AMELIA’S P.O.V

I waited for Kaden to return but he never did. I set the table and sat down anxiously waiting for him to appear from the room he had disappeared into with Nadine but he didn’t. it took one hour, one long hour where I felt like the most stupid person on the planet before he finally emerged and when he did, he wouldn’t even look at me. Nadine walked out after him and I couldn’t help but notice that her hair was messier than usual. She had a cruel smirk on her face as she winked at me. I wasn’t stupid, I knew exactly what had happened in there.


Despite the tears threatening to pour from my eyes, I steeled my shoulders and addressed Kaden. “Aren’t you going to have dinner with me? I waited for you.”

“I don’t want it,” he said simply without even looking at me but I wasn’t going to let it go just like that.

“You said you wanted it earlier. If you want something else then maybe I can-”


“Maybe you can leave me the fuck alone,” he snapped finally turning to me and I noticed that his eyes were not their usual color. They were dark, almost black and I knew his wolf was in control. I stayed silent remembering what happened the last time his wolf was in control. “If I wanted something, I would ask Nadine. I don’t even know why the fuck you decided to return.”

He stomped up the stairs leaving me alone with a table filled with food. I swallowed down the knot in my throat forcefully as I finally found my feet. Once I was standing, I started to clear the table. I had lost my appetite and just the mere thought of eating seemed unappealing. I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it through the night but I was going to do it, one way or another. I needed to find a way.


“If you had any self respect, you would leave,” I heard a voice drawl from behind me and I ignored Nadine but she wouldn’t leave. “He has said in more than a million ways that he wants nothing to do with you, why are you still here? Are you a masochist? Do you enjoy the pain? Do you want to watch as he picks me over you again and again?”

I refused to speak. It was clear that she was trying to get a rise out of me but I wasn’t going to give her the privilege of knowing that she was able to do so. I cleared the kitchen in silence all the while she watched me unable to say anything else. The moment I was done, I started to leave but she grabbed my upper arm. I lifted my eyes to hers and I noticed anger in them.

“I will win this battle,” her voice was a whisper. “I have nothing to lose here, Amelia, I am willing to see this to the very end and there is nothing that I will not do to ensure that I win. I cannot say the same about you.”

“This isn’t a stupid game, Nadine. I am not here to play winner or loser, this is about people’s lives, this is about my life.”

“Funny, this is about my life as well,” she spat.

I wasn’t sure why but for some reason, her words seemed to anger my wolf. It was like she had dipped her words in poison and she knew exactly where to hit to get me riled up. Her lips pulled up into a smirk almost as if she could read me and I knew I was falling right into her trap so I snatched my hand out of her grip. She seemed shock but she managed to hide it after a few seconds.

“Stay away from me, Nadine, stay away from Kaden too.”

“You’re just going to have to make me,” she sing songed before walking away. “Good luck getting him to stay in the same room with you now.”

I didn’t know what she meant by that but I knew I would find it. I took a few calming breaths before finally making my way over to the room that Kaden and I shared. I wasn’t sure why I was anxious. I knew it had something to do with the last time we were alone but there was more, I knew there was. Still, I pushed the door open and walked in.

Kaden had his back to me but he knew the exact moment that I walked in because he groaned loud. He turned to me with his hands crossed over his chest and although his eyes were not as dark as they were earlier, it was clear that his wolf was still in control.

“There are other rooms in this house,” he spat and I tried to pretend like his words didn’t phase me. “You shouldn’t even be here but I am willing to overlook that as long as you choose to stay in another room.”

“Why do you hate me?” I couldn’t stop the words from slipping out of my mouth. “I remember a time when you wanted me so badly, when you would have done anything to protect me. Why is it different now? What did I do? What did I say? How did things change this much?”

I saw something flash across his eyes, something that looked suspiciously like hurt and guilt but before I could pay too much attention to it, it was gone. He cleared his throat and straightened his shoulders. When he took the first step towards me, I had to swallow down a knot in my throat and force myself to remain still. With each move, it felt like the room was shaking but I refused to cower from my own mate.

He stopped directly in front of me and I had to look up at him. I was taken back to the time when we first met and I couldn’t even bear to face him. It felt like an eternity ago and yet things had still not changed.

“I’ll leave instead,” he spat and he made to walk past me but I grabbed his arm.

His eyes met mine and for a second, I thought he was going to stay. There was a war in his eyes as grey clashed with black but at the last moment, he snatched his hand out of my grip and leveled me with the harshest glare I had ever seen him sport.

“Don’t you ever grab me like that again. Consider this to be your first and only warning, Amelia.”

He stormed out of the room leaving me in utter and complete silence.

I couldn’t sleep the entire night. I just sat up in bed watching the hands on the clock move. By the time it was five a.m. I decided I was done and pulled myself out of bed hoping to find Kaden but he was gone. I wasn’t sure if Nadine was with him and at the moment, I didn’t want to find out. I just quietly made my way out of the house and took a walk.

I didn’t realize where I was going until I found myself by the edge of the training field. Ian was there as usual setting up and when he saw me, his eyes widened. He smiled widely and he looked happy to see me but I could tell that there was worry in his eyes.

“Are you okay?” he asked and I nodded but I wasn’t fooling anyone. “I haven’t heard from you in a while but I have heard a lot from the rumor mill. I don’t like to listen to it. If you want to talk to me then I would be more than willing to listen.”

“What did you hear?” I asked instead and he hesitated meaning that whatever he heard, it was bad.

He sat cross legged on the floor and gestured for me to do the same. We still had at least thirty to forty five minutes before the students came in. It was more than enough time to talk and I realized that I really needed a friend, someone who wasn’t intertwined with the entire situation and could give me an unbiased opinion.

“Well, I heard that the girl went to your school. I haven’t bothered to learn her name. They say there was a huge show down and she gave you a shiner,” I snorted at that and he laughed. “I knew it couldn’t be true because I trained you well. You wouldn’t take a shiner.”

“There was no shiner and there was no confrontation, she did come to the school though.”

He sighed. “Tell me everything, Amelia. What the hell is going on?”

The moment I started speaking, I couldn’t stop. I let everything out and I didn’t realize just how much had happened until I was done speaking. Ian just stared at me the moment I finished with wide eyes. The sun was already rising and I knew the students would be arriving soon.

“You are an incredibly strong woman,” he said simply. “Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t do half of what you are doing.”

“I just need someone because I don’t know how long I can take it.”

“I cannot tell you what to do, but what I will say is that once it gets too much, leave it, leave him. No one is worth all of that.”

“How will I know when it is too much?”

“You just will,” he squeezed my shoulder in a comforting manner. “Now, if you don’t want any kids seeing you, I think this is the time for you to leave.”

“Thank you, Ian.”

He waved me off. “If you still want to talk later, all you have to do is call.”

We exchanged our goodbyes rather quickly because I wanted to make a clean getaway. I managed to turn the corner before the first car showed up. I took the long walk back home and I was just about to walk into the driveway when I felt someone trying to push against my walls. I let it down and was met with yelling.

“I have been trying to get through to you. Where the hell are you?” the fact that it was Caleb put me on edge. He never reached out to me.

“I just took a walk to clear my head. Is everything okay?”

He sounded panicked and excited at the same time. I wasn’t sure how that was possible but Caleb managed to pull it off.

“You need to come quickly. I think I found something.”