Chapter 5: The One Who Shouldn't Exist
652 Words
Aria fell.
Not through space. Not through air.
Through layers of something that didn’t behave like reality anymore.
The world fractured like broken glass.
Each shard showed a different existence:
A burning pack.
A silent city chained in light.
A Kael screaming her name.
And a version of herself, smiling while everything burned.
Then everything collapsed inward.
Silence.
When she opened her eyes, she wasn’t standing.
She was kneeling on cold, ancient stone.
Symbols glowed faintly beneath her palms.
Her breath came uneven. “Where… am I?”
A windless sky stretched above her—too dark to be night, too bright to be void.
Then she heard it.
A voice. Close. Calm. Too calm.
“You’re inside it now.”
Aria spun.
A woman stood a few steps away. Not the stranger. Not Kael.
She wore layered white markings that shifted every time Aria blinked.
Her eyes weren’t human. They reflected chains.
Aria backed away. “Who are you?”
The woman tilted her head.
“I’m what your world calls a mistake.”
Silence hit hard.
Aria’s heart tightened. “That’s not an answer.”
The woman smiled faintly.
“It is. You just don’t understand the language yet.”
A low pulse moved through the stone.
Aria felt it instantly. The bond.
It wasn’t gone. It wasn’t dormant.
It was anchored here.
“Where is this place?” she whispered.
“This is where broken bonds go when they refuse to die,” the woman said.
Aria froze. “…Broken bonds don’t survive.”
“They don’t,” the woman agreed.
A pause.
“They shouldn’t.”
The windless space shifted. Something cracked far away.
Aria’s head snapped up. “What was that?”
For the first time, the woman’s expression changed. Subtle, but real.
“…He found the echo.”
“Who?” Aria demanded.
The woman didn’t answer. She raised her hand.
The ground beneath Aria lit up. Symbols ignited in a circle around her feet.
“Stop—what are you doing?!” Aria stumbled back.
“I’m confirming what you are,” the woman said quietly.
Aria’s chest tightened. “No… I’m just a rejected mate. That’s all I am.”
The woman laughed softly. Not cruel. Sad.
“No.
You’re what happens when a bond refuses rejection.”
The circle pulsed.
Memories that weren’t hers flooded Aria:
A thousand Alphas screaming.
Chains across skies.
A world splitting into fragments.
And one truth at the center:
"ANCHOR DETECTED"
Aria fell to her knees, gripping her head. “Stop it—!”
“You were never meant to bond with Kael Viremont,” the woman said.
Aria looked up sharply. “…What?”
A pause.
Then, slowly:
“As far as this system is concerned… you were never supposed to exist at all.”
A sharp c***k echoed from above.
The sky split.
Aria looked up, and her blood ran cold.
Something was looking back.
Massive. Aware.
Focusing directly on her.
The woman’s voice sharpened. “No… that was too fast.”
“What is that?!” Aria demanded.
The woman grabbed her wrist, urgent for the first time.
“You need to leave this layer now.”
“Not until you explain—”
A second c***k. Closer.
The sky widened.
A sound came through. Not a howl. Not a voice.
A command.
“ANCHOR CONFIRMED.”
The space trembled. Aria’s bond flared.
And somewhere far away, Kael’s voice broke through faintly:
“Aria—RUN—!”
The woman’s eyes widened.
“…He’s linking through the fracture.”
Aria froze. “Kael?”
Before she could answer, the ground shattered.
The woman shoved her back hard.
“Too late,” she said sharply.
The world collapsed again.
Aria was falling.
But this time, not into darkness.
She was falling toward something that had just noticed her fully.
And it was smiling.
- Writer
