Chapter 14: You’re Mine
475 Words
Kade didn’t speak to her for the rest of the day.
Not a word.
He cooked. He chopped wood. He paced the yard. But when she tried to talk to him?
Stone.
It was the silence that hurt more than anything. Not anger. Not yelling. Just… nothing.
Like she didn’t matter.
Which was hilarious, considering he’d threatened to end a man over her less than twelve hours ago.
⸻
That night, the tension in the cabin was suffocating.
He stood by the window, arms crossed, back turned.
She sat on the edge of the bed, heartbeat screaming in her ears.
“You’re mad,” she said flatly.
Kade didn’t turn. “No.”
“You’re lying.”
He exhaled through his nose. “I’m not mad. I’m jealous. There’s a difference.”
She blinked. “Jealous?”
“Of a wolf who threw you away and thinks he can just slither back in and undo what he did? Yeah. Shockingly, I’m not thrilled.”
Elara stood. “You don’t get to be jealous. You’re the one who said you’d wait. That you wouldn’t push.”
“I’m not pushing,” he growled. “I’m breaking.”
That stopped her cold.
He finally turned.
And gods, the look in his eyes.
Agony. Lust. Longing. Rage.
He looked like a man fighting a war against himself — and losing.
“You’re mine,” he said, low and fierce. “Not because of a bond. Not because of fate. Because every time I look at you, I see everything I’ve ever wanted.”
Her breath caught.
“I haven’t marked you,” he continued, stepping closer, “because I wanted you to choose me. Without the bond screaming in your blood. Without obligation.”
She backed up. He followed.
“But every day you don’t choose — every day you flinch, or pull away, or look at me like I might become him — it eats me alive.”
Elara hit the wall.
Kade stopped inches from her.
“I’m not Jaxon,” he whispered.
“I know that,” she said softly.
“Then stop punishing me for what he did.”
She blinked rapidly, eyes burning.
“I’m scared,” she confessed. “You’re the only thing that doesn’t hurt right now, and if I lose you, I don’t think I’ll survive it.”
He cupped her face so gently it almost broke her.
“Then don’t lose me,” he whispered.
“I can’t be what you need.”
“You already are.”
⸻
She kissed him.
Fierce. Desperate. Honest.
He kissed her back like a starving man.
But before it could spiral into anything more, she pulled away, trembling.
“Not yet,” she breathed.
Kade nodded, forehead resting against hers. “I’ll wait. But gods, Elara… don’t make me wait forever.”
- Writer
