The Lost Pack (Paige) novel Chapter 208

** Paige’s POV **

The walk toward Greg’s house feels both too short and too long.

Every step lands heavier than the one before. The tarmacked pavement feels too hard beneath my boots, and my power hums beneath my skin, steady at first, then flaring, then steady again.

The street looks almost exactly the same as the day I left.

Same hedges trimmed too neatly. Same potted plant by Mrs Turner’s front window two doors down. But it all feels … distant. Like l am looking at it through glass.

I don’t belong here anymore.

Ryder walks beside me, a wall of heat and tension. Parker stays on my other side, close enough that I keep brushing against him, and he doesn’t move away. Remy and Callen step just ahead, a united front of muscle, teeth and simmering fury. Ronnie walks behind me with Hayden and Blaine, the Twiceborn, silent and lethal.

I can feel their anger. Their protectiveness. Their need to destroy anything that looks at me wrong. But I’m calm.

The moment Greg’s house comes into view… grey window frames and door, my hanging basket that was once bright with colour is now brown and dead… something inside me goes still.Chapter 208

Ronnie murmurs from behind me, voice low and calm.

Remember your breathing, Paige. In through your nose, out through your mouth. If your power surges, do not fight it. Guide it.”

I nod once.

Hayden glances back. “He’s still near the front,” he says – quietly.

My palm tingles.

Ryder leans in, his mouth close to my ear. “You do not have to do this.”

I stare at the front door l used to walk through every day, carrying shopping and Jaxon’s school bag.

“Yes,” I say softly. “I do.”

The path feels shorter than I remember. By the time I reach the door, my heart is hammering, but it is not fear. It is anticipation. Determination.

Parker rests a hand on my shoulder, his touch light. “We are right here.”

I knock.

For a second, nothing happens.

Then footsteps. Familiar, heavy, and too slow..

The door opens.Greg stands in the doorway, and the first thing I feel is… nothing.

No heartbreak. No grief. No twisting of old wounds. Just a hollow space. Like laoking at a person I once stood next to in a queue and immediately forgot.

His hair is messier than I have ever seen it, flecked with grey, his jaw is rough with stubble, and there are dark circles under his eyes. He looks older, but not in a way that makes you feel sorry for someone. In a way that makes you realise they are rotting from the inside.

His eyes widen as his gaze sweeps over all of us… then stops on me.

“Paige?”

My name from his mouth used to make my stomach flip.

Now it does nothing. Not even a flicker.

His gaze flicks over my shoulder, and his face tightens when he sees Ryder, then the others. His eyes narrow further when he spots Hayden and Blaine.

“What is this?” he demands. “What are they doing here?

You cannot just bring a gang of thugs to my house.”

I almost laugh. Of course he goes straight into victim mode.

“Hello, Greg,” I say, my voice calm. “We need to talk.”

He opens his mouth to protest, then stops. Because hefinally looks properly at me.

His eyes widen. “You are… different.”

My skin hums in response, light flickering faintly under the surface like a reminder.

He takes a half step back. “What did they do to you?”

The old version of me would have shrunk. Explained. Tried to make him comfortable.

This version just smiles faintly. “Let’s take this inside.”

He hesitates, then sneers. “You do not get to give orders here, Paige. This is my house.”

Parker’s voice cuts in. “Actually, according to the law, it’s just as much her house, so let’s not pretend you are standing on any kind of high ground here.”

Greg’s face turns an angry shade of red. “Who the hell do you think you are to talk to me like that?”

Ryder steps forward. “Her mate,” he says softly. “One of them.” ”

Greg’s gaze drops to my neck, then lower. His face goes pale again when he sees the four clear marks. One from each of my wolves. A deliberate choice on my part when I decided not to hide them today.

He stares, horrified. “You… you let them do that to you?”Callen smirks. “You say that as if she didn’t enjoy it.”

Greg’s lip curls. “So that is it, then. You leave your husband and instantly turn into some kind of whore for four mutts in the woods?”

Callen laughs quietly. “This from the man who planned to hand over his stepson to armed extremists for a pat on the head and some cash.”

Ryder focuses on Greg with a look that promises he is one breath away from shifting. “Answer her,” he says.

Greg drags a hand through his hair. “I did what | thought was best for Jaxon.”

My vision narrows.

“Best?” I repeat.

“They told me you were in danger,” he says quickly. “That you had been… tainted, by monsters. That Jaxon was going te turn into one of them, and I needed to earn his trust and raise him right, to break the cycle and put an end to them for good. I was protecting my people; I was trying to protect you!”

A cold, hard ache settles in my chest. “Don’t pretend you cared about me or Jax, or anyone but yourself. If you really cared, you’d have told me what Jax was going to become.””I did,” he insists. “They said they could protect him. They said if I cooperated, they would keep you and him safe from them. From all of this.”

Ryder steps closer, with barely leashed fury. “And how exactly does sticking your dick in Annie protect my mate and my son? Your story is pathetic.”

Greg refuses to look at him. He is looking at me as if he can still convince me l am the one at fault here.

“You do not understand, Paige,” he says. “They are organised. They have connections everywhere. In the police, in social services, in schools. They told me they could keep you and Jaxon away from all of this. Away from people like them.”

He spits the last word like a slur.

Remy moves, but I lift a hand, and he stills instantly.

“Did they tell you to sleep with Annie?” I ask, my tone flat.

“That has nothing to do with this.”

Parker makes a quiet sound that is half disbelief, half disgust.

I keep going. “Did they tell you to use her? To get information through her. To send hunters to my rental that night. To fire at a house you knew your stepson, who you seem to care so much about, was.”

Greg’s jaw tightens. “You had already taken him. I didn’tknow where he was or whether he was safe.”

“You knew I would never let anyone hurt him.”

“I did not know that,” he snaps. “Not anymore. Not when you left your entire life behind for a man you had not seen in years. For animals.”

The glow under my skin flares.

The hallway lights flicker once, catching Greg’s attention.

He stares at the ceiling, then at me.

“What are you?” he whispers.