Chapter 2 - Naia
It’s easy to point out a mistake in hindsight, but the hard part is deciding if it truly was a mistake or the way it should’ve happened all along.
Just a few months ago, my dad had been an immovable force, and the voice that shaped every decision, every command, and every breath I took. Even in the face of constant challenges from others, he stood his ground and did what he felt was needed.
It was what took him in the end, but even now, I can’t decide if it was a righteous death or the worst decision he ever made.
That’s what haunts me even more than the blood and the aftermath. More than the way pack dynamics shifted overnight, and everything changed for us as a whole, especially for my family.
Regardless of him giving the order to infiltrate Coldreach and take Sera back, something in my gut felt heavier than usual.
I wanted him to wait and think it out first, but he refused.
He said we needed to handle Luke and the other Alphas before they collapsed our pack entirely, so I followed orders.
And after he died, I kept moving, because that was what I was trained to do.
Even if it felt like my chest had been torn open the moment he hit the ground, and the second we retreated. Even when I wanted to tear them all apart for it, I couldn’t.
I had to obey, which meant pulling back when the opportunity for success was lost.
And now, I don’t know where I am. I don’t know the name or how far I am from the island, but I know it isn’t home.
The air is too thick with smog, and it’s too loud, but in an unnatural way. There’s no ocean to cut through, and no familiar trees to ground me. It’s just concrete, fluorescent lights, and a warehouse that makes my skin crawl.
I’m in some kind of holding room when I hear footsteps coming down the hallway, and I brace myself, curling my fingers into my palms. More than anything, I want to reach for my inner wolf, but I can’t. Whatever they’ve done to me, they’ve managed to suppress it somehow.
It’s like that part of me is in a cage beneath my skin, dulling the strongest part of me and muting the very rage I could use to get myself out of here. Everything about it feels wrong, and I hate it.
But I’m still alive, and still able to act, regardless of what that looks like.
Before I can stop it, my mind drifts back to picking through the wreckage of the last few weeks, trying to make sense of how I even ended up here.
It all started with Hayes, as most things do.
Part of me bristled at the way he stood where our father once did…strong, unyielding, and impossible to ignore. The pack bends for him differently, though. Rather than respect, they move with fear for what might happen if they don’t listen.
After his first defeat, Dad was an easier target than he once had been, but Hayes is a different story.
He’s young, ambitious, and has nothing to lose but his title now.
With no mate or family of his own yet, he’s only just beginning, and he’s hungry to lead his way after waiting in the wings for years.
I told myself it was all necessary, and that Hayes was just doing what had to be done to secure Wraith Peak’s future. That strength was what we needed after the chaos following Dad’s death.
I believed it, and something in me still does, because the alternative means questioning everything I’ve ever known. Questioning things wasn’t in the cards for an Omega.
That’s what I was born as, and what I’ve always been, but I was never just that. My father wouldn’t allow it, and neither did Hayes.
My brother pushed me harder than anyone else dared and trained me beyond what anyone expected. He taught me to fight, to endure, and to be useful in any way I could be.
“You may be an Omega, but that doesn’t mean you can be weak. It means you need to be smarter, and to gain the upper hand wherever you can,” he’d said once, offering me the piece of advice I carried with me ever since.
So I learned, I followed orders, and I adapted. With his words to guide me, I became something more. At least, I thought I did, and I thought he had my best interest at heart.
After our father died, something shifted, and that seed of doubt I had for Hayes’ leadership only grew in me when it started.
It was subtle at first, but I started to notice fewer responsibilities being sent my way, less involvement in strategies and plans, and conversations stopping when I entered the room.
I told myself it was temporary and that Hayes was settling into his role. I assumed he just needed time to remember my place and what I was capable of.
But I realized my place had changed, and he had no intention of recognizing my strengths. If anything, it just got worse.
Despite my training and ability to follow, it was like I had been reassigned and put back where I “belonged”.
