Episode4
1055 Words
Izzy’s POV
The house felt different after Bruce left.
It was the same living room. The same furniture. The same walls I had grown up staring at my entire life.
Yet something inside it had shifted.
Maybe it was the silence.
Or maybe it was the way my parents were looking at me.
Disappointment hung in the air so heavily that it felt hard to breathe.
My mother stood near the couch, her arms wrapped tightly around herself as though she was trying to hold something together inside her chest.
My father didn’t move at all. His jaw was set, his shoulders stiff, his eyes fixed on the floor like he was replaying Bruce’s words in his head.
I wiped my face with trembling hands, trying to stop the tears that refused to stop falling.
“I didn’t mean for this to happen,” I whispered.
Neither of them answered.
The silence hurt more than Bruce’s words.
The union between Bruce and me had never been just about love.
It had been about the packs.
For years, everyone had spoken about it as if it were already decided. The joining of our families. The alliance between our packs.
Bruce’s pack,the Red Claw pack,was one of the strongest around.
Our pack needed that strength.
Especially after what happened last year.
My chest tightened painfully as the memory surfaced.
My brother.
My older brother had been everything to me growing up. My protector. My best friend.
And then one day he was gone.
Killed.
Killed by a man I had never even seen.
A name everyone spoke with anger.
Alpha Kane.
No one knew exactly what had happened between them. The story changed depending on who told it. Some said it was a territorial fight. Others said it was revenge for something our pack had done years ago.
All I knew was that my brother never came home alive
And my parents have never been the same since.
They believed that joining with the Red Claw pack would make us stronger.
Strong enough to face the monster who had taken their son.
Now that future had just crumbled in front of them.
Because of me.
My father finally lifted his head.
“Who was he?”
My heart skipped.
“The man who marked you,” he said, his voice tight. “Who was he?”
I stared at him helplessly.
“I don’t know.”
My mother looked up sharply.
“You don’t know?” she repeated.
I shook my head slowly.
“I swear… I don’t.”
My mind drifted back to the club.
To the stranger.
His tall frame.
His deep voice.
Those eyes.
Bright blue.
Striking.
Beautiful.
But that was all I had.
I didn’t even know his name.
“I was drunk,” I whispered weakly. “Everything happened so fast.”
My father’s expression hardened.
“You expect us to believe that?”
Tears burned in my eyes again.
“I’m telling the truth.”
My mother pressed her fingers against her temple as though trying to push away a headache.
“Do you even understand what this means?” she asked quietly.
“Yes,” I choked out.
Bruce had made sure I understood.
The engagement was over.
Just like that.
Years of promises.
Years of believing he would be my mate.
Gone.
Bruce had been the only man I had ever loved.
Even when he was harsh.
Even when he hurt me with his words.
I had still believed he cared about me somewhere beneath that anger.
Now he had walked away without looking back.
The pain of it sat like a stone in my chest.
My father paced across the room slowly.
“This was supposed to secure our future,” he muttered.
His words weren’t meant to hurt me.
But they did anyway.
Because he wasn’t wrong.
Without the alliance with the Red Claw pack, our chances of ever facing Alpha Kane again had just disappeared.
I clenched my fists.
I didn’t even know what the man looked like.
But I had sworn, standing beside my brother’s grave, that I would never forget what had been taken from us.
That I would help avenge him someday.
Now that promise felt impossible.
The room fell quiet again.
Jocelyn shifted awkwardly near the doorway, clearly unsure if she should stay or leave.
Finally my mother sighed.
“Go to your room, Izzy.”
I nodded slowly.
My legs felt heavy as I walked up the stairs.
The moment I closed my bedroom door, I collapsed onto the bed.
The tears came again.
This time harder.
Everything had fallen apart in less than twenty-four hours.
Bruce was gone.
My parents barely looked at me the same way.
And the stranger who caused all of this…
I didn’t even know his name.
I buried my face into the pillow, hoping sleep would come and take the pain away.
I didn’t know how long I stayed like that before a knock sounded on my door.
Soft but urgent.
“Izzy?”
It was my mother.
I sat up slowly, wiping my face.
“Yes?”
“Come downstairs.”
Something in her voice made my stomach tighten.
I stood and opened the door.
Her expression looked… strange.
Not angry.
Not sad.
Just shocked.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
She hesitated before answering.
“You have a visitor.”
A visitor?
I frowned slightly.
“Who?”
My mother’s eyes flickered nervously toward the stairs.
“He says his name is Kane.”
The world seemed to tilt beneath my feet.
“Kane?” I repeated weakly.
My heart began pounding.
It couldn’t be.
Not that Kane.
But deep down, something told me it was.
My mother swallowed.
“He says he’s the Alpha of his pack.”
My breath caught.
Alpha Kane.
The man my parents hated.
The man who killed my brother.
He was standing in my house.
“Why?” I whispered.
My mother loo
ked just as confused as I felt.
“He says he came for you.”
My stomach twisted violently.
“For me?”
She nodded slowly.
“He claims you are his fated mate.”
The room spun.
And suddenly the stranger with the piercing blue eyes didn’t seem like such a mystery anymore.
- Writer
