Chapter 3: The Offer
He stepped closer, holding out the necklace.
“Let me show you.”
She hesitated.
“I’m not asking you to trust me,” he said softly. “Just to give me one night. One chance to prove I’m not your enemy.”
Her hands shook as she took the pendant. It was warm. It felt like home and heartbreak at the same time.
“What happens if I remember everything?” she asked.
Damon’s eyes burned.
“Then everything changes.”
The necklace wouldn’t stop burning.
Zara twisted on the bed, sheets tangled around her legs, sweat slicking her skin. The pendant lay against her chest, pulsing with heat that felt alive—angry, ancient, like it wanted out.
“Run, Zara. Run and don’t look back.”
That voice again. Her own? No—someone else's. Female. Distant. Screaming through the flames.
She gasped awake.
Pitch black room.
The fire had gone out. Her breath puffed clouds into the cold air. She blinked, heart pounding.
She wasn’t alone.
The silence had changed—again.
She sat up slowly.
Then she saw him.
Killian.
Leaning against the window frame, arms crossed, pale eyes glinting in the dark like a wolf sizing up prey. No noise. No warning. Just him and the silence he wore like armor.
“You have five seconds to explain why you’re here before I scream,” Zara said, reaching for the iron poker beside her bed.
He raised his hands in mock surrender. “No need for violence, pretty girl. I’m not here to fight.”
“You broke into an Alpha’s mansion. Again. That makes you a liar, a lunatic, or suicidal.”
“Technically, I never left,” he said with a sly smirk. “You just stopped looking.”
“Cute.” She slid out of bed and stood barefoot in front of him. “Say what you came to say and get out.”
Killian’s smile faded. “Alright. Straight to it, then.”
He stepped forward, closing the space between them until she could see the faint scar running from his collarbone to his jaw. “You want the truth. All of it. I have it.”
Zara crossed her arms. “And what’s the price?”
He leaned in, his voice dropping. “You leave with me. Tonight.”
Her breath caught. “You want me to run.”
“I want you to be free.”
“And Damon just… what? Lets me walk out?”
Killian’s expression darkened. “Damon will never let you go. He’ll dress it up like protection, like love, maybe even redemption. But the truth? He’s a cage. Just a prettier one than the last.”
Zara turned away, pacing, hands shaking. “You don’t know what I’ve been through.”
“No,” he agreed. “But I know what’s coming.”
She looked back. “What do you mean?”
“Your powers—your wolf—they’re bound. Damon’s presence suppresses them. That’s not accidental. It’s a leash.”
Zara flinched.
“He says he’s your mate,” Killian continued. “But did he tell you what he did the night you disappeared?”
Her stomach dropped. “No. Just that I was taken.”
“He gave you up,” Killian said softly.
Zara’s knees buckled, but she gripped the bedpost. “Liar.”
“He made a deal to protect his pack. You were the sacrifice.” Killian stepped closer. “And now that he sees what you’re becoming, he’s pretending he never made that deal.”
Zara stared at him, searching for the lie—but found only something worse.
Conviction.
“You’re saying Damon sold me out.”
“I’m saying you’re more powerful than both of us. And that terrifies him.”
Zara’s pulse roared in her ears.
“Why help me?” she asked. “What do you get out of this?”
Killian’s gaze flickered. “Let’s just say… I owe someone.”
Zara narrowed her eyes. “Who?”
He hesitated. “Your sister.”
The world tilted.
“I don’t—” Her words caught. “I don’t have a sister.”
“You did,” Killian said. “You don’t remember her because the curse buried her too deep. But she died to keep you hidden. I was there. And I failed her.”
Silence fell like snow.
Zara’s throat burned. Her chest ached with something formless and heavy.
“Come with me,” Killian said gently. “Let me show you where it started. You deserve the truth—not someone else’s version of it.”
A knock on the door made them both freeze.
Then Damon’s voice. Low. Calm. Too calm.
“Zara. It’s time we talked.”
Killian’s eyes met hers.
Choose. Now.
Zara’s heartbeat thundered. Her hand curled around the pendant at her chest.
One step toward Killian, and she’d be running headfirst into the unknown—chased by a man who claimed to love her and hunted by enemies she didn’t remember.
One step toward Damon, and she’d be in a castle of secrets, watched, protected, maybe even loved… but never free.
“Zara?” Damon’s voice again, closer. “Are you alright?”
She looked at Killian.
“Give me until tomorrow.”
His jaw clenched. “You don’t have until tomorrow.”
“Then wait anyway.”
He stared at her for a beat longer, then melted into the shadows with a soft whisper: “Don’t trust him.”
The moment he vanished, the door opened.
Damon stepped in. Shirtless. Muscles tense. Eyes sharper than before.
“Who was here?” he asked.
Zara didn’t answer.
His eyes scanned the room.
“I can smell him,” he said tightly.
“I told him to leave,” she said, voice quiet.
“And if I hadn’t walked in?” he asked. “Would you have gone with him?”
She didn’t know. She didn’t say.
Damon’s hands curled into fists at his sides.
“You’re not ready to leave,” he said. “Not until you know what you really are.”
“Then stop hiding it from me,” she shot back. “Tell me everything.”
“You’re not just a werewolf,” he said after a beat. “You’re something older. Something the packs were told never existed.”
He walked to the window, staring out at the woods.
“You’re a Null.”
Zara frowned. “What the hell is that?”
“Nulls were the first bloodline,” he said. “Before Alphas, before Luna councils. Pure power. Born with the ability to suppress and override the instincts of other wolves. Kings feared them. Packs hunted them. And then… they disappeared.”
She swallowed hard. “And now you think I’m one of them.”
“I know you are,” he said. “Your mother was the last known Null. She died protecting you.”
Another knife to the ribs.
Zara’s voice trembled. “And you knew all this?”
“I found out after the fire,” Damon said. “After I made the deal. After it was too late.”
She turned to him, trembling. “You gave me up.”
“I did what I had to do to save my pack.”
“Bullshit!” she snapped. “You let me burn.”
“I didn’t know what they’d do,” he said. “I didn’t know they’d wipe you clean.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not.” He stepped closer. “I came for you, Zara. I fought through blood and bone to find you. I didn’t expect you to love me again—but I will protect you this time.”
Her lip curled. “I don’t need protection. I need the truth.”
“I’m giving it to you,” Damon said, voice fraying. “I made a mistake. But I’m not your enemy.”
Zara’s eyes burned. Her head pounded. Her wolf—silent all her life—scratched behind her ribs, restless and angry.
“I’m going to sleep,” she said coldly. “Alone.”
Damon nodded slowly and turned for the door.