Chapter 113: Said It Out
Chapter 113: Said It Out
Kaden’s POV
I furrowed my brow, staring down at Stephanie as a cold wave of anger washed over me. "What the hell do you mean?" I snapped, my voice irritably low.
Stephanie blinked, her smile faltering for just a second before she pressed on, her voice tight with a strange kind of desperation. "What, Alpha Kaden? We don’t need to pretend anymore because Rebecca is back. She will understand."
My irritation flared. I jerked my arm away, tearing my skin from Stephanie’s hands as if her touch burned me. I stared at her, my mind spinning into absolute chaos.
Was there no soul swap? Have I been wrong all along?
A sickening panic clawed at my throat. Was Rebecca never in Stephanie’s body? Had I spent the last few days falling for the wrong woman? Had I poured my heart out to the wrong person?
I shook my head instantly, my wolf roaring in denial. No. It wasn’t possible. Rebecca was in Stephanie’s body. I knew her fire, her defiance, her attitude... the way she looked at me. All those desperate words I had said last night in my bedroom, all those confessions... they were meant for Rebecca.
But then how did Stephanie know? If she was locked away in the void of Rebecca’s sleeping body, how could she possibly know what I said? A terrifying thought hit me. Had I been played? Had I been a pawn in some sick, twisted game?
Before I could even speak, Stephanie turned around to face the bed. She looked at Rebecca, putting on a guilty, soft expression. "I hope you won’t be angry at me, Rebecca," Stephanie said, looking guilty. "You see... while you were unconscious, Alpha Kaden confessed to me. He told me that he always liked me and wanted me as his woman."
My chest locked up. I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t look at Stephanie; my eyes flew instantly to Rebecca.
I stared at her, my green eyes wide with a hidden, desperate plea. I waited for her to snap. I waited for her to claim her territory. I waited for her to stand up and claim me—to tell Stephanie to back off, to show the fierce, jealous fire she had been harboring all night in my room. I wanted her to fight for me.
But Rebecca didn’t fight.
Instead, she just stared blankly ahead. The silence from her was louder than any scream. She slowly shifted her gaze between Stephanie and me, her face completely empty of any emotion.
"You don’t need my permission," Rebecca said, her voice terrifyingly calm, though I could see the faint tremble in her lips. She looked directly at me, her eyes dead and cold. "If you two want to be together... you can. I am nothing. Just a prisoner and a breeder."
A white-hot rage exploded through my veins.
How dare she? How dare she just hand me away to another woman without a single fight? After everything we went through, she was just going to step aside and let me go?
The pain of her rejection turned into pure, blinding fury. I couldn’t look at her blank face for another second without losing my mind.
I turned to Stephanie and spat. "G-Get out!" I roared, my voice shaking the very walls of the medical wing.
Stephanie flinched, her eyes widening in genuine terror as she took a frightened step back. "But Alpha Kaden, I thought—"
"I said leave!" I snarled, stepping into her space, my claws threatening to rip through my skin. "Leave right now before you regret it!"
She didn’t need to be told a third time. Trembling violently, Stephanie turned on her heel and practically fled from the room, slamming the heavy wooden door shut behind her.
The silence that followed was suffocating. I stood there, my back to the bed, my chest heaving as I tried to get my wild breathing under control. The white-hot rage was still vibrating through my bones, fueled entirely by the brutal pain of Rebecca’s rejection.
"That’s not a way to talk to a woman you want to court," Rebecca’s voice drifted over from the bed.
It was calm. Completely detached.
A snap echoed in my head. I spun around, my vision practically blurring with fury. I didn’t care about the wires, the heart monitor, or the doctors’ orders. I stormed over, climbed straight onto the mattress, and towered over her, pinning her beneath my body.
My hand shot out, wrapping firmly around the heavy metal choker locked around her neck.
I expected her to gasp. I expected her to shrink away, to show a flicker of fear, or to bite back with her usual fiery attitude. But she didn’t even blink. She didn’t look scared at all. She just lay there against the pillows, staring straight back at me, her eyes completely dead and empty.
"And what the hell was the meaning of that?!" I hissed, my face inches from hers, my green eyes flashing with anger. "You just hand me over to another woman? So easily? Like I mean absolutely nothing to you?!"
My grip on her choker wasn’t tight—I wasn’t choking her, and we both knew it—but the cold metal pressed against her skin, forcing her to feel every bit of my trembling frustration.
Rebecca let out a shallow, bitter breath, her lips curling into a tight, humorless smile.
"What do you want me to say, Alpha Kaden?" she whispered, looking up at me. "Do you want me to beg? Do you want me to fight another woman for a spot in your bed? I know my place. I’m just your sex slave and your breeder. Why would I care who else you touch?"
The word breeder tasted like poison coming from her mouth. It shattered the final piece of my restraint. The heavy weight I had been carrying in my chest all night—the agony of watching her soul, the terror of losing her—finally broke through the walls of my pride.
"You know you are more than that!" I spat, the words slipping out of my lips before I could stop them. I leaned down even lower, my grip tightening on the metal of her collar as I growled against her lips, "You are fucking more than that, Rebecca!"
The words hung between us.
My own voice echoed inside my head.
My heart stopped.
Damn it.
I had finally said it.
The moment the words echoed through the silent medical room, my heart stopped. I hadn’t planned on saying it. I didn’t want to admit it. But the truth had been sitting like a burning boulder in my chest for far too long, and looking into her empty eyes, I just couldn’t help it anymore.