Chapter 9
Kelsey POV
I was in the middle of packing my suitcase when the pain hit.
It wasn't like before. This wasn't a snap, or a dull ache. This was a detonation inside my skull.
I fell to my knees, clutching my head as the world tilted sideways. My vision blurred, swimming in black spots.
*Intruders! The Heart! Defend!*
The mental scream wasn't from Bennett. It was a cacophony—the collective, terrified consciousness of the Silver Crest Pack screaming in unison. The Rogues were back. And this time, they had shattered the perimeter and breached the inner sanctum.
My phone lit up on the floor beside me. A notification from Aria.
My trembling fingers opened the photo.
It was Bennett. He was unconscious, slumped against a wall and bleeding heavily. But the focus of the photo wasn't his wounds. It was the braided leather cord around his neck.
Aria's caption glowed beneath it:
*Even in death, he wears my protection. You were never his, Kelsey. You were just a placeholder.*
Rage flooded my veins.
It wasn't directed at Aria. It was at myself. For holding on. For hoping. For being so incredibly stupid.
*Kelsey...*
Bennett's voice drifted through the Mind-Link, weak, fading into static. *Help me...*
I closed my eyes, shutting out his plea.
I reached into the deepest part of my mind, where the bond was rooted. It didn't look like a golden thread anymore. It was a thick, black root now, rotting and poisonous, festering in my soul.
*No,* I whispered.
I grabbed the root with my mental hands. My Inner Wolf snarled, lending me her strength, her desire for freedom matching my own.
*I reject you,* I screamed into the void of our shared connection. *I reject the pain. I reject the duty. I reject YOU!*
I pulled.
It was agony. It felt like tearing a limb from my body without anesthesia. A scream ripped from my throat, echoing off the tiled walls of the small apartment.
*SNAP.*
The silence that followed was deafening. It was absolute.
The pain vanished instantly. The connection was gone. I couldn't feel his fear. I couldn't feel the pack's panic. The static was gone. I was alone.
And I was free.
I stood up, trembling uncontrollably. I walked to the bathroom and threw up until my stomach was empty. Then, shaking, I washed my face with freezing cold water.
My phone buzzed again.
Aria: *We survived. He's hurt, but he's mine. The pack hates you for not answering the call. You're exiled, Kelsey.*
I didn't even reply.
I took the SIM card out of my phone and dropped it into the toilet. I flushed it, watching my old life swirl away.
I grabbed my bag.
"Sophie," I said into the burner phone I had bought days ago.
"I'm leaving Paris."
"Where are you going?" her voice crackled on the other end.
"South," I said, staring at the door. "Somewhere the sun shines. Somewhere there are no wolves."
I walked to the train station, keeping my head down. I bought a one-way ticket to Provence.
As the train pulled away, picking up speed against the rhythm of the tracks, I looked at my reflection in the dark window.
The hazel in my eyes was gone.
They were molten silver now.
The White Wolf had fully awakened.
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