I ignore it and let my thoughts unravel. “How many wolves like you are out there right now?”
Her expression sharpens, as if she’s reaching the same wavelength as me. “That’s exactly why you need to let me go.”
Without hesitation, I stop and turn to her. “No.”
Her eyes narrow immediately in challenge, pushing back immediately. “Yes.”
“No,” I repeat, firmer this time. “That’s not happening.”
“Zane—”
“You’re not running off to confront a group like that on your own. Not when they already managed to weaken you,” I argue, unwilling to concede to this. “If they have others with magic, then who knows how strong they’ll be.”
“I wouldn’t be on my own,” she says, full of confidence. “I’d be back with my pack.”
I stare at her like she’s lost it again, skin growing cold at the idea. “The same pack that treats you like trash?”
“They made a mistake, but they’ll see.” She steps closer, anger and determination flaring again. She sees this as a noble cause and a duty she owes, but she’s wrong. “I need to go back and fix this.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I need to make them pay,” Naia says, sounding more desperate for action and results the longer this goes on. “I need to make them all pay.”
“You’ll get yourself killed. Even you should be able to see that.”
She scoffs, preventing her from seeing the flaws in her half-baked plan. “I can handle myself.”
“You said that before, right after I pulled you from an auction,” I remind her, jaw clenched tight while every instinct in me screams to not let her go.
She glares at me, unyielding. “Watch me.”
I step forward, closing the distance again as my voice drops. “I refuse to watch you die.”
Hesitating at this, she doesn’t say anything while she digests those words. For a second, there’s something in her expression that looks almost like doubt, but then it’s gone just as fast.
“I won’t fail again,” she says, quieter now, but no less fierce, as if still trying to convince herself of exactly that.
I shake my head. “This isn’t about failing. It’s about walking straight into a situation you don’t understand because of your pride.”
“I understand enough.”
“No, you don’t,” I snap, finding it harder to hold back after hearing how willing she is to throw everything away for people who don’t even value her life. “You have new abilities you can’t control, a pack that would betray you given the chance, and a group of wolves running an operation big enough to be a genuine threat, and you plan to just go back? To risk everything?”
She doesn’t hesitate. Doesn’t even need to think about it. “Yes.”
The conviction in her voice would be impressive if it weren’t so damn reckless, and if I weren’t on the verge of losing my mind.
I exhale sharply, turning away for a second, trying to rein in the frustration eating away at my insides. She’s making this damn impossible. “This is exactly what I’m talking about. You’re not thinking, Naia.”
“I am thinking.”
“You’re reacting.”
“I’m trying to take action,” she corrects, wholly believing that. “Something you seem to have forgotten how to do withoutoveranalyzing every possible outcome. You’re just trying to hold me back, but I won’t let you.”
I turn back to her as I search for the right words to say, but silence crashes down again, and nothing feels suitable enough. She’ll just keep fighting me no matter what.
After a beat, she murmurs with more finality than I appreciate, “I’m going back.”
