Ash
666 Words
Ravens POV
The bathroom was small, too small. Too quiet. The hum of the fluorescent light overhead buzzed against my skull like a hornet trapped in glass. I leaned over the cracked sink, palms pressed onto the porcelain, staring at the woman in the mirror.
Bruised knuckles. Split lip. Leather jacket half-off one shoulder.
She didn't look like the girl everyone else saw — the quiet student, the sweet one who smiled politely and pretended to belong in their world. No. This was the other part of me. The one I didn't want people to see. Ruthless, aggressive, commanding.
My chest ached with the ghost of a scent that wasn't here anymore. Sandalwood and apples. Clean and sharp, earthy and grounding. It clung to her lungs, burned into her blood, and no matter how many cigarettes she stole from her crew, or how much whiskey she drowned in afterward, it wouldn't fade.
"Your quiet," I muttered to my reflection, addressing Ash.
"I'm furious!" Ash says low and sharply. "You disgraced us!" "You disgraced me!"
My jaw tightened. "Because I kissed Logan? Don't start Ash."
"You know why" Ash snapped again, pacing in Raven's mind, claws digging in her mind. "You felt him. The bond lit us up like fire. You know the truth — you smelled him before you saw him. Our mate was there."
I slammed my fist into the counter. The porcelain cracking more. Resembling black spider webs on the white background.
"Don't say it Ash." I say.
"Mate"
The word reverberated through her entire body. Ash's growl rolled under it, guttural, primal, shaking me from the inside out.
My throat closed. She gripped the sink tighter, blood dripping from her split knuckles into the crack she made.
"We are Alpha blood Raven," Ash continues, relentless. "Born for strength. Born to rule. And now the bond has called. He is ours. You know this."
"I don't need him." My voice came out low, trembling with the weight of her anger. "I don't need anyone. That's why I left. That's why we went rogue. You want me to bow? To belong to someone? Not happening Ash."
Ash's presence pressed harder against her, suffocating in its intensity. "You can't outrun this, Raven. You can fight me, fight the bond until you're broken — but you won't win. You'll just tear yourself apart. And me with you."
My breath hitched. My refection blurred in the mirror, my wolf's glowing eyes flashing faintly in place of my own.
"Then what the hell am I supposed to do, huh? Just roll over for some stranger because the moon goddess thinks its funny? Let him walk in and wreck everything we built? I've survived on my own for years, Ash. I don't need him save me."
Ash fell quiet, just long enough for my pulse to slow. Then, softer with a hunger I couldn't ignore, "It's not about being saved. It's about being seen. And you're terrified of that, aren't you?" Ash says softly.
The words slice through me like a razor blade. I staggered back from the sink, chest heaving, hands shaking.
Ash's voice curled around her like smoke, warm and cruel all at once. "You kissed Logan, but you tasted nothing. You touched him, but you burned inside. Because he wasn't ours. Because you want the one you're pretending not to crave. You can't lie to me Rae." "I am you as you are me."
Raven pressed her back to the wall, sliding down until she sat on the cracked floor. Her hands covered face, but it didn't block out Ash's presence, didn't block out the truth thrumming her blood.
I want him.
I hate that I want him.
And I hate it more that I was already his.
"Shut up Ash. Please just shut up," I whisper, voice breaking.
Ash didn't answer this time. The wolf didn't need to the silence spoke louder then words.
I knew the bond wasn't going away. And neither was he. Jax.
- Writer