To him and the rest of the pack, I was just an Omega and a tool to be used rather than heard when it suited him.
A flicker of unease started then, but I ignored it, because that’s what I’ve always done. I buried the questions and the discomfort all for the sake of the pack. I followed the path laid out for me because it worked, until it didn’t.
I don’t even know how long it has been, but the night everything went undoubtedly wrong, I was on a routine perimeter check. When I arrived at the southern border, something felt off immediately. It was almost too still and quiet, and my wolf stirred with unease before I focused on the task.
Before I knew it, I was surrounded by wolves, some familiar and some not. That was what blinded me the most.
For a second, I thought it was some kind of test, until they fought like they wanted me dead, so I did the same. Of course, there were too many, and I felt those magic signatures land far faster than my mind could come up with a countermeasure.
It pressed against my skin like something entirely unwelcome, then a surge of heavy, oppressive cold hit me and dragged me down.
I remember snarling and fighting against it to try and break through again, but they were already on me, grabbing me and pinning me down. The rest is still a blur of movement and restraint, and one way or another, I was transported and contained until I found myself on the stage. Until I was sold.
No fear I had ever felt before could match that, and it lingers even now while I wait like a helpless thing.
It’s a violation of everything I understand about our world. Wolves don’t do that…they don’t sell each other, but someone did, and now, I’m about to face who was sick enough to pay for me.
The voices draw closer, and once a lock is undone, the door opens, and everything in me goes incredibly still. A distinct chill grabs onto me, and I have no choice but to stare.
He steps through the threshold just enough to let his presence be known, dark eyes already on me, and it suddenly feels like the weight of the air around me has become impossibly dense.
I thought I had caught a familiar scent from the crowd, but I figured I was going insane from being captured and sold like livestock, and my traitorous mind was bringing him up in a desperate moment. But I wasn’t imagining things.
It’s really him. He’s here.
Zane.
Everything about him looks sharper and more refined now. The boy I knew is still in his features, but he’s buried under layers of what seems like experience and incredible control.
He feels different, too. Even with whatever they’ve used to suppress my instincts, I can still register how heavy his presence is. How intense he has become.
Zane had always been a bit on the quieter side and more thoughtful than most, but he used to laugh with me, sometimes at me, and he never made me feel like I was too much.
Even if I was probably annoying with how often I talked on and on with him, he never made it apparent.
He always listened, and he made me feel both seen and heard.
Something in me clings to that version of him, but given the man standing in front of me, that Zane doesn’t exist anymore. I know that to be a fact.
I saw him in Coldreach when we attacked, fighting against us. Against me.
He had moved with such ruthless precision that it made me remember all over again why he left in the first place. It was his time in the military shining through, and as far as I could tell, he wasn’t showing any mercy.
Now, he’s looking at me with an unreadable expression, as if he didn’t just buy me in a room full of strangers. My jaw tightens as I stare right back.
For just a flickering heartbeat, I am relieved to think he could be in the crowd of bidders. It is immediate and instinctive, like falling back into old ways. I know him, and he knows me, but while I wonder if he can somehow fix this, reality sets in just as fast.
Zane isn’t on my side, and he hasn’t been for a long time.
“You shouldn’t have done that.”
“Done what?” he asks, voice almost startling me from how much firmer it sounded. The maturity he possessed made something in my heart ache.
“Bid on me,” I mutter, eyes narrowing at him from where I sit on the bench. “You just made yourself a target.”
Zane’s eyes flick over me briefly, not betraying a single thought of his. “I was already a target.”
“That’s not the same thing, and you know it.”
“It’s not like it matters.”
Irritation sparks in me, and I scoff to myself, wishing I could do anything to look less compliant. “Then congratulations…you’ve just bought me from an illegal auction. Was that on your list of goals, right under running away?”
He doesn’t say anything at first, but the slight clench of his jaw hints at me hitting a sore spot. That controlled silence grates on me.
“What’s your plan now, genius?”
