Chapter 6: Awakening in Silence   

Bella POV 

Winning didn’t feel like winning.

I thought it would feel loud. Like relief. Like something settling inside my chest after years of fighting just to exist.

Instead, it hurt.

At first, it was small enough to ignore. A strange pressure under my skin, like something shifting where it didn’t belong. I stood in the middle of the arena, my mask lying at my feet, the crowd frozen in silence. No cheers. No insults. Just shock. The kind that presses in on you and makes you feel exposed.

My legs shook.

Not because I was scared. 

Because something inside me was breaking.

I straightened anyway. I forced my shoulders back, lifted my chin, and reminded myself that I had survived worse than their stares. I wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of watching me fall apart now.

Then the bond flared.

Not the familiar pull. Not the awareness of Jake somewhere nearby.

This was a pain.

It rushed through me fast and hot, like fire flooding my veins. I sucked in a breath and nearly lost it when the ground tilted under my feet.

I took one step forward.

Everything spun.

The noise of the arena came crashing back all at once too loud, too sharp, like it was happening underwater. My vision blurred. White light bled into darkness. I tasted blood and something bitter I didn’t recognize.

Not now, I thought desperately. Not here. Not in front of them.

Hands reached for me. I didn’t know whose. Guards. Elders. Warriors. I flinched away from all of them. Every touch felt wrong, like my skin was already too sensitive, already stretched too thin.

Then Jake was there.

I didn’t see him move. I felt him before anything else. The bond reacted violently, like it recognized him as both comfort and danger. My whole body locked up, muscles tightening like they were bracing for impact.

“Don’t touch her."

His voice cut through everything. Low. Sharp. Final.

I didn’t have time to respond.

The pain surged, stronger than before, and the world went black.

I woke up screaming.

The sound ripped out of me before I could stop it. My body arched off the bed as pain tore through my back, deep and sharp, like something inside me was twisting the wrong way.

I couldn’t breathe properly. Every inhale burned. My chest felt heavy, like something was sitting on it, crushing the air out of my lungs.

“Bella.”

Someone said my name, close and urgent.

I tried to answer. My throat worked, but no sound came out.

My whole body started shaking as another wave hit. I clenched my fists, nails digging into my palms, trying to focus on something I understood instead of whatever was tearing me apart from the inside.

“This isn’t normal,” someone said. Their voice was calm, but I could hear the fear under it.

“No,” another voice agreed quietly. “It isn’t.”

I forced my eyes open.

Stone walls. Pale moonlight slipping through a narrow window. The healer’s chamber.

Jake stood near the door.

He wasn’t touching me. He wasn’t even close. His hands were clenched at his sides, his jaw tight, like he was holding himself back. His eyes were locked on me, and for a second, something about the way he looked scared me more than the pain.

The bond pulsed again.

I gasped as my body jerked with another surge. This time, I couldn’t hold it in. I screamed his name.

That’s when he moved.

He crossed the room fast and dropped beside the bed. He still didn’t touch me, like he was afraid of what might happen if he did.

“What’s happening to her?” he demanded.

The healer hesitated. “Her wolf is waking too fast.”

I let out a weak laugh that didn’t sound like it belonged to me. “I don’t have a wolf,” I whispered. “I’m an omega.”

The healer looked at me for a long moment.

“That’s what we thought,” she said.

The next wave felt worse.

It felt like my bones were cracking from the inside, like my body was being forced to make room for something it wasn’t ready for. I screamed again, tears blurring my vision. Strange images flashed through my mind, symbols I didn’t recognize, blood on stone, a moon that felt too old to belong to this world.

My hand grabbed Jake’s sleeve.

I didn’t plan it. I didn’t even realize I was reaching until my fingers closed around the fabric.

Pain exploded through both of us.

He sucked in a sharp breath, his face tightening as the bond flared violently between us.

“Oh no,” the healer whispered. “The bond is making it worse.”

Jake went still. “What does that mean?”

“She’s not just awakening,” the healer said slowly. “She’s changing.”

Fear crawled up my spine, cold and heavy.

“Into what?” I asked.

No one answered me.

Time stopped making sense after that.

Pain came and went in waves. Sometimes it was dull and heavy. Sometimes it was sharp enough to steal my breath completely. Every time I thought it was easing, it came back stronger, like something was testing how much I could take.

I bit my lip until I tasted blood just to keep from screaming again.

Jake didn’t leave.

He stayed near the wall, close enough that I could feel him through the bond, far enough that it didn’t tear me apart completely. I could feel the effort it took for him to stay still.

Eventually, the healer left. The moon moved higher in the sky. And slowly, the pain changed.

It didn’t disappear.

It settled.

It felt contained, like something inside me had curled up instead of tearing me apart. Not gone. Just waiting.

I lay there exhausted, shaking, afraid to move.

Jake stepped closer.

“You should hate me,” I said quietly. “If it wasn’t for the trials”

“You survived,” he said.

“That doesn’t feel like enough.”

He didn’t argue.

He reached out carefully and touched my wrist. This time, it didn’t hurt. The bond tightened, aching instead of burning.

“They’re scared of you,” he said.

I swallowed hard. “They should be.”

He exhaled. “The elders think your power didn’t wake up on its own.”

My heart skipped. “What does that mean?”

“They believe something was sealed inside you,” he said. “A long time ago.”

The room felt colder.

“Sealed by who?”

He met my eyes. “By the packs.”

That’s when it hit me.

The trials weren’t the real danger.

The arena wasn’t the fight.

I was.

And whatever had started waking inside me?

It wasn’t done yet.