“A system that was never built for you to win.”
When she doesn’t say anything, there’s a split second where I think that might actually get through to her, until she comes back with even more conviction.
“Then I’ll break it.”
Everything about her right now is absolute, unshakable, and completely reckless in a way that I know will only spell further trouble for her.
I huff out a breath, feeling the frustration rising like it usually does when we clash. “You can’t fix something like that from the inside.”
“Watch me.”
“Naia—”
“I don’t have a choice!” she snaps, the words tearing out of her like they’ve been sitting there for years. Her chest rises and falls sharply, and her hands curl into fists at her sides. “I don’t have a choice. It’s all I’ve ever known.”
Finally. That’s the truth underneath everything else.
Before I can miss my opportunity, I soften my tone slightly. “You do have a choice. You always do.”
“No,” she says immediately, as if it’s a fact I refuse to look at. “I don’t.”
Even if I shouldn’t be wasting my breath, the words leave me unbidden. “You could stay and build something different. You don’t have to keep proving yourself to people who’ve already decided what you are and what your worth is to them.”
The laugh that slips from her is both bitter and venomous. “That’s far too easy for you to say.”
“It’s not easy,” I argue, easily recalling how hard a transition it was for me, especially with my biases. “I had to leave everything behind to get here. It didn’t happen overnight, but it’s possible, and it’s worth it.”
“And you’re proud of that…abandoning everything?” she challenges.
“No, I’m not. But I’d do it again for the chance to be something else,” I admit, watching as her eyes search mine.
For a second, something changes in her expression again, this time slipping into something more uncertain. Before long, it hardens protectively.
“I don’t want to be something else. I want to be seen for what I am.”
“Then why go back?”
“Because I need to make them see it,” Naia utters, wavering just enough to sound painfully vulnerable. “I need to prove that I’m more than an Omega. That I’m more than what they decided I was the moment my brother became Alpha.”
“You don’t need to prove that to anyone,” I try to explain. “You don’t owe your brother anything, and you sure as hell don’t owe that pack anything.”
“I owe it to myself,” she fires back. “And I owe it to the wolves who think they can do whatever they want and get away with it.”
“That’s not your responsibility.”
“It is if I make it mine.”
Frustrated and feeling something dark curling in my gut at the thought, I grit my teeth. “You’re going to get yourself killed.”
“Then I’ll die proving something!”
Those words hit me harder than if she really did feel like punching me, and everything in me goes still. I know she’s being serious, but everything in me refuses to accept that.
“Or,” she continues, her voice shaking now with something deeper than anger. Something that comes from the farthest depths. “I’ll finally be more than what they think I am.”
My heart tightens, and I wish more than anything that she could understand how ridiculous that sounds, especially when I already see a powerful woman right in front of me.
“You already are,” I say, quieter now.
