Forbidden Mate, Fated Sin

Chapter 12: What His Father Knew

Wren's POV

Celeste stood still for a long time. She was at the edge of the trees. Her arms were around her body as if she felt cold. The evening was warm though. I could still feel sweat drying on my neck.

Kade stood up quickly. He moved away from me with care. But she had already seen us.

"Celeste."

"Do not speak," she said. Her voice was steady. That made it harder. "I am not here to cause trouble, Kade. Father wants to talk with you about tomorrow. I came to find you. I did not come to see your head on my sister like a story we cannot live anymore."

"It was not"

"I do not want to hear what it was not." She looked at me at last. The anger from before was gone. Only tiredness stayed in her eyes. "I used to believe you were the one person in this house who would never turn against me, Wren. Out of everyone."

"I never wanted any of this."

"I know." She said it in a plain way without meanness. That hurt more than shouting would. "That is almost the worst part. None of you wanted it. The bond chose, and everyone else must live with the choice."

Kade took one step toward her. "Celeste, whatever you think you saw"

"I saw exactly what I think I saw." She held up her hand to stop him. "I am not asking you to explain. I am telling you Father wants you in his study within the hour. And if the council learns you were out here instead of getting ready for tomorrow, it will not matter whose fault it is. It will only matter that you keep giving them reasons not to trust you."

She turned to leave. Then she stopped and looked back at me once more.

"For what it is worth," she said, "I do not hate you the way I thought I would. I think I hate what happened. I am still trying to see if there is a difference." She walked into the trees without waiting for an answer. I watched until the last bit of her gold hair was gone in the dark.

Kade let out a long shaky breath beside me. "That was not what I expected from her."

"Neither did I." I put my arms around myself. The warmth from before was already turning cold. "She has never spoken to me like that. Not once, not even when we were children."

"Maybe losing everything changes people in ways we do not expect." Kade rubbed his face. Tiredness showed in every part of him. "I need to go see Edwin."

"I know."

"Wren." He turned to me. There was something urgent in his eyes. "About tonight. About what almost happened here."

"You do not need to explain yourself to me, Kade."

"I want to." He stepped closer. I had to tilt my head to look at him. "I keep telling myself I am protecting you by staying away. Then I find every reason to be near you instead. I do not know how to want two opposite things this strongly at the same time."

"Maybe you do not have to choose tonight."

"I have to choose eventually. Everyone keeps reminding me." His jaw became tight. "The council. Thane. My own father memory, if I am honest. I was raised to believe duty comes before everything, even before what my heart wants."

"And what does your heart want, Kade?"

He did not answer at once. For a moment I thought he might come closer again the way he almost did before Celeste came. Instead he stepped back. He put careful space between us, but his eyes stayed on mine.

"I do not trust myself to answer that honestly right now," he said in a quiet voice. "Not while I stand this close to you."

I let him go without more argument. I watched him walk toward the pack house. His shoulders were set with the same tension I had seen in the last few days. Something had changed in him since the crow, since the council, since Celeste quiet words that felt more like a warning than real peace.

An hour later I found Maribel in the kitchen. She was scrubbing a pot that did not need more cleaning.

"You look troubled," she said without looking up.

"Celeste found Kade and me together tonight. Under the oak tree."

Maribel hands stopped. "And?"

"She did not scream. She did not threaten me. She just looked tired and said she was not sure if she hated me or only hated what happened to her." I sat down hard at the table. "It felt worse than if she had yelled."

"People who grieve what they lost do not always grieve the way we expect." Maribel finally looked at me. There was care in her face. "Has Kade seemed different to you in the last day or two? Beyond the clear things."

I thought about it carefully. I went over every moment since the council hearing. The way he pulled back tonight before I wanted him to. The tight sound in his voice when he spoke of duty and his father memory. The distance that had started to show in his eyes even while his body stayed close.

"He seems strained," I said. "Like something is pulling at him that he will not tell me about."

"Men like Kade carry things quietly until they cannot anymore." Maribel wiped her hands on her apron. "I would not push him to explain until he is ready. Some weights need to be carried alone for a while before they can be shared."

I nodded, but something in my chest did not agree. A small cold worry grew tighter the more I thought. Kade had never been distant with me before, not really, not even in the worst of the last ten years. The silence he carried now felt different from anything I had seen in him.

I said good night to Maribel and went upstairs. The house was quiet around me in a way that felt heavier than usual. I was almost at my door when raised voices reached me from Edwin study below. They were muffled through the floor but clear in their tension. Kade voice was low and controlled. Edwin was sharper, with something close to panic.

I crept to the top of the stairs and crouched low. I tried to catch the words through the old floorboards.

"...cannot keep this from the council forever," Edwin was saying. "If Thane finds out what your father knew before he died, everything you think you understand about this pack changes."

There was a long pause before Kade answered. His voice dropped so low I almost missed it.

"What exactly did my father know?"

I did not hear Edwin answer. A door slammed somewhere below. The voices stopped completely. I sat frozen at the top of the stairs. My heart pounded hard. I was certain that whatever secret had just been named through that floor was about to change everything I thought I understood too.