Chapter 55
[ 1,118 words ]
Another world
55: 55.
Another world Kade
Aria doesn’t let it go.
I knew she wouldn’t.
She’s sitting forward now, elbows on her knees, eyes locked on me, as if I even think about holding something back, she’ll call me on it.
There’s sweat still clinging to her skin from training, her hair damp, her body exhausted—but her mind?
Sharp.
Too sharp.
Barric leans against the wall across from us, arms crossed, watching the exchange without interrupting.
He’ll step in if he needs to, but for now, this is mine.
My wolf shifts beneath my skin, restless.
She deserves the truth.
“I’m getting that look again,” Aria says, narrowing her eyes at me.
“The one where you decide how much I can handle.”
I huff out a quiet breath and rub the back of my neck.
“Yeah,” I admit.
“I am.”
“Don’t.”
Simple.
Direct.
Not a request.
I glance at Barric.
He doesn’t move, but there’s a subtle tilt of his head.
Your call.
Right.
“No more half-answers,” Aria adds.
My wolf rumbles.
Good.
I drag a hand down my face, then look back at her.
“Alright,” I say.
“Then listen carefully.”
She nods once.
“The Veil isn’t just… some abstract thing we use to stay hidden,” I begin.
“It’s not just about keeping humans and hunters from knowing we exist.”
Her brow furrows slightly as she listens.
“It’s more than that,” I continue.
“It shapes how the world overlaps.”
“Overlaps?” she echoes.
“Yeah.” I shift forward, bracing my forearms on my thighs.
“There are places—towns, territories—that are… ours. Fully ours. Built by shifters. Lived in by shifters.”
Barric picks up from there, his voice steady.
“Places humans aren’t meant to enter.”
Aria’s gaze flicks between us.
“Like another world?”
I shake my head immediately.
“No. Not another world.”
Explain it better, my wolf pushes.
I exhale slowly, searching for the right words.
“It’s more like…” I gesture vaguely.
“An extension. Same world, different layer. The Veil acts like a barrier between what humans experience and what we do.”
She leans in slightly.
“So it’s still there… they just can’t access it?”
“Exactly,” I say.
“Or more accurately, they don’t want to. The Veil pushes them away. Makes those places feel wrong, or uninteresting, or just… invisible.”
Recognition flickers in her eyes.
“Like when you forget why you walked into a room,” she says slowly.
“Yeah,” Barric nods.
“But stronger.”
Aria sits back slightly, processing.
Then her expression shifts.
“So that town,” she says carefully.
“The one Alpha Wyatt mentioned…”
I nod once.
“It’s a shifter town,” she finishes.
“And humans got in anyway?”
Barric answers this time.
“Yes.”
The single word drops with the weight of a concrete brick.
Aria’s lips part slightly.
“But you just said—”
“I know what I said,” Barric cuts in.
“And normally, the Veil acts like a repellent. Humans don’t go near those places. They don’t notice them. They don’t question why.”
My wolf growls low.
But they did.
“But if they crossed into one,” I continue, “it means something is wrong.”
“Something is happening to the Veil,” Barric finishes.
Silence settles over the room.
Aria stares at the floor for a long moment.
Then she looks back up.
“What’s so bad about it coming down?”
The question is quiet.
But it hits like a punch.
Barric doesn’t answer immediately.
Neither do I.
Because the truth?
The truth isn’t simple.
“They could just… blend in, right?” she continues.
“Like you already do. Like you’ve been doing this whole time.”
I rub the back of my neck again, tension coiling tight.
Nothing about this is going the way we planned.
Nothing about her is going the way we expected.
My wolf presses forward, insistent.
Tell her.
I exhale.
“Aria,” I say, my voice lower now.
“There’s something you need to understand.”
She stills.
“There are a lot more of us than you think.”
Her brows pull together.
“How many?”
I let out a humorless breath.
“Enough.”
“Enough for what?”
I hold her gaze.
“Enough that if humans saw all of us—really saw us—it wouldn’t stay quiet.”
Her expression shifts.
Understanding starts to creep in.
“The Veil doesn’t just hide us,” I continue.
