Chapter 16 #2
His laugh was humorless. “You’re not faking any fucking bond with Walker.”
“Why not?” I asked defiantly, tilting my head, daring him to explain.
“Because I don’t want you to.”
“Oh wow.” I arched a brow. “That’s your grand argument? Straight out of the toddler handbook.”
The muscle in his jaw ticked, his hands flexing at his sides. “Because it’s not fighting the Chiefs, it’s placating them.”
I scoffed. “I’m sorry, were we in the same meeting just now? Because placating fifteen of the deadliest trained killers who threatened to kill everyone I love doesn’t sound like the worst strategy.”
“It is when you’re the one paying the price!”
“And you’re shouting at me as if it’s you who has to pay it!” I shot back.
His chest rose hard and fast, fury sparking in his eyes. “If you think I could ever stand by and watch you suffer that cost… If you think I’d ever let you bleed just so they could keep breathing, you have no idea who I am.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but he cut me off, his voice dropping low again. “You were forced into the True Bond once before. I killed the bastard who did that to you, and I’d do it again in a second. Whoever they may be.”
He took a shaky breath, his anger giving way to something raw, something almost vulnerable. “Don’t make me watch you do something because you think you don’t have any other choice. I can’t do that, Emma. I can’t fucking handle that.”
I grabbed his arm. “Caden, all I’m saying is, if it’s a choice between a fake bond with James or a real one, I’d take the fake one every time.”
His gaze locked on mine. “And what would that mean for us?”
I stilled for a beat, realizing the answer tasted bitter on my tongue. “I’m not about to risk anyone’s life on…on some physical attraction.”
“Physical attraction,” Caden echoed slowly. He took a step back, releasing himself from my grip. “Right. Because what’s physical attraction next to a mating bond that’s supposed to save the world?”
I flexed my jaw once. “You know, I could really do without the sarcasm.”
“And I,” he snapped, “could do without the prophetic bullshit. But it looks like we’re both headed for disappointment.”
I met his glare head-on, refusing to give him the satisfaction of flinching. “They might be right, you know. The Chiefs. You really think it’s a coincidence my son will carry James’s first name?”
His eyes went black, cold rage rolling off him. “You did not just say that.”
I shrugged, though my chest felt like it might split open. “Why not? If they’re right, I could—”
Caden’s hand shot out, clamping around my throat, not hard enough to bruise, only enough to hold me still, to force my eyes on his.
His voice came rough, ragged, scraped raw by fury. “Don’t you dare finish that sentence.”
The darkness was back. I saw it in his expression, that tight, dangerous edge where Caden needed control and didn’t care how he got it. My breathing was simply the nearest thing he could take hold of.
My heart hammered against his palm, but beneath the rush of adrenaline sat a steadier truth: I was safe. Even like this—vulnerable, my air caught under his grip—I knew he wouldn’t hurt me.
Still, I slammed my forearm into his wrist until his grip broke. “You just don’t want to hear the truth.”
He scoffed and shook his head as disbelief slashed across his face. “That’s not the truth. That’s the easy way out.”
I blinked. “What?”
“You heard me. Swallowing that shit as truth means you never have to choose between fathers. You can simply hide behind the Chiefs’ threats and pretend it’s out of your hands.”
My spine went rigid, chin lifting. “Say that again, I dare you.”
He bulldozed right past my attempted threat. “And even if James is Alek’s father, so what? Being with him isn’t what you want right now. So don’t pretend it is, when all of this is nothing more than you letting the future dictate your present.”
My teeth ground together, fury sparking in my veins until it was hard to breathe. “Oh, as if you don’t know exactly what that feels like? Letting the future dictate your decisions? Your feelings, even?”
“Excuse me?”
“Oh, come on, Caden.” I closed the distance, unwilling to back down.
“Don’t pretend you didn’t do a complete one-eighty the moment you found out I might be the mother of your child.
One day you were perfectly fine hurting me, torturing me, experimenting on me, all in the name of your people.
Then bam. You find out there’s a chance you could be Alek’s father, and suddenly I’m sitting at the dinner table, being treated like part of the family. ”
His jaw locked, his entire body vibrating with restraint. “You think that’s why I included you? Why I welcomed you into my home? Because of some possible future?”
I folded my arms across my chest, locking my gaze with his, while I tilted my chin higher. “If there’s another reason, then please, by all means, enlighten me.”
Caden’s nostrils flared before he spoke. “I agreed for you to follow me to Crown because no matter how I spun it, you were too powerful to leave behind. The only way Alek factored into my decision was because I believed it would make you fight on our side, to protect your son.”
I snorted. “Right. Which was never a reason to include me in the first place, but to drag me into your home? That was just fine.”
He let out a low growl, his hands flexing at his sides. “I told you why we didn’t include you in the plan.”
“And I told you why you should have,” I snapped, my pulse hammering as I translated away my Skindo tattoo, baring the twisted scars beneath, his scars, his doing. “Remember these?”
Caden froze.
“Any way you spin it, Caden, it is fucked up I feel attracted to the man who permanently disfigured me. I can forgive you for it, and I can see beyond the man who did it, but don’t you dare tell me it doesn’t matter.”
“I never said it didn’t matter!” His throat worked visibly, words cracking with the force of them. For a fleeting moment, something raw flickered across his face. “But I thought we’d moved past this. I thought we were…friends.”
I tilted my head, my tone skeptical. “Really? Is that what we are? Friends?”
His jaw twitched. For a second, I thought he might scoff, but instead his stare hardened, searching me, as if he couldn’t tell if I was baiting him.
“What the hell do you want from me, Emma? You tell me you’re attracted to me, then you say we can’t ignore the Chiefs’ threats. So, you tell me what the fuck we are.”
I shook my head, eyes dropping, unwilling—unable—to meet his gaze.
But he wouldn’t let me. In one swift move he was in front of me again, fingers gripping my chin, tilting my face up, forcing me to see what I was desperate to avoid.
“Tell me the truth, right now. Do you want me?”
I tried to glance past him, anywhere but those burning eyes, but his hold only tightened.
“Look at me when you’re about to lie.”
The words hit like shrapnel, lodging deep. He knew I would. But the threats made against us today left no escape.
“Emma.” His voice dropped, each word a hammer. “Do. You. Want. Me?”
My throat worked, dry and useless.
I swallowed hard, then forced out the only answer I could ever give. “No.”
He closed his eyes, only for a second, the muscle in his jaw ticking. When he leaned in, his whisper scorched me. “Liar.”
His hand fell away. He stepped back, but his gaze burned hotter than the fire between us. “So. James it is?”
“It has to be,” I whispered, my legs trembling so violently I thought they might give. “At least until we figure out a way to handle the United Chiefs.”
The silence between us quaked with everything unsaid, until the door of my room creaked open.
Rachel stepped inside, her focus darting between us. “Am I interrupting something?”
“No,” I said softly at the exact same moment Caden snarled, “Yes.”
“Well, tough luck.” Rachel’s tone was clipped and urgent. “American human military just crossed the Canadian border. They’re moving toward the Metasphere. They’re looking for ‘the terrorist who killed her family and a dozen officers.’”
She hesitated. “And they come with a presidential arrest warrant.”
My eyes widened, shock cutting through the tension, and Caden cursed under his breath.
Rachel’s gaze caught mine, and I knew.
Just like that, we were at war.