KADEN’S P.O.V

I never realized how hard it was to smother thoughts of murder until I knew another man wanted my mate. A part of me was furious that he would even think about it and I wanted nothing more than to storm into that pack and rip his head clean off his shoulders. I doubted Gregory would care but there was the little issue about him being mated to Gregory’s daughter. If anything happened to her, I knew Gregory was going to tear the world apart to kill whoever harmed her.


The only thing that was keeping me sane was my promise to Amelia to trust her. I wanted to lose control, my wolf wanted to lose control but the knowledge that I would be hurting her by doing so was the only thing keeping me from making a drastic decision.

“Kaden,” Amelia’s hand on my shoulder snapped me backto reality.

After cleaning me up in the bathroom, she pulled me into the bedroom and made me lie in bed while she went to prepare something for me to eat. I loved whenever she cooked for me because it showed that she was thinking about me. I forced myself to eatevery bite of that food despite not being hungry and that smile on her face afterwards was worth it. She asked if I wanted more and I would have said screw it if I didn’t know that taking another bite would make me throw up.


“I’m fine,” I said in response to her unanswered question and she sighed in disbelief.

I knew she was trying to stop herself from saying anything. I hadn’t spoken a word since I told her about Blake. I knew she didn’t care about him but he cared about her and for me, that was even worse.


“Stop thinking about it,” she told me. “It isn’t worth it.”

“Your ex-boyfriend is obsessed withyou and might be planning a coup just so he can be with you. There is a lot to think about, Amelia.”

“Blake would be stupid to try anything,” it was amazing how well she could read my mind and know instantly what was wrong. “Even if he wanted to, he has no moral ground to do so. He is mated to Brittany. You cannot be mated to two people.”

“You can break bonds.”

“She will die.”

I turned to her. “If he is willing to kill your father, what makes you so sure that he will not kill Brittany too?”

Shestayed silent- she was finally seeing things the way I was. I didn’t want to scare her but there was so much about this that could go wrong. I hated not knowing what was happening, I always wanted to be a step ahead and unfortunately, this was not a situation where I could do that because there were too many unpredictable variables.

An idea popped into my headand I turned to her. “Mate with me,”she raised a brow. “If you mate with me then he has no reason to come for you. You legally would be mine and I would have every right to defend any perceived slight against my mate.”

She frowned and I thought back on my words to see if I had said anything wrong but I couldn’t figure it out. I reached out for her but she pulled away from my touch leaving me confused. She began to walk out of the roombut I rushed to block her departure.

“What is it?” I asked. “Did I say something wrong?”

“What do you think?” she muttered as she tried to move past me once more but I stopped her.

“I am going to need you to use your words this time,Amelia because I don’t know what I did wrong.”

“You want to mate with me just to spite him,” she yelled outand I cursed when I realized how he could shave thought about it that way. “Don’tyou see how wrong that is?”

“Amelia,” I pulled her close but she refused to look at me. “I am so sorry if that was how it came out. I want to mate with you because I want you, not because of Blake. I want you.”

She looked away and I cursed when I realized that I had genuinelyhurt her feelings. I had never hated the fact that I was a manof few words until now. Reassuring people had never been my thing but I gripped her chin and forced her to look at me.

“I would never do that to you,” I assured her. “You are my mate and I will not do anything you are uncomfortable with. We can mate now or in the next five years. As long as I get to spend the rest of my life with you, I don’t care.”

“Are you sure?” she asked and I nodded. “Okay.”

“Good girl,” I murmured before kissing her softly. “Don’t ever doubt howI feel about you.”

We lay in bed for the rest of the night and it pissed me off the next morning when I had to leave her. As expected, my wound was healed and all that was left in its place was just a small scar that I wasn’t sure would clear. When Caleb saw me walk into the office, he rolled his eyes.

“I thought that you would finally understand the concept of a break,” he looked over my shoulder. “Where is Amelia?”

