Rescued by the Blackridge Alpha

Chapter 4

The realization stole the last of my smile.

Ash pushed forward hard enough to jerk Caden's body toward mine. One of his boots scraped across the ceremonial stone, and for one hopeful second I thought he was giving in. That he would close the remaining distance between us and all the tension I'd seen in him would finally make sense.

Instead, Caden planted his feet.

His hands curled into fists at his sides. A growl vibrated through his chest as he fought against the movement, and the strain showed in the tightness around his mouth.

Nia's excitement faltered.

Why won't he let Ash come to us?

I didn't know. Until that moment, it hadn't even occurred to me that he might not want to.

Caden closed his eyes and drew a slow breath. Another growl escaped him, deeper this time, and his face tightened with pain. Whatever was happening between him and Ash wasn't a brief struggle for control. Caden was deliberately forcing his wolf away from mine.

Nia understood before I wanted to.

She pulled back from the surface.

“Caden?” I said quietly.

His eyes opened, entirely gold.

For a heartbeat, Ash stared back at me.

The pull between us tightened so sharply that I almost stepped forward. Nia did. I felt her reaching for him, answering the need written across his face.

Then Caden blinked. Brown slowly swallowed the gold. Ash disappeared.

Nia recoiled with him, and the sudden emptiness left me cold despite the heat from the fires behind us.

Caden looked exhausted.

I searched his face for some explanation. “Are you all right?”

“I'm fine,” Caden said, though the strain in his voice made the answer meaningless.

He straightened his jacket and smoothed one hand over the silver wolf embroidered above his heart. His fingers trembled against the black fabric. By the time he looked at me again, however, his expression was composed.

Too composed.

“Yesterday, I made my choice,” he said.

I glanced around the circle, wondering whether I'd missed some part of the ritual. Nobody else seemed confused. Garrick watched his son without moving, while several council members stood equally still behind him.

Only then did it occur to me that they might already know what Caden was about to say.

“What choice?” I asked.

Caden's gaze moved toward Rosalie.

My own followed.

She stood between her parents, pale beneath the lantern light. Aunt Helena had taken her hand. Uncle Thomas stared straight ahead.

Caden gestured toward her. “Yesterday, I chose my mate.”

For several seconds, I waited for the rest of the sentence.

It didn't come.

“Rosalie,” I said eventually.

“Yes.”

I looked at my cousin again.

Of course he'd chosen Rosalie yesterday. Everyone had. Caden, her parents, half of Silvercrest. They'd been building toward the same future for years.

But yesterday none of us had known about Nia and Ash.

“You didn't know about Nia then,” I said. “You didn't know Ash had a mate.”

Caden's jaw tightened. “It doesn't change my decision.”

Nia stirred uneasily inside me. I could still feel Ash somewhere beneath Caden's control, pushing against whatever barrier he'd forced between us.

“But Ash chose Nia.”

“The Goddess chose for Ash,” Caden corrected. “I'm choosing for Silvercrest.”

For Silvercrest.

Not for himself, not even for Rosalie. Something in the way he said it made me look at the silver wolf beneath his hand again.

This wasn't about two women.

It was about a Luna.

Caden seemed to recognize that I finally understood. “Rosalie has spent years preparing for this position,” he continued. “She knows our laws and our alliances. She's attended council meetings since she was sixteen. She was raised to lead this pack beside me.”

Every word was true. I'd watched it happen.

I'd watched Uncle Thomas leave the house with Rosalie for her first council lesson while I stayed behind with Aunt Helena. I'd listened to Rosalie complain about treaties she had to memorize and neighbouring Alphas whose family lines she was expected to know.

At the time, I'd been glad it wasn't me. Nobody had ever suggested it could have been.

“And I wasn't,” I said.

Caden hesitated.

That tiny pause told me more than an answer would have. My face grew hot.

Only minutes ago, I'd imagined Uncle Thomas looking at me differently. I'd wondered whether becoming Caden's mate might finally put Rosalie and me on equal ground.

How stupid.

The Goddess might have chosen me before my cousin, but Caden could apparently correct her mistake.

“Because I'm an Omega.”

Caden frowned. “This isn't about punishing you for your rank.”

“I didn't say it was.”

“Maren—”

“You don't think I'm good enough.”

The words came out before I could soften them. For the first time, Caden looked uncomfortable.

I wished that made me feel better.

“You work in the kitchens,” he said eventually. His voice was measured, almost gentle. “You've never led anyone. You've never trained with the council. You know nothing about our alliances or what it takes to protect Silvercrest.”

I became painfully aware of my hands. There was still a faint burn across one finger from the bread oven three days ago. Flour had worked itself beneath one of my nails that morning, and despite scrubbing twice before putting on the green dress, I could still see a pale line of it.

Kitchen hands.

Apparently that was what Caden saw when he looked at me.

The ridiculous thing was that he wasn't wrong. I knew nothing about treaties. I couldn't name every Alpha along our borders. If Garrick put me in a council meeting tomorrow morning, I wouldn't know where to sit, let alone what to say.

But Rosalie hadn't been born knowing those things either. Someone had taught her.

“I could learn,” I said.

Caden shook his head. “Silvercrest doesn't need a Luna who could learn.”

Nia went still.

I looked past him toward Rosalie.

“It needs Rosalie,” I said.

“Yes,” Caden replied. He didn't hesitate.

That hurt more than I wanted it to.

Ash chose that moment to fight him again.

Gold flooded Caden's eyes, and his body pitched toward me so suddenly that I lifted my hands to catch him. He recovered before I could touch him and immediately stepped back.

Away from me.

Nia whimpered.

This time, the sound wasn't confused. It was hurt.

“You're hurting him,” I said.

Caden wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. “He'll recover.”

“How do you know?”

“He'll have to.”

I stared at him.

His wolf was fighting hard enough to leave him shaking, yet Caden still believed he could simply outlast him. That eventually Ash would look at Nia and learn not to want her.

Nia curled deeper inside me. For the first time since she'd recognized him, she didn't call for her mate.

That made something inside my chest ache far worse than Caden's words had.

He straightened again, reclaiming whatever Ash had shaken loose. “Yesterday, I chose the Luna Silvercrest needs. The Moon Goddess will have to agree.”

I looked at him for a long moment.

The future Alpha.

My mate.

The man who had been handed every opportunity to become what Silvercrest needed and couldn't imagine doing the same for me.

There was nothing left to misunderstand.

“So that's it?” I asked.

Caden's gaze held mine. “I'm sorry.”

I almost laughed. Sorry.

As if that was what I needed from him.

Before I could answer, he turned toward the ceremonial stone.

My stomach dropped.

Nia reacted instantly. She surged toward the surface, so fast and frightened that my breath caught.

What is he doing?

I knew.

Goddess, I knew.

Caden placed his palm against the weathered stone.

“Caden, wait,” I said, louder now.

He finally faced me.

For a second, I saw both of them. Caden in the hard set of his mouth. Ash in the gold burning through his eyes.

One wanted this.

The other was begging him not to.

“Maren Stone,” Caden began, his voice carrying across the silent courtyard. “Before my Alpha, my pack and the Moon Goddess who bound our wolves…”

Nia understood. Her panic hit me so hard that I stumbled.

No. Maren, please.

I couldn't stop him. Caden looked directly at me.

“I reject you as my mate.”