Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Kayden
In the Elder Council's meeting room, firelight danced in the hearth, casting flickering shadows across every weathered face.
"Alpha, you're thirty-four years old now." Drake held his teacup, speaking in that patronizing elder's tone. "You need to fulfill your duty and choose—"
"I know." I cut him off, fingers absently tracing the carved wolf's head on the armrest.
This topic had dragged on for two hours. Same content, just recycled with different wording.
"Silver Moon Pack cannot be without an heir." Morris, seated beside him, jumped in. Shrewd calculation glinted in his rheumy eyes. "This concerns the stability of the entire pack."
"Miss Victoria's family has been loyal to the pack for years." His tone made it sound like established fact. "And she herself is gentle and virtuous. Most importantly, this was the old Alpha's—"
"Dying wish." I finished the sentence first, exhaustion washing over me. "I know."
I knew what had me trapped. I knew what I was afraid of. I knew what I should do—as Alpha of Silver Moon Pack, as my father's son.
Should. But I didn't want to. Not now.
The air in the meeting room froze for several seconds.
Drake coughed and set down his cup. "Since you're aware of the old Alpha's wishes..."
"My father." The words came slowly as I studied these sanctimonious old bastards. "In the last years of his life, he had nightmares every single night. He'd wake up drenched in sweat, screaming my mother's name. Did you know that?"
Silence.
"He'd kneel at Mother's grave for hours. Winter, summer—didn't matter." I continued, scrutinizing each calculating face. "He'd say 'I'm sorry.' Say 'I didn't mean to.' Say 'fate played me for a fool.' But Mother couldn't hear him anymore."
Drake shifted uncomfortably. "I don't understand what you're—"
"I mean—picking just any Luna is pointless." A laugh escaped me, cold as winter. "I'll make my own decision. We're done here."
"But according to tradition, to inherit as Alpha, you must also inherit—" Morris tried again.
"I said we're done!"
Alpha command crashed through the room like a tidal wave. The elders' faces went white. Chair legs scraped against the floor in a discordant chorus as they practically fled.
Only Victoria remained by the door.
She wore a beige suit today, hair pulled back without a strand out of place, makeup perfect as if she were heading to some important event. But her eyes were red and swollen, tear tracks still visible at the corners.
"Kayden." Her voice came out soft, laced with wounded fragility. "Are you really going to treat me this way?"
I didn't answer. Just walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and turned my back on her.
Outside lay Silver Moon Forest, its dark green canopy swaying in the wind like ocean waves. They said when Mother was alive, she loved walking through those trees. This was where Father had proposed to her.
"I started learning how to be a Luna when I was five." Victoria moved closer, her voice carrying an unsettling obsession. "Learning etiquette, management, how to deal with the elders, how to keep smiling in public..."
My fingers tightened on the window frame.
"I studied for twenty-seven years, Kayden. Twenty-seven years."
"That was your choice. Not mine." I turned to face her.
Victoria was undeniably beautiful in the traditional sense. But those eyes... the same color as my mother's. I looked at her and saw no love there. None of the light that filled Layla's eyes when she looked at me. Just bitter resentment over a promise, a position.
There would never be another Layla.
"Why?" Her face went pale, body swaying. "Is it because of that woman? Ella Ross? What's so special about her?!"
I didn't answer. My silence was answer enough.
"What can she give you?" Victoria's tears fell like broken pearls. "What can she give the pack? She's an outsider! Some designer with no background!"
"Enough."
"Kayden, the old Alpha's dying wish—"
"I'm more aware of it than any of you!" I finally exploded, voice echoing through the hall. "I remember it every goddamn day!"
Victoria flinched, stepping back.
I closed my eyes, trying to calm down, but the memories coiled around me like snakes, squeezing my throat.
"Do you see?"
Father kneeling at Mother's grave, bottle in hand, drinking one gulp after another.
"Do you see what fated mates lead to?"
I was only ten then. I didn't understand the madness and hatred festering beneath his drunken exterior. I stood beside him, staring at that cold stone marker, not knowing what to say. But my silence wasn't enough for him. He suddenly whipped around, eyes bloodshot like a wounded animal.
"Why won't you speak? Are you defying me? I'm your father! I wouldn't hurt you!"
His savage look pinned me in place. In that moment, I even forgot to breathe, forgot this man was really my father. Fear made me want to agree with whatever he said, but when I opened my mouth, all that came out were short, gasping sounds.
