Take it back
1099 Words
ZION
“The rejection,” I grit out, my voice rougher now. “Take it back, Sloane.”
And there it is, that look.
The flicker of surprise that flashes across her face at hearing her actual name leave my mouth instead of Vance.
My jaw tightens instantly.
Annoyance crawls violently through me despite the pain ripping through my chest because no one— especially not Sloane f*****g Vance— should be important enough for me to use their first name.
Yet here I am, standing in the middle of an empty ceremony hall feeling like my wolf is being carved open from the inside while calling the unworthiest girl in Halcyon Academy by her name like some desperate i***t.
The bond twists again and pain slices sharply through my ribs.
Fuck.
I force my expression to remain blank.
Weakness is the last thing I’m showing her tonight.
“What?” she says slowly, brows pulling together. “Your ego won’t survive rejection?”
The sarcasm in her voice should piss me off more than it already does.
Instead, all I can focus on is the way the bond reacts every time she opens her mouth.
Every sound.
Every movement.
Mine.
The instinct slams into me so hard my claws almost slip out.
Beside me, Zayden shifts slightly and I already know he's feeling it too.
Sloane notices the movement immediately.
Good.
Let her notice something is wrong but just not the truth.
Because the truth is humiliating.
“I won’t say this again, Sloane,” I say flatly.
The name feels wrong in my mouth now.
Too personal and too familiar.
But every instinct in me reacts violently at the thought of going back to calling her Vance.
Pathetic.
“I refuse,” she says immediately.
No hesitation. No fear. Just this stubbornness and defiance in her eyes.
For a second, none of us speak. Then the bond pulses again even harder.
My breathing roughens despite myself and I inhale sharply through my nose, forcing the pain back down before she notices.
Or worse— before she realizes she’s causing it.
Because then she’d know.
And if Sloane Vance realizes how much power she currently has over us, she’ll weaponize it without hesitation.
Smart girl.
Infuriating girl.
Weak girl.
My jaw tightens instinctively at that last thought.
Unworthy.
That’s exactly what she is.
Weak. Humiliating. A f*****g problem.
And yet every possessive instinct in me reacts violently at the idea of her walking away from us right now.
Across from me, Sloane slowly crosses her arms tighter over her chest.
“Well,” she says dryly when none of us speak again. “This has been incredibly disturbing but if y’all are done acting insane, I’ll be leaving now.”
She didn't spare us another glance and just turns to the door and walks away, her fingers fiddling with something in her bag.
“Fine,” I finally manage to grit out, forcing the word past the pain clawing through my chest and whatever dignity I still have left.
But she doesn’t even look back.
Not once.
She just pulls her phone from her bag, already lifting it to her ear as she pushes the giant doors open and steps outside.
Noise immediately spills back into the hall the second the doors part.
Voices. Footsteps. Whispers.
Then she disappears completely.
And somehow, the bond reacts worse.
Pain tears through my ribs so sharply this time that my vision briefly blurs.
Beside me, Zayden curses under his breath while Zeke suddenly grips the edge of a nearby chair hard enough for the metal to groan loudly beneath his hand.
Fuck.
The doors stay open now and slowly, people begin filtering back inside again.
Carefully and warily like they’re walking into the aftermath of a bomb explosion and aren’t sure if it’s safe yet.
Whispers start almost immediately.
“What happened?”
“Did they finally reject each other?”
“No way—”
“She walked out alive though—”
“The bond looked real—”
“Why do they look like that?”
I straighten slowly, forcing every ounce of control back into place despite the violent instability tearing through me.
Halcyons do not lose composure publicly.
Especially not because of a girl.
Then suddenly—
“Brother!”
Elara rushes toward us almost instantly, her heels clicking sharply against the floor as panic flashes across her face.
Her hand grabs my arm.
The second she touches me, irritation crawls violently beneath my skin.
Not now.
Not her.
“Zion, what happened?” she asks quickly, searching my face. “Why didn’t you reject her back?”
“Take your hands off me, Elara.”
The words come out colder than I intended but right now, I genuinely don’t care.
Her fingers instantly fall away from my arm as hurt flashes across her face.
I ignore it.
I exhale once, slow and controlled, then turn and storm out of the hall before another person asks me a stupid f*****g question I don’t have the patience to answer.
The whispers start again immediately behind us.
Of course they do.
This school survives on gossip almost as much as hockey.
The cold evening summer-edge air hits my face the second I step outside but it does nothing to cool the violent instability clawing through my chest.
Then I see it.
A familiar baby blue G-Wagon disappearing past the corner.
The Vance sisters.
Something ugly twists sharply inside me and I huff out a quiet humorless breath.
Beside me, footsteps approach.
Zayden and Zeke.
Neither says anything for a few seconds.
Then finally—
“I can’t believe she humiliated us in front of the entire pack,” Zayden mutters with a dark chuckle.
My jaw tightens.
“That changes nothing,” I say flatly.
Even to my own ears, the words sound hollow.
Because clearly— it changed everything.
For one terrifying second, instinct almost takes over completely.
Find her.
Fix it whether she likes it or not.
Mine.
I shove the feeling down immediately.
Sloane Vance is weak.
A failed wolf.
A public embarrassment.
And if fate had any sense at all, she never would’ve been chosen for us in the first place.
But Alpha heirs cannot reject their fated mates.
Not without permanently weakening their wolves.
Which means whether I like it or not…
Sloane Vance is now our problem.
And I would rather rip myself apart than beg for her acceptance.
So no.
That was never going to happen.
I’d find another way.
'We.'
- Writer
