Chapter 4
1234 Words
Kade POV
I felt Hart leave before anyone said a word.It was like her presence just… snapped off. One second her scent hung around the pack like a warm echo, the next it vanished so fast my stomach twisted.
I didn’t even have time to speak before Axton tore into my mind.
“YOU LET HER GO!”
His voice hit me like claws to the chest. I staggered, grabbing the edge of the desk to keep from falling over.
“Axton—”
“DON’T TALK. Don’t even TRY.”
He was shaking with rage inside me, pacing, snarling, pushing against my skull like he wanted to rip through.
“Hart left. HART. The girl we’re tied to. The girl I chose,” he snapped. “And you just STOOD there all week like she meant nothing.”
I gritted my teeth.“I didn’t want to hurt her.”
“WELL YOU DID!” he roared.“YOU HURT HER. YOU PUSHED HER. YOU BROKE HER. And don’t pretend you didn’t.”
I exhaled shakily. “I thought it was the right thing. I thought—”
“No. You thought about YOU.”
Axton’s fury crackled like electricity.
“I wanted her,” he said, voice lower now, more dangerous. “I wanted Hart from the moment we scented her. But YOU rejected her like she was replaceable.”
My heart jumped.
“Axton… you wanted her?”
He snarled.
“Of course I wanted her! I STILL want her! You think the bond breaking stops how I feel?”
He shoved a wave of emotion through me — not mine, HIS.
Longing.Pain.Regret.Need.Something fierce and aching.
“You may be confused, Kade,” Axton growled, “but I’m not. I chose her. I wanted her as our mate. I wanted her next to us, in our den, in our future. And YOU ruined it.”
I swallowed hard.
“I didn’t know you felt that strongly.”
Axton actually laughed — a broken, furious laugh.
“How wouldn’t I? Hart looked at us like we were her whole world. And you didn’t even look back.”
My stomach twisted.
Axton pushed another memory:
Hart smiling shyly at me during training.Hart blushing when I complimented her stance.Hart clutching her chest the moment I rejected her.
Axton roared so loudly my ears rang.
“I FELT HER HEART BREAK. And you know what? I felt mine crack with hers.”
I sank onto the edge of the bed, grabbing my hair.
“Why didn’t you say anything before? You stayed quiet.”
“Because I wanted to trust you,” Axton growled. “I wanted to believe you’d choose her. I wanted you to FEEL what I felt. But instead, you shoved her away like she was a burden.”
I closed my eyes.He wasn’t wrong.
Axton’s voice dropped, softer but sharper than a blade.
“I love her, Kade.”
My head snapped up.
“What?”
“I. Love. Her.”“Not as an Alpha. Not as a title. I love HER. Hart. The girl who watched us train. The girl who shifted early because she felt connected to us.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“And you rejected her,” Axton whispered.“You rejected the girl I wanted.”
The guilt hit me so hard I tasted metal.
“Axton… I didn’t know.”
“Of course you didn’t know. You never listen.”
His disappointment cut more than his anger ever did.
“Hart wasn’t just your mate, Kade,” he murmured. “She was MINE too. And I would’ve chosen her again and again, even without the Goddess’s bond.”
I swallowed hard.It was the wolf who wanted her.The wolf who felt tied to her.The wolf who loved her.
Not me.
Not the way he did.
Axton continued, voice rough.
“She walked away because you never wanted her… but I did. And you didn’t give me a chance.”
I pressed a hand over my eyes.“Maybe you should have told me.”
“You wouldn’t have listened.”
He wasn’t wrong.
Axton let out a breath — shaky, like he was trying not to break apart.
“Hart should’ve been sleeping in our den tonight. She should’ve been safe with me — with US — not wandering through the human world alone.”
The pain in his voice wasn’t mine.It was his.Raw and real.
“How do you even know she’s alone?” I whispered.
Axton paused.
“…Because the moment she crossed the border, something inside me twisted. It hurt, Kade. It HURT. Like she ripped herself away from us.”
I felt it too — a faint ache under my ribs — but nothing compared to what Axton was feeling.
“She didn’t leave because of the bond,” I said quietly.“She left because of me.”
Axton snapped.
“YES! Because YOU rejected her.”
I flinched.
“I wanted her, Kade. I would’ve taken her as our mate even if you didn’t understand it yet. But you stomped on it before I could even show you what she meant.”
He paused.
Then Axton whispered the thing that finished me:
“You didn’t just break Hart… you broke ME.”
My breath caught.I could feel him — furious, wounded, desperate.
“Axton… I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want your sorry,” he snapped.“I want HER.”
Silence.
Then he added:
“You may not want her the way I do. But you WILL find her. You will fix this. Because I’m not losing her.”
“You’re the one who wants her,” I said softly.“Not me.”
Axton’s voice shook with emotion.
“Then you help me get her back.”
My heart thudded hard.
“And if she doesn’t want to come back?”
Axton answered with the most human thing I’ve ever heard from him:
“Then we love her from wherever she is.”Axton didn’t calm down. If anything, he got louder inside my head, pacing, growling, shoving emotions into me I didn’t know how to carry.
“I should’ve taken over,” he snapped. “The second you opened your mouth to reject her, I should’ve ripped control from you and claimed her myself.”
My stomach twisted. Hearing him say that out loud hurt more than I expected.
“You would’ve done that?”
“YES,” he barked. “I would’ve walked straight to Hart, pushed my damn face into her neck, and told the whole pack she was ours. But YOU—”
He cut himself off with a frustrated snarl.
“You were worried about titles. About the Alpha image. About pressure. Meanwhile, I just wanted her.”
I rubbed my forehead, feeling heat creep up my neck.“I didn’t know you felt that strongly.”
“You never asked,” Axton shot back. “Hart mattered to me. She STILL does. And now she’s out there alone, because you couldn’t admit how scared you were.”
His next words hit the hardest:
“I don’t care if YOU didn’t want her. I did. And now I’m the one paying for your mistake.”
I closed my eyes, feeling the ache settle deep.
Axton wasn’t letting this go.
And honestly?
He shouldn’t.
- Writer
