Chapter 147 The Confrontation Goes Wrong
The room never fully settled after Devon’s last words.
“You really don’t know, do you?”
They stayed there, hanging between them, heavier than anything he had said before.
Kane didn’t move.
But something in him shifted.
It wasn’t visible at first. Not in the way his jaw stayed tight or how his shoulders remained squared. It was deeper than that. A quiet recalibration. Like something had just been confirmed instead of revealed.
“What don’t I know?” Kane asked.
Devon didn’t answer immediately.
He studied Kane for a second longer, like he was deciding how much to give and how much to hold back.
Then he exhaled.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said.
Kane’s eyes narrowed.
“It matters enough for you to say it.”
Devon shook his head once, dismissive.
“You’ll figure it out. You always do.”
The room tightened again.
Marcus shifted slightly, his attention flicking between them. Maya didn’t move, but Aria could feel the tension in her from across the space.
Kane took a step forward.
“Start talking.”
Devon didn’t step back.
“I’ve said everything I’m going to say.”
“No,” Kane said, quieter now. “You haven’t.”
Another step.
This time, Devon’s posture changed. Not retreat. Readiness.
Aria felt it immediately.
The shift from controlled confrontation to something far less predictable.
“Don’t do that,” Devon said.
Kane didn’t stop.
“Do what?”
“Push this into something it doesn’t need to be.”
A short, humorless breath left Kane.
“You lost the right to decide what this needs to be the second you chose her over this pack.”
Devon’s expression hardened.
“I didn’t choose her over the pack.”
“You chose her over everything.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.”
Kane moved again.
Marcus straightened, a quiet warning in the movement.
“Kane.”
But Kane didn’t look at him.
His focus stayed locked on Devon.
“Then explain it to me,” he said. “Because right now, the only thing I see is a man who sat at my table, took my trust, and handed it to someone who would have destroyed everything we built.”
Devon’s jaw tightened.
“I didn’t hand anything over.”
“You opened the door.”
A beat.
“And you kept opening it.”
Something in Devon snapped.
Not outwardly. Not loud.
But enough.
“You think this is simple?” he said. “You think this is about sides?”
“I think it’s about loyalty.”
“And I was loyal,” Devon shot back.
“To who?”
Silence.
It stretched just long enough to matter.
Aria felt it.
The answer sitting there.
Unsaid.
Maya moved then.
Just one step forward.
“Devon,” she said carefully.
His attention flicked to her.
Brief. Sharp.
“Don’t,” he said.
But she didn’t stop.
“You don’t get to stand there and pretend this is something it’s not,” she said. “People got hurt. People could have died.”
“They didn’t.”
“That is not the point.”
“It is to me.”
Aria saw it happen.
The moment the room tipped.
Maya stepped closer.
Not aggressively. Not carelessly.
But close enough that she was no longer outside of it.
“You don’t get to decide what matters after the fact,” she said. “You don’t get to rewrite this into something noble because you protected one child while putting everyone else at risk…”
“Enough.”
Devon’s voice cut through hers.
Sharp.
Final.
Maya didn’t stop.
“And you don’t get to stand there and act like we’re supposed to understand it…”
It happened too fast.
One second she was standing there.
The next,…
Devon moved.
Aria didn’t even register the full motion.
Just the result.
Devon’s hand struck out, faster than any of them expected.
Not a shove.
Not something meant to push her back.
Something meant to end the argument.
Maya’s body jerked with the impact.
She hit the edge of the table hard, the sound cracking through the room, and then she went down.
Everything stopped.
For one second.
Then it all broke at once.
“Maya…”
Aria was already moving.
Marcus reached her first, dropping to his knees beside her. His hands moved fast, controlled, checking, assessing.
Maya didn’t respond. There was blood. Too much.
Kane didn’t go to her.
He went to Devon.
The distance between them disappeared in a second.
Kane’s hand closed around Devon’s throat and drove him back into the wall hard enough to rattle it.
The impact echoed.
Devon didn’t fight it.
Not immediately.
“You don’t touch her,” Kane said.
His voice was low.
Deadly.
Devon’s head tilted slightly against the wall, his breathing tight under Kane’s grip.
“She shouldn’t have stepped in.”
Kane’s hand tightened.
Aria barely registered it.
Her focus was on Maya.
“Maya,” she said, dropping beside her. “Stay with me.”
No response.
Marcus looked up at her.
Something in his expression made her chest tighten.
“This is bad,” he said.
Aria didn’t think.
She reached for Maya, her hands hovering for half a second before pressing down, power already rising under her skin.
“Move,” she said.
Marcus shifted just enough.
Aria closed her eyes.
The energy moved fast. Too fast.
It surged through her hands and into Maya’s body, searching, repairing, forcing things back into place.
For a second, it worked.
Maya’s body reacted.
A sharp inhale.
A flicker of movement.
Relief hit Aria so hard it almost made her dizzy.
And then, Something went wrong.
Maya’s body arched.
Not naturally. Not like healing. Like resistance.
Aria’s eyes snapped open.
“Maya…”
Her hands stayed in place, but the energy shifted under her control, trying to adjust, trying to stabilize.
It pushed harder.
Maya gasped.
A broken sound.
Marcus grabbed Aria’s wrist.
“Stop.”
“No…”
“You’re hurting her.”
Aria froze.
For half a second.
Confusion cut through her focus.
“I’m fixing it,”
“No,” Marcus said, sharper now. “You’re overwhelming her.”
Maya’s breathing hitched again.
Unstable.
Aria pulled her hands back like she’d been burned.
The energy cut off instantly.
The silence that followed was worse than the chaos before.
Maya didn’t move.
Didn’t respond.
Aria stared at her.
“I don’t understand,” she said.
Marcus’s hands were already back on Maya, trying to stabilize what he could without what Aria had just tried.
But even he knew.
It wasn’t enough.
Kane let go of Devon.
Not because he was done.
Because something more important had taken priority.
He crossed the room in two steps.
“What’s happening?”
Marcus didn’t look up.
“She’s crashing.”
Aria’s chest tightened.
“No. I stopped. I can adjust…”
“No,” Marcus said again. “Not like that.”
Kane looked between them.
“Then what?”
Marcus hesitated.
Just for a second. But it was enough. Kane saw it.
“What?” he demanded.
Marcus finally looked up.
And when he spoke, there was no uncertainty in it.
“She’s not going to survive this as a human.”
The words landed hard.
Aria felt them before she processed them.
Kane went still.
Behind them, Devon didn’t say a word.
Didn’t move. Didn’t try to leave.
Everything in the room narrowed to one point.
Maya on the floor.
Not breathing right.
Aria’s voice came out quieter than she expected.
“Then what do we do?”
Marcus didn’t answer immediately.
He didn’t need to.
Because they all knew.
Even before he said it.
“We don’t have many options,” he said.
Kane’s gaze shifted to him.
“Say it.”
Marcus held his eyes.
“She has to be turned.”