow, and I shake my head immediately. “No. I didn’t…”

“You did, I felt it,” he says quietly. “Through me.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It didn’t to me either,” he admits. “Not then.”

He exhales slowly, as if he’s finally letting something go.

“It wasn’t like anything I’ve ever done before,” he says. “Something moved through me… like it already knew exactly what it was doing.”

The hairs on my arms stand on end as I remember how that baby reacted to me, how the voice told me it was important. “And you’re saying that was me?” I ask.

Jake nods once. “I think the tree was the price.”

Leo goes very still behind me.

“You’re saying she saved the baby?” he asks, low.

Jake doesn’t look away from me. “Yeah.”

Leo blows out a breath, but everything inside me goes still. I don’t dare move. Don’t even dare breathe too deeply. Because if he’s right, if I really traded one life for another without even knowing, then what happens next time?

My mind flickers to Jaxon, to Paige, Leo, Jake, Liora. Everyone I care about. And a cold, creeping thought settles in. What if next time… they’re the price?

“Mate with Jake.” The voice cuts through everything.

It’s not a suggestion this time, it’s a command. I squeeze my eyes shut for a second, trying to block it out.

“Poppy?” Leo’s voice is closer now, softer.

“I’m fine,” I say quickly.

I’m not. Not even close.

Jake watches me carefully. He doesn’t miss it either.

“It’s already telling you, isn’t it?” he says quietly.

My eyes snap open but I don’t answer. I don’t have to. The look on his face says he already knows, and worse… he’s been waiting for me to realise it too.