Chapter 5 5

Caden's POV

I swirled the amber liquid in my glass, watching it catch the dim lights in my study. Upstairs, I could hear footsteps, two different sets belonging to the two women currently entangled in my life.

I leaned my head against the chair, shut my eyes and listened. Even from her, I could easily pick up Nova’s agitation as she paced back and forth, I could feel the troubled energy of her wolf with every step. Tonight had shaken her, just as I knew it would, just as I planned. I had deliberately kept the news of Lila’s return a secret, kept Joshua’s existence under wraps, while I made plans to exact revenge on the woman who was my wife.

I should feel satisfied at an accomplished mission. Instead, all I felt was empty.

I tossed the rest of my drink into my mouth, the burn sliding down my throat did nothing to quiet the snarling in my head.

"You hurt her." Ash's growl rattled through my skull, vicious and unrelenting. "Turn around. Go up to her and explain, tell her the truth. Now."

I slammed my glass on the desk hard. "Shut the hell up."

He didn't. He never did anymore. My wolf had been clawing at me since I stepped out of the car with Lila, since I’d seen the look of confusion on Nova’s face as she’d watched me spring an unpleasant surprise on her in full view of the rest of the pack. 

Ash had been fighting me, raging against every hurtful admission, every single lie I’d told Nova tonight. 

I forced myself to remember why I hated her. To remember the reason I’d started this in the first place.

Why I could never forgive her.

I'd spent four years convincing myself she disgusted me. That I didn't want her. If she'd never stumbled into my life, Oliver, my best friend and beta,  would still be alive and the Shadowcrest pack wouldn't have lost so many great warriors that day.

"She's our mate." Ash's voice turned savage. "And you're treating her like trash."

"She’s the reason Oliver and the others are dead!"

"She was dying and you chose to save her. Own it."

I tossed the glass against the wall, watching it splinter into tiny fragments. Ash could go to hell.

But my mind dragged me back. Back to the night that ruined everything.

I had just taken over as the new Alpha of the Shadowcrest pack when war erupted between the packs. The war had stretched on for years, with packs forming and breaking alliances, all in a bid for supremacy, the right to claim the title of the Alpha King. Everyone wanted dominance. Power. Control.

And thanks to my late father, Shadowcrest had been caught up in the thick of the conflict. As one of the strongest packs, we faced constant attacks from rivals hoping to wipe us off the map. Oliver and I led the Shadowcrest warriors, defending and eviscerating any and all enemies. 

Together, we had been a team, an unbreakable force to be reckoned with.

Then she happened. Nova.

I was pacing the edge of our territory when a sound came from the woods. The sounds of an attack then a cry for help. Against Oliver’s advice, I’d gone to check it out and had managed to get there in time to save Nova from the killing blow.

Her scent had hit me first, wild jasmine and peaches and instantly, Ash’s howl of joy had nearly split my skull.

"Mate." 

Nova had been crumpled against a tree, broken and bleeding, her wounds gaped open, soaking the leaves beneath her red. Silver poisoning. I could smell it clinging to her skin.

Even dying, she was beautiful.

Her green eyes fluttered. She raised one shaking hand.

"Help... please."

I shifted and dropped to my knees.

"Who are you? What the hell are you doing here?"

She tried to speak but couldn't. Her eyes rolled back and she went limp.

I should've left her. Should've walked away.

"Save her." Ash's command was absolute. "Save our mate."

I didn't think. I just pressed my hands against her wounds, trying to stop the bleeding, my pulse hammering in my throat, while Ash screamed at me to protect her.

Even if it cost me everything.

And it did.

I carried her back to the nearest medical facility, abandoned my post and my responsibilities. Left a gaping hole in Shadowcrest's defenses.

By the time I returned, the battlefield ran with blood. The enemy had exploited the weakness I created.

Oliver lay dead, throat torn open. A quarter of our warriors were slaughtered and bodies littered the ground. Innocent souls that I had sworn to protect, gone and all because I saved her.

She didn't even know because she was unconscious the whole time, sleeping soundly while I stepped into hell for one moment of weakness. Try as I might, I couldn't stop blaming her. She felt like a trap set specifically for me, and I couldn't stop blaming myself for taking the bait.

So, I’d ignored my wolf’s protests, his insistence that we had found our mate and I walked away from Nova’s hospital bed and buried myself in rebuilding my pack and mourning those I’d lost.

Even then, getting her out of my mind proved near impossible. I kept an eye on her even though I never returned to see her, my suspicions of her still high, even while I tracked down the pack that had murdered my people. And when I finally did, I found irrefutable evidence that Nova had been used as a distraction against me. I'd watched surveillance videos showing her with the despicable alpha that had orchestrated the killings.

That was all the proof I needed. She wasn't innocent and I'd fallen for a spy at the cost of my pack.

I took my revenge. Against the pack and that alpha. But somehow, Nova had seemed to have disappeared into thin air and all efforts to trace her had proved abortive. Then the war ended and I turned my focus to rebuilding Shadowcrest into a larger, stronger version of itself.

I buried everything else deep. The war. My guilt. Her.

Then fate laughed in my face when my little sister Emily got sick with a rare form of blood disease and urgently needed a bone marrow transplant. I wasn’t a match and neither were any other volunteers in the pack. Desperate,I put out an offer. Ten million dollars to anyone who matched and would donate.

After weeks of unsuitable volunteers, I was close to giving up, I got good news. Someone was a ninety-eight percent match.

And apparently the Moon Goddess had a cruel and twisted sense of humor, because the donor turned out to be Nova. Still as hauntingly beautiful as the first time I’d seen her, sans the blood and the injuries.

The woman who’d betrayed me had become my salvation. And she looked me dead in the eye and told me, "I don't want the money."

That stopped me cold. "Then what do you want?"

She didn't hesitate long. "I want to be your wife. Your Luna."

I stared at her.

Of everything she could've asked for, she wanted the mate bond?

The woman who'd caused Oliver's death wanted to be my Luna?

The Moon Goddess had a sick sense of humor.

But I accepted.

Not because I wanted her.

Because this was my chance to make her suffer.

She'd save Emily. In return, I'd turn our marriage into a prison. She'd never have my love. Never have peace. She'd be my Luna, but I'd make sure she regretted every moment of it until she walked away on her own.

Good plan, except I’d underestimated Nova. Despite my ill treatment and cold indifference, she stayed, always with a smile on her face and gentle words.

I'd spent those same years shoving her away.

"She disgusts you," I muttered. "Remember that."

"What you're doing to our mate is unforgivable." Ash growled.

"She's not our mate."

My phone buzzed on the desk. It was a message from Lila.

I’m having trouble setting up Josh’s bed, can you come help?

I set the phone down and sighed, rubbing at my aching temples. Not for the first time since I’d sought her out, I wondered if I was doing the right thing by bringing Lila back here. It had seemed like a good idea while it was just that, an idea…a way to kill two birds effectively with minimal effort. 

But now… Nova’s pale, shocked face swam to the surface of my thoughts and I cursed.