Chapter 16: Shackles of the Past
Fianna’s POV
The clearing still smelled of smoke.
Not the kind from fire, but from Kael — that lingering, choking scent of ash and iron that clung to him wherever he walked.
He was gone, but his voice remained, rattling inside my skull like chains against stone.
She was mine first. She’ll be mine again.
I could still feel his eyes on me. Cold. Claiming. As though he’d branded me all over again just by speaking.
I didn’t move. I couldn’t.
The forest around me had gone still, holding its breath, waiting for something to snap. My wolf crouched low inside me, snarling and restless, torn between fight and flight.
But Kael wasn’t here anymore.
Derek was.
The silence between us weighed heavier than any roar.
He stood across from me, his broad frame outlined in the silver wash of moonlight. He hadn’t followed Kael. He hadn’t moved at all since Kael left. Only his eyes — those sharp, icy eyes — never left me.
It was unbearable.
I turned first. My feet shifted against the dirt, scraping softly, the smallest sound cracking the silence.
“Don’t.” My voice was brittle, sharp. “Don’t look at me like that.”
His head tilted, just slightly, like he hadn’t expected me to speak at all. His jaw tightened, but his voice stayed quiet, even. “Like what?”
I swallowed, but it did nothing to ease the tightness in my throat. “Like I’m something you’ve already decided belongs to you.”
The word belongs burned. My chest squeezed, Kael’s face flashing behind my eyes. His hand on my throat. His smile as he broke me down, piece by piece, until I wasn’t Fianna anymore — just what he made me.
Derek took one step forward, the earth crunching beneath his boot. Just one step, but it felt like the space between us folded in half.
“I don’t look at you like that,” he said.
“Yes,” I spat, my anger rising fast to cover the fear threatening to choke me. “Yes, you do. You look at me the same way he did. Like you’ve already chosen, and I have no say in it.”
The words hung, jagged and dangerous, between us.
I half expected him to snap back, to unleash that Alpha tone that could bend wolves and humans alike. Instead, his shoulders shifted — not with rage, but with something heavier.
“You think I’m him.” His voice was quiet. Too quiet.
It was worse than shouting.
I stumbled back a step, my spine pressing against the rough bark of a tree. “Aren’t you? You both carry that same power. That same pull. The world bends when you walk into a room. Wolves bow. Humans obey. And if anyone dares to resist—” My words cracked, too sharp. “You crush them.”
His gaze sharpened, storm clouds gathering in his eyes. But still… no anger. No denial.
“Is that what you think I want with you?” His voice dropped low, steady, like the ground before an earthquake. “To crush you?”
I pressed my nails into my palms, fighting to stay steady. “What else could it be? You stood in that tavern and spoke my name like it was a claim. Do you know what that does? To someone like me?”
The edges of his mouth pulled tight, but not in mockery. Not in arrogance. It was restraint.
“Fianna,” he said, and the sound of my real name from his lips felt like a brand. “Look at me.”
I didn’t want to. I couldn’t. But my body betrayed me. My eyes snapped to his.
And what I saw there broke me.
It wasn’t chains. It wasn’t Kael’s hunger or cruelty. It wasn’t even triumph.
It was something else. Something I couldn’t name.
Something that made me ache in places I thought were long dead.
“You think I want to cage you,” Derek said, his voice rougher now, fraying at the edges. “But every time I see you, all I want… is to keep you from breaking again.”
The words sliced deeper than Kael’s threats ever had.
I wanted to laugh at him. To spit the lie back in his face. To remind him that Alphas always said sweet words before the chains tightened. But my voice shook. My throat closed.
“You don’t know me,” I whispered. “You don’t know what I’ve done. What I’ve become.”
His jaw clenched. His eyes burned hotter. “Then tell me.”
My heart stuttered.
No one had ever asked. Not Kael. Not anyone.
They all assumed. They saw the scars, the fear, the shadows, and decided the story for me.
But Derek was waiting. He wasn’t demanding, wasn’t ordering, wasn’t forcing. He was waiting.
I shook my head, my voice breaking. “I can’t.”
The silence stretched. The forest felt like it was leaning in to listen.
Finally, Derek said, “Then don’t. Not until you’re ready. Not until you choose to.”
The words hit harder than a blow.
Because Kael had stolen everything from me — my voice, my choice, my name.
And Derek… he was handing me a choice I didn’t even know I wanted.
I hated him for it. And I hated myself more for the part of me that longed to take it.
I turned sharply, staring into the endless black of the trees. My wolf shifted, restless, torn between rage and something dangerously close to hope.
“If you’re smart, Derek,” I said, forcing my voice steady, “you’ll leave me alone. Before Kael tears both of us apart.”
I didn’t wait for him to answer. I pushed off the tree, brushing past him, each step heavy as chains dragging through the dirt.
The night swallowed me.
But even as I vani
shed into the forest, I felt his eyes on me.
And the worst, most terrifying part?
I wanted him to follow.