The Alpha’s Hidden Mate

The pack House

Chapter 4: The Pack House

Lena’s POV

Kade went stiff the second he looked at his phone.

“What is it?” Lena asked.

“Nothing,” he said, too fast, sliding the phone back

into his pocket. “Work. I’ll deal with it later.”

She didn’t believe him, but she filed it away

instead of pushing. She had exactly one day of

experience reading Kade Draven’s face, and even

she could tell that whatever he’d just read had

scared him. Men like him didn’t scare easily.

“Come on,” he said. “I’ll show you where you’re

staying.”

The inside of the pack house smelled like cedar

and old wood polish, floors that had been walked

on for a hundred years by people who belonged

there. Lena kept her arms close to her body, like

taking up less space might stop the portraits lining

the hallway from staring at her — Draven

ancestors, generation after generation, watching

her walk through their house like she’d been

caught somewhere she shouldn’t be.

“This floor is guest quarters,” Kade said, leading

her up a wide staircase. “Mine’s the floor above.

Elders meet on the ground floor, so you’ll want to

avoid the east wing during the day if you can help

it.”

“Avoid the elders. Got it.”

“Avoid everyone, honestly,” Kade said, and for the

first time since the ceremony, something close to

a real smile touched his mouth. “Give it a week.

People calm down.”

“Serah didn’t seem like she was calming down.”

His jaw tightened. “Serah’s a separate problem.”

He stopped in front of a door near the end of the

hall and pushed it open. The room inside was

bigger than Lena’s entire house — a wide window

looking out over the back grounds, a bed made up

in clean white linen, a desk she doubted she’d

ever use. It didn’t feel like a bedroom. It felt like a

holding cell dressed up expensively.

“This is temporary,” Kade said, like he’d read her

face. “Thirty days. Then it’s decided one way or

another.”

“And if I decide I don’t want to be here?”

“You can walk away from the bond,” Kade said.

“People have done it before. It doesn’t kill you. But

it doesn’t stop hurting, either. It just turns into

something you carry instead of something you

fight.” He paused at the door. “I’ll have someone

bring your things up. If you need anything, my

room’s directly above. Just — don’t wander the

grounds alone tonight. Not until I know more.”

“Know more about what?”

He didn’t answer that either. He just nodded once,

like a man closing a conversation he didn’t want to

finish, and left her standing alone in a room built

for someone with a very different life than

hers.Lena lasted about forty minutes before

curiosity beat out caution.

She told herself she was just looking for water, but

her feet carried her past the kitchen and toward a

half-open door at the end of the ground floor

hallway, where two voices were pitched low and

tense enough to catch her attention through the

wall.

“—can’t keep this from him forever, Marcus.” A

woman’s voice, older, careful.

“I’m not keeping anything from him. I’m managing

what he knows, and when.” A man’s voice this

time, dry and controlled. Marcus Hale. Lena

flattened herself against the wall beside the door

frame, heart picking up speed.

“If the girl really is a Voss—”

“She is. I don’t need a blood test to know that

face. She’s got Eleanor’s eyes.” A pause, heavy

enough that Lena could feel it through the wall.

“Which means Kade needs to understand exactly

what he’s bonded himself to before this goes any

further. Before the Thornridge pack finds out

first.”

Lena’s stomach dropped straight through the

floor.

Thornridge. The pack that had killed Kade’s

brother. The pack Ashwood was still bleeding from

war with. Whatever her family’s exile had to do

with the Draven bloodline, it apparently had

something to do with their enemies, too.

“And if Kade doesn’t like what you tell him?” the

woman asked.

“Then he’ll have to decide if loving her is worth

losing the war,” Marcus said. “Because right now,

Eleanor, that girl is the reason Thornridge might

already know exactly where to hit us.”

Lena’s hand flew to her mouth before the gasp

could escape. She backed away from the door too

fast, her shoulder catching a hallway table hard

enough to rattle the vase on top of it.

The voices inside went dead silent.

Footsteps started toward the door.

Lena didn’t wait to see who opened it. She turned

and ran — down the hall, through the front door,

out into the cool night air of the grounds, lungs

burning, the words the reason Thornridge might

already know exactly where to hit us running on a

loop she couldn’t shut off.

She made it as far as the tree line before a hand

closed around her arm and spun her around.

Not Kade.

A stranger — tall, unfamiliar, wearing an Ashwood

pin she didn’t recognize on his collar, his eyes

flicking gold in the dark in a way that made every

instinct in her body scream wrong.

“Well, well,” he said, smiling slowly . “Look what

wandered outside all on its own.”