“I understand why you think you need to go back,” I correct, feeling as my stubbornness matches hers without hesitation. “That doesn’t mean you’re right.”
Her jaw tightens, seeming closer to putting up a genuine fight now rather than seeing eye-to-eye after all. “Unbelievable.”
“Naia—”
“No,” she cuts in with more force now as the warmth from before completely vanishes. “You don’t get to stand there and tell me what I do or don’t need.”
“I’m not telling you what you need,” I say, even though that’s exactly what it sounds like. “I’m telling you what you don’t. It’s been right in front of you this whole time.”
“Because that’s so much better.”
I exhale slowly, trying to keep this from spiraling even if it’s a pointless endeavor now. Once we start, it seems impossible to stop until we’re both beyond frustrated with each other.
“Everything you’re talking about…proving yourself, earning respect, going back to fix things…you’re still letting them define you. There’s more to life than trying to earn your place,” I tell her, wondering how I’m ever going to get through to her.
Her expression goes cold immediately. “You don’t get to say that.”
“I do if it’s true.”
“It’s not.”
“It is,” I push. “You’re tying your entire worth to what they think of you, but the system’s rigged against you. I’ve seen what happens when you stay in a place where everyone refuses to see you for what you are.”
“What am I then?” she challenges, practically salivating at the chance to correct me before I can even respond.
Still, I don’t hesitate. “More than what they made you believe.”
For a beat, just long enough for me to catch, something wavers in her gaze, then disappears just as quickly while she steels herself.
“You think I don’t know that?” Naia asks, quieter now but no less intense. “You think I haven’t been fighting my entire life to prove that?”
“I think you’ve been fighting the wrong battle, yet you keep fighting it again and again.”
Her anger spikes again, immediate and unwavering as she stands, forcing me to do the same. She shakes her head with a tight jaw. “No. You just don’t get it, and you never will.”
“Then explain it to me.”
“It’s my pack. I’m the Alpha’s sister,” she says, her voice steadier now, stronger. “That means something.”
“It means they expect more from you,” I counter. “It doesn’t mean they’ll give you anything in return.”
“Then I’ll take it.”
“You shouldn’t have to.”
“You don’t get to tell me how to live my life. Not when you left,” she repeats, quieter now.
“I do because I left,” I counter, unshaken by the way she throws it back at me. “I got to see another world out there, away from the island and away from Wraith Peak. My perspective changed the moment I did.”
“You left,” she continues, stepping closer now as her voice rises. “You walked away from it all, so of course it’s easy for you to stand there and judge it. You have no idea what I’ve been through or what I’ve done since you’ve been gone.”
My brows furrow. “I’m not judging you.”
“You are,” she snaps, close enough now for me to feel the heat radiating off her. “You’re standing there acting like you’re above it now, just because you got away.”
“I’m not above it,” I say, frustration creeping in. “I just see it for what it is, and I’m trying to help you see it, too.”
“And what is that?” she demands.
