Fated to Break Open

Chapter 15

MAETHYS POV

I woke to the smell of bacon.

It took a moment for the unfamiliar comfort of it to register — the soft mattress beneath me, the muted sounds of a house already alive. Heather’s house. The second bedroom, tucked beneath the sloped roof on the second floor.

Mine.

For now.

I lay still for a few breaths, listening.

Footsteps below. The faint clatter of a pan. The low murmur of a voice I didn’t recognize, carried up through the floorboards like something domestic and unreal.

The ache settled in my chest almost immediately.

It wasn’t sharp. Not pain, exactly. Just a tightness — a pressure that made it a little harder to breathe, a little harder to ignore the quiet pull beneath my ribs. It had been there since Heather moved me in. It came and went without warning, leaving me unsettled and strangely hollow in its wake.

I had no name for it. No reason for it.

Before I sat up, my hand drifted to the small wooden box on the nightstand.

I touched it the way I always did. Not opening it. Just… grounding myself in its presence. As if confirming it was still there. As if I might forget something important if I didn’t.

The old wood still smelled like my old house. Like my grandma.

I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and stood.

I needed to move.

Heather was already waiting at the bottom of the stairs, smiling too brightly for how early it was. She pressed a small paper bag into my hands before I could even speak.

“Breakfast to go,” she said. “Just in case.”

Inside, I could smell pastries. Fruit. Something sweet.

“Alpha Valik asked if you’d meet him at the office this morning,” she added.

Alpha.

The word still made my shoulders tense.

I nodded, unsure what expression I was meant to wear. Gratitude? Unease? The kindness felt heavy in my hands. Like something I wasn’t certain I was allowed to keep.

Zach’s voice echoed unbidden in my mind. His warning. His certainty that I didn’t belong.

I thanked Heather anyway and stepped outside.

The pack moved around me as I walked.

Not staring. Not acknowledging. Just… existing. People passed me in pairs and alone, laughter drifting between buildings, boots crunching against gravel paths. Someone jogged past me without slowing. Someone else paused to greet another, their voices low and familiar.

I wasn’t invisible.

I just wasn’t important.

The thought landed oddly soft, not sharp the way it might have once.

It was like weather passing over skin.

Would it be different if I were Luna?

I didn’t know why the question came, only that it stayed with me until the office building came into view.

I finished the pastries and tucked the folded bag into my pocket as I approached the front door.

A guard escorted me inside without a word.

The door to Valik’s office was already open.

I walked in, and was met with an overwhelming scent that pulled at me. Alpha Valik was at his desk, bent over papers and maps laid out across it.

Those dark eyes connected with my own, and a shiver ran down my spine.

Zach’s gaze came second.

It lingered.

Not openly. Not long enough for anyone else to notice. But I felt it like a weight sliding across my skin as he straightened.

I dropped my gaze to the floor and stood where I was. I wasn’t sure why I was so certain that was the right move. Maybe a wolf instinct.

After a moment he passed me, moving toward the door. I glanced up, and immediately knew it was a mistake.

His eyes tracked me openly— sharp, calculating, and entirely unwelcoming.

Valik watched the door close, then returned his attention to me.

“Maethys,” he said. “Please. Sit.”

I obeyed, perching on the edge of the chair he indicated. My hands folded in my lap, fingers twisting together without my permission.

“How are you settling in?” he asked.

The question was gentle. Almost careful.

“I’m… fine,” I said. “I have my own room.”

A pause.

He nodded, as if cataloging the answer. “That’s good.”

Silence settled between us — not heavy, but awkward. Like neither of us knew where to put our hands, our words.

He seemed uncertain of how to talk with me. Something I related to.

The thought made my lips twitch, a soft, almost-laugh I swallowed down.

“I thought,” he said slowly, “we might get you out of here for a bit. Offices can be… stifling.”

My heart stuttered.

“There’s a place nearby,” he continued. “If you’d like. We could grab breakfast on the way.”

“Oh,” I said quickly. “I—Heather gave me something already.”

He looked… Disappointed.

It was brief. Barely there.

“I’m sorry,” I added automatically, though I wasn’t sure what I was apologizing for.

He blinked, then huffed a quiet breath, something like amusement flickering through his expression. “No. That’s my mistake.”

Then he straightened slightly.

“In that case,” he said, “I know somewhere else. No food required.”

Something warm unfurled in my chest.

We left the building together, falling into step without speaking. He walked half a pace behind me — close enough that I could feel his presence, far enough that he wasn’t crowding.

I was acutely aware of him.

Of the way his attention moved, sharp and constant. Of how his gaze scanned rooftops, paths, windows, shadows, while his body stayed angled toward mine.

He knew where everything was.

But he was always watching.

The morning air smelled of pine and damp earth, cold enough to sting the inside of my nose when I breathed too deeply. Gravel shifted under my boots. Somewhere ahead, voices rose and faded between buildings, familiar to each other in a way I still wasn’t.

“Have you given any thought to the mate bond?” Valik asked quietly.

I felt myself tense at the topic.