CHAPTER 2

Zeena’s POV

“Look who finally crawled out of her cage again.”

I didn’t stop walking, didn’t bother looking back this time. I didn’t answer. My shoes hit the dirt path like I hadn't heard the venom behind every word.

“Is she still pretending to be one of us?” Marra’s voice rang louder. “Maybe she’s lost her hearing with everything else.”

“Maybe the Alpha should’ve locked her up for good. Like a wild dog.”

Laughter followed me like a second shadow. I kept walking. If I turned around–if I said anything–I’d crack. And I’d promised myself I wouldn’t give them that.

I didn’t even know where I was going exactly, I just let my legs carry me to wherever as I couldn't stay in that room anymore, it felt like it was swallowing me whole, like I was being suffocated.

I walked until the trees swallowed me up, the sounds of the pack fading behind me. I moved on instinct, pushing through low branches and dry weeds until I found the one place I knew I could breathe.

The grave was still there, half-sunken and crooked from the last rain. My knees hit the dirt as I dropped beside it.

“Kira,” I whispered, dragging my sleeve across the slab to clear the grime. “I’m so tired.”

The silence around me felt safer than any wall. Safer than the packhouse. Safer than the glares.

“I thought the bond would make it better. I thought—” My voice broke. I cleared my throat, shaking my head. “I don’t know what I was thinking, daring to hope and wish for even a second. See where it has got me, it’s worse now. Way worse.”

The wind picked up, scattering leaves around the grave. I tucked my knees to my chest.

“Maybe I should’ve just stayed how I was. Maybe it was better before the bond ever happened. At least they just ignored me. Now I feel like a walking curse. No strength, no wolf and now no mate, Alpha Riven rejected me in front of the whole pack.”

I didn’t have the energy to even cry. The tears in my tear duct had dried up if there was anything like that. I just sat there until the wind chilled my skin and the shadows shifted.

A footstep cracked behind me.

I stood too fast, heart pounding, ready for another round of sneers.

But it wasn’t Marra. Or one of her stupid minions.

It was a pack messenger. Young. Probably a year or two younger than me, but his eyes darted around like I was something dangerous.

“The Alpha wants to see you,” he said. “Now.”

---

I followed him back, arms crossed tight across my chest. Every head turned when I walked past. Some looked with disgust. Most looked suspicious.

No one said anything to my face this time. But I felt it–the weight of every thought they didn’t say out loud.

She shouldn’t still be here.

She’s unstable.

She’s a threat.

I was already bracing for whatever humiliation Riven had planned when I stepped into his office. How worse could it get?

He didn’t look at me. He stood with his back to me, near the window. Hands behind his back, like this was a formal thing. Like I was no one– well, technically I wasn't, except a rejected mate was a title.

“You wanted to see me,” I said, keeping my voice flat.

He turned slowly. His face was unreadable. Cold, maybe. But not angry. But definitely not warm.

“You seem to forget I'm your alpha, you will accord me that respect and watch your tone.” He paused to gauge my reaction or to let it sink, whichever, but I was too tired to care.

He could do what he wanted, no pain could be worse than what I passed through days ago.

“Now, there’s been talk,” he continued. “Concerns.”

I waited.

“Some of the pack believe you might turn against them. That you’re… unstable. Especially after the rejection.”

I swallowed hard. “What do you believe?”

“I believe my pack’s peace comes first.”

His words weren’t cruel. But they cut anyway.

“You’re saying I should leave.”

“I’m telling you,” he said, “that it’s no longer safe for you to stay.”

Safe for me? Or from me?

He didn’t explain. He didn’t have to. That was Alpha Riven’s way. His voice was calm. Final. No trace of guilt or emotion.

“I would come up with a list of packs you can go to, you make your choice by tonight and I'd inform the alpha of your arrival,” he added. “Blend in.You’d be safer there.That's the extent I can go as you've always been on your best behavior here.”

I almost laughed.

“You mean other packs would accept me more than my own pack?”

He said nothing.

And that silence was really unnerving. So unnerving that I lost my cool. That I forgot he was my alpha.

“Not only did you reject me, you conform to their wishes? What would a wolf-less girl like me do to threaten a pack filled with wolves. Are you that spineless?”

He was on me in a flash, his fingers wrapped around my throat, his face twisted with rage. “Watch your mouth,” he snarled, his voice low and deadly. “Don't push me to revoke my favor. Next thing you know, you'll be cooling your head in a cell you won't soon forget.”

I stared at him for a long second. I wanted to scream. I wanted to throw something. I wanted him to feel the way I did–that hollow, skin-splitting ache where the bond used to be.

But he didn’t.

So I nodded once.

“I’ll be gone by morning, You won't have to see me again.” I rasped.

Then I removed his fingers around my throat, turned around and walked out before he could say another word. Before he could see me break– again

He didn’t stop me. I didn’t look back.

But I wasn't going to need his help, it was time I took matters into my own god-damned hand.

With or without a wolf.