Rowan’s POV
“Stand down.”
The words hit me like a blow to the chest.
I freeze.
My knees lock.
My spine goes straight, sharp pain flashing down my back as my body obeys before my mind can catch up.
My sword slips from my fingers and lands in the dirt with a dull sound.
I didn’t choose this.
I didn’t want to.
I just… stopped.
“What the hell—” someone mutters behind me.
My heart slams hard, fast.
I try to move my foot.
It won’t lift.
My hand twitches, useless at my side.
My wolf howls inside me, not in fear—
In awe.
My eyes lift on their own.
She stands at the center of the ring, chest rising, breath uneven.
Sweat darkens her collar, her hair loose and wild like she just tore free from a storm.
Her eyes are wide, shocked, like she didn’t mean to say it.
Jessica.
She looks… bright.
Not glowing.
Not shining.
Heavy.
Like the air bends toward her.
“I didn’t—” she starts, then stops.
The ground hums under my boots.
I swallow hard.
“I can’t move,” I say, my voice low and strained.
The words scrape out of me like they’re pulled from my ribs.
“Alpha… I can’t move.”
A ripple runs through the warriors around us.
I hear sharp breaths.
A step back.
Someone crosses themselves like they’ve seen a ghost.
Jude swears under his breath.
Charles doesn’t speak.
He’s staring at her like the world just split open.
“Rowan,” Jude says carefully.
“Breathe.”
“I am,” I snap, panic flaring.
“I just— I can’t disobey her.”
The truth tastes strange in my mouth.
Jessica’s eyes lock onto mine.
Something presses inside my head.
Weight.
Old.
Deep.
Like a voice that has always been there, waiting for the right mouth to speak it.
Her lips part.
“Release,” she whispers.
My body jerks.
The pressure vanishes all at once.
I stagger forward, barely catching myself before I fall.
My lungs burn like I’ve been underwater too long.
The ring explodes into noise.
“What was that?”
“Did you feel it?”
“That wasn’t training.”
I drop to one knee without thinking, palm pressed to the dirt.
My wolf is on his belly inside me, head bowed.
I’ve never felt that before.
Never.
Jessica steps toward me, slow, like she’s afraid I’ll break.
“I didn’t mean to,” she says.
Her voice shakes, but there’s something under it.
Something firm.
“I just… said it.”
Charles moves fast.
He’s beside her in two strides, hand stopping just short of touching her back.
He doesn’t claim her.
Doesn’t mark her.
But the way he stands says enough.
“You didn’t push,” he says quietly.
“You commanded.”
Silence falls.
I lift my head.
My throat feels tight.
“That wasn’t Alpha force,” I say.
“I’ve felt Alpha force.”
Jessica flinches.
“This was… deeper.”
Jude exhales slowly.
“Say it, Rowan.”
I hesitate.
Then the truth takes me by the throat.
“She didn’t tell me to kneel,” I say.
“My body decided to.”
A shiver runs through the ring.
Jessica presses a hand to her chest like her heart hurts.
“I don’t want that,” she says.
“I don’t want to control anyone.”
Charles finally touches her then.
Just two fingers at her wrist.
Steady.
Grounding.
“I know,” he says.
But his eyes are dark.
Hungry.
The elders arrive before anyone can breathe again.
Their robes whisper over stone as they step into the ring, faces tight, eyes sharp.
One of them looks at me first.
“You felt it,” Elder Marr says.
“Yes,” I answered.
“Did it hurt?”
“No.”
“Did you resist?”
I swallow.
“I couldn’t.”
The elder’s mouth tightens.
He turns to Jessica.
“Say it again.”
Charles stiffens.
“No.”
Jessica looks between them, confused and tense.
“I won’t.”
Marr smiles thinly.
“You don’t know what you are.”
“I know what I’m not,” she snaps.
“I’m not your weapon.”
Something inside me surges at her words.
Pride.
Heat.
My wolf lifts his head again.
The elder raises his hand.
“Rowan.”
I look at him.
“Attack her.”
My stomach drops.
Jessica’s head snaps toward me.
“No,” she says.
The word lands like thunder.
I stop breathing.
I don’t move.
The elder’s eyes widened.
The ground cracks.
Not stone—will.
Jessica stares at her own hands like they don’t belong to her.
“I didn’t mean to,” she whispers.
But it’s too late.
Every wolf in the ring knows now.
She isn’t learning power.
She is remembering it.
Charles steps in front of her fully this time, broad shoulders blocking the elders’ view.
His voice is low, deadly calm.
“She was never meant to submit.”
Marr’s smile returns, sharp and cold.
“Then she will break the pack.”
Torches flare all at once.
Alarms begin to ring.
And somewhere deep inside me, my wolf bows—
Not to the Alpha.
But to the Queen who just woke up Alright.
We’ll continue seamlessly.