I NEVER PROMISED TO DIE FOR YOU

AUTHOR’S POV 

"Her family has secured two vehicles. They intend to travel west and seek protection from one of the surviving territories."

"She cannot leave."

"Alpha—"

"The Thorne family has resources. They have supplies, armed escorts, and contacts in the western territories. If they abandon us now, every remaining pack will know Blackthorn has fallen."

Rowan's face hardened.

"Blackthorn has fallen, Alpha. The only question is whether the people who remain will survive it."

Kaiden stared at him.

For one brief moment, he wanted to strike the wall beside him, to unleash the anger clawing at his chest. He wanted to demand that the world return what it had taken. He wanted someone to tell him this was a nightmare from which he would eventually wake.

Instead, he turned and strode toward the main residence.

He found Isabelle in the entrance hall, standing beside two travel bags while her younger brother argued with a servant over the last crate of bottled water.

She looked immaculate compared with everyone around her. Her dark coat was fastened neatly at the throat, and her hair had been gathered into a tight bun. Yet even she could not conceal the strain beneath her eyes.

When she saw Kaiden, her expression tightened.

"You're leaving," he said.

It was not a question.

Isabelle glanced at her brother before returning her attention to him.

"My family cannot remain here."

"You have an armed escort. We have vehicles that need protection, and your people have supplies we could distribute among the families."

"Our supplies are for our survival."

"Your survival?" Kaiden repeated. "You have been under Blackthorn protection since the outbreak began."

"And we have lost nearly half our escort protecting ourselves in your territory."

The words landed between them.

Kaiden looked at her as if he had never seen her before.

"These are the people who negotiated an alliance with my pack. Your father promised support if our territories came under threat."

"My father made that agreement in a world where packs still had borders, roads were safe, and the infected were a distant problem." Isabelle lifted her chin. "That world no longer exists."

"So you intend to abandon everyone who trusted you?"

"I intend to keep my family alive."

Kaiden's hands curled at his sides.

"And what of our arrangement?"

For the first time, something resembling uncertainty crossed her face.

Their intended union had been discussed for months before the Moon Ceremony. Her family would gain influence within Blackthorn, and Kaiden would secure the military resources and political connections he believed necessary to strengthen his rule. It had been a practical arrangement. A sensible one.

He had convinced himself that it was what his pack needed.

He had told himself that a Luna was not chosen by the heart alone.

And when the Moon had revealed Elena Voss as his fated mate, he had rejected her before the entire pack because he believed the bond was not enough.

Now Isabelle was standing in front of him, preparing to leave with the very resources he had once considered worth sacrificing his mate for.

"The arrangement is meaningless now," she said.

Kaiden stared at her.

"Meaningless?"

"Don't make this more difficult than it has to be."

"More difficult?" A bitter laugh escaped him. "My pack is dying, Isabelle. My warriors are disappearing. Families are sleeping in ruins, and I am trying to find a place where they will not be slaughtered. Yet you stand here speaking as though you are canceling a dinner engagement."

Her face flushed.

"I never promised to die for you."

"No. You only promised to stand beside me."

"That was before this happened."

She gestured toward the shattered windows, the dust-covered walls, and the distant sounds of people carrying the injured through the corridors.

"Look at this place, Kaiden. There is nothing left to protect."

"There are still people here."

"And I cannot save them."

"You could help."

"With what? The last of my family's supplies? Our remaining warriors? You would have us risk everything for people who may already be doomed."

For a moment, neither spoke.

Kaiden searched her face for some trace of the woman he had expected to marry. He wanted to find loyalty, compassion, or even the smallest sign that she regretted leaving him in his hour of need.

He found only fear.

And beneath it, calculation.

"You should go," he said at last.

Isabelle blinked. "What?"

"If you believe there is nothing left here, then go."

She seemed surprised that he had stopped arguing.

"Kaiden, I—"

"Take your family. Take your supplies. Take whatever you can carry."

He stepped aside, clearing the path to the door.

"But don't ever tell me that you stood beside Blackthorn when it needed you."

Isabelle's lips pressed into a thin line.

She turned without another word.

Kaiden watched her leave.

He did not call after her. He did not ask her to reconsider. He did not offer her another promise or remind her of the alliance they had planned to build.

The door closed behind her, and the sound seemed to echo through the empty hall.

His wolf stirred beneath his skin, restless and furious.

She left.

Kaiden swallowed.

"Everyone leaves eventually," he muttered.

But even as he spoke, a different face rose unbidden in his mind.

Pale-blue fabric beneath moonlight.

A young woman standing before the entire pack, her chin trembling but her shoulders straight.

Elena.

He remembered the way she had looked at him after he rejected her. Not with hatred. Not even with the anger he would have understood.

She had looked at him as though he had shown her something she could never unsee.

Then she had called him Alpha and walked away.

He had allowed himself to believe she would return. He had convinced himself that once the hurt faded, she would understand his decision. He had even imagined that he might offer her a place within the pack again someday, when the political arrangement with Isabelle had settled into something stable.

He had believed he had time.

Now the world was ending, and he could not remember the last time he had heard Elena's name spoken aloud.

He wondered whether she was alive.