“It controls exposure. It limits what humans can process, what they notice, what they remember.”
Barric nods once.
“Without it, we lose that control.”
“And with numbers like ours?” I add.
“Living among billions of humans?”
My wolf’s voice drops to a dark whisper.
They would see everything.
“It would be impossible to stay hidden,” I finish.
Aria’s breathing changes.
Slower.
Heavier.
“And if they can’t ignore us,” she says quietly, “they’ll react.”
“Yeah,” I say.
Her gaze sharpens.
“Like they already are.”
Images flash through my mind—reports, whispers, blood.
“Yes.”
She swallows.
“And that leads to…”
“War,” Barric says flatly.
The word sits between us, cold and solid.
Aria doesn’t look away this time.
She absorbs it.
Really absorbs it.
I watch it happen—the moment it clicks.
The moment this stops being abstract and becomes real.
My wolf softens slightly.
She understands now.
Aria drags a hand through her hair, her fingers trembling just slightly.
“So what do we do?” she asks.
Barric pushes off the wall, stepping forward.
“For now?” he says.
“We wait for Ronan’s orders.”
She frowns.
“That’s it?”
“No,” he adds.
“But it’s the first step.”
I pick up from there.
“More than likely, we’re going to start reaching out to our allies.
The ones who live outside the Veil.”
“To do what?”
“Set up perimeter systems,” Barric answers.
“Guards.
Barriers.
Anything we can use to keep humans away from the areas that are most vulnerable.”
“While we figure out how to reinforce what’s breaking,” I add.
Aria nods slowly.
Then—
The door opens.
We all turn.
Liam steps inside, his expression serious.
“Which means,” he says, crossing his arms, “we need to contact the Assembly.”
Barric exhales.
“Yeah. I was getting there.”
Aria’s phone starts ringing.
The sharp sound cuts through the tension.
She glances at it, then back at us.
“I’ll be right back,” she says, already moving toward the door.
I watch her go.
My wolf follows her with a low, possessive rumble.
Mate.
The door shuts behind her.
And just like that, the room shifts.
Heavier.
Colder.
More real.
I glance at Barric.
“How bad is it?”
He doesn’t pretend to misunderstand.
“The pack?” he asks.
I nod.
He runs a hand through his hair, tension clear in every line of his body.
“Most are staying,” he says.
“They’ll fight.”
Of course they will.
They’re ours.
“But?” I press.
“There are a few,” he admits.
“Ones with families. Young ones. They want out.”
My jaw tightens.
“And?”
“We’re going to have to relocate them,” he says.
“Somewhere safer.”
My wolf bristles.
There is no safer.
Liam shifts his weight, arms still crossed.
“With the Veil breaking… how can we be sure anywhere is safe?”
Barric meets his gaze.
“We can’t.”
The words land hard.
Because they’re true.
Because we all know it.
Silence stretches.
The future—whatever it is—feels closer than ever.
And more uncertain than it’s ever been.
I lean back slightly, dragging a hand over my jaw.
Everything is shifting.
The Veil.
The humans.
The balance we’ve relied on for generations.
And in the middle of it—
Aria.
My wolf surges forward again, stronger this time.
We complete the bond.
I stiffen.
Not here.
Not now.
Too late, he argues.
Danger comes.
She is unclaimed.
Unprotected.
“She’s not unprotected,” I mutter.
Barric glances at me.
“You good?”
“Yeah,” I say automatically.
Lie.
My wolf snarls.
You hesitate.
“I’m thinking.”
You’re delaying.
Because this isn’t just instinct.
This is her life.
Her choice.
And everything in me is split straight down the middle.
The part of me that’s trained.
Controlled.
Loyal to the structure we’ve built.
And the part of me that is wolf.
Primal.
Certain.
Mate.
Protect.
Claim.
I close my eyes briefly, exhaling through my nose.
To hell with patience.
The thought slips in before I can stop it.
My wolf goes still.
Then—
Yes.
I open my eyes just as the door opens again.
Aria steps back inside, her expression unreadable.
But I feel it.
The shift.
Something else is coming.
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