Chapter 11 The Choice That Changes Everything
KAEL'S POV
I stared at the bathroom door, my hand frozen inches from the handle.
Inside, the imposter was crying. Not loud, dramatic sobs—quiet, broken sounds that made my chest hurt. Like someone trying to fall apart silently.
I should report this. Right now.
An Omega pretending to be an Alpha at Royal Academy wasn't just against the rules. It was dangerous. If Professor Cross found out, he'd have the perfect excuse to activate another "training accident." Another disappearance no one would question.
Another body in the forest.
My hand dropped to my side.
"I know you can hear me," I said quietly. "And I know you're not Asher."
The crying stopped. Complete silence.
"Asher was left-handed. You're right-handed. Asher loved coffee with three sugars. You drink tea. Asher hummed when he studied. You tap your pen exactly four times before writing anything."
Still nothing.
"And Asher never, ever flinched when I got too close. But you do. Every single time."
The lock clicked. The door opened a crack.
Gray-green eyes—Asher's eyes, but somehow completely different—stared at me through the gap. Red from crying. Terrified but defiant.
"Are you going to turn me in?" The voice was Asher's, but rougher. Like someone had practiced it a thousand times but couldn't quite get it perfect.
"That depends," I said. "Who are you really?"
The door opened wider. The person standing there looked exactly like Asher—same face, same short dark hair, same delicate features that had always made other Alphas underestimate him.
But this wasn't Asher. I'd known it from the first second they walked into our room three days ago.
"My name is Aria," they—she—whispered. "I'm Asher's twin sister."
Something in my chest cracked open. Asher had mentioned a sister exactly twice. Once saying she was "the smart one, the brave one, the one who should've been the Alpha." Once saying "if anything happens to me, Aria will burn this whole place down looking for answers."
He'd been right.
"Asher's dead, isn't he?" I asked, even though I already knew.
Aria's face crumpled. "I don't know. Maybe. Probably. But no one's proven it. The Academy says he dropped out. The police say he ran away. But Asher would never—" Her voice broke. "He wouldn't leave me. Not without saying goodbye."
I understood that feeling. The horrible uncertainty of not knowing if someone you loved was dead or suffering somewhere, needing help you couldn't give.
My sister Lyanna had felt that way before they found her body.
"The Academy is lying," I said flatly. "Students don't just disappear here. They're disappeared. There's a difference."
Aria's eyes widened. "You know about the Legacy Program."
It wasn't a question. Somehow, she'd figured it out too.
"I've been investigating for three years," I admitted. "Since my sister died in a 'training accident' that wasn't an accident at all. Asher was helping me gather evidence. Then he vanished, and—"
I stopped. Reached into my desk drawer. Pulled out the leather jacket I'd been hiding for three months.
Aria made a sound like she'd been punched.
"This is Asher's," she whispered, taking it with shaking hands. "Where did you find it?"
"North forest. Three months ago. Covered in blood." I watched her trace the dark stains with trembling fingers. "I've been keeping it as evidence. Trying to prove Professor Cross killed him."
"Cross?" Aria's head snapped up. "The Headmaster killed Asher?"
"Cross runs the Legacy Program. It's a eugenics experiment—they're eliminating students with 'weak' bloodlines. Omegas, mostly. Anyone who threatens their perfect Alpha breeding program." The words tasted like poison. "Asher found proof. He was going to expose them. So they made him disappear."
Aria was crying again, but differently now. Angry tears instead of grief.
"I'm going to destroy him," she said quietly. "I'm going to expose everything he's done and watch him burn for it."
"You can't do that alone. You're Omega—your suppressants won't last forever. When they fail, Cross will smell what you are. And then you'll disappear too."
"So help me." Aria looked at me with those gray-green eyes, and I saw Asher's determination burning in them. "You know more about the Legacy Program than anyone. You have evidence. Together we could—"
"Together we could both get killed," I interrupted. But even as I said it, I knew I'd already made my decision.
Asher had been my only friend. The only person who'd seen me as human instead of just another Ashford weapon. I owed him justice.
And Aria... she reminded me of Lyanna. That same fierce protectiveness for people she loved. That same refusal to accept convenient lies when she knew the truth was darker.
"I won't turn you in," I said. "But we do this my way. Carefully. Cross has been covering up murders for decades—he's not going to make mistakes just because we're angry."
"Thank you," Aria breathed.
"Don't thank me yet." I handed her a bottle of pills from my desk. "Industrial-grade suppressants. Stronger than whatever you're using. Take two every morning, one every night. It'll keep your scent hidden, but it'll make you sick sometimes."
"I don't care. I'll do whatever it takes."
I believed her.
"Get some sleep," I said. "Tomorrow we start planning. If we're going to take down the Legacy Program, we need to be smart about it."
Aria nodded and turned toward her bed—Asher's old bed.
I should've gone to my own bed too. Should've tried to sleep.
But as I lay there in the darkness, I couldn't stop thinking about the mate bond I'd felt snap into place the moment Aria first touched my hand. The bond that should've been impossible.
Alpha and Omega bonds were common. But I'd never wanted one. Never wanted to be tied to someone the way my father was tied to my mother—all politics and duty, no actual feeling.
But this bond felt different. Real. Like something that mattered.
She's Asher's sister. Off limits. Focus on the mission.
My phone buzzed. A text from an unknown number.
I know what you're hiding, Ashford. That's not your roommate. Turn the Omega in by tomorrow or I tell Cross everything. —S
My blood turned to ice.
Someone knew. Someone was watching us right now.
And they'd given us less than twenty-four hours before Aria's cover was blown and we both died.