Chapter 6

Declan’s POV

I can still hear the sound. That crack of shattering glass, followed by the dull, sickening thud of flesh against metal. It replays in my head like some cursed song on loop, and no matter how hard I try to silence it, it always finds a way back into my skull.

Brianna’s scream had cut through my ears, sharp enough that it rattled my bones. I remember my feet pounding the pavement, heart racing faster than it ever had before. Even before Brianna ran towards me to tell me what had happened to Amira, I already knew something had happened because of the screeching sound I heard, and when I reached the scene of the accident was Amira lying like she was lifeless.

She was crumpled on the asphalt, her body twisted, blood streaking across her forehead and dripping down her cheek. Her school uniform skirt was torn, one shoe flung far from her. She looked broken, like a plastic doll someone had smashed and thrown aside.

“Amira!” Brianna’s voice cracked like glass as she collapsed to her knees. Her hands hovered uselessly over Amira’s body, fingers twitching as though the very act of touching her might shatter her completely. “Oh my God, she’s… she’s not moving!”

I froze. Just one second. My throat locked, my chest squeezed until I could barely breathe. Then instinct shoved me forward and I fumbled for my phone, my fingers trembling so violently I almost dropped it.

“Declan!” Brianna’s sob tore through the night. “We have to leave!”

My head snapped toward her. “What? Leave? Are you insane?” My voice rose, high-pitched and frantic. “She’s dying, Bri! I’m calling 911!”

“She jumped into a moving car!” she spat, her eyes wide, rimmed with tears.

The words hit me like a brick. My chest hollowed. “But… but why would she…” My thumb slipped on the keypad once, twice, before finally dialing. My breath came out in ragged bursts as the line began to ring.

The operator’s calm voice floated into my ear. “Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?”

But before I could form a single word, headlights swept across the road. The low rumble of an engine grew louder, closer. My pulse spiked.

Brianna snatched the phone out of my hand with a force that stung my wrist. Click. The call ended.

“What the hell, Brianna?” I roared, my voice breaking.

Her face twisted with something raw… like fear, rage, guilt all tangled together. “We have to leave this place immediately.”

“Leave?!” I could barely hear myself over the pounding in my ears. “She’s bleeding out right in front of us, and you want to… what… just walk away?”

Her eyes burned into mine, wild and desperate. “Don’t you get it? We’re the reason she did this!” Her voice cracked on the last word. She pointed at Amira’s broken body, her whole arm trembling. “She was fine until us. Until you!”

My stomach flipped, bile rising in my throat. “I… I didn’t mean… you asked me to, didn’t you?” I stammered, choking on my own words.

“You made her miserable!” Brianna’s chest heaved. “Everyone saw the way you treated her. They’ll connect the dots, Declan. They’ll blame you and not me.”

“Then let them!” My voice came out strangled, almost a plea. “She needs us. We can explain later, but right now we…”

“No!” she cut me off, her tone dropping cold. “If they find us here, it’s over. You think anyone’s going to believe your side? You? An omega’s friend? No, Declan. Everyone will believe me.”

The headlights grew brighter. The sound of the car swallowed the silence.

I stared at her, horrified. “You’re not thinking straight. We can’t just…”

She stepped closer, her voice a hiss. “Listen to me. Once we reach the school, we’ll tell them we were around the corner when we heard the screech. That’s it. That’s all they’ll hear. You understand?”

I shook my head violently. “No, Bri, I can’t leave her.” My knees almost buckled as I looked back at Amira’s limp body, blood spreading across the asphalt like spilled ink. “I won’t.”

Her jaw tightened, and in her eyes there was no trace of the girl I thought I knew. Just steel. Just threat. “You and your family will never receive another favor from my father. Ever. And if you don’t move right now…” She leaned closer, her words venom. “…I’ll tell everyone you pushed her.”

The world tilted beneath me. My mouth went dry.

“You wouldn’t…”

“Try me.”

The roar of the approaching car shook the air. My chest squeezed as panic clawed its way up my spine. I glanced once more at Amira, my stomach twisting into knots, guilt tearing through me like a knife.

And then… I ran like my life depended on it.

I didn’t think. I didn’t breathe. I just chased after Brianna, my legs carrying me away from the broken body on the road, away from the truth.

We sped off into the night, but every step felt like betrayal carved into my skin.

By the time Brianna and I returned with the schools emergency alpha’s team, Amira’s body was no where to be found.

Not dragged. Not lifted. Just… just gone.

I stumbled back, nearly tripping over myself, my phone clattering onto the ground. “No. No, no, no…” I scrambled across the road, searching, clawing at the gravel as if she could be hidden beneath it.

“She was right here!” I shouted before they could even ask. “She was here… s… she was bleeding, God, I swear she was here!”

But there was nothing left except streaks of blood and shattered glass glinting in the moonlight. The shoe. The torn fabric. No Amira.

The alphas exchanged glances. I saw doubt flicker in their eyes, the kind of doubt that brands you a liar or a fool.

Brianna shook her head violently, tears streaking down her face. “No! We saw her! She was here! She was…” Her voice broke, her sobs swallowing her words.

The whispers began almost immediately.

“Maybe a wild beast dragged her into the woods.”

“The bears have been restless lately.”

“How did the accident happen?” One of the Alpha’s asked.

Brianna answered immediately. “She jumped into a moving car. She committed suicide, she has always been unhappy.”

The word suicide hit me like a blade to the gut. My heart was heavy just listening to Brianna talk about Amira like that, but I was still too much of a coward to stop her, but I managed to.

“No,” I snapped, my voice harsher than I meant. “No, don’t you dare say that. She wouldn’t… Amira wouldn’t…”

But no one argued. They just looked at me with pity, as though the truth was too heavy to bother denying.

Later that night, I went to her mother’s house. As usual they community didn’t see them as important, so after we couldn’t find her nobody bothered to search further or inform her mother.

I don’t think I will ever forget the sound she made when I told her. It wasn’t a scream, wasn’t a cry, more like something inside her cracked open. She staggered back, clutching the doorway like it was the only thing keeping her upright.

“She’s gone?” Her voice trembled, fragile and small.

I whispered, “We… we don’t know. The blood was there, but her body… we believe a bear dragged her body away.”

“She’s not dead.” The woman’s voice hardened suddenly, cutting through the grief like steel. She straightened, her eyes blazing with a conviction that made my chest ache. “My daughter is not dead.”

I wanted to believe her. I wanted to hold on to that shred of hope. But the blood on my hands said otherwise.

“She wouldn’t take her own life,” her mother continued, tears slipping down her cheeks even as her jaw tightened. “You hear me? She wouldn’t. And I don’t care what those people whisper about. I swore on the Moon Goddess when she was born, and I swear it again now, my Amira is still out there. She’s breathing. Somewhere.”

Her faith was so fierce, so absolute, that for a second, I almost believed it too.

Almost.

But then the memory of the growl slithered back into my mind, cold and heavy. And I knew something far darker than death had taken Amira away from us.