Chapter 23 LOUD SILENCE
RAGNAR'S POV
“Mind your own business and leave Ava.”
I don’t raise my voice.
My command is sharp enough on its own, honed by years of ruling.
I turn my back on Beta Ava and reach for the cloth on the table wrapping it around my injured hand trying to feign a deliberate calm.
She doesn’t move.
The silence stretches.
I feel it before I hear it.
Her bristling and the stubborn set of her spine.
Ava has never been good at backing down when she thinks something is wrong, a fine quality and reason I picked her as my Beta. A reason I'm beginning to regret.
“That is not normal,” she says at last. “And it isn’t yours.”
I tighten the cloth until pain sparks the irritation away.
It grounds me and keeps Yurik from stirring in my head.
“It is handled that's all you need to know” I say.
She scoffs. “That’s what you said before.”
I turn slowly, letting her see my expression this time. “Choose your next words carefully Ava.”
And she meets my gaze head-on.
“You don’t get to dismiss this,” she snaps. “Not after what happened to her.”
The room goes cold and even Ava flinches at me.
My chest tightens with my breath locking for half a heartbeat before I force it loose again.
The memory rises unprovoked–screams echoing down stone corridors, the warm stench of blood and blue eyes that were once warm now glassy and cold.
“Do not,” I say very quietly, “speak of my former mate.”
“We never learned why she went mad,” Ava pressed her voice shaking with restrained fury. “We never learned why the bond broke her. And now you stand here with fresh bite marks and think I won’t question it?”
“That is enough Ava.”
She steps closer. “Is it?”
The question isn’t about the injury. It's about how she never forgave how I handled the relationship with her dead sister.
“You swore you would be careful after her death,” her voice cracks. “You swore you would never let the bond take control again. And now–”
The Alpha voice tears free of me like thunder splitting stone.
“Silence!”
The word hits her full force.
Ava staggers to the floor with her knees buckling. Her hands are slamming to the floor as instinct drives her down.
Her wolf howls in protest even as her body obeys but she is caught between loyalty and compulsion.
“I said,” I continue my voice resonant and absolute, “you will never speak of this. Not to the elders or the guards and not even to me. Do you understand me?”
She grits her teeth fighting it.
Sweat beads at her temple and for a moment, I think she might break rather than bend.
Then she exhales sharply.
“I understand,” she says through clenched teeth.
The Alpha voice recedes and the room breathes again.
Ava pushes herself upright slowly, eyes burning now–not with defiance, but with fear.
“You smell like him,” she says.
The words strike harder than any accusation.
My jaw tightens. “Explain yourself.”
“Sebastian,” she says. “You smell like Sebastian.”
The bond hums in response to its recognition so I clamp down on it instinctively.
“You favor him,” Ava continues with a gleam in her eyes. “You brought him into your personal guard despite objections. You tolerate mistakes from him you’d skin other wolves for, you look at him.”
“I do not,” I snap.
She lifts a brow. “You do. And you know it don't lie Ragnar.”
I say nothing to that.
“Why him?” she asks quietly. “Why an omega? Why choose someone so… vulnerable?”
My fingers curl into my palm.
“He is capable,” I say.
“That’s not what I asked.”
She steps closer, lowering her voice. “You’ve been indifferent to everyone for years, Ragnar. After her death, you shut us all out. And now this boy–this omega–has you bleeding and smelling like sin.”
Her gaze sharpens. “Is he your–”
The door slams open.
“Alpha!”
A patrol officer bursts in, breathless, eyes wide. “ Countless Rogue activity sighted at the northern border.”
My focus snaps instantly.
“How many?” I demand.
“Too many,” he says grimly. “And they were running toward us.”
I don’t hesitate.
“Ava,” I bark, already moving. “With me.”
She nods once all arguments are forgotten as duty takes precedence.
We move in unison grabbing armor and securing our weapons in a comically big belt our wolves will wear when we transform.
As we stride out one thought claws at the back of my mind–
The bond is no longer quiet.
I hear snippets of Sebastian's thoughts I shut out as I enter into the night.
The night air hits my lungs like ice as we clear the outer gate.
I don’t slow down or speak, I immediately let instinct take over.
My bones begin to scream in pain.
It starts from my spine a deep grinding pressure that builds until my back arches violently and my vertebrae cracks.
My shoulders widen with my joints popping as muscle tears and rebuilds itself growing stronger and denser to accommodate my higher size.
I welcome the pain.
It distracts me from tonight.
Fur erupts along my arms and chest in a violent rush.
My fingers elongate and my nails become longer and blacker.
I flex once and twice with my claws feeling the ground tremble under my changing weight.
My jaw locks, snaps and stretches forming my snout.
And immediately, I become wolf.
My senses explode outward towards the forest with everything looking sharp and alive, every scent even sharper.
Yurik surges forward eagerly thrilled by the freedom of flesh and fur.
He takes control smoothly with his paws digging into the earth as we launch forward in powerful strides.
The pack border calls.
“No.”
Another pull drags at us.
“Sebastian.” Yurik challenges.
The bond flares hot and Yurik veers instinctively going back toward the heart of the pack, toward the Alpha quarters.
“No,” I snarl, wrenching control back with brute force. “We go to the border where our pack needs us.”
Yurik fights back at me.