Chapter 16: Sister, Rival, Ghost

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*Chapter 16: Sister, Rival, Ghost*

The red eyes disappeared.

But I knew she was there.

Mae.

Kieran was already at the window, gun in hand. “Stay back.”

“I’m not a child,” I said, standing up. The silver lines on my mark were burning cold now.

He looked at me. Really looked. “Fine. But stay behind me.”

We stepped outside.

The woods were silent. Too silent. 

Snow crunched under our feet.

And then she stepped out from behind a tree.

Just Mae. 

No Gamma Rafe. No wolves.

Alone.

She looked different in the moonlight. Harder. Older.

The silver collar was gone.

“Took you long enough to run,” Mae said. Her eyes went straight to me. To the scarf around my neck. “Covering it up? Smart.”

“Why are you here?” Kieran growled.

“To talk to my sister,” Mae said. “Alone.”

“No.”

“Kieran,” I said. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay.”

“Please.” I touched his arm. The bond calmed at my touch. “I need to do this.”

He hesitated, then nodded and stepped back 10 feet. But he didn’t take his eyes off her.

Mae and I stood facing each other. 

Sisters. Strangers.

“So,” Mae said. “The rejected omega becomes the Alpha’s mate. How’s that feel?”

“It hurts,” I said honestly. “Every day.”

Mae blinked. Like she didn’t expect that.

“I didn’t ask for this,” I continued. “I didn’t want his mark. I didn’t want any of this.”

“Then leave,” Mae snapped. “Walk away. The bond will break him, not you.”

“I can’t.” My voice shook. “Because when he’s in pain, I’m in pain. Because he chose me when no one else did.”

“Chose you?” Mae laughed, bitter. “He threw me away like trash and picked up the next thing that walked in. Don’t be stupid, Rejoice.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Why? Because you’re not that little girl anymore?” Mae stepped closer. “You’re just like me now. Marked. Hated. Used.”

“I’m not you.”

“No,” Mae said. Her voice dropped. “You’re worse. Because he actually wants you.”

The words hit me in the chest.

“I hated him for months,” Mae whispered. “For rejecting me. For making me a rogue. And then I met Rafe and his pack and they told me... black bonds are cursed. They kill the Alpha within a year.”

My blood went cold.

“One year, Rejoice,” Mae said. “And then he dies. Unless you break it. And the only way to break it is—”

“Don’t say it.”

“—is for one of you to die.”

Silence.

Behind me, Kieran made a sound. Like he’d been hit.

Mae looked past me at him. “Did you know? That’s why I came back. To warn you. To save you from him.”

“You’re not saving me,” I said. “You’re trying to hurt him.”

“I’m trying to save my sister!” Mae yelled. “Can’t you see that? He’ll destroy you!”

Kieran moved then. Fast. He was between us in a second.

“Enough.”

“Stay out of this,” Mae said to him.

“I will not stay out of it when it’s about my mate.”

Mate. Again.

Mae flinched. “She’s not your mate. She’s my sister.”

“She’s both,” Kieran said. “And I’m not dying. And she’s not leaving. So if you came here to threaten us, you wasted your trip.”

Mae looked at me. Really looked. 

Tears in her eyes. But not sad. Angry.

“You made your choice,” Mae said. “Don’t come crying to me when it kills you.”

She turned to leave.

“Wait,” I said.

Mae stopped but didn’t turn around.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “For what he did to you. For what I have now.”

Mae was quiet for a long time.

Then she walked away. Into the trees.

Without looking back.

Kieran pulled me into his arms the second she was gone. Shaking.

“I didn’t know,” he whispered. “About the year. I swear I didn’t know.”

I buried my face in his chest. 

The mark pulsed. Silver and black.

We only had 12 months.

And a sister who now hated us both.

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*END OF CHAPTER 16*