Chapter 316: The Push

Rebecca’s POV

​The silence in the council hall was so heavy you could hear a pin drop. Dozens of high-ranking werewolf elders and council members were staring right at me, their jaws practically opened wide. Papers had been lowered, pens frozen in midair, as if I had dropped straight out of the sky.

​Which, technically, I had.

​Whispers broke out all at once, spreading through the room like wildfire.

​"Did she just appear here?"

​"She teleported... without a portal?"

​"Who is she?"

​"Wait. Isn’t that Alpha Kaden’s breeder?"

​The word breeder hit me like a slap to the face. My chest tightened, and full-blown panic seized my throat. Then came another whisper, quickly following the first.

​"The woman accused of killing Queen Helen?"

​"No, the Alpha King cleared her name yesterday."

​"So that’s Rebecca? The one from the statement?"

​Oh, fuck. This was bad. Very, very bad. I hadn’t just teleported into Kaden’s pack; I had teleported straight into what looked like one of the most important council meetings in the supernatural world. Everyone was staring at me like I was a circus attraction.

​"I’m sorry," I managed to whisper, taking a nervous step backward, though I wasn’t even sure who I was apologizing to.

​"What bloodline is she from?" more voices chimed in. "Did the Alpha King know?"

​Panicked, I squeezed my eyes shut, trying with everything in me to jump back to Stone Pack. Think of the garden. Think of my room. My mother. Anywhere but here.

​Nothing happened. The magic inside my blood felt completely dead, frozen solid by the sheer terror rushing through my veins. I opened my eyes, still standing in the middle of the hall, my breathing turning shallow.

​Kaden must have noticed me spiraling, because a split second later, his voice thundered across the massive room.

​"Silence!"

​He used his raw Alpha command, and the powerful vibration of it rattled the stone walls. The room instantly fell dead silent. Nobody dared to breathe, let alone whisper. Every single elder suddenly became very interested in the papers in front of them. Under any other circumstances, I might have laughed.

​Kaden slammed his folder shut, his eyes never leaving mine. "This meeting is suspended for one hour," he announced authoritatively.

​Without waiting for a response, he stepped down from his throne and walked directly toward me. He didn’t look angry; he just looked intensely concerned.

​He stopped in front of me and gently held out his hand. "Come with me."

​I stared at his hand for a second before placing mine in his. His fingers closed gently around mine, and I let him lead me out of the grand hall. I could feel dozens of eyes following us until the heavy wooden doors shut behind us.

​He led me down a wide corridor and out a side door that opened up to a quiet corner of the pack grounds. Realizing we were alone, only then did he release my hand.

​"Are you okay?" he asked softly.

​"I... I was practicing my abilities with my mother in the garden," I stammered, my voice shaking as I rubbed my palms against my jeans. "I was trying to learn how to control it, and then suddenly I appeared here. And now... now I can’t go back."

​Kaden looked at me carefully. "How did you get here?"

​I swallowed hard. "My mother told me to think of someone I genuinely wanted to see."

​The words left my mouth before I realized what I had just admitted. Kaden went completely still. So did I.

​Wonderful. I wanted the ground to open and swallow me whole.

​His eyes softened slightly. "You thought about me?"

​"That isn’t the important part."

​"It feels fairly important."

​"Kaden."

​"Right." He cleared his throat, but I could see the smallest hint of a smile trying to appear at the corner of his mouth.

​He looked away, but that only made it worse because I could still see it. I groaned. "I hate you."

​The smile disappeared almost immediately, and just like that, the air between us shifted. My stomach twisted. I hadn’t meant it like that—not this time.

​"Kaden..."

​"It’s okay," he said quietly, stepping back into that familiar, careful distance.

​I swallowed hard, trying to steer us back. "Anyway... it’s okay, Rebecca. You just need to calm down, take a deep breath, and try to return home. You’re forcing it because you’re panicking."

​"I am not panicking!"

​"Rebecca, you’re breathing like you’ve just run ten miles."

​I opened my mouth to argue, then realized he was right. Damn him.

​"Take a breath," he said softly. "Close your eyes and try again. Think about your room. Don’t think about anything else."

​I took a shaky breath and closed my eyes again. I pictured my bedroom at Stone Pack—the soft duvet, the sunlight streaming through the window, the quiet safety of it. I waited for that familiar, rubber-band pull of magic to drag me through space.

​But when I opened my eyes, I was still standing on the stone floor outside the council building. And Kaden was still standing right in front of me.

​"Fuck," I grunted, tears of pure frustration stinging the corners of my eyes. "It’s not working!"

​"Calm down," Kaden said gently. "You’re safe. You’re not trapped here. If your power doesn’t work, I’ll have the jet prepared and take you back to Stone Pack myself."

​That should have calmed me, but it didn’t. That meant hours trapped here because my own ability refused to listen. Why couldn’t I teleport anywhere away from him? Why did my magic only work when it brought me straight to his feet?

​"No. I can do this," I snapped, turning away from him. I closed my eyes again. The garden. My room. Stephanie’s room. Mother! Anywhere!

​Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

​"Fuck!" I clenched my fists, turning back around sharply. I needed to leave. I needed to get out of his pack, away from those staring council members, away from this overwhelming mate bond.

​"Rebecca, stop for a second," Kaden said, stepping closer. "You’re getting worked up."

​"I know!"

​"Then breathe."

​"I am breathing!"

​"Barely." He reached out for my arms, not aggressively, but just trying to steady me.

​"Don’t!" I snapped, overwhelmed by frustration.

​Out of pure instinct, I put my hands on his chest and pushed him away just to give myself some breathing room. I didn’t mean to push him hard. It was supposed to be a slight shove—just enough to make him take a step back.

​Honestly, if you were standing there watching this, you would expect him to barely budge. The man is built like a brick wall, an Alpha King made of solid muscle, while I am a pregnant, exhausted mess who can barely keep her hands from shaking. A slight push shouldn’t have done a single thing to him.

​So imagine my absolute horror when a shockwave of raw, invisible energy burst out of my palms the exact second my hands touched his chest.

​The air cracked like lightning.

​A powerful force burst through my arms, and Kaden was lifted completely off his feet, flying backward through the air like a ragdoll. He crashed hard into the thick stone wall at the far end of the hallway, the impact echoing like a gunshot as the stone cracked behind him, before he crumpled heavily onto the floor.

​"Kaden!" I screamed.

​I ran toward him as fast as my legs could carry me. He groaned in pain, laying flat on his back, one hand pressed against his side as he tried to catch his breath.

​I dropped to my knees beside him, my chest heaving. "Kaden! Kaden, look at me!"

​His eyes opened, and he grimaced. "I’m fine."

​"You are not fine! You just flew across a hallway!"

​He groaned in pain.

​"Did you hit your head? Your ribs?"

​"I’m fine," he groaned, trying to sit up.

​I immediately reached toward him to help, then froze. My hands hovered in the air. I slowly pulled them back, staring down at my palms in total disbelief. They looked completely normal—no light, no strange marks, nothing. But I knew what I had felt. That force. That violent burst of energy.

​"I barely pushed you," I whispered, my voice trembling violently. "I barely touched you."

​"Calm down," Kaden said softly, his worried eyes fixed on mine.

​My heart started pounding with panic... The stone wall behind him was literally cracked. Kaden was an Alpha King—one of the strongest wolves alive—and I had just thrown him across a hallway with a single, slight push.

​I stared at my trembling hands, complete shock washing over me.

​What the hell did I just do?