Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Vexx’s eyes sharpened. “Who?”
I swallowed. “I don’t know. But they’re moving now. I woke them.”
Vexx stepped toward me, gaze intense. “Sing again.”
“What?”
“Sing again. Just one note.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know what’ll happen.”
“I do,” he said, voice deepening. “I’ll kneel.”
That stopped me cold.
“What?”
“You said you didn’t want to be owned,” he said. “Then make me yours.”
I stared at him, heart hammering. “Don’t play games with me, Vexx.”
“I’m not.” He dropped to one knee.
The entire pack inhaled sharply.
Even Drekk froze.
“You sang the war hymn,” Vexx said, voice quiet but hard. “And wolves turned on their masters. But I’m not afraid of your voice. Because if you’re the storm, I’d rather drown in you than live one more day with silence in my bones.”
He lowered his head.
“I submit.”
I couldn’t breathe.
Behind him, one by one, the wolves of his pack began to kneel.
Drekk last. Reluctant. But he did it.
All eyes turned to me.
And I understood what had just happened.
Not because I asked for it.
Not because I wanted it.
But because it was real.
The collar, the chains, the fear, none of it made me powerful.
This did.
Vexx looked up, lips parted, voice rough. “What do you want, Kessia?”
I stepped toward him, slow, trembling. I didn’t know what I was about to say.
But I knew this:
I wasn’t anyone’s to command anymore.
They were all still kneeling.
Dozens of wolves. Warriors. Assassins. Broken-boned and bloodied, their bodies lowered in submission, but not to Vexx.
To me.
The siren.
I stood in the center of the penthouse, surrounded by the chaos I’d created, my voice still echoing through the walls like an aftershock. And for the first time since the night of the auction, I didn’t feel like prey.
I felt like a queen.
Vexx rose slowly from his knee, golden eyes locked on mine. His wolf was close to the surface now, I could feel it in the way he breathed, in the slight tremble of his fingers.
“Kessia,” he said, voice rough and reverent, “you don’t have to prove anything to them anymore. You already made them bow.”
I swallowed hard. “I didn’t mean to.”
“You did.” He stepped closer. “And it’s the first time I’ve seen them respect anything besides violence.”
I glanced at the others. Drekk was still on one knee, his eyes narrowed, unsure. Mistrust in his scent. But even he couldn’t deny what he’d seen.
Vexx turned to face the pack. “You see now why I chained her to the piano?”
A few wolves growled low in their throats.
“She could’ve burned this empire to the ground the moment she stepped through my doors,” Vexx continued. “But she didn’t. You want to call her a threat?” He pointed toward the broken chandelier. “That was power. And she used it not to kill us… but to show mercy.”
His words were sharp. Truth wrapped in smoke.
“But she doesn’t need your permission. She already controls you.” His gaze flicked back to me. “Even me.”
That hit hard. The pack shifted uncomfortably.
I felt it.
The shift in hierarchy.
Vexx was still Alpha.
But now they looked at me like something else. Not Alpha. Not Beta.
Something older.
The siren.
The one whose voice made even rage go quiet.
Later, after the wolves had slunk off to lick their wounds, Vexx poured two glasses of dark liquor in his private office. I didn’t touch mine.
“I should’ve killed Drekk when I had the chance,” he muttered, nursing his drink. “He won’t let this go.”
“He fears me now.”
“He hates that he fears you,” Vexx said, leaning back against the desk. “Which means he’ll try to control what he can’t understand.”
“I’m used to that.”
He studied me quietly, his jaw twitching like he was wrestling with something.
“You sang a forbidden hymn,” he said finally. “A war hymn that hasn’t been heard in over a hundred years. Where did you even learn that?”
I looked away. “I don’t know. It just… came.”
His voice dropped. “Siren memory?”
“Maybe.”
He stepped closer, slowly. “There are stories about your kind. Not just singers. Not just enchantresses. But creatures older than packs. Creatures that shaped Alpha bloodlines through song alone.”
“I’m not a creature.”
He reached out, running his thumb along the edge of my jaw. “No. You’re the beginning of something no one is ready for.”
I turned away, unsettled. “Then maybe I shouldn’t be here.”
He laughed bitterly. “You think I’m just going to let you walk away now? After you made every living wolf in this building kneel?”
I didn’t answer.
“I built this empire brick by bloody brick,” he said, voice roughening. “And I’ve never bent for anyone.”
He stepped closer again, almost too close.
“Until you.”
My heart skipped.
He stared down at the velvet choker around my throat. His fingers brushed it.
“You don’t need this anymore,” he whispered.
He unclasped it slowly, letting it fall into his hand.
“Then what am I?” I asked quietly. “To you?”
He held my gaze. “A threat. A gift. A goddamn addiction.”
His thumb traced the skin where the choker had been. “And the only thing standing between me… and becoming a monster.”
My throat tightened.
But I couldn’t forget.
“I saw my brother in those files, Vexx. You knew where he was. And you didn’t tell me.”
His eyes went cold. “Because I needed you focused. Alive.”
“You lied.”
“I didn’t lie,” he snapped. “I protected you. There’s a difference.”
I stepped back. “You always twist it like that.”
“Because I live in a world where truth gets you killed.”
“Then maybe I’m done living in your world.”
His jaw clenched. “You really think there’s a world outside this one where you’ll be safe? Where your voice won’t be hunted? Where the next man you meet won’t try to chain you by your throat?”
I glared at him. “I don’t care. I’d rather be hunted than owned.”
The silence stretched, tight as a wire.
Then Vexx’s voice came low, lethal. “Then run, Kessia. Run again.”
I turned without a word and stormed out.
But I felt it.
His wolf didn’t follow.
It watched.
And I knew the war between us had only just begun.