Chapter 24 - Naia
I don’t stop walking until the sounds of Delmont disappear behind me, leaving me with the birds and insects for company.
The trees close in, thick and familiar, and the scent of earth and pine grounds me in a way the town never can.
My shoes crunch over fallen branches as I keep my pace brisk and fueled by the anger still burning hot in my chest.
Zane’s words echo anyway, lingering in the back of my mind against my wishes.
You’re part of this now. You belong here.
My jaw tightens as it punctures my heart.
I hate how easily he says it, as if I can just step into a new life and leave everything else behind. As if I don’t have unfinished business tugging me back home.
The bond pulses faintly like it’s restless and mirroring the tension twisting inside me. Zane’s aware of me and where I’m going.
I can feel his focus as he searches down the connection, like he’s waiting for something to snap, or for me to run.
A bitter huff leaves me, and I reach for him down the bond, regardless of wanting space.
I’m not leaving. I push down the connection to him. The attempt is clumsy but intentional, given how rarely I flex this ability between us. Relax.
There’s a flicker of resistance melding with concern, as if he doesn’t fully believe me.
I need space, I add, more firmly this time. I’ll be back.
Just be careful.
The tension doesn’t disappear, but it eases just enough that I know he heard me. That he’s trying, albeit reluctantly, to respect it. I’ll take it because if he shows up right now, I might actually hit him, and not in a way he’d enjoy.
I keep moving deeper into the woods and further away from everything that’s starting to feel too tight and far too complicated.
My surroundings swallow me whole with shadows stretching longer as the sun dips lower. The air cools, brushing against my skin, but it doesn’t touch the heat coiling in my chest and surrounding me like a shield.
Finally, I slow when my legs start to protest, and when the anger shifts into something that feels harder to outrun.
In a small clearing, I stop and feel as my breath comes in harder than it should. For a long time, I just stand here with nowhere else to go. I have no distractions left, nobody to argue with, and no one to push against.
Just me, and somehow, that’s worse. A lot worse.
Dragging a hand through my hair, I pace back and forth, allowing my thoughts to run as much as they need before stopping again. “…Now what?”
Only silence answers me while it presses in, and I exhale slowly, but it does nothing to settle the tangled emotions inside me. I don’t know what I’m doing anymore, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt this conflicted or aimless before.
A few weeks ago, everything made sense. Not necessarily in a good way, or a way I liked, but it was clear.
I knew who I was, what I was supposed to do, and where I stood. There was Wraith Peak, my father, Hayes, and the pack to contend with, and I knew my place in it.
Even if I hated parts of it and felt trapped, I understood it. There was a purpose and direction, but now, everything’s fractured and unrecognizable. Being taken started me down a path I didn’t know how to navigate, and since then, everything has spiraled out of control.
Putting two fingers against my temples, I let go of a shaky exhale and try to focus, even if it’s fruitless.
With Zane and the others, I’m not just something to be used. I’m not just a piece on a board being moved around at will, and I’m not just the Alpha’s sister or an Omega fading in the background.
Regardless of everything else, I’ve been able to exist as me, and the realization hits harder than it should.
It shouldn’t feel like a revelation. It should be normal and almost obvious, yet it isn’t. It never had the chance to be before.
I let out a hollow laugh and mutter, “Fantastic.”
But the humor doesn’t stick because the other side of it is still there and still clawing its way up from the depths within me.
Even if I can still hear my father’s voice and his expectations, along with everything he drilled into me and everything Hayes reinforced, I know now I was used and conditioned. I was shaped into something that served their goals, and I’m not blind to it anymore.
I know the way I acted and the things I did weren’t entirely my own, but knowing that doesn’t fix anything. It doesn’t erase it, and it definitely doesn’t quiet the part of me that still feels like I have something to prove.
Clenching my fists at my sides, I can’t shake the loud and demanding part that still exists in me.
You’re not done. You can’t just walk away…you have to show them.
Show Hayes, the pack, and everyone else that I’m not weak or expendable. That I’m not just the Omega they can overlook and discard when it suits them.
But there’s also another voice now that’s quieter and more uncertain, like it hasn’t fully formed yet. It keeps asking me the same question:
What if you don’t have to?
I freeze while the thought sits there uncomfortably like an unfamiliar thing, because if I’m not proving myself and if I’m not fighting for that place, then what am I doing? Who am I?
