Unclaimed Bonds

Chapter 8

The Confrontation

Kane found them three weeks later.

The afternoon had been quiet until the moment it wasn’t. Lila was in the library on the second floor, attempting to read a pack history she couldn’t focus on, when the front door of the pack house opened hard enough to bang against the wall. Voices rose from the entryway—Talia’s sharp and warning, a male voice rough with exhaustion and desperation that Lila would have known anywhere.

Kane.

She was on her feet before she consciously decided to move. By the time she reached the top of the stairs, Ronan was already in the entryway, one hand raised to keep his betas from advancing. Kane stood just inside the door, rain-damp and wild-eyed, the broken remnants of their mate bond still clinging to him like smoke that refused to clear. He looked like he hadn’t slept properly in weeks. Dark circles shadowed his eyes. His usual easy arrogance was gone, replaced by something raw and barely controlled.

“She’s mine,” Kane said the moment he saw Lila on the stairs. His voice was already shredded. “I want to speak to her.”

Ronan’s posture remained relaxed, but the air around him tightened with quiet authority. “You don’t give orders in my house, Blackwood. You’re here because I allowed it. That permission can be revoked.”

Kane’s gaze snapped to him, gold flickering at the edges of his irises. “This is between me and my mate.”

“She was your mate,” Ronan corrected, still calm. “You broke that claim yourself. She’s under my protection now. If she wants to speak with you, she will. If she doesn’t, you’ll leave.”

Lila came down the rest of the stairs slowly. Every step felt like she was walking through deep water. The broken bond in her chest gave a sharp, painful throb at the sight of him—memory and loss and lingering fury all tangled together. Kane’s eyes locked on her like she was the only solid thing in the room.

“Lila,” he said, and the way he said her name almost undid her. “Please. Five minutes. Just let me explain.”

She looked at Ronan. He met her gaze steadily, no pressure, no expectation—only the silent promise that whatever she chose, he would back it. Lila nodded once.

“The study,” she said.

Ronan led the way. Kane followed too closely, rain still dripping from his jacket onto the hardwood. Two of Ronan’s betas took up positions outside the study door without being asked. The message was clear: Kane would not be allowed to forget whose territory he stood on.

Inside the study, Ronan closed the door and remained standing near it, arms loose at his sides. He didn’t sit. He didn’t need to. His presence alone filled the room with quiet warning. Lila moved to stand near the desk, putting solid wood between herself and Kane. She needed the barrier.

Kane dragged both hands through his wet hair. “It wasn’t what it looked like.”

“It looked like you in bed with my sister,” Lila said. Her voice came out flatter than she expected. “Naked. Hands on her waist. I was there, Kane. I saw it.”

“Sienna drugged me.” The words tumbled out fast, desperate. “I didn’t know what was happening until it was too late. She put something in my drink at the pack gathering that night. I barely remember getting back to the house. By the time I realized what was going on, you were already standing in the doorway and the bond was—” His voice cracked. “I’ve been looking for you every single day since. I hired trackers. I barely slept. I went to every place I thought you might go. Lila, please.”

The broken bond in her chest pulsed hard, once. Part of her—the part that still remembered secret nights in the pool house and the way he used to whisper “mate” against her skin—wanted to believe him. The larger part remembered the exact moment the bond had snapped, the white-hot agony, the way her wolf had screamed until she thought she would go mad.

“I wanted you to hurt,” she said quietly. The honesty scraped on the way out. “I wanted you to feel even a fraction of what I felt that night. I came here planning to use him.” She glanced at Ronan, who watched her with complete stillness, then back at Kane. “I wanted word to reach you that I was under another Alpha’s roof. I wanted it to destroy you the way you destroyed me.”

Kane’s face twisted. “And now?”

“Now I don’t want that anymore.” Lila’s hands curled into fists at her sides. “I don’t want revenge. I don’t want you on your knees. I don’t want explanations or apologies or second chances. I just want you to leave.”

Silence filled the study, thick and final. Kane stared at her like she had driven a blade cleanly between his ribs. When he finally spoke again, his voice had dropped to a broken whisper.

“I love you.”

Lila held his gaze and felt the last fragile thread of what they had been finally snap clean through. There was no satisfaction in it. Only a quiet, tired finality.

“I know,” she answered. “And it still isn’t enough.”

Kane’s shoulders sagged. For a moment the arrogant playboy, the golden heir, the boy who had claimed her in a chemistry lab, was completely gone. In his place stood a young man who finally understood the cost of what he had broken. He opened his mouth, closed it, then looked at Ronan with something like hatred and defeat tangled together.

“You’re enjoying this,” Kane said.

Ronan’s expression didn’t change. “No. I’m not. But I won’t pretend I’m sorry she chose to stay.”

Kane turned back to Lila one last time. His eyes searched her face for any remaining crack, any sign that the girl who had once melted under his hands still existed behind her eyes. When he found none, he nodded once, sharp and defeated.

“I’ll leave,” he said. “But this isn’t over. The packs will talk. My father will get involved. You can’t just disappear into another territory and expect everything to stay quiet.”

“I’m not trying to stay quiet,” Lila said. “I’m trying to stay gone.”

Kane looked at her for a long moment longer. Then he turned and walked out of the study without another word. The door closed behind him with a soft, decisive click that somehow felt louder than a slam. Footsteps faded down the hallway. A moment later the front door of the pack house opened and shut, and the sound of a car engine started in the drive.

Only then did Ronan move.

He crossed the room and stopped a careful distance away, giving her space to breathe, to feel whatever she needed to feel without him crowding it. Lila realized her hands were shaking. She pressed them flat against the desk and dragged in a slow breath. The broken bond still ached, but the sharpest edge of it had dulled into something almost bearable.

“You didn’t have to do that for me,” Ronan said quietly.

Lila shook her head. The adrenaline was starting to fade, leaving her shaky and oddly light. “I didn’t do it for you.”

A small, almost private smile touched the corner of his mouth. “I know.”

She stepped into him then, resting her forehead against his chest. His arms came around her slowly, carefully, as if he still half-expected her to disappear the moment he held on too tightly. She could feel the steady, powerful beat of his heart against her cheek and the warm strength of his body anchoring her in the present.

Outside the study windows the afternoon light was fading. Somewhere in the distance a wolf howled—one of Ronan’s patrols, marking the territory lines Kane had just crossed on his way out. The sound should have felt like a warning. Instead it settled something restless inside her.

Lila closed her eyes and listened to Ronan’s heartbeat.

For the first time since the night everything shattered, she didn’t feel like she was still running.