Chapter 31 Outside the Cage
Tasha:
“I can walk on my own.”
Elder Ron’s voice answered calmly, “You always could. That was never the problem.”
The council chamber doors opened behind me, stone grinding against stone, and the sound echoed into the open air. I stepped out without looking back. The sun sat low but bright, spilling gold over the Emerald Pack stronghold as if nothing ugly had happened inside those walls for the past month.
Father stood to my left. He did not touch me. He had learned better.
“Remember what you were given,” Elder Sara said sharply from behind. “You do not remove it. Not even for a moment.”
I lifted my hand slowly and let the charm dangle between my fingers so they could all see it. A thin chain. A dull stone carved with old markings. Heavy. Cold.
“I heard you the first ten times,” I said, keeping my voice even. “I won’t take it off.”
Elder Korran stepped closer, his presence pressing into my back without contact. “You will leave our lands today,” he said. “You will live among humans again. You will be watched. If the charm breaks or goes missing, we will know.”
I turned then and looked at him. Really looked at him.
“And if it does,” I asked, “you will come running again to save me from myself?”
Silence stretched. Father’s jaw tightened.
Korran answered, “If it does, we will end you before you end us.”
I smiled. Not wide. Not sweet. Just enough to pretend.
“Then we understand each other.”
No one stopped me as I walked away.
The path down the mountain felt longer than it ever had, but with every step, the air felt lighter. My demon pressed against the inside of my skull, restless, coiled, laughing low.
Soon, it whispered.
Not yet, I answered silently.
I kept my face calm until the trees thinned and the road appeared ahead. Until the stronghold vanished behind the curve. Until I was alone.
Then I lifted my hand again.
The charm lay warm against my skin now, pulsing faintly, as if it knew. I stopped walking. The forest stood quiet around me, birds frozen mid-song, leaves barely moving.
“You did your job,” I murmured to it. “You fooled them.”
My fingers closed around the stone.
It cracked.
The sound was small. Sharp. Final.
Power surged up my arm like heat rushing into frozen skin. The chain snapped, metal biting into my palm as the stone shattered completely. I let it fall. I crushed the pieces under my heel and laughed.
Not softly.
I laughed until my chest hurt.
My demon surged forward, no longer restrained, no longer muffled.
Free, it breathed. They really believed you.
“I know,” I said aloud. “They always do.”
Images flashed through my mind uninvited. Alexandra’s face. Calm. Cold. Standing beside Rhett as if she had earned that place. As if she had not taken it from me while I was dead.
My laughter faded.
“She watched me today,” I said quietly. “Did you feel that?”
I felt everything, my demon replied. She thinks you are broken.
“She thinks wrong.”
The road ahead led to the city. To him.
“Neel first,” I said. “Then Alexandra.”
The clinic smelled the same.
Clean. Sharp. Human.
I stood across the street for a moment, watching through the glass as a woman sat on the examination bed, Neel leaning close as he spoke to her. He smiled, soft and familiar, and something tight twisted in my chest.
He’s alive, my demon noted.
“I know.”
The woman left a few minutes later, smiling, thanking him. Neel walked her to the door, then turned back inside. That was when I pushed the door open.
The bell chimed.
He looked up instantly.
For a second, he just stared.
“Tasha?” he said.
I waited for fear. For hesitation. It never came.
He crossed the room in three fast steps and stopped right in front of me. “You’re here,” he said, breathless. “You’re actually here.”
“I am.”
He reached out, then hesitated, his hand hovering near my arm. “I didn’t know if I should… I mean, you disappeared. I went to the police. I filed a report. I searched everywhere.”
“I know.”
His brows pulled together. “You do?”
“You don’t hide things well.”
That earned a small, shaky smile. “I thought something happened to you. I thought maybe you left. Or that you didn’t want to come back.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t leave you.”
He exhaled hard and stepped back, running a hand through his hair. “Where were you? You scared me.You even left your phone at home.”
“I had family issues,” I said. “Complicated ones.”
He studied my face, searching. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
It was the truth. Just not the kind he meant.
He nodded slowly, accepting it far too easily, then said, “I missed you.”
The words hit harder than I expected.I felt a shift in my heart.
“I missed you too,” I replied.
He gestured toward his office. “Can we sit? You look like you’ve walked a long way.”
We sat across from each other, knees almost touching. He leaned forward, elbows on his thighs.
“You just vanished,” he said again, quieter now. “No message. No call. Nothing.”
“I couldn’t contact you.”
“Why not?”
I met his eyes. “Because they wouldn’t let me.”
He stiffened. “Who wouldn’t?”
“My people.”
His mouth opened, then closed. He took a breath. “Okay. That’s… a lot. Are you in trouble?”
“Not anymore.”
He hesitated. “Do I need to be worried?”
I smiled, slow and careful. “Not about me.”
That seemed to satisfy him. He reached for my hand this time and did not stop himself. His fingers wrapped around mine, warm and familiar.
“You don’t know how many times I replayed our last conversation,” he said. “I kept thinking I said something wrong.”
“You didn’t.”
“I kept thinking if I’d asked you to stay that night—”
I squeezed his hand. “Neel.”
He looked at me. “What?”
“I’m here now.”
His shoulders relaxed. “You are.”
A pause settled between us. Comfortable. Dangerous.
Then he asked, “Are you staying here or are you going home?”
“I'm going home because.....” I nudge my nose with him,leaving my sentence incomplete.
“Because what?”He fixed his round glasses.
I leaned closer again. “I have to do some personal preparations for you.”
His lips curved. “That sounds like you.”
I stood slowly. “I should let you finish work.”
He stood too. “You’re not going anywhere again, right?”
I stepped close enough that only he could hear me. “Not without you.”
His breath hitched.
“Tasha,” he said softly.
I turned toward the door, then stopped and looked back at him.
“Neel?”
“Yes?”
I smiled, all teeth this time.
“Lock up early tonight.”
His eyes darkened with mischief,he smirked. “Why?”
“Because,” I said, opening the door, “I have a lot to make up for tonight.”
The bell chimed again as I stepped out.
Behind me, I heard him whisper, “I knew you’d come back.”
I walked into the street, my demon laughing inside my head.
He’s still yours.
“He always will be,” I said.
And far away,even the packs who turned me down,will know this soon too...
Very soon.