“I plan to take you somewhere safe,” he utters, ignoring my sardonic tone.
“Safe?” I repeat, riddled with disbelief. “With you? The man who just paid a disgusting amount of money for me?”
“Don’t say it like I’ve taken any pleasure in this,” Zane returns, vaguely annoyed, but keeping his cool. “It will be a hell of a lot better than where you are now.”
I hate that he’s right, but even more, I hate that at least a sliver of me feels safer knowing it was him and not some unknown creep. Still, I push it down.
“I don’t need your help.”
The words come out sounding more defensive than I like, and I force myself not to cringe at the lie. We both know that’s exactly what it is.
“You definitely did. Now get up; we’re getting out of this hellhole.”
Even if I want to do exactly that, I hesitate as the anger in me flares. “I had it handled.”
Not even giving me the chance to convince myself of that, his gaze hardens into something more serious. “Naia.”
I stiffen at the way he says my name, not liking the way it sounds coming from him now.
“You were about to be sold to someone who actually sees you as property,” Zane says, still calm despite the grim topic. “That isn’t ‘handled’.”
“I would’ve found a way out.”
He doesn’t even need to question me. We both know I wasn’t anywhere near finding a way out.
Besides, I fought as hard as I could before, and thanks to whatever magic they’ve been using against me, it wasn’t enough.
The realization looms over me like an oppressive thing, both unwelcome and unfamiliar, and Zane sees it. He always did have a way of reading me. I doubt I ever made it particularly hard anyway.
“Let me guess…you figured your pack was coming to save you?”
Everything in me snapped to attention at that, immediately seeing the lines drawn between us all over again.
“You don’t know anything about my pack. Leave them out of this.”
His gaze sharpens. “I did once. But you’re right…I don’t understand them anymore. And right now, I don’t understand why you want to be here a minute longer than you need to be.”
Despite being one of us, there had always been something different about Zane, like he was always standing on the outside, even when he had everything he needed to succeed.
He used to know the ins and outs, but it seems his friends have only encouraged him to put as much distance between himself and Wraith Peak as possible.
Gritting my teeth, I stand reluctantly, hating how I have virtually no power over him. Eyes burning into him, I slowly step out of the holding room that feels more like a jail cell, and I move with him down the narrow hallway.
“Once whatever this magic is fades, I’m leaving,” I mutter, wishing I could run right now and get back to the others. To what I’ve always known.
Something in him flickers again, but I can’t read it. “Yeah…we’ll see about that.”
As we reach the back exit, I stop, and my temper snaps. “I’m not asking for your permission.”
“And I’m not asking to have this conversation here,” he returns, tone deliberately quiet, as if to keep any unnecessary attention away from us. His hand at my lower back pushes me forward with more care than I even want to acknowledge. “Keep moving.”
My dulled strength is the only thing keeping me from losing it on him right now, regardless of how satisfying that would be. “Then don’t act like you get a say in any of this. Not after you just paid for me.”
“Naia,” Zane murmurs, gaze still intense on me, but a little different now. It isn’t soft necessarily, but certain in a way I can’t stand. “You can fight me all you want, but we’re leaving.”
“Don’t worry,” I return, barely speaking through the disgust I feel for it all. “I plan to.”
Surprisingly, the corner of his mouth twitches as if a piece of the old him is trying to come through, but it disappears just as quickly.
“Right now, you’re not my enemy, regardless of what pack you belong to,” he says, guiding me out the door and through the abandoned parking lot. “I’d suggest taking advantage of that.”
The words and implications settle between us, feeling all too complicated and dangerous.
“Don’t get too comfortable,” I mutter, walking through the relative darkness with him despite wanting to be far away.
“Wasn’t planning on it.”
The unfamiliar city surrounding us only makes me feel more lost and more uncertain of what to expect.
For all of the faith I’ve put into my father and Hayes, I don’t know what comes next. I’ve always had a path, a role, and a purpose, but now that uncertainty seems to have no intention of leaving.