KADEN’S P.O.V

As soon as Caleb drove off with Amelia, I felt someone slap me upside the head.


There were only a handful of people who would dare to do that- my mother, Amelia and Pamela- I didn’t need to turn around to know who it was.

“You idiot,” Pamela hissed. “What were you thinking? She told you to stop multiple times and you kept going. Did you not hear when she said she would hate you?”

I did hear her actually, I just convinced myself that she was upset and it would be fine after. I didn’t realize that she meant it or I would have stopped. It was a shitty excuse and I knew it made me a fucking terrible mate as well.


“I know I messed up,” I ran my hands through my hair in frustration. “I’ll make it up to her.”

Pamela scoffed. “You stupid child, this is more than just making it up to her. After everything she went through, you were meant to be her safe place and you hurt her. This isn’t just about you outing her in public, you betrayed her trust. She has no one right now.”


“That’s not true.”

“She was taken, Kaden, for weeks, and she is just getting color back into her face, she is just getting her life back and the one person she thought she could trust just showed her that she was wrong. You fucked up big time.”

It was only after she spoke that I realized just what I had done. Panic seized me and my heart thundered hard inside of my chest. My wolf was pissed off at me to say the least, he wouldn’t speak to me, he just took himself to a corner of my mind where he could ignore me.

I tried to get through to Amelia, tried to reach her down our bond but she has erected a firm wall between us. She had no interest in speaking to me, at least not now.

“Fuck,” I cursed. “What do I do?’

“I can’t tell you that but you hurt people tonight.”

As she was speaking, I noticed Clara walking out of the house. A reminder of what I had done slammed into me, I hadn’t just hurt Amelia, I had hurt Clara. She had always been like a sister to me and I had used the Alpha tone on her.

“Clara,” I began slowly but she held out a hand to stop me.

“Don’t ever use your Alpha tone on me again.”

My wolf bristled at the disrespect but we both knew that I deserved it. “I’m sorry.”

She just shook her head at me and walked back into the house. Things were even more complicated now and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to make it up to my mate and convince her not to do something that could break our bond, I didn’t know how to tell her that I was a fool but I loved her.

My phone rang and I quickly picked it up, knowing it couldn’t be anyone but Caleb. “Is she safe?”

“She is,” he assured me. “She just walked into the house. Kaden, you really-”

“Fucked up,” I finished for him. “I know. I’m coming home to her now.”

“No,” he cut me off and I was shocked. I would have thought that he would advise me to rush to her. “Give her some time, Kaden, an hour maybe, she just needs to calm down. You really hurt her.”

The next hour was the longest of my life.

I couldn’t stay at Caleb’s house because it was a reminder of how badly I fucked up, instead, I drove around aimlessly. I found a flower shop open and even though I knew flowers wouldn’t fix what I had broken, I bought some anyway.

I waited exactly sixty minutes before I drove back to the house. My heart was pounding wildly in my chest, I needed to see her, needed to hold her and tell her just how sorry I was.

Caleb sat in his car dutifully outside the house. As soon as he saw me pull up, he drove away. He didn’t even stop to speak to me and I couldn’t blame him. I had hurt two people that were very important to him. I knew I would have to make it up to him and Clara later but the most important thing to me was my mate.

“Amelia?” I called out softly as I walked into the house but there was no response. “Baby, where are you?”

She still stayed silent. Her scent was all over the living room, she was clearly in the house, she just didn’t want to respond. With a sigh, I followed her scent up the stairs and towards the rooms. I let out a sigh of relief when I found her seated in our bed, her legs crossed underneath her.

“I wanted to stay in the guest room,” she began slowly without even looking at me. “But I couldn’t sleep. I have gotten so dependent on you that I can’t even do anything on my own. That’s so pathetic.”

“It’s not pathetic.”

She turned to me with narrowed eyes. “Flowers aren’t going to fix this.”

“I know,” I slowly stepped closer to her. “I know that sorry won’t either but I need to let you know how truly sorry I am.”

She just stared up at me, her eyes tired and heavy but she said nothing. I placed the flowers in the vase by the bed and stopped in front of her. Her spine straightened, almost as if she were preparing to run and it hit me just how badly I had let her down.

Without even thinking of it, I went down on my knees in front of her. “Nothing I say will change what happened, I know what I did was stupid and why doesn’t even matter anymore. I broke your trust but I want to make it up to you.”

“When does it end, Kaden?” she asked, her eyes welling with unshed tears. “Ever since we met, you have apologizing for one thing or another. You apologized for Lucy, you apologized for Natasha, and now this, I can’t keep forgiving you.”

“This will be the last time, I swear.”

“So what happens when there’s a next time?” a stray tear slipped down her cheeks and I felt my heart splinter in two knowing that I caused this. “I want to push you away but I can’t because we have this child on the way but I can’t live the rest of my life forgiving you for everything.”

“Amelia, I know that, but I can’t lose you.”

She wiped at her eyes. “You did this yourself, Kaden, not me.”