Kade's POV
I slammed my father's office door so hard the frame cracked.
"Explain this." I threw the file onto his desk, papers scattering everywhere. "Explain how you stole from the Riverside Pack. How you bankrupted the Mountain Crest wolves. How three omegas disappeared after they found out what you did."
Alpha Aldric didn't even flinch. He picked up one of the documents, scanned it, and set it down calmly. "Where did you get this?"
"Does it matter? Is it true?"
"Kade." He stood up slowly, using his alpha authority to try to make me submit. It didn't work. Not anymore. "You're upset. I understand. But you need to see the bigger picture."
"The bigger picture?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "You stole from smaller packs. You ruined families. People lost everything because of you!"
"Power requires sacrifice," he said simply. "The Four Families didn't become strong by being nice. We took what we needed to survive. To thrive." He walked around the desk. "You think the other families are any different? Your friends' fathers have done the same. It's how this world works."
"That's not how I work." My hands shook with rage. "I built my reputation on honesty. On fair deals. On being better than the corrupt alphas who came before us. And the whole time, I was standing on a foundation of lies!"
"You were standing on a foundation of power." His voice hardened. "Power I built for you. Power that will make you the strongest alpha of your generation. Are you really going to throw that away over some paperwork?"
I stared at him—this man I'd admired my whole life, this man I'd tried to make proud—and saw a stranger.
"You ordered me to break Nyx Ashford," I said quietly. "You told me her father's debt meant she belonged to us. That we could do whatever we wanted with her."
"Yes. And?"
"And it was all fake. You rigged that poker game. You set up her father to fail. You wanted her broken because you knew what she was." My voice rose. "You were afraid of an eighteen-year-old omega!"
"I was being smart!" Aldric's control finally cracked. "Primordial Omegas are dangerous. They bond with multiple alphas, create packs stronger than anything we can fight. If she'd discovered her power while bonded to you and the others..." He shook his head. "She would've controlled you. All four of you. Our entire system would've collapsed."
"So you tried to kill her."
"I tried to protect our family!" He stepped closer. "And I'd do it again. That omega is a threat to everything we've built. The fact that she survived, that she's back—" He grabbed my shoulders. "You need to finish what we started, Kade. Before she destroys us."
I shoved him away so hard he stumbled. "I'm done. Done following your orders. Done being your weapon." I headed for the door.
"If you walk away from me, you walk away from everything," Aldric called after me. "Your inheritance. Your position. Your pack."
I stopped at the doorway and looked back. "Then I guess I'm walking away."
"She's poisoned you against me. Can't you see that? This is what Primordial Omegas do—they manipulate, they seduce, they—"
"She showed me the truth," I interrupted. "That's all. The poison was already there. You put it there years ago."
I left him standing in his office, surrounded by evidence of his corruption.
For the first time in my life, I had no idea who I was supposed to be.
Hours Later – Dinner
I couldn't eat. Couldn't think. Couldn't do anything except sit there while my entire world crumbled around me.
The others tried to talk to me, but I ignored them. What was I supposed to say? That my father was a monster? That everything I'd built was built on lies? That the omega we'd tortured had been right to hate us?
"Kade." Damon's voice cut through my thoughts. "She's here."
I looked up. Nyx—Valdis—whatever name she went by now—walked into the dining hall like she owned it. Silver hair catching the light. Violet eyes scanning the room. Every alpha watched her, some with fear, some with desire.
She walked straight to our table and sat down uninvited.
"Gentlemen," she said pleasantly. "Mind if I join you?"
"Actually—" Ash started.
"I wasn't really asking." She picked up a piece of bread and took a bite. "So, Kade. How'd your talk with Daddy go?"
The others tensed. I met her eyes—those impossible violet eyes that saw too much.
"Fine."
"Really?" She leaned closer. "Because you look like someone just told you Santa Claus isn't real. Or that your whole life is a lie built on corruption and theft." She tilted her head. "Must hurt."
Something inside me snapped.
I stood up so fast my chair fell over. "Outside. Now."
She smiled. "Gladly."
