Chapter 17: A Game of Survival
For a moment, all I could do was stare at him, my heart still hammering in my chest. His words echoed in my head, wrapping around me like a noose, suffocating and absolute.
But then, something inside me snapped.
I forced my hands to steady and lifted my chin, my voice finally pushing past the suffocating weight of his presence.
"If you really know so much about me, Kieran," I said, my voice raw but steady, "then you should know, I am no stranger to death."
His golden eyes flickered with something unreadable, but I didn’t give him a chance to interrupt.
"I have seen death take away the people I cared for the most," I continued, my voice gaining strength. "I have watched it rip through my pack, through my family, through every damn thing that made me human." My fingers curled into fists. "I have smelled it thick in the air, tasted it on my tongue, felt it breathing down my neck every single day back in that wretched excuse of a pack."
I took a step forward, closing the distance he had once imposed.
"I have been beaten, torn apart, left bleeding in the dirt more times than I can count. I have laid on the ground with broken bones, waiting for death to come for me, begging for it to just take me and end it all." My breath was heavy now, my pulse hammering in my ears. "But even then, I didn’t die."
Silence hung thick between us.
His gaze was unwavering, piercing, but I didn’t back down.
"And now?" I took another step, the fire burning through my veins now stronger than the fear in my chest. "Now, I am finally ready to die. But if I do, I will not do it cowering in some corner like a coward." My eyes locked onto his. "I will go out on my feet, fighting, not crawling at someone’s mercy."
For the first time since stepping into this room, Kieran didn’t answer right away.