Chapter 6: Turning survival into a crime
583 Words
( Aria POV)
Selena didn’t look surprised when she saw me the next day.
She had already seen me walk out of the shed the night before, heard the splintered wood, watched from the shadows, and memorized the way the lock twisted like soft metal in my hands.
Survival wasn’t what unsettled her.
Control slipping was.
The pack woke to whispers faster than rumors ever should. By midmorning, everyone knew an omega had been locked near the boundaries and returned untouched.
That wasn’t a miracle.
It was a threat.
I felt it in the way wolves stepped aside as I passed. Not out of respect.
Out of fear they didn’t understand yet.
Selena was already ahead of them.
She found me near the river, Alpha Liam only a few steps behind her. Her voice was carefully pitched soft enough to draw attention without sounding like an accusation.
“You should have told us you escaped the shed,” she said gently.
Escaped.
The word landed like poison.
“I completed my task,” I replied evenly. “I returned.”
Liam frowned slightly. “You were locked in?”
Selena sighed. “The lock was discovered broken this morning. From the inside.”
Her gaze never left mine.
I met it steadily.
The narrative had already been written.
By evening, it was official.
The council was called not for concern, but containment.
They displayed the broken lock at the platform, bent and twisted unnaturally.
“No omega has this strength,” an elder whispered.
Selena lowered her eyes, grief in every line of her posture. “I tried to protect her reputation. But if she’s hiding dangerous abilities…”
“That was an accident,” I said calmly.
Several heads turned sharply.
Alpha Liam looked at me. “Explain.”
I took a breath.
“I panicked,” I said, not a lie. “The door gave way.”
Selena seized the moment. “That’s not possible. Not without assistance. Or forbidden power.”
Murmurs spread.
Someone said the word rogue.
Another said corrupted.
I felt the pressure inside me rise again, answering fear with fury. The lanterns around the platform flickered.
Selena noticed.
Her breath hitched.
Just slightly.
“She’s losing control,” Selena said quickly. “This is exactly what I feared.”
I forced the power down.
The fire dimmed.
Silence fell.
I stepped forward and did something Selena didn’t expect.
“I don’t deny I’m different,” I said. “But I deny harming this pack.”
It was the truth they couldn’t weaponize.
Alpha Liam spoke then slow, deliberate. “You sent her near the boundaries without my knowledge.”
Selena turned to him smoothly. “For herbs.”
“At dusk?”
She held his gaze. “I didn’t think—”
“That’s the problem,” he said quietly.
The council exchanged uneasy looks.
Selena realized then, the frame wasn’t sealing the way she wanted.
So she shifted.
“This isn’t about guilt,” she said softly. “It’s about prevention. Until we know what she is… she should be isolated.”
Isolated.
Separate.
Disappear quietly.
Every instinct in me tensed but I remained still.
Alpha Liam exhaled sharply. “No confinement without proof.”
Selena bowed her head obediently.
But when her gaze lifted to mine, satisfaction flickered there.
She had lost this move.
That was fine.
She didn’t need the council’s permission anymore.
Because framing hadn’t been the end game.
It had been rehearsal.
- Writer
