Chapter 6: The Voice

CELLA'S POV

"I reject the bond." My voice shook, but I forced myself to continue. "I reject you as my mate. I refuse to be tied to an omega. I refuse to accept this... this fate."

The bond pulled at my chest, screaming in protest. Sable howled inside my mind, her claws raking against my ribs until I nearly cried out.

Cella, no…

I have to.

You'll destroy us…

I DON'T CARE.

Aeden's expression had gone blank, completely, terrifyingly blank. Whatever he was feeling, he wasn't showing it.

"You can't reject a bond that hasn't been accepted," he said finally. "That's not how it works."

"Then I'm rejecting you anyway. In every way that matters."

He nodded slowly, like he'd been expecting this. Like he'd already prepared himself for the worst.

"Fine."

Just one word. Just fine.

No argument. No pleading. No attempt to change my mind.

He simply turned, walked to the other side of the cave, and sat with his back against the wall, facing the entrance.

Guarding me.

Even after I'd just stabbed him in the chest.

I opened my mouth to say something, anything, but no words came. What could I possibly say? Sorry? I wasn't. Take it back? I couldn't.

So I said nothing.

I curled into myself, pressed my forehead to my knees, and let the silence swallow me whole.

The attack came three hours later.

AEDEN'S POV

I felt them before I heard them.

Four wolves, moving fast, their scents sharp with aggression and something else, recognition. They weren't hunting blindly. They knew exactly where we were.

Stupid, I thought, pushing to my feet. Stupid to stop. Stupid to build a fire. Stupid to let her distract me.

Cella was still asleep, or pretending to be. Her breathing hadn't changed, but I could smell the fear on her, sharp and acidic beneath the smoke and earth.

"Wake up," I said quietly.

Her eyes snapped open instantly. She'd been awake the whole time.

Good girl.

"What is it?" she whispered.

"Trouble."

The first wolf burst through the cave's entrance in a spray of vines and debris. I was already moving, already shifting, my bones rearranging themselves in that familiar, painful rhythm.

I hit the wolf mid-air, my jaws closing around its throat before it could reach Cella.

Blood filled my mouth, hot, copper-sweet, wrong, but I didn't let go. I couldn't. If I let go, she died.

Two more wolves poured into the cave. Behind them, I heard a fourth circling outside, cutting off any escape.

Four against one.

Against an omega.

They thought this would be easy.

They were wrong.

CELLA'S POV

It happened so fast.

One moment, I was pretending to sleep, replaying every horrible thing I'd said to Aeden. The next, the cave exploded into chaos.

Aeden shifted, actually shifted, and I watched in stunned silence as his body transformed.

His wolf was... wrong.

Not in a grotesque way, but in a way that defied categorization. He was larger than any omega had a right to be, his fur a deep, rich brown that seemed to drink the light. His eyes stayed amber, glowing faintly in the darkness.

And he fought like a demon.

The first wolf died before it hit the ground, Aeden's jaws crushing its windpipe with surgical precision. He spun, claws raking across the second wolf's face, opening deep gashes that sprayed blood across the cave walls.

The third wolf hesitated.

That hesitation cost it everything.

Aeden was on it in a heartbeat, his teeth sinking into its shoulder, shaking it like a ragdoll until bones cracked and the wolf went limp.

But the fourth…

"Cella, move…"

I didn't think. I threw myself sideways as the fourth wolf lunged past Aeden's guard, its claws missing my throat by inches.

I hit the ground hard, my head cracking against stone, and for a moment, everything went white.

When my vision cleared, Aeden was standing over me.

His wolf form loomed above my prone body, chest heaving, muzzle dripping with blood. He was beautiful and terrifying and mine—even after everything, even after I'd rejected him, the bond sang in my veins like a war drum.

He's not just an omega, Sable whispered.

I know.

He's something else. Something more.

The fourth wolf was dead at the cave's entrance, its throat torn out in a single, brutal bite.

Aeden shifted back, his human form coated in sweat and gore. He stumbled, catching himself against the wall, and when he looked at me, his eyes were hollow.

"Are you hurt?" he asked.

His voice was ragged. Spent.

"No." I pushed myself up, ignoring the throbbing in my skull. "You're... you're bleeding."

"I'll live."

I stared at the bodies, at the wolves lying motionless on the cave floor. Their fur was matted with blood, but I could still make out the markings.

Silverroot colors.

"These are the same guards from the pub," I said slowly. "The ones who... who called you an omega."

"Yes."

"They followed us."

"Yes."

"Why?"

Aeden wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. "Because I'm not what I pretended to be. And now they know it."

He turned to face me fully, and I saw something in his expression that made my stomach drop.

Not fear.

Resignation.

"You wanted to know who I really am, Cella." He gestured at the carnage around us. "This is who I am. Someone who kills wolves and crosses borders and breaks every rule this world was built on."

"Who are you?"

He met my eyes, and for the first time, I saw past the mask, past the simpleton, past the omega, past everything he'd shown me.

"I'm the reason your pack has been losing resources," he said quietly. "I'm the reason Silverroot is destabilizing. I'm the reason everything you thought you knew about power is about to change."

He took a step toward me, and I didn't retreat.

"I'm Aeden Virell," he said. "And I'm going to show you a world where ranks don't matter. Where omegas aren't property. Where you don't have to be anyone's pawn."

"How?"

By the time I finished the question, black spots were dancing at the edges of my vision. My head throbbed, when had I hit my head?...and the cave seemed to tilt around me.

The fall, I realized dimly. When I threw myself sideways...

"Cella?"

Aeden's voice sounded far away, echoing like he was speaking from the bottom of a well.

"Cella, stay with me…"

But the darkness was already pulling me under.

The last thing I felt was his arms catching me before I hit the ground.

The last thing I heard was his voice, rough with something that sounded like fear.

"Don't you dare die on me."

I woke to sunlight and the smell of antiseptic.

Not cave-damp. Not blood and earth and smoke.

Antiseptic. Clean linen. Something floral.

My eyes snapped open.

I was lying in a bed—a real bed, with soft sheets and fluffy pillows and a mattress that didn't try to stab me with rocks. Sunlight streamed through floor-to-ceiling windows, illuminating a room that looked like it belonged in a palace.

Or a hotel.

A very, very expensive hotel.

"What..." I pushed myself up, my head spinning, and froze.

The room was enormous. Modern. Glass and steel and warm wood, with a view of a skyline I didn't recognize, towering buildings that scraped the clouds, roads clogged with vehicles, lights blinking in patterns I couldn't decipher.

This wasn't the Wolf Realm.

Where am I?

A door opened somewhere to my left, and I turned to see Aeden walking in.

He looked... different.

Gone were the worn clothes, the hunched shoulders, the careful submission. He wore a dark suit, custom-tailored, expensive, with his hair swept back from his face and a watch on his wrist that probably cost more than everything I'd ever owned.

He looked like a king.

He looked like a god.

And when he smiled, small, careful, almost hesitant, I felt the bond pulse between us like a second heartbeat.

"Welcome to the human world, Cella," he said. "Welcome to my home."