Chapter 4: Shadows of Betrayal

(Sienna’s POV)

The world narrowed to the curve of Brielle’s hand resting over the gentle swell beneath her sleek black dress.

Pregnant.

Not Kade’s. The certainty hit me like a silver blade to the ribs... because if it had been his, the bond between us would have fractured the second I saw her. Instead it only burned hotter, twisting with fresh agony and a dark, possessive relief that made me hate myself.

My wolf snarled inside me, claws raking against my chest. 'Not his. Never his.'

Kade’s fingers were still curled around the side of my neck, thumb pressed to the frantic beat of my pulse. He didn’t look at Brielle. His storm-gray eyes stayed locked on mine, raw and desperate, like he was willing me to understand everything in one glance.

“Sienna,” he said, voice low enough that only I could hear. “Get out of the car. Now.”

Brielle’s heels clicked closer, that perfect society smile still fixed on her lips. “Kade, darling, the lawyers really are waiting. And you must be... Sienna, right? Vanessa mentioned you might actually show up this time.”

The way she said my name dripped with honeyed venom. Her free hand smoothed over her belly again... deliberate, flaunting. I caught the faint scent then... not Kade’s cedar and spice, but something sharper, almost metallic. Another wolf. Someone from the council, maybe. Someone who wanted the Blackwood empire for themselves.

I finally found my voice. “Congratulations, Brielle. When’s the happy news due?”

Her eyes flickered... just for a second... before the mask slid back into place. “Six months. We’re keeping it quiet until after the funeral, of course. Poor Harlan would have been so thrilled.”

Kade’s grip tightened on my neck, almost painful now. 'Lie,' his touch seemed to say. 'Every word.'

I killed the engine and stepped out of the SUV on legs that felt like glass. The second my feet hit the driveway, the mate bond snapped taut between Kade and me like a live wire. Heat flooded my veins. My mark... the one hidden beneath my collar... throbbed in time with his heartbeat. Seven years of running, and one look from him still turned me into liquid want and terror all at once.

He moved instantly, positioning himself between me and Brielle like a shield. His hand slid down to the small of my back, possessive and burning through the thin fabric of my sweater. “She’s coming inside with me,” he told Brielle, tone flat. “Harlan’s will concerns her directly.”

Brielle’s smile sharpened. “Of course. Family is family, after all.” Her gaze dropped pointedly to the place where Kade’s fingers pressed against me. “Though some bonds are... more complicated than others.”

She turned on her heel and started back toward the estate, but not before I saw the flash of pure hatred in her eyes. Not grief. Not even jealousy. Hatred.

Kade didn’t wait. He guided me up the long driveway, his body a wall of heat at my side. The moment we passed the wrought-iron gates and the heavy oak doors closed behind us, he spun me into the shadowed alcove just off the main hall. Antique tapestries and oil portraits of Blackwood ancestors watched us like silent judges.

His hands framed my face, thumbs brushing my cheekbones. “I swear on the bond I never touched her,” he rasped. “The pregnancy... it’s part of their plan. Council elder Marcus Hale. He’s been sleeping with her for months. They want to pass the child off as mine to lock me into the succession. Control the pack. Control the fortune. And now that Harlan’s will names you as blood... they’ll come for Milo next.”

My knees buckled. He caught me, pulling me flush against his chest. God, he smelled like home and ruin all at once. My wolf howled for him, for the safety of his arms, for the teeth at my throat that had once marked me as his forever.

“You knew,” I whispered against his shirt, fists curling into the expensive fabric. “You knew about Milo. You watched us. And you never...”

“I wanted to come a thousand times.” His voice cracked. “Every birthday. Every time you looked tired in those surveillance photos my man sent me. But Vanessa and the council had threats lined up. If I claimed you publicly before Harlan’s death, they would have had you declared unstable. Taken Milo. I stayed away to keep you both alive.”

Tears burned behind my eyes. I hated how good it felt to be held by him again. Hated how the bond sang at the contact, flooding me with memories... his body pressing me into the studio wall, the way he had growled my name like a prayer while we came apart together that last stolen night.

“I have a son who asks about his father every single day,” I said, voice trembling. “And you let me raise him alone because you were playing protector from the shadows?”

Kade’s forehead dropped to mine. Our breaths mingled, hot and ragged. “I was dying without you, Sienna. Every damn day. The bond never let me forget. I would wake up reaching for you... tasting you on my tongue like you were still in my bed.”

His lips brushed the corner of my mouth... not quite a kiss, but close enough to make my wolf surge forward with a desperate whine. The torture of it stole my breath. So close. So forbidden. So right.

A door opened somewhere down the hall. Footsteps. Voices. The lawyers.

Kade cursed under his breath and pulled back just enough to look at me. His eyes were wild, the gray almost swallowed by black. “The reading is tonight at eight. Harlan’s video will expose everything... your bloodline, the mate claim he’s demanding I make public, the clause that strips Brielle and Vanessa of any inheritance if they contest it. But Marcus Hale will be there. And if he suspects Milo exists...”

He didn’t finish. He didn’t have to.

I reached up and traced the faint scar on his jaw... the one I’d given him in a passionate bite the night we first mated. “If we run now... we lose everything Harlan tried to give us. If we stay... we might lose Milo.”

Kade’s hand slid down to grip my hip, pulling me harder against him. The hard line of his body told me exactly how much the bond was tormenting him too. “Then we fight. Together. Like we should have seven years ago. But Sienna... I need you to trust me when I say the next twenty-four hours are going to test every inch of that bond.”

I nodded, even as terror coiled tight in my stomach.

We stepped out of the alcove just as Vanessa appeared at the top of the grand staircase, elegant in black silk, her eyes narrowing the second she saw us standing too close.

“Sienna, darling,” she called, voice dripping false warmth. “How lovely you could join us. And Kade... you really shouldn’t keep your fiancée waiting.”

But it wasn’t Vanessa’s words that turned my blood to ice.

It was the small, folded piece of paper she held between two manicured fingers... a photograph.

She descended the stairs slowly, holding it out like a weapon.

“I thought you might like to see the latest ultrasound, sweetheart,” she said sweetly. “Brielle was kind enough to share. Though I must say... the timing is rather convenient, isn’t it?”

Kade went rigid beside me.

I took the photo with numb fingers.

The black-and-white image showed a tiny fetus... and scrawled across the bottom in fresh ink, a single line that made the floor drop out from under me.

DNA MATCH CONFIRMED — BLACKWOOD HEIR.

My head snapped up.

Vanessa’s smile was pure venom.

“Surprise,” she whispered. “It seems my daughter isn’t the only one who kept secrets. Welcome home, Sienna. The real games start now.”