Chapter 10: I Let Her Burn
1099 Words
( Kade – POV)
I couldn’t sleep.
Not even after riding for hours past the edge of Moonstone territory, after cutting through the forest where the trees still remembered her scent.
Freya.
The name echoed in my head like a curse and a prayer.
She’d stood there—alive, changed, dangerous—and I’d barely managed to speak. And now? Every part of me itched to see her again, to pull the truth out of her eyes, to beg for something I didn’t even have the right to ask.
Forgiveness.
Hell. I wasn’t sure I could forgive myself.
I stood shirtless by the floor-to-ceiling window in my room, watching the pack grounds sleep beneath the moon. My hands gripped the window frame, knuckles white. My skin still tingled from the moment she brushed past me in that alley. I could feel her, as if the bond we shattered never truly broke.
And the worst part?
She didn’t look broken.
She looked like power dressed in vengeance, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t terrify me... or turn me inside out.
“Alpha,” a quiet voice interrupted.
Steven. My second shadow.
I didn’t look at him.
“She’s back,” I said flatly.
“I know,” he replied. “Half the guards are whispering about it already. Some think she came for blood.”
I turned, finally, eyes meeting his. “What do you think?”
“I think she came to remind you who you used to be.”
His words sliced deeper than I expected. Steven didn’t say things to flatter. He said them because they were true.
I poured a glass of bourbon, downed it, and set it down harder than necessary.
“I rejected her in front of everyone, Steven. Do you remember what she looked like that night?”
Steven nodded slowly. “Yes. But I also remember what you looked like after.”
“She was weak,” I muttered.
“No,” he said calmly. “She was yours.”
I said nothing.
I didn’t deserve the right to call her that anymore.
But the truth burned in my throat. I didn’t reject Freya because she was weak. I did it because I was afraid. Afraid of what the Council would say. Afraid that my enemies would use her against me. Afraid that my Luna couldn’t protect herself in a war I knew was coming.
So I threw her to the wolves.
And she came back as one.
“You think Elena knows?” I asked.
Steven’s jaw tightened. “She knows.”
“Then she’s already planning something.”
“Undoubtedly.”
I cursed under my breath. Elena had always been strategic, not emotional. But when it came to Freya, logic died in her eyes. She saw Freya as a threat the moment the Moonstone Oracle named her as my fated mate.
I was still married to Elena back then. Still lying to myself about peace.
“She won’t let this go quietly,” I muttered.
Steven hesitated, then took a step closer. “Then don’t wait for her to strike. Take control of the narrative.”
“And do what?” I snapped. “Ask Freya to step back into this chaos, just so Elena can finish what she started?”
“Ask her nothing. Just go see her again.”
My breath caught.
I turned back to the window. Moonlight streaked across the lawn like a battlefield waiting for war.
“She won’t want to see me.”
“She came back, didn’t she?” Steven said. “Not for a new pack. Not for power. Not even for revenge. She came for closure. Maybe even to watch you fall apart. You owe her that much.”
My jaw clenched.
He was right. And I hated it.
I ran a hand down my face and grabbed my shirt off the chair. I couldn’t face her in this house. Not with Elena’s spies in every shadow.
“I’ll go at dawn,” I said.
Steven nodded. “And Alpha…”
“What?”
He gave me a look that pierced straight through the layers I’d spent years building.
“Stop pretending you stopped loving her.”
Two hours later, I stood at the training grounds alone. The air was cold, crisp, scented faintly with pine and steel. This was where I made warriors. Where I crushed boys into betas and raised alphas from blood and bruises.
It was also the last place I saw Freya before she was exiled.
She’d begged me with those eyes, trembling but proud, and I—gods—I turned away.
Now, I stood where she once did, and I tried to feel what she must have felt.
Betrayed. Abandoned. Weak. Humiliated.
And still… somehow not broken.
I didn’t deserve her forgiveness. I wasn’t sure I even deserved her wrath. But I’d take whatever she gave me.
Even if it burned me to ash.
By midmorning, I was dressed and on my way to Steven’s office when I heard voices outside the war room.
“Elena’s orders were clear,” someone muttered. “No patrols near the East Gate today.”
I paused.
The East Gate. That was the path toward the rogue borderlands. Toward where Freya’s rumored pack was said to be hiding.
I turned on my heel and marched to my office.
“Elena’s moving fast,” I growled.
Steven looked up. “She always does when she’s afraid.”
“She’s cutting off access to the east. Why?”
“Because that’s where she thinks Freya’s allies are gathering.”
I stared at him. “She’s going to provoke a confrontation.”
Steven hesitated. “Or frame one.”
I swore violently.
This wasn’t just about Freya anymore. Elena was going to create a crisis—and make Freya the villain.
And if the pack believed it, Freya’s return would end in blood.
I reached for my phone.
“Alpha?” Steven asked.
“I’m going to see Freya,” I said. “But first—send someone to watch Elena. Closely. Every move. Every whisper.”
He nodded. “And if she catches wind of it?”
“Let her. I want her to know I’m not looking the other way this time.”
I left the office without another word.
Freya came back ruthless. But maybe… maybe I had to become something else, too.
Not the alpha who watched her suffer.
But the one who finally stood by her side.
Even if it was already too late.
- Writer
