Chapter 4 The Pack That Comes For Me
1176 Words
The forest didn’t feel like a border anymore.
It felt like a battlefield holding its breath.
Every sound in the distance sharpened my nervesevery rustle of leaves, every crack of branches, every echo of footsteps that weren’t close yet… but were getting closer.
Too close.
My chest tightened.
“They’re not far,” I whispered.
Alpha Draven didn’t look surprised.
He stood beside me like the chaos ahead belonged to him. Like war was just another part of the night.
“You hear them too,” I added, my voice shaking despite my effort to control it.
“I always hear them,” he replied calmly.
That answer sent a chill through me.
Always.
That wasn’t normal.
It wasn’t even natural.
I turned to him sharply. “How many?”
His eyes lifted toward the dark treeline.
“Enough,” he said.
That wasn’t an answer. It was a warning.
A branch snapped in the distance.
Then another.
My stomach dropped.
“They’re here,” I breathed.
And then
They stepped out.
Not rogues this time.
Not strangers.
My past.
My pack.
At the front stood him.
Alpha Kael
Even in the darkness, I recognized him instantly. The same posture. The same commanding presence. The same cold authority that had once made my heart race with hope…
Now it just made it ache.
Behind him, warriors spread out in formation. Disciplined. Ready. Hunting.
They weren’t here to talk.
Kael’s eyes locked onto me.
And something in his expression shifted.
Not relief.
Not regret.
Possession.
“There you are,” he said quietly.
The words hit harder than I expected.
Like I was something lost.
Something that still belonged to him.
I stepped back without thinking.
Draven moved instantly not in front of me, but slightly beside me. A silent shift. A warning of his own.
Kael noticed.
His gaze flicked to Draven.
“Step away from her,” Kael said flatly.
No emotion.
Just command.
Draven didn’t respond.
That silence alone made the air heavier.
Kael’s jaw tightened.
“You don’t understand what you’re interfering with,” he continued. “She is under my pack’s claim.”
A few of his warriors murmured behind him.
Claim.
The word made my stomach twist.
“I rejected that claim,” I said sharply.
All eyes turned to me.
Kael’s expression darkened slightly.
“That doesn’t erase what you are,” he replied.
My breath caught.
“What I am?” I repeated.
Something cold flickered in his gaze.
“You think I rejected you without reason?” he asked.
Silence.
The forest seemed to hold its breath again.
My heart started beating faster.
“What are you talking about?” I demanded.
Kael took a step forward.
Just one.
But the pressure in the air changed instantly.
“You were never supposed to reach maturity,” he said.
The words didn’t make sense at first.
Then they did.
And my blood ran cold.
Draven’s eyes shifted slightly toward me not surprised.
But confirming.
My hands trembled.
“I don’t understand,” I whispered.
Kael’s voice lowered.
“You were marked as unstable the day your wolf first failed to awaken properly,” he said. “A weakness that should have ended quietly.”
My throat tightened.
“What does that mean?”
He didn’t hesitate.
“It means you were never meant to survive a mate bond.”
The silence after that was suffocating.
My chest felt tight, like something inside me was collapsing.
“That’s not true,” I said quickly. “I felt the bond. I felt him reject me”
“You felt a fracture,” Kael interrupted. “Not a full rejection.”
My breath hitched.
“No…”
Draven finally spoke.
Quiet.
Dangerously calm.
“She didn’t complete the rejection,” he said.
Kael’s eyes shifted to him.
“So you noticed,” Kael replied.
A tense silence followed.
My mind spun.
Incomplete?
That wasn’t possible.
I remembered the pain. The snap. The emptiness.
It had felt real.
Final.
Draven looked at me then.
And for the first time since I met him…
There was something different in his eyes.
Not control.
Not curiosity.
Understanding.
“You were protected from a full severing,” he said.
My voice shook. “Protected by who?”
Neither of them answered immediately.
That silence was the answer.
My breath caught.
“No,” I whispered. “No, that’s not possible.”
Kael’s expression hardened slightly.
“You were a liability,” he said. “And liabilities are managed.”
A cold realization crept through my chest.
Managed.
Not raised.
Not protected.
Controlled.
My hands curled into fists.
“You lied to me,” I said, my voice breaking.
Kael didn’t deny it.
That was worse.
Something inside me snapped not pain this time, but something sharper.
Rage.
“You rejected me in front of everyone,” I said, stepping forward now. “You humiliated me. And now you’re telling me it was all what? Strategy?”
Kael’s gaze didn’t waver.
“You were safer without knowing the truth.”
“Safer?” I laughed bitterly. “I was thrown out like trash!”
A flicker of something crossed his face.
Gone too quickly.
Behind me, Draven shifted slightly.
Not interfering.
But present.
Always present.
Kael’s voice dropped.
“I came to correct the mistake,” he said.
My heart slowed.
“…What?”
His eyes locked onto me.
“You’re coming back with me.”
Silence.
The world stopped again.
My chest tightened.
And then
I felt it.
A shift behind me.
Draven moved.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Not toward Kael.
Toward me.
I didn’t turn.
I couldn’t.
My breath caught as I felt his presence behind me closer now. Intentional. Anchoring.
A warning.
Or something else.
Kael noticed.
His expression darkened.
“She doesn’t belong to you,” Kael said coldly.
A pause.
Then Draven replied.
And his voice
Was final.
“She never belonged to you in the first place.”
The forest went still.
Even Kael’s warriors tensed.
Something changed in the air.
Pressure building.
Invisible.
Heavy.
And then
Draven leaned slightly closer to me, just enough for only me to hear.
His voice dropped to something almost… intimate.
“Do you trust me?” he asked.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
I hesitated.
That hesitation was everything.
Because in that single moment
Kael moved.
Fast.
Too fast.
“Aria!” someone shouted.
But it was already too late.
Kael’s hand shot forward
Not for me.
For my wrist.
For the bond.
For control.
And as his fingers closed around me
The forest exploded with power.
Draven’s roar shook the ground.
And everything went dark as the air itself snapped like a breaking chain.
The last thing I saw before the world blurred was Draven’s eyes locking onto mine
Not angry.
Not afraid.
But certain.
And the words he spoke next froze my blood:
“If he touches you again… I won’t stop at war.”
And then
The ground beneath us cracked open.
- Writer
