KADEN’S P.O.V

Nadine was seated up when I returned and she had a look of concern on her face. “Is everything okay? I hope I am not causing any trouble between the both of you.”


“Of course not,” I whispered brushing her off. She just woke up, the last thing she needed was to be worrying about Amelia and I. We would sort ourselves out, we always did. “How do you feel? Do you need the doctor? Do you need anything?’

“No, just you.”

She reached out and placed her hand on my arm and something in me balked. I wanted to push it away but my wolf almost seemed drawn to the idea which I thought was absolutely insane considering the fact that he was against it just a few days ago. He wanted nothing to do with Nadine and was head over heels in love with Amelia but now, it was almost like the table had switched. Even the argument I just had with Amelia was instigated by him. Something about her presence seemed to annoy him.


I wasn’t sure if it was the mate bond but that seemed an unlikely reason because the truth was that I could still feel my bond with Amelia but I couldn’t feel the one I had with Nadine. For some reason, it was smothered or completely gone and in its place was a different kind of bond altogether. It wasn’t anything like the mate bond I had come to know and appreciate, it felt more like the bond I had with everyone else.

“Are you alright? You look lost in thought?” her voice was soft and some part of my brain tried to tell me there was something off, something wrong, but I couldn’t remember much about her to know if I just wasn’t used to her yet or if something was wrong.


“It’s nothing, I just zoned out for a second,” I lied and she frowned.

“No, you have been a bit distant since I woke up. Did I do something wrong? I know it has been a while but I swear I tried to find you. When I woke up, I was in the hospital and I was badly injured. I thought you would come for me. Why didn’t you come for me?” I couldn’t answer her. My words had died at the edge of my throat. “I was angry at first and then I got worried that something had happened to you. We didn’t tell each other enough for me to know who you were and where you were. I tried searching but I came up empty each time.”

“Nadine,” I cut her off. It was too hard to hear that she went through all of this while I didn’t even know that she existed. “I am so sorry. When you fell, I thought you had died and I lost control of my wolf. My mother thought it would be best to wipe my memories. I didn’t even know you existed until a few days before you arrived. If I knew, I would have gone looking for you, I swear.”

She pulled her hand off my body and I felt the loss of her touch. I wanted to reach out to her but I was also worried that she was going to pull away and shut down. I sat by her side patiently while she processed my words. She opened her mouth to speak a few times but inevitably ended up closing it.

It took a full five minutes for her to finally find the words. “So, you don’t remember anything about us?”

I shook my head slowly. “I wish I did, it would have made this easier.”

“Made what easier, you leaving again?” she spat and I flinched from the harshness of her words. “I healed alone, I suffered alone and I came all the way here to find you only to find you in a relationship with someone else. I am not pissed so don’t apologize, I just wish I had some kind of head’s up.”

“I’m sorry,” it was all that I could offer her. If I knew she existed, I never would have met Amelia. The thought of that had my stomach churning. I was in a difficult position. My wolf wanted Nadine but I couldn’t betray Amelia like that. “I don’t know what to say.”

“I don’t want you to say anything. I just- I don’t know anyone here and you might not remember but I do and if it isn’t too much to ask, I would like to have someone that I know here with me. I don’t want to spend the night alone in a hospital.”

“You don’t have to worry about that. I won’t leave your side and tomorrow I can take you home.”

“Your home?” she asked and I nodded. “I don’t think your girlfriend will be too happy about that.”

“Let me handle Amelia. It’s the least I could do.”

She didn’t look convinced but at the last minute, she nodded. “Thank you.”

I slept on the couch by the wall but the truth was, I barely spent any time actually sleeping. I was up as early as three a.m. and falling asleep again was almost impossible. The moment the hospital was officially open, I started working on the discharge papers. Nadine was asleep and the plan was to finish them before she woke up.

“She is going to be so excited,” my wolf whispered to me sounding proud of himself. “You cannot mess this up, we have to make her happy.”

“Since when do you care that she is happy?” I couldn’t help but snark. “You were telling me to stay the hell away from her less than five days ago, what changed?”

“That never happened, I would never speak against Nadine like that,” he sounded genuinely offended. “Nadine is the best thing that ever happened to us and we finally have her back. She is our first mate and she is the one who is destined to be with us. You should remember that.”

He cut off the connection between us and I wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed and concerned. I pushed away all thoughts and made my way back to the room where Nadine was already awake. That pissed off my wolf even more because for some reason, he felt like I was at fault. I couldn’t exactly control when she chose to wake up but he didn’t see it that way.

“I got the discharge papers,” I waved it in her face and a small smile bloomed on her cheeks. “I asked some maids to get you new clothes. I will get a car and have everything prepared so that we can leave.”

“This is too much, Kaden. You don’t have to.”

The truth was I didn’t, but it was almost like I couldn’t fight my wolf’s impulses to actually help her so I just smiled. “It was not a bother, you don’t have to worry.”

She seemed happy so I gave her some space and only returned an hour later after the maids told me that she was dressed. I walked in not expecting anything special but it truly hit me in that moment just how pretty she was. She was the complete opposite of Amelia. She was slim and had a fierce but innocent look about her. She gave me a wary smile and I led her out of the hospital. She clutched my hand with a tight grip and I knew it was in response to all the stares we were getting.

“Ignore them,” I told her. “They don’t mean anything to you and they don’t mean anything to me either. You owe them nothing.”

The door felt so far away but we finally made it outside and it felt like I could finally breathe. Normally, I would call Caleb for things like this but I wanted to take care of it myself. I helped her into the passenger side and she was quiet the entire ride home.

A part of me hoped that Amelia’s car wouldn’t be in the driveway because it would have given me some more time to talk to her personally but my prayers were not answered because it was sitting right there in front of me.

“It’s our house,” my wolf sassed in my mind. “If she doesn’t like it then she can fucking leave.”

I was stunned by his nonchalance and anger. He was almost never like this.

“Are you alright?” I asked but he wouldn’t respond. “Amelia is still our mate and she deserves some respect.”

“Just forget about it,” he mumbled and that was the end of it.

I ran my hands through my hair in frustration and turned to Nadine. “Just stay behind me and don’t speak unless I ask you to.” She nodded and that was all I needed to make my way into the house.

Amelia was standing with her back to me but she knew the exact moment I walked in because she stiffened. She was in shorts and a tank and my dick grew hard at the sight of her. She slowly turned to face me and when she noticed Nadine behind me, her frown deepened.

“What is she doing here?” she asked but before I could answer, she cut me off. “Are you being serious right now? After everything that I said in that hospital, you brought her here.”

“I can leave if I am causing problems,” Nadine began but I turned to her with a hard look.

“Go upstairs, there is a room at the far right. That is where you are going to stay,” she didn’t move at first so I nudged her forward. “You can go there and rest. I’ll be up shortly.” As soon as she was gone, I turned back to Amelia, my wolf’s rage slowly building up in me. “Why would you talk to her like that? She doesn’t know anyone, she doesn’t have any friends. Did you want me to leave her in the hospital?”

“You could have gotten her a fucking hotel or something,” she spat and my brows rose because Amelia rarely cursed. “She is the object of our arguments and you brought her into our home. What were you thinking Kaden? Are you really going to throw away everything we have worked for because of some woman that you met when you were eighteen years old?”

I couldn’t have explained what happened next even if I tried. One moment, we were speaking, and the next, my wolf was pushing me to the side and taking control of the situation. I tried to wrestle it back from him but he was too strong. He grabbed Amelia by the neck and pinned her to the wall harshly.

“If you ever say anything bad about my mate again, I will kill you.”