“I wanted her to sleep in, I’m sure she will come in later,” Caleb was grinning from ear to ear and I sighed deeply. “What is it? Whenever you have that grin, it means you want to say something stupid.”

“I have never seen you like this,” he said simply. “Love is a good look on you.”

I didn’t deny it. Love was too tame of a word for what I felt for Amelia, I felt like I couldn’t breathe when she wasn’t near. It terrified me sometimes because I never thought I was capable of these kinds of emotionsbut she had shown me a whole new world.

“Once she gets here, make sure she has lunchwaiting for her. She never eats breakfast.”

Caleb’s grin grew even wider and I quickly walked away before he could say anything more.

I was in my office for the next hour and I was informed immediately Amelia arrived. It did something to me to know that she was in the same building as I was and she was mine. I was practically floating on a cloud, at least until I was told that my mother entered the building.

She walked into my office looking as perfect as usual and she gave me a soft smile. “It’s been a while.”

“Hello, mother,” I said simply and she sighed before taking the seat opposite me.

“I came here to make things right,don’t make this hard, Kaden.”

I raised a brow. “You disrespected my mate, you have no moral high ground here, mother.If anyone needs an apology, it is Amelia, not me. If you are going to apologize then do it but don’t come in here and think I am going to ignore what happened.”

She at least had the decency to look ashamed. “I’m sorry, you know how hard this is for me. Too much has happened, Kaden, I am trying to look out for you.”

“I am not a child, mother,”I deliberately kept my voice detached. “You have to accept that sooner or later. You cannot policemy life. If youwant a relationship with me then you will startby being respectful to my mate.”

I could see the shock on my mother’s face but she nodded. “If that is what it takes then I will apologize to Amelia this instant.”

“Good.”

I watched her rise to her feet and she hesitated when she got to the door. “By the way, no one wants me to be wrong about her as much as I do.”

I followed my mother out of the office to make sure she actually apologized to Amelia. I could see the shock on Amelia’s face as mother apologized to her. She glanced at me and she knew I was directly involved in what had happened. As soon as mother left, she rushed over to my office. She was wearing a short black skirt that clung to her like second skin and a button-up white shirt. As soon as she was inside my office, I pinned her to the door and kissed her deeply.

“You are so fucking beautiful,” I murmured as I claimed her lips. Her words died in her throat and she melted into my hands.

I ran my hands down her side to her hips and I pulled her flush against me. She let out a small moanand I used the opportunity to slip my tongue into her mouth. If Amelia was a dreamthen I never wanted to wake up. I moved my hands from her hips to her ass and I squeezed.

She finally pulled back from me and she was breathing hard. “Why did she apologize?”

I didn’t want to talk about it so I tried to kiss her but she pulled back and I knew that no matter what, we were going to talk. I reluctantly took a step back and adjusted my pants to hide the growing bulge.

“She was rude to you so I gave her an ultimatum- apologize or lose me.”

Her eyes widened. “Why would you do that? She is your mother?”

“You are my mate,” I retorted. “I already told you, Amelia, I am in this for the long haul and she needs to realize that.”

“I love you,” she blurted out and slapped her hands over her mouth as if she had said something wrong. “I’m sorry, I just couldn’t- you don’t have to say it back but I just needed to let you know.”

I laughed and pulled her closer. “I love you, Amelia. My only regret is that I didn’t say it first.”

I wanted to pull her in for another kiss but I felt that familiar tug at my mind link. I knew it was Caleb on the other side so it had to be important. I groaned in annoyance and turned to Amelia.

“I have to go deal with something and I might not be back until later but wait for me, we are going home together,” I ordered and she made a show of giving me a mock salute. I started to leave but I stopped by the door. “Tell me again.”

“Tell you what?” she teased and I growled making her laugh. “I love you, Kaden.”

I closed my eyes and allowed those words marinate. If those were the only words thatI heard for the rest of my life then I was going to die a happy man.