"Fated mates are just instinct, Kayden." Father grabbed my shoulders, nails digging into my flesh. "Animal instinct. Your wolf will lie to you. Tell you it's destiny, that you're meant to be, but it's just the fucking urge to breed!"
Blood slowly seeped through my shirt at the shoulders. I wanted to pull away from the pain, but he gripped harder.
"Your mother was my true love." His tears mixed with alcohol dripped onto my face. "But I destroyed her. I destroyed everything we had. All because of that damned bond!"
He laughed—laughed so hard he could barely breathe. Whether mocking himself or fate, I couldn't tell. Father released me and collapsed by Mother's headstone, sobbing.
"Never trust it, Kayden. Never. It'll destroy you like it destroyed me."
Seventeen years later, Father lay dying in his hospital bed, still saying the same thing.
"You rejected her, didn't you?"
He was nothing but skin and bones. Years of endless hatred had reduced him to this—I couldn't see a trace of the Alpha he'd once been. He suddenly grabbed my hand with surprising strength.
"You rejected her. She's dead now, right?!"
I knew he meant Layla. But Layla... I remembered that moonlit night. Her amber eyes. The soul-deep tremor when the mate bond was activated. Her despair. Her breakdown. The finality with which she threw herself into the sea.
"I rejected her," I said it, but didn't confirm her death. Because I didn't want to.
Relief finally crossed Father's face.
"Good. Very good." He wheezed, an eerie gleam in his eyes. "Kayden, you know what? You're just like me."
My whole body tensed.
"You're my son. You'll inherit my will. Finish what I couldn't." Father gripped my hand tighter. "I was destroyed by a fated mate, but you won't be. Because..." His voice suddenly turned gentle, like he was remembering something beautiful. "Because Victoria is like your mother."
"What?"
"Same eyes. Same gentleness. Same grace." Father murmured, tears rolling down. "Kayden, marry her. You'll be happy together. The happiness your mother and I should have had... before that damned bond destroyed everything."
"Father—"
"Promise me!" He used every ounce of strength, nearly sitting up in bed. "Marry her! You and I are the same, Kayden! We choose with reason, not ruled by instinct! Victoria will be a good wife, a good Luna. She'll give you the happiness your mother and I should have had... Promise me!"
His hand trembled, tears streaming down. This man who'd tormented Mother, tormented me, tormented himself his whole life—in his final moments, still consumed by that obsession. He wanted to relive his life with Mother through me.
"I promise."
The moment I said those words, he finally closed his eyes.
Those were the last words he heard.
"The old Alpha... is dead."
My throat tightened as I spoke. I looked at Victoria, enunciating each syllable clearly.
"His dying wish won't become my chains."
Victoria stared at me, tears finally breaking free. The elegant composure she'd maintained all this time crumbled. She cried like a child, shoulders shaking violently.
"So you chose her." She wiped at her tears with the back of her hand. "Ella Ross. A woman you've only known for days."
No. Her name is Layla Gray. We're fated mates. We've known each other longer than half our lives. We have a six-year-old child. A good kid.
But I said nothing.
"Kayden Blackwood." Victoria took a deep breath, wiped away her tears, and straightened her spine. She'd put that fragile shell back on, replaced by something cold and almost frighteningly hard. "You'll regret this."
"Maybe." My voice stayed calm. "But it's my choice."
"The elders won't agree."
"That's their problem."
"You'll lose a lot of support." Victoria's voice had regained its composure, but that calm was more unsettling than anger. "Drake controls a third of the pack's resources. Morris's family controls the northern trade routes..."
"If they want to leave Silver Moon Pack, I won't stop them." I walked to the door and pulled it open. "Victoria. Please leave."
She stood there looking at me for several seconds. Her gaze held the distance of looking at a stranger.
"Kayden." She finally spoke, voice soft as a sigh. "Some things aren't up to you."
Then she turned and left, her heels clicking down the hallway, fading into the distance.
Victoria really did resemble Mother.
The thought surfaced again, and I couldn't help a bitter smile. In the first few years after Father's death, his dying wish had spread through my life like a vine, following my every move. I'd once considered giving in, becoming a true puppet, mating with Victoria as he wished.
But I couldn't do it. Layla still appeared in my dreams like warm fire. I replayed our few encounters over and over, caught scraps of love's warmth from her diary. Only then could I feel like just myself—just Kayden, not Father's replica.
I stood there staring at the empty room, suddenly exhausted enough to collapse.