Chapter 3: Flames of the Past

(Sienna’s POV)

My hand froze on the ignition key.

Kade kept walking... straight toward the SUV like he had all the time in the world and none of it mattered except the invisible chain snapping tight between us. The morning light caught the sharp lines of his face... the same storm-gray eyes that haunted every dream I tried to forget. My wolf lunged forward inside me, clawing to get closer, to feel his skin, to finish what the bond had started seven years ago.

'Don’t you dare get out of this car,' I told myself. 'Drive. Now.'

But my foot wouldn’t move. The bond hummed louder with every step he took, a low electric current that made my pulse stutter and my thighs press together against the leather seat. He looked... different. Harder. The boy I had loved at nineteen was gone, replaced by a man whose black suit stretched across shoulders built for power. A man who still wore the faint scar I had left on his jaw the night we marked each other in secret.

He stopped inches from the driver’s window. Close enough that I could see the faint shadow of stubble along his jaw... close enough that his scent... rain-soaked cedar and dark spice... flooded the car the second I cracked the window.

“Sienna.” His voice was gravel and smoke, exactly like in the dream. “You came.”

I swallowed hard. “The lawyers said Harlan requested me. I owed him that much.”

Kade’s gaze dragged over my face like he was memorizing every new line, every shadow exhaustion had carved under my eyes. His fingers flexed at his sides... as if he was fighting the same urge I was... to reach through the glass and touch.

“You look like you haven’t slept in days,” he said quietly. “Still running on coffee and sheer stubbornness, I see.”

My heart twisted. “Some things don’t change.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Some things do.”

He leaned one forearm against the roof of the SUV, caging me in without even trying. The move pulled his shirt tight across his chest, and I hated how my body remembered every inch of what was underneath. Hated how the mate bond flared hot and needy at the simple nearness of him.

“I sent the text,” he admitted, voice dropping lower. “I felt you the second your plane landed. The bond... it never went quiet. Not for me.”

My stomach clenched. “Then you should have left it alone. I was doing fine without you, Kade. We both were.”

His eyes darkened. “Were you?”

Before I could answer, he reached through the open window and brushed a loose strand of hair behind my ear. The touch was feather-light... but it burned. My wolf whimpered. The bond roared to life so violently my vision blurred for a second, memories crashing over me... his mouth on my throat, his teeth grazing the mark he’d given me, the way he had whispered “Forever” while the rest of the world tried to tear us apart.

I jerked back. “Don’t.”

His hand lingered in the air between us, fingers curling like he could still feel my skin. “You still wear the mark,” he murmured. “I can smell it on you. Mine.”

The words should have terrified me. Instead they sent a dark, aching thrill straight to my core.

I forced steel into my voice. “I’m here for the funeral. Nothing more. Stay away from me, Kade. For both our sakes.”

His lips curved into that dangerous half-smile again... the one that had always meant trouble. “Too late for that, little mate.”

He straightened and glanced back toward the estate. The front doors opened again. Brielle stepped out onto the stone steps in a sleek black dress that clung to every curve, her blonde hair twisted into a perfect chignon. She looked every inch the future Mrs. Blackwood... until her gaze landed on Kade standing by my car. Her expression didn’t change. But something cold flickered in her eyes... something that didn’t belong on the face of a grieving fiancée.

Kade didn’t even glance at her.

Instead he turned back to me and said the words that stopped my heart cold.

“Harlan left a video will. It plays tonight at the reading. And it names you, Sienna. Not as his stepdaughter.” He paused, storm-gray eyes locking onto mine with brutal honesty. “As his biological daughter.”

The world tilted.

“What?” The word came out broken.

Kade’s voice stayed low, steady, but I heard the torment in it. “Vanessa lied to everyone. Harlan found out the truth months ago... DNA tests, everything. You’re a Blackwood by blood. And the will changes... everything. The pack succession. The fortune. The bond. He wants me to claim you publicly. To make our mate bond official before the pack council.”

My fingers dug into the steering wheel until my knuckles went white. “You’re lying.”

“I wish I was.” His hand came back through the window, this time cupping the side of my neck exactly like he had in the edited cover... possessive, desperate, trembling with the same tortured need I felt burning under my skin. “I’ve known for weeks. I’ve been protecting you from the shadows... keeping Vanessa and Brielle from digging too deep. But now the secret’s out. And if you walk into that funeral tomorrow, every wolf in the pack will feel the bond between us. They’ll know you’re mine. They’ll know about Milo.”

My breath caught.

He knew.

He knew about our son.

The realization hit harder than any blow. Kade’s thumb brushed my racing pulse, his eyes burning with seven years of regret and hunger and something darker... something that looked a lot like fear.

“I have pictures of him,” he whispered, voice cracking for the first time. “Every birthday. Every soccer game. I kept my distance because I thought it would keep you both safe. But Harlan’s will just painted a target on your back. Vanessa already suspects. Brielle... she’s not who you think she is. She’s been working with the council to force a mating with me to control the pack. And if they find out Milo carries the true Blackwood heir bloodline...”

A car door slammed behind him.

Brielle was walking toward us, heels clicking on the driveway, a polite smile fixed on her face that didn’t reach her eyes.

Kade’s grip on my neck tightened, almost pleading. “Run with me, Sienna. Right now. Before the reading. Before they lock you in that house and never let you leave. I’ll explain everything... the will, the lies, the years I spent dying without you. But we have to go. Now.”

My wolf screamed yes. My heart screamed yes. But my mind... my mind was still spinning from the impossible truth that Harlan... my father... had known. That Kade had been watching over us in secret. That the life I had built on lies was about to explode in front of the entire pack.

Brielle stopped three feet away, voice sweet as poison. “Kade, darling. The lawyers are waiting. And who is this... old friend?”

Kade didn’t look at her. His eyes stayed locked on mine, the bond pulling so hard I could barely breathe.

“Choose,” he growled under his breath, so low only I could hear. “Come with me... or watch everything we built in secret burn tomorrow at the funeral.”

My hand hovered over the gear shift.

The bond thundered between us like a living thing... torturing, demanding, promising ruin and salvation in the same breath.

And in that heartbeat, I realized the real twist I never saw coming.

I wasn’t the only one who had been hiding a child.

Brielle’s hand rested protectively over the subtle swell of her stomach... a swell I hadn’t noticed until this exact second.

She was pregnant.

And the way Kade’s jaw tightened told me the baby wasn’t his.