Chapter One: The Ultimatum

The mahogany table was older than Kadence Thornwell's father's sobriety... which meant it had seen better days, but still pretended to hold authority in a room full of wolves who knew better.

Kadence sat at the head of that table, fingers steepled beneath his chin, watching the pack elders argue about his life like he wasn't even there.

Twenty-six years old, built like he could tear down mountains, trained since childhood to lead, and yet here he was, being treated like a child who couldn't dress himself.

"The pack needs stability," Elder Meredith said, her ancient voice crackling like dry leaves. She'd been old when Kadence was born. She'd probably be old when the sun burned out.

"Kadence, you are twenty-six. Your father is... indisposed."

Indisposed. That was the polite word for currently passed out drunk in his chambers at two in the afternoon on a Wednesday.

"The Alpha position requires a mated pair," Elder Tobias added, his stern face carved from disapproval and tradition.

"You cannot officially ascend without a Luna. This is pack law."

Kadence's jaw tightened. He knew the law. He'd been raised on it, force-fed it with every meal, every training session, every gods-damned family dinner that ended with his mother's tears and his father's absence.

"I'm aware of the law," Kadence said, his voice calm despite the wolf snarling beneath his skin.

"I'm looking for my mate."

"You've been looking for eight years," Elder Tobias shot back.

"Meanwhile, your father's drinking has become a pack-wide embarrassment. We have lost two trade agreements this quarter alone because Garrison showed up drunk to negotiations."

Something hot and sharp twisted in Kadence's chest. Shame. Rage. The familiar cocktail he'd been choking down since he was twelve years old.

"I'm handling my father," Kadence said quietly... too quietly.. his wolf was too close to the surface.

"You've been handling him for fourteen years," Elder Meredith said, not unkindly.

"But the pack cannot wait any longer. We need leadership. We need an Alpha and Luna. If you cannot find your fated mate—"

"I'll find her."

"—then you must choose a mate," Elder Meredith continued as if he hadn't spoken.

"Seraphine Castellane is an excellent candidate. Strong bloodline, intelligent, well-liked by the pack. She would make a fine Luna."

And there it was. The trap springing shut around his throat.

Seraphine. Ronan's little sister. Sweet, kind Seraphine who'd been in love with him since they were teenagers, though she tried to hide it.

Seraphine who deserved a mate who loved her back, not someone settling because the elders demanded it.

"Seraphine deserves her own fated mate," Kadence said carefully.

"Fated mates are rare," Elder Tobias said.

"Chosen mates are traditional and perfectly acceptable. Your grandparents were a chosen pair. They led this pack for forty years."

"My grandparents also didn't have a choice," Kadence countered. "Times have changed."

"Have they?" Elder Tobias leaned forward, his eyes hard.

"Because from where I sit, it looks like history is repeating itself. Your father couldn't lead. He turned to alcohol and... other vices. Now you're paralyzed by some idealistic notion of fated mates while the pack suffers."

The words hit like claws. Other vices. Everyone in this room knew what that meant. Lydia. The stripper.

The affair. The twins... Saskia and Rhydian, who lived on the eastern edge of pack lands like living reminders of Garrison Thornwell's greatest shame.

Kadence's mother, Luna Mirelle, had never recovered. She'd moved to the Luna's cottage on the northern border three years ago, seeking solitude to heal from a wound that never would.

"I am nothing like my father," Kadence said, his voice dropping to a growl.

"Then prove it," Elder Tobias said. "Find your mate. Or choose one. You have thirty days."

The room went silent. Even the other elders looked surprised. Thirty days was nothing. A blink. A breath.

"That's not enough time," Ronan spoke up from his position by the door. Kadence's Beta, his best friend since childhood, his brother in every way that mattered.

"You can't put a deadline on finding a fated mate."

"We can, and we have," Elder Meredith said gently.

"Thirty days, Kadence. Find your fated mate, or we will arrange a formal courtship with Seraphine. For the good of the pack."

Kadence wanted to flip the table. Wanted to shift and tear through the room, reminding every single one of these ancient wolves that he was an Alpha, and he didn't take orders.

But that's exactly what his father would have done.

So instead, Kadence stood slowly, buttoned his suit jacket with deliberate calm, and looked each elder in the eye.

"Thirty days," he said. "Understood."

He walked out before they could see his hands shaking.

************

Ronan caught up with him in the hallway, his footsteps quick on the marble floors of the pack house.

"Kade. Wait."

Kadence didn't stop walking. If he stopped, he'd put his fist through a wall, and the pack house had enough holes in it from his father's rages. He wouldn't add to the collection.

"Thirty days is bullshit," Ronan said, falling into step beside him.

"They can't force you to choose."

"They just did." Kadence pushed through the front doors into the cool October air.

The pack house sat on twenty acres of prime territory, surrounded by forest that had belonged to the Thornwell Pack for generations. It should have felt like home.

It felt like a prison.

"So what are you going to do?" Ronan asked.

Kadence stopped at the edge of the driveway, staring out at the tree line.

Somewhere in those woods, his father was probably stumbling drunk. Somewhere to the east, his half-siblings were plotting their next attempt to humiliate him.

Somewhere north, his mother was alone, her heart broken by a man who'd promised to love her forever.

"I'm going to find my mate," Kadence said quietly.

"I have to. Because the alternative is..."

He couldn't finish the sentence. Couldn't say becoming my father. Couldn't voice the terror that lived in his bones—that he was one bad decision away from destroying someone the way Garrison had destroyed Mirelle.

"You'll find her," Ronan said with the confidence of someone who'd never had to doubt. Ronan had found his mate two years ago. They were happy. Disgustingly so.

Kadence wanted that. Gods, he wanted it so badly it hurt. But eight years of searching, eight years of hoping every woman he met might be the one, and nothing. Not even a flicker of the mate bond.

What if he didn't have a fated mate? What if the Moon Goddess had looked at his bloodline and decided the Thornwell curse ended with him?

"Come out with me tonight," Ronan said suddenly.

Kadence looked at him. "What?"

"Tonight. Let's go out. Away from pack lands. We'll hit a bar, have some drinks, and just... breathe.

When's the last time you did something that wasn't pack business?"

Kadence tried to remember. Came up empty.

"I don't think—"

"That's the problem," Ronan interrupted.

"You think too much. You're so busy being the perfect Alpha heir that you've forgotten how to live. Maybe your mate isn't at pack functions and council meetings. Maybe she's out there, in the world, waiting for you to pull your head out of your ass long enough to find her."

Despite everything, Kadence felt his lips twitch.

"Pull my head out of my ass?"

"Eloquent, I know." Ronan grinned.

"Come on. One night. What's the worst that could happen?"

Kadence had three rules, carved into his soul like commandments:

No clubs.

No strippers.

No repeating his father's mistakes.

But standing there in the autumn afternoon, with thirty days hanging over his head like an executioner's blade, Kadence heard himself say:

"Fine. One night."

Ronan's grin widened. "That's my Alpha. I know just the place."