The questions hit harder than anything else, and I don’t have an answer.
Instead, I stare out at the trees with a heavy heart full of everything I’m struggling to carry at once.
“I don’t know,” I whisper, noting how wrong the admission feels.
It’s like I’ve just stripped something away that I can’t get back. I hate the fractured emptiness it leaves behind.
More so, I hate not knowing and feeling like I’m standing between two versions of myself, with no idea which one is real or which one is safe.
The bond pulses again, softer this time, as if Zane’s reaching out to me. He’s still there, waiting and watching, and feeling more comforting than he has any right to.
Part of me wants to block it out, but the other needs it to keep steady.
Exhaling slowly, I don’t make any effort to hide my turmoil. No matter how frustrating he is, or how much we clash, he sees me differently, and he always has.
In his eyes, I’m something that matters. Someone to protect and worry over, even when I’m being stubborn.
The thought unsettles me still, and I don’t know what to do with it.
I don’t know how to exist in that space without losing something else, and maybe that’s what scares me the most.
A branch snaps behind me, and I go still instantly. Every instinct slams back into place, pushing away the confusion and uncertainty and replacing it with razor-sharp focus.
I turn slowly, silently, and take in how different the woods feel now.
The silence hangs oppressively as bird song dies away, leaving a hollow clearing and the flutter of my pulse.
Then I smell them, and my stomach drops.
The rogues.
Zeroing in on them, I hear as they surround me with greater numbers than before.
A few step out from the trees one by one, bordering the clearing with deliberate control, just like before.
My heart bangs against my ribs regardless of trying to calm it, but I don’t back down. I shift my stance, grounding myself and letting my senses stretch outward, rather than focusing on the panic rising inside me.
Magic flickers under my skin, still unstable and unpracticed, but ready regardless.
“You picked the wrong day,” I mutter, watching as they draw closer, giving me flashbacks to that night they took me.
One of them moves first, surging out of the formation, and I react instantly, dodging to the side and sending a wave of energy his way with more force than finesse.
When it hits the wolf, he stumbles, but another is already there, closing the gap.
There are too many of them, and they’re too coordinated, but that doesn’t mean I’m backing down from this.
I pivot, trying to keep them in front of me, but they’re not making the same mistake as before.
One lunges and I counter, but another nips at my heels and throws me off balance. I snarl, shoving forward to break free, but it costs me.
They close in, hitting me with their wolf forms and preventing me from finding an opening.
I grit my teeth, forcing myself to stay upright and to keep moving as magic flares again, this time stronger and lashing out without direction. They recoil; some are hit, and some hope to avoid it.
It works, but it’s not enough. Not against this many, and not when they’re working together like this.
I take a step back to reposition and find a way out, but before I can, magic hits hard enough to wind me. It’s not like mine…it’s not wild or explosive. It’s precise. The near-crushing force that slams into me from every direction at once, and I drop to one knee with a gasp.
The invisible force locks around me, tightening like chains and preventing me from moving. “What—”
I try to push and fight it, but it doesn’t give.
Just as I look up, a presence cuts through the chaos, feeling colder and more damning than the others.
My head snaps toward it, and I see her.
A woman steps into the clearing with a calm demeanor in her frame, watching me like I’m something she’s been waiting for.
Her red hair is wind-swept, and those sharp eyes never leave mine as power radiates off her in a way that makes my skin prickle.
Her magic is stronger than mine and completely under her control.
As she moves closer, the others part slightly, allowing her in before she stops. They’re aware of her, but they still don’t ease up on their tight circle around me.
“What are you doing?” I ask, barely able to get the words out as I’m forced down, struggling to fight against the pressure weighing on me. My limbs tremble, but I push as hard as I can.
Still, the woman doesn’t say anything. She just keeps a hand extended in my direction and tightens her grip little by little.
Rage flares inside me and forces my magic up again, pushing against hers to try and break through. For a second, it works enough to make her falter, but she refocuses, and her magic slams back down harder.
Pain spikes through me, sharp and disorienting as I taste blood on my tongue. My vision blurs as my limbs go heavy. Little by little, my body stops responding. No. No, no—
I grit my teeth as my strength slips, and my gaze locks onto hers with fury and defiance. I won’t. I can’t.
But darkness borders my vision faster than I can stop it.
Zane.
The thought barely forms before everything drops out from under me, and the last thing I see is her standing there, waiting with a flicker of fear in her eyes.