Chapter 20: Denial
1127 Words
Dahlia's POV
Pack infirmary
Dante left without a word.
One moment, he was standing at the foot of the infirmary bed, his presence heavy enough to steal the air from my lungs. Next, he turned sharply on his heel and walked out, the door slamming hard enough to make the walls shudder.
The sound echoed long after he was gone.
I lay there, staring at the place where he had been, my heart racing for reasons I didn’t understand and didn’t want to examine too closely. My chest still felt strange, it felt tight, and restless, like something inside me had been stirred and left unsettled.
A wolfless mate.
I didn’t know what that meant, only that the look in Dante’s eyes before he left had scared me more than his threats ever could.
The infirmary was quiet again.
Too quiet.
The smell of herbs clung to the air, sharp and bitter. My body ached in that deep, lingering way that came after too much pain had already passed. Every breath reminded me I was still here. Still breathing. Still… alive.
I shouldn’t have been.
That truth pressed down on me harder than any physical injury.
I shifted carefully, wincing as soreness flared through my ribs. My head felt clearer today, but my heart was heavier. I didn’t belong here. I hadn’t belonged anywhere for a long time, but this…
This was different.
Dark Moon wasn’t my pack.
Dante wasn’t my Alpha.
And whatever his wolf thought it sensed in me, I knew better.
I was a mistake.
The door creaked open softly.
I tensed, my pulse spiking, but it was only two warriors stepping inside. They didn’t notice I was awake at first. Or maybe they did, and just didn’t care.
They stopped near the far wall, their voices low but careless.
“Did you hear what the Alpha said?” one muttered.
I held my breath.
“About the girl?” the other replied. “Hard not to. Whole pack is talking.”
My fingers curled into the blanket.
“She doesn’t have a wolf,” the first warrior scoffed. “Can’t believe he even hesitated.”
“Hesitated?” The second laughed quietly. “If it were anyone else, she would be dead already.”
My throat tightened.
“She crossed our border,” the first continued. “Rejected mate, wolfless, half-dead in the forest. Sounds cursed to me.”
Cursed.
The word settled into my chest like a stone.
“I heard she survived a snapped bond,” the second said. “That alone is unnatural.”
My stomach churned.
“Unnatural things bring trouble,” the first added darkly. “Dark Moon doesn’t need that.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, my heart pounding painfully. Each word felt like another confirmation of something I had always known.
Wherever I went, I brought ruin.
The warriors moved closer, their voices dropping further, but it was not enough.
“The Alpha is shaken,” one of them said. “You saw how he left.”
“Yeah,” the other replied. “Never seen him like that. Makes it worse. If she’s got him off-balance.”
“She needs to go,” the first finished.
I swallowed hard.
“Yes,” I whispered silently. I do.
The warriors eventually left, their footsteps fading down the corridor. The door closed behind them, and silence rushed back in, thick and suffocating.
I lay there… shaking.
Not from pain.
But from understanding.
I couldn’t stay.
It didn’t matter that they had saved me. It didn’t matter that Dante had not killed me… yet.
I was already a problem.
Already a risk.
Already something people whispered about behind closed doors.
The cursed girl.
I pushed myself up slowly, ignoring the way my body protested. My legs trembled as I swung them over the side of the bed. For a moment, the room spun, but I forced myself to breathe through it.
If I could run before.
Then I could definitely run again.
I stood unsteadily, gripping the bed until the dizziness passed. My reflection in the small mirror across the room startled me.
I was pale, hollow-eyed, shadows etched beneath my eyes like bruises that would never fade.
I looked like one who was suffering.
I was suffering. I was going through hell.
I barely recognized myself.
“I won’t do this again,” I murmured. “I won’t stay where I am not wanted.”
The words steadied me.
I moved quietly, gathering the few things that were mine, which amounted to nothing. No pack symbol. No belongings. No proof I had ever belonged anywhere.
Just myself.
I crossed the room and reached for the door.
It didn’t open.
I frowned, my pulse quickening slightly, and tried again. The handle didn’t budge.
It was still locked.
Cold fear slid down my spine.
I rattled it harder this time. Still nothing.
“No,” I whispered. “No, please.”
I stepped back, heart pounding, and pressed my palm flat against the door as if that might somehow change things.
“Let me go,” I said softly, though no one was there to hear me. “I don’t want to cause trouble. I just want to leave.”
The door remained stubbornly closed.
My chest tightened painfully as realization sank in.
Dante was not letting me go.
The Alpha who had looked at me like I was a question he didn’t want to answer had made his decision.
I sank back onto the bed, my legs giving out beneath me. The weight of it all crashed down at once.
The rejection, the pain, the whispers, the locked door.
I wrapped my arms around myself, shaking.
“I didn’t ask for this,” I whispered again, tears finally spilling over. “I didn’t ask to survive.”
But survival had followed me anyway.
And now, I was trapped between packs, between fates, between wolves who didn’t know what to do with me.
Somewhere deep in the infirmary, I heard a lock click again.
Deliberate. Final.
My breath hitched.
He was serious.
Whatever Dante believed he had sensed… whatever his wolf thought it had found in me…
It was enough for him to cage me.
I pressed my forehead against my knees, grief and fear tangling together until I couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began.
If I stayed, I would become their curse.
If I tried to leave, I would become their enemy.
Either way, I would lose.
The only thing I knew for certain was this…
Dante hadn’t locked that door to protect me.
He had locked it because he wasn’t done with me yet.
And that scared me more than anything else ever had.
- Writer