I grabbed her arm—not rough, but firm—and pulled her out of the dining hall. Behind us, I heard Ryker say, "Should we follow them?"
"No," Damon answered. "Let them work it out."
I dragged Nyx through hallways until we found an empty conference room. I shoved the door open, pulled her inside, and slammed it shut.
"What do you want from me?" The words exploded out. "You show up, you destroy my faith in my father, you make me question everything I've ever believed. What's your endgame here?"
She leaned against the wall, completely calm. "I told you. I want you to feel what it's like to lose everything."
"Well, congratulations. I just lost my father. My family. My entire identity." I stepped closer. "Happy now?"
"Not even close."
"What more do you want? Blood? My pack? My life?" I was right in front of her now, close enough to see the flecks of darker purple in her eyes. "Tell me what it'll take for you to stop this."
"There's nothing you can give me that'll make up for three years of torture." Her voice was soft but deadly. "Nothing that'll erase the memory of falling off that cliff. Nothing that'll bring back the girl I used to be."
"Then why are you doing this? If nothing I do matters, why torture me?"
"Because you need to understand." She pushed off the wall, and suddenly we were inches apart. "You need to know what it feels like to be helpless. To have someone you trusted turn out to be a monster. To realize that everything you thought was real was a lie."
The mate bond flared between us like lightning. My wolf roared to life, screaming at me to close the distance, to claim what was mine, to fix this broken connection.
"I'm sorry," I said, and meant it. "For everything. For being my father's weapon. For hurting you. For not seeing what was right in front of me."
"Your apology doesn't fix anything."
"I know." I reached up slowly, giving her time to pull away. When she didn't, I touched her face gently. Her skin was soft, warm. "But I need you to know—I'm not that person anymore. I'm not my father's son. I don't want his power or his lies or his legacy."
"Then what do you want?"
"You."
The word hung between us like a confession.
"You want the omega you tried to kill?" Her laugh was bitter. "How convenient that biology is forcing you to want me now."
"It's not just biology." My thumb brushed her cheek. "I've been having nightmares about you for five years. About your face when we rejected you. About watching you fall. About searching for your body and finding nothing." My voice cracked. "I thought I'd killed you. And it broke something in me."
For just a second, something flickered in her eyes. Something that looked like the girl she used to be—vulnerable, hopeful, wanting to believe.
Then it disappeared.
"You're good at this," she said. "The sincere apology. The gentle touch. Almost believable."
"It's not an act."
"Prove it." She grabbed my shirt and pulled me closer until our faces were inches apart. "Kiss me. If you really want me, if this isn't just the mate bond talking, then kiss me right now."
My wolf howled. The bond screamed. Every instinct demanded I close that final distance.
But something stopped me.
Because if I kissed her now, she'd use it against me. She'd make it another weapon in her arsenal. Another way to prove that I was weak, that I was ruled by biology, that nothing had really changed.
"No," I said quietly.
Surprise flashed across her face. "No?"
"Not like this. Not when you're testing me. Not when you're waiting for me to fail." I stepped back, even though it physically hurt to put distance between us. "When I kiss you, it's going to be because you want it too. Because you choose it. Not because you're trying to prove I'm still the same monster who hurt you."
I walked to the door and opened it.
"You're just going to leave?" She sounded genuinely shocked.
"You said you wanted me to feel helpless. To know what it's like to want something I can't have." I looked back at her. "Congratulations. Now we're both suffering."
I walked out before I could change my mind.
Behind me, I heard her whisper, "Damn you, Kade Blackthorn."
I leaned against the hallway wall, breathing hard. My wolf was furious. The mate bond was agony. Every part of me screamed to go back in there, to claim her, to make her mine.
But I'd spent five years being my father's weapon. Following orders. Doing what I was told.
Not anymore.
A phone buzzed in my pocket. A message from an unknown number: Your father is planning something. Meet me at the north gardens at midnight. Come alone. –N
My stomach dropped.
Nyx was texting me. Setting up a secret meeting. After everything that just happened.
This was either a trap or the beginning of something I wasn't ready for.
Either way, I was going.