Chapter Eleven
“How can you keep your mate waiting for a full moon and a half?”
I froze Mate?Kade stiffened..
And just like that, my heart cracked in two
The woman standing there looked like she’d stepped out of a royal painting Tall Graceful, Gold–streaked dark hair that framed high cheekbones and eyes the color of polished emeralds. Her voice was soft, but laced with entitlement–the kind that came from knowing her value had been decided long before she was bom.X
She wrapped her arms around Kade’s neck, pressing her lithe body into his He didn’t return the embrace, but he didn’t push her off either. He just stared at me.
My lips curled in a cold, mocking smile as I took a step back. “Of course.“}
The bitter laugh that slipped from my throat was almost hysterical. Goddess, I was so stupid, I thought there was something between us something real. He’d broken through my walls. Touched me. Marked me. Fucked me like I meant something. Like he did.
But all along, he had someone else.I turned without another word and walked away. He didn’t stop me. I didn’t expect him to.
The knife glinted in the fading light as I scraped it against a whetstone. The rhythmic motion was the only thing keeping me from shattering. From screaming !!
My body still ached from what we’d done in the clearing. My skin still tingled with the memory of his hands, his mouth, the heat of him. And yet, it all felt tainted now. Like poison cloaked in honey.
He’d lied to me. Manipulated me. Made me believe that maybe–just maybe he was different.
But no. He was just another male with secrets and a future that never included me.X
“Selene.”
His voice was low, careful. I didn’t look up 3
He stood a few feet away, hands at his sides, face unreadable. I hated how good he looked even now–how my body still responded to his scent, to the deep timbre of his voice.
“Her name is Callista” he said.
I stayed silent.
“She’s from the Bloodclaw Pack. Royal bloodline. The Elders arranged the mating.”
Still, I said nothing.
“It’s not love. It’s politics. Ashridge has been barely surviving for decades. Forgotten by the Council Treated like a cursed territory. We needed Bloodclaw’s alliance to be taken seriously again.”
“Arid you? Did you need her too?” Lasked, finally looking up, my tone sharp as a blade”
His jaw clenched. “No. I never wanted-“!
“Don’t lie to me again.”
He flinched. Just a flicker, but I saw it.”
“You knew,” I continued, my voice low and trembling with rage. “From the start. You knew she existed. You knew what the Elders expected of you. And yet, you let me fall into whatever the hell this was.”
“I didn’t plan this. I didn’t plan you
“No, you just used me until your real future showed up in a golden dress and pedigree papers.”
“It’s not like that.”
“Then what is it like, Kade? Explain it to me. Explain how you made me feel things I haven’t felt in years. How you looked at me like I was yours. Touched me like I belonged to you. And then let her waltz in and call you mate.“}}
He took a step closer, his voice rough “Because I didn’t know what to do with you. With how I feel about you, I still don’t
I stood, knife in hand. “You don’t have to do anything with me anymore. My training is done. We’re done.”
He stared at me for a moment, then quietly said, “I told you I know where your cousin is.”
The air punched out of me.
“So?
“Lyra. I’ve been keeping tabs through old resistance contacts. She’s alive. And she’s in hiding and I know you want to clear your name since you did not kill her.“”
“Where is she??“:
“Ashridge.
My fingers tightened around the knife. Goddess. Of course.
He didn’t gloat. Didn’t push. He just said, “I can take you to her.”
Later that night, I stood near the edge of the trees, looking up at the moons
One full One waxing I could leave. I could walk away and never look back. Pride begged me to!!
But where would I go? Back to the ashes of my broken past? Forward into an uncertain future with no leads, no allies, and no home?
Lyra was the one reason I went through all the pains earlier. And if she was in Ashridge, then so was my next step She had to explain to
11:00 AM c d
me why she did it.
I wouldn’t go because of Kade. I wouldn’t go because my heart still beat harder in his presence or because my body still burned when he
looked at me
I would go because I had to. But I swore–right there under the stars and the ghost of everything we almost had that I would never trust him again. Not with my heart. Not with my body. Not with anything that could break me !!
The next morning. Callista rode in the carriage ahead. Kade stood beside me as I mounted my horse. He didn’t touch me. Didn’t speak. Good I didn’t want words. I wanted distance. Answers. And my cousin back.
“When do we leave?” I asked without looking at him.
“Now “I nodded once and spurred my horse forward, refusing to glance back at him. Let him stare at my back. Let him remember exactly what he’d thrown away
We rode for hours in silence, the trees whispering overhead, the forest thinning as we neared the Ashridge border. The tension between us was a live wire. I could feel his gaze, heavy and regretful. I ignored it.
Callista never looked back either. She didn’t speak to me, but she didn’t gloat. She didn’t need to. Her mere presence was enough of a
victory
But that didn’t mean I’d lost. I might not have a crown or a title or a pristine bloodline, but I had fire. I had purpose. And I had rage Ashridge would see me coming. And they’d learn not to underestimate a wolf with nothing left to lose.
That night, as we made camp just outside Ashridge territory. I lay awake, staring at the stars through the open flap of my tent
heart still ached. Not because I loved him. But because I almost did. And almost was worse than never.
Selene’s POVI
