The Lost Pack (Paige) novel Chapter 201

** Paige’s POV **

“What… what are you?”

The question hangs in the air, and everyone goes still.

Ryder’s protective instinct spikes like a cold gust of wind through the bond, but | lift a hand to keep him from stepping forward.

I can’t blame her. I’m probably glowing again.

My voice comes out steadier than I feel. “I’m still Paige.”

She shakes her head violently, scrambling to her feet and backing up until she hits the old sofa, then she collapses onto it. “No. You’re… you’re not. You… your skin just… you lit up like some…some…”

“Don’t say glow stick,” Callen mutters. “She doesn’t like that one.”

“Or alien,” Remy adas.

“Or glittery fairy,” Parker sighs.

Annie just stares at me, wide-eyed and terrified of what she doesn’t understand, and I realise… she’s terrified of herself too.

For a moment, everything inside me goes still.. Greg and Annie had an affair.The version of me from two months ago would have broken. I would have been humiliated, furious, shattered all over again at the idea of the man I was building a life with choosing her behind my back. I would have spiralled, wondering what | did wrong, what | lacked, how I wasn’t enough.

But Greg isn’t the centre of my world anymore. He hasn’t been for a long time, or maybe ever. Certainly not since t found Ja’s real family, since I found my family. Not since my power woke up and burned away every lie I used to believe about him.

And here, looking at Annie, a shaking girl in borrowed pyjamas, someone who was manipulated, used and lied to, I don’t feel rage. I feel clarity.

Of course, Greg lied and cheated, and, of course, he used someone vulnerable to get what he wanted. But this isn’t about me. It never was.

My life didn’t fall apart because of Annie. It fell apart because Greg was always a coward hiding behind charm and excuses, and I finally saw what he was.

I inhale deeply, and the glow under my skin settles with a kind of quiet certainty. I don’t need revenge on Greg. I don’t need heartbreak. I have moved so far beyond him that he barely feels like a footnote anymore.

What I feel instead is pity… for Annie. She got tangled up in a mess that shouldn’t involve her.Poppy watches me closely, expecting me to explode, butt don’t. Because I finally understand… Greg never deserved the power to break me, and Annie never truly had the power to hurt me.

I lift my chin, steady and calm as a new purpose flows through me.

“Annie, just tell me the truth.” I kneel in front of her slowly, opening my hands and keeping my voice soft.”.

We’re not here to hurt you. We’re here because you’re in danger, and because someone used you.”

Her chin trembles. “I didn’t know,” she whispers. “I swear, Paige, I didn’t know.”

Poppy flinches, but she doesn’t interrupt.

I nod. “Then tell me what happened. Everything. From the beginning.”

Annie squeezes her eyes shut, and tears roll down her cheeks. “Greg,” she whispers. “It started with Greg. He told me you and he were separating, Paige. That you barely spoke anymore. That you were about to leave him for someone else.”

Ryder’s growl is low, lethal.

She looks at me helplessly. “He said… he said he knew you’d leave him the second you found Jaxon’s father again.”

My breath stutters.”He said that?” I whisper.

She nods. “He told me he could feel it coming. That you weren’t in love with him anymore. And then you left.” She wipes her cheeks.

Remy’s voice is cold. “He needed an asset.”

Annie nods. “He convinced me to give him your new address. He said it was for Jaxon’s sake. That he was worried you would… keep him away. That he needed to know where his stepson was; that he loved him like his own. I didn’t mean any harm. I swear I didn’t.”

My chest tightens.

“And then?” I ask.

Annie sobs again. “Then he dumped me.”

Poppy’s jaw drops. “He what!?”

“He said I’d served my purpose,” she cries. “That he didn’t need me now that he knew where you lived.” She looks down at her hands as if they disgust her. “I felt sick. I realised he had used me. Played me.”

“Of course he did,” Poppy mutters furiously.

“I was going to leave town,” Annie whispers. “I packed a bag after work. I had a letter to post to Poppy explaining what Id done, but… someone stopped me.”

Ryder steps closer. “Who?””A man. Tall, blondish, said his name was Rob. He came up to me in the car park outside the café. He said, he was my new handler.”

Callen curses softly…

“I told him he was insane,” Annie says. “But he… he grabbed my arm and said if I wanted to stay alive, l needed to pretend he was my boyfriend. That people were watching us.”

Leo mutters, “They love manipulating frightened humans.”

Annie nods miserably. “I tried to go to the police. I really dia. I went into the station, got as far as the reception desk. But two police officers intercepted me as if they knew I was coming. They took me into a private room.”

She looks at me, eyes wide with remembered fear. “They said they were a special branch… hunters… their job was to protect humans from other beings, and they needed my help because my friends were in danger.”

Ryder’s whole body goes stone-still.

“They said they were trying to protect you, Paige. You and Poppy, and Jaxon.” Her tears fall harder. “I didn’t believe them. Not until they showed me the footage.”

My stomach plummets. “What footage?”

“You,” she whispers. “Running out of a cabin in the night barefoot like you’d escaped, you looked terrified as you ran into the woods screaming for Jaxon.”

I freeze.

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