Chapter 11: The Bitter Revelation
The sound of the creek filled the silence he left behind. It was a cheerful, babbling noise that felt like mockery. Jennie stood there, her hand still pressed against the impossible flatness of her stomach, the ghost of his words hanging in the air.I can smell it.
He’d known.For days, maybe.And he’d said nothing.Done nothing. Just let her drift through the camp, a ghost of his mate, while he slept in Minho’s tent and hunted alone.The tears were hot and sudden, blurring the glittering water. She didn’t wipe them away. She let them fall, her breath coming in sharp, silent hitches that hurt her ribs.This was supposed to be the moment.The thing that fixed it. The undeniable proof that bound them together forever. Instead, it felt like a final lock sliding into place, trapping her alone on the other side of him.A twig snapped behind her. She whirled, hope, stupid and wild, flaring in her chest.It was Minho. He held a fishing rod loosely in one hand, his expression caught between pity and discomfort. “Hey,” he said, his voice low.Jennie quickly swiped at her face, turning her head away. “What.”
“Just… saw him leave.Walking fast.” Minho shifted his weight. “You okay?”
The laugh that escaped her was brittle, sharp enough to cut. “Peachy.” She finally turned to look at him, her feline eyes glowing with a wet, desperate intensity. “Does he talk to you?At night, in your tent? Does he say anything?”
Minho looked down at his boots.“Jennie…”
“Tell me.”
“He doesn’t sleep much. Smokes.Stares at the wall.” Minho met her gaze, his own earnest. “He’s hurting.”
“He’s hurting?” The words were a snarl. “He got what he wanted. He made sure of it.” She gestured viciously at her own abdomen.
“You think that’s what he wanted?” Minho’s voice remained calm, which infuriated her more.“You threatened to go to another alpha. You think that just goes away because he put a pup in you? That’s not how it works for someone like him.”
The truth of it was a physical blow. She wrapped her arms around herself, the nausea from earlier returning in a acidic wave.She swallowed hard. “He hates me.”
“He doesn’t hate you.” Minho sighed, running a hand through his hair. “It’s… complicated.Give him time.”
Time. She was full of his child, and she was supposed to give him time. The psychosis she kept leashed, the dark, possessive thoughts, began to scratch at the walls of her mind.Make him see.Make him pay. Make him burn.Instead, she walked past Minho, back toward camp.Her legs felt like wood.
The communal area was mostly empty, the breakfast fire banked to coals. Rosé was scrubbing a pot with sand by the water barrel.She looked up, her gentle face tightening with concern. “Jen? You look… hey, come sit.”
Jennie ignored her, heading straight for her own tent. She needed to be inside, in the dark, where the scent of him on the furs was strongest.She needed to bury her face in them and maybe scream.
But as she neared, she saw the flap was open.And she heard voices.
“...won’t be coming around much longer, if you know what I mean.” Kai’s voice, oily and confident. “All bloated and moody. Not my taste, but hey, a desperate omega’s a generous one.”
A lighter female laugh.Karina.“You’re terrible. She’s still his.”
“Is she?” Kai’s tone was a smirk made sound. “He hasn’t touched her in a week.Doesn’t sleep with her.Eats apart. Smells like disappointment and unwashed pussy. An alpha’s nose knows, sweetheart.He’s discarded her. Just waiting for the formality of the birth to kick her out.”
Jennie froze, her blood turning to ice, then boiling in her veins.
“Maybe,” Karina mused, her voice closer now, as if she was peering into Jennie’s tent. “But she’s still prettier than you.” The comment was a needle, meant to prick Kai’s arrogance and redirect it.It worked.
“That can be fixed,” Kai said softly, the threat hanging in the air.Jennie didn’t remember moving. One second she was listening, the next she was tearing the tent flap wide open, her small frame blocking the light. Kai and Karina stood inside, near her sleeping pallet. Karina had one of Leonid’s discarded shirts in her hand.“Get out,” Jennie said. Her voice was disturbingly calm.Kai recovered first, smiling wide.“Just admiring the décor. Smells a bit stale in here. Needs an airing out.”
“I said get out.” Her eyes locked on Karina. “Put that down.”
Karina, emboldened by Kai’s presence, didn’t drop it.She lifted it slowly to her nose, inhaling with exaggerated pleasure. “Mmm.Still smells like him. Too bad he doesn’t want it anymore.”
Something in Jennie snapped.
She launched herself at Karina, not with omega submission, but with feral, clawing rage.Her nails raked down Karina’s arm, drawing bright red lines. Karina shrieked, dropping the shirt. Jennie grabbed a fistful of Karina’s hair, yanking her head back, a guttural growl erupting from her throat that sounded more wolf than woman.
Kai grabbed Jennie from behind, his arms like steel bands around her waist, pulling her off. “Crazy bitch!” He hauled her back, her feet kicking at empty air.“Let me GO!” she screamed, thrashing.
“You need to learn your place,” Kai hissed into her ear, his breath hot and sour against her neck. His hold shifted, one hand splaying possessively low on her belly. “Maybe I’ll teach you, once he’s done with you.”
The touch, the implication, the sheer violation of it, triggered something deeper than rage.A cold, surgical clarity sliced through the red haze. She went utterly still in his arms.
“Take your hand off me,” she whispered, the words dripping with a quiet, psychotic venom. “Or I will cut it off and feed it to you.”
For a fraction of a second, Kai hesitated. He smelled it on her—not just anger, but the genuine, unhinged potential for violence.It was more intriguing than frightening.
He let her go with a slight push.She stumbled but caught herself, turning to face him, her chest heaving. Karina cradered her bleeding arm, sobbing.
“You belong to the pack, Jennie,” Kai said, smoothing his own shirt, his ego reasserting itself. “And if our alpha neglects his property, others might… take an interest. For the good of the pack, of course.”
He took Karina’s uninjured arm and led her away, leaving Jennie standing in the wreckage of her tent’s threshold. The camp was watching now—John and Mina from their tent opening, Jisoo and Rosé frozen by the fire, a few other enforcers pausing in their tasks.She didn’t see any of them. All she saw was the path into the woods, the one Leonid had taken. The shirt lay crumpled on the ground. She picked it up, held it to her face, and inhaled the fading scent of spiced cologne and smoke.The hand not clutching the shirt drifted back to her stomach. To his pup.To the only leverage she had left.
The coldness inside her solidified, hardening into a plan.If time and tears wouldn’t bring him back, perhaps a different kind of reminder would. One written in blood, not his, but someone else’s. Someone who’d dared to touch what was his.
She let the shirt fall, her eyes dry now, fixed on the tree line.A small, terrifying smile touched her lips.Let Kai talk.Let Karina sneer. Let Leonid brood.She would make him look.She would make him see. She would force his protectiveness to the surface, even if she had to drown in the wake of it.