CHAPTER 5: BEHIND ME

CELLA'S POV

"I am answering it. By surviving." He started walking, and I had no choice but to follow or be left behind. "I'm someone who knows how to stay alive. If you want the same, you'll come with me. If not..." He shrugged. "The forest is that way."

I stood frozen, watching him walk away.

He's our mate, Sable said.

He's an omega.

He saved our life. Twice.

That doesn't change what he is.

And what are we, Cella? Her voice was sharp, almost angry. What are we, really? We're not a prized daughter. We're not a cherished princess. We're a burden they wanted to sell. At least he chose to help us. At least he didn't lock us in a tower.

Her words cut deeper than I wanted to admit.

I looked at Aeden's retreating back—broad shoulders, easy stride, completely unbothered by whether I followed or not.

He wasn't begging.

He wasn't kneeling.

He wasn't doing anything except walking away.

And somehow, that made me move.

We traveled through the night.

Aeden knew the terrain well, every hidden path, every narrow gorge, every stream that would mask our scent from trackers. He didn't speak unless necessary, and I didn't push. My mind was too full, my chest too tight, the bond pulling and pulling and pulling until I wanted to claw it out of my skin.

You can't reject it yet, Sable warned as dawn began to lighten the eastern sky.

Watch me.

Cella. Think. We don't know where we are. We don't know where we're going. And as much as you hate admitting it…

I don't hate anything.

You hate everything right now. Including him. Especially him. But he's the only thing keeping us alive.

I bit my tongue until I tasted blood.

By sunrise, we'd crossed into unclaimed territory, a stretch of no-man's-land between pack borders where outcasts and rogues made their homes in the shadows. The trees grew twisted here, their branches clawing at the sky like the hands of drowning men.

Aeden stopped at the edge of a shallow cave, its mouth half-hidden by hanging vines.

"We'll rest here," he said, dropping his bag inside. "I need to hunt. Stay hidden."

"You're leaving me?"

He turned, and something flickered across his face, annoyance, maybe, or impatience. "I can't hunt and protect you at the same time. Unless you'd prefer to starve."

I crossed my arms. "I can hunt for myself."

"Can you?"

The question hung in the air between us, sharp and challenging.

I thought of all the years spent in that tower, watching the world through a window. I'd read about hunting, dreamed about it, imagined the feel of the earth beneath my paws…

But I'd never done it.

Sable had never been allowed to surface.

"No," I admitted. The word scraped my throat on the way out.

Aeden's expression softened, just slightly. "Stay here. Don't move. Don't make noise. I'll be back within the hour."

He disappeared into the trees before I could argue.

I stood at the cave's entrance, trembling with exhaustion and fury and something else, something that felt dangerously close to gratitude.

Don't, I told myself. Don't you dare feel grateful. He's just an omega. He's nothing. He's…

He's our mate, Sable finished quietly. And we need him.

I sank to the ground, pulled my knees to my chest, and waited.

He returned with a rabbit.

I watched him skin it with practiced efficiency, his hands steady and sure despite the cold. When he offered me the first portion, cooked over a small fire he'd built with surprising skill, I took it without meeting his eyes.

"We need to talk about the bond," he said.

My teeth stopped mid-chew.

"I know you felt it," he continued, tearing a strip of meat with his fingers. "I know you know what it means."

I swallowed, forcing the food past the lump in my throat. "It means nothing."

"It means everything."

"It means nothing." I threw the remaining meat into the fire. It hissed and spat, sending up a puff of smoke. "You're an omega. I'm an Alpha's daughter. There is no world where this works. There is no version of this story that doesn't end with me locked away or dead."

Aeden's jaw tightened. "You don't know that."

"I know how the world works. I've been watching it from a window my entire life. Omegas are property. Omegas are nothing. And you expect me to just, what? Accept you? Bond with you? Let myself be dragged down to your level?"

The words came out sharper than I intended, crueler than I meant.

I saw them hit him, saw the brief flicker of pain in those amber eyes before he masked it.

"You're wrong," he said quietly. "About a lot of things. But especially about me."

"Then enlighten me." I spread my arms wide. "Show me who you really are, Aeden Virell. Because right now, all I see is a man who kneels for guards and begs for his life."

He stared at me for a long moment.

Then he stood.

"I'm going to pretend you said that because you're scared and exhausted and your entire world just collapsed," he said, his voice low and controlled. "I'm going to pretend you didn't mean it. But I need you to understand something, Cella."

He stepped closer, and I fought the urge to retreat.

"I am not nothing. I have never been nothing. And if you're going to stand there and judge me for surviving, for doing what I had to do to stay alive, then maybe you should take a long, hard look at who you're actually angry at."

He paused.

"Because it's not me."

The silence that followed was deafening.

I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to hit him, to shove him, to make him understand the humiliation I felt, the insult of being bonded to someone so far beneath me.

But he was right.

I wasn't angry at him.

I was angry at my father, my mother, the guards who dragged me across stone floors. I was angry at the Moon Goddess for cursing me with this bond, this nightmare, this life I never asked for.

And I was angry at myself, for hoping, even now, that things could be different.

"I reject you," I said.

The words fell between us like stones into still water.

Aeden went completely still.

"What?"