Bound by Alpha’s Vows

Secrets and Lies

The packhouse hadn’t changed much in five years. Same dark wood paneling, same imposing architecture, same sense of barely contained power humming through every stone. But walking through those familiar halls with Lucian’s small hand in hers felt surreal, like stepping into a dream she’d thought was long dead.

Kade led them to his private study, the same room where he’d once told her their mate bond was a distraction he couldn’t afford. Where he’d chosen duty over love and shattered both their hearts in the process.

Now, as he closed the door behind them, she saw him differently. The confident Alpha was gone, replaced by a man who looked like he was barely holding himself together.

“Can I… can I hold him?” Kade asked, his voice so quiet she almost didn’t hear it.

Selene’s protective instincts flared, but when she looked down at Lucian, she saw the boy watching Kade with curious silver eyes, their eyes.

“It’s up to him,” she said carefully.

Lucian studied Kade for a long moment, then surprised them both by walking over and extending his small hand. “Hello, Father.”

The formal greeting nearly undid Kade completely. With infinite care, he knelt down and took his son’s hand in both of his much larger ones.

“Hello, Lucian,” he managed. “I’m… I’m so very glad to meet you.”

“Mama says you sent us away because you didn’t want us.”

The words hit the room like a bomb.

Kade’s eyes shot to Selene’s, wide with shock and hurt. “Is that… is that what you told him?”

Selene lifted her chin, defensive. “I told him the truth. That you had more important things than us.”

“No.” Kade’s voice was fierce now, desperate. “No, that’s not… Selene, you don’t understand,”

“Then explain it to me.”

The challenge hung between them, five years of pain and misunderstanding crackling in the air.

Kade was quiet for so long she thought he wouldn’t answer. When he finally spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper.

“Helena’s pack was planning to betray the alliance anyway. I found out two weeks after you left.”

The words hit her like a physical blow. “What?”

“The marriage contract, the political alliance, it was all lies. She was using it to get close enough to assassinate me and claim Ravenstone for herself.” His laugh was bitter. “I rejected our bond, lost you, sacrificed everything for a partnership that was doomed from the start.”

Selene felt the ground shift beneath her feet. “You… you knew?”

“Not when I made the choice. But after…” He ran his hands through his hair, looking every one of his years. “I tried to find you. Searched for months. You’d disappeared so completely it was like you’d never existed.”

“I went to my grandmother’s pack in Alaska,” she said numbly.

“The Frost Wolves.” He nodded. “I should have thought of that. But by the time I did, your grandmother made it clear you didn’t want to be found.”

Selene’s chest tightened. Grandmother had told her Kade had never come looking. Had said he’d moved on, forgotten her entirely.

“She lied,” she whispered.

“What?”

“My grandmother. She said… she said you never came. That you didn’t care.”

Something dangerous flashed in Kade’s eyes. “She told you I didn’t come looking for you?”

Selene nodded, pieces of a puzzle she’d never known existed suddenly clicking into place. Her grandmother’s insistence that they move deeper into the wilderness. Her adamance that Selene never try to contact anyone from her old life.

“She kept us apart,” she breathed.

But before Kade could respond, a new scent hit the air, cold and predatory. Lucian whimpered and pressed closer to Selene, his small body tensing.

The window exploded inward in a shower of glass and splintered wood.

Through the opening stepped a figure from Selene’s worst nightmares, Alpha Darius, his dark eyes gleaming with malicious satisfaction.

“Well, well,” he drawled, brushing glass from his shoulders. “What a touching family reunion.”

Behind him, more wolves poured through the shattered window, surrounding them in seconds.

Kade moved instantly, placing himself between Darius and his family, his body coiled with lethal intent.

“You have thirty seconds to explain why you’re in my territory before I rip your throat out,” he snarled.

Darius smiled, showing too many teeth. “Oh, I’m not here for you, Kade. I’m here for what’s mine.”

His gaze shifted to Lucian, and Selene’s blood turned to ice.

“The boy comes with me.”