Chapter 4
1233 Words
LORD CARDAN MONTESSORI
My wolf thinks she's my…
They say revenge is a dish best served cold. But for me, it’s best served in silence, the kind that makes grown men sweat through their suits and stare at the floor when you walk into the room. The kind of silence that hums like a storm waiting to be unleashed.
I stood just at the edge of the old pack house, staring up at the building like it owed me something. Because it did. It owed me everything. My name. My title. My dignity. All stolen in the name of politics and power. All replaced with lies and betrayal.
“This is where it began,” I muttered, my eyes tracing the roofline.
Kai, my beta and the only one left who never turned on me, stood beside me, quiet as always.
“You sure you want to do this?” he asked.
“I didn’t come all this way to take a walk down memory lane, Kai.”
He nodded once. Even though I could tell he wasn't convinced, he knew me well enough not to push.
I walked through the doors without knocking. You don’t knock on doors that were built on your bloodline. You kick them open and walk through like you never left. Because you didn’t. Not really.
The halls still smelled the same… like mold, old leather, and desperation. The same cracked tiles. The same dust-covered portraits of dead Alphas staring down like gods. One of them was my father. I used to look up at that picture and feel pride. Now, I felt... nothing… nothing but hatred.
We moved deeper into the house, footsteps echoing loud against the silence. I could hear laughter behind the main doors… fake, forced, the kind people use to cover up fear. My presence had already been noticed.
Just what I wanted.
They all needed to know I was back…
When we pushed open the grand double doors to the Alpha’s chamber, everything stopped. The music. The laughter. The clinking of glasses. Like someone had hit a mute button on the world.
Stefan turned around slowly, holding a glass of red wine like it was the most important thing in the room. He looked up… and froze at the sight of me.
Of course!
For a second, he didn’t even look human. His face lost all color, his mouth hanging open like a fish. Then, in a small, choked voice, he said, “Cardan?”
I took a step forward. “Oh, so you do remember me.”
“I—uh—I thought you were—”
“Dead?” I tilted my head, pretending to think. “Yeah, a lot of people did.”
He blinked. “What… what are you doing here?”
I smiled. “I came home.”
The room was packed. Pack members, guards, women lounging on couches. All eyes were on me. Nobody said a word.
“I didn’t know you were alive,” Stefan whispered, trying to sound composed. “Had I known…”
“You’d do what? Send flowers? Hold a party?” I scoffed. “Save the act, Stefan.”
He stepped forward, arms out like he expected a hug. I just looked at him. Really looked. He was thinner than I remembered. Lines creased his forehead, and his eyes had that desperate gleam that came from pretending too long.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve showing your face here,” I said.
“And yet, here you are,” he replied, lips twitching.
That’s when I felt it.
A pull.
A sharp, electric tug that hit me deep in my chest and traveled down to my bones. My wolf stilled… then growled.
She’s here.
I frowned. Who?
Our mate.
I looked around the room, scanning faces. My heart beat harder. My palms itched. Then I saw her.
She was standing in the corner, half in the shadows. She looked nothing like a threat. Messy brown hair, thin frame, arms wrapped around herself like she was trying to disappear. But her eyes… her eyes cut through the room and hit me straight in the gut.
It was her.
The assassin.
The girl they sent to kill me.
My mate.
The irony hit me like a freight train. I stepped toward her without even realizing.
“Her,” I said.
Stefan followed my gaze. “Oh. Her.” He chuckled, a little too loud. “Take her. She’s yours.”
I turned to look at him slowly. “Excuse me?”
He waved a hand. “She’s nothing. A gift, if you want. I was going to mate her, but... well, plans changed. You want her? Take her. Do whatever you want with her. She's not useful to me, or to the pack.”
Paedyn’s eyes widened. She took a step back. “No… no, please,” she whispered.
She looked at Stefan like he might help her.
And he slapped her… hard.
The sound cracked through the room like thunder.
The rage in me wasn’t sudden. It had always been there, simmering. But now? Now it roared.
My wolf surged forward, snarling, furious. He hit our mate. He dies.
But I didn’t move. Not yet.
“You think I want someone who doesn’t want me?” I asked, keeping my voice calm.
“She’ll want you eventually,” Stefan said with a smirk. “Just break her a little.”
“She’s not a dog.”
“She was trained like one.”
That stopped me.
Trained?
I looked at her again. Really looked. The bruises. The way she trembled. The layers of silence and pain in her eyes.
She didn’t know who I was.
She had no idea I was the one she had tried to kill.
And she had no idea we were fated mates.
Fate was a cruel bastard.
I stepped closer to her. She pressed against the wall.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” I said.
“Don’t touch me,” she snapped.
Her voice shook, but it was sharp. Still fiery. Still her.
“You don’t even know who I am, do you?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Should I?”
“Maybe it’s better that you don’t,” I murmured.
“Why are you here?” she asked.
“To collect what was stolen.”
“Then take it,” she said. “Leave me out of it.”
I stared at her.
She didn’t even know the war that was coming.
I turned back to Stefan. “I didn’t come for her.”
He looked confused. “Then why are you…”
“I came for you. And our dear old father.”
He went still.
I stepped closer to him, my voice dropping. “And I’ll be back. Not just for answers. For blood. Heads will roll.”
I turned to her again. “This isn’t over.”
“I hope it is,” she whispered.
But it wasn’t.
Not even close.
Because now I had a mate I didn’t ask for, a past that refused to die, and a storm brewing in my chest that wouldn’t calm until I burned everything down.
I didn’t take her that night.
But I would.
And when I did… nothing would ever be the same again.
Even if it destroyed us both.
- Writer
