Chapter 005

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Cassius

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I hadn’t known what I would find when we launched the assault on the rogue king’s territory.

The plan had been simple—retaliation. A direct message. The bastard and his filthy pack had gone too far.

The attack on my sentinels two days ago wasn’t just reckless; it was a declaration of war. Three of my men had returned bloody and torn after being ambushed by rogues wearing the Dark Crescent insignia. I couldn’t let it go unanswered.

I wasn't going to show mercy, and I sure as hell hadn’t planned on forgiveness.

But what I hadn’t expected the most was what I found in the center of that cursed courtyard.

Sylphiette.

My mate. My ex-mate.

The woman I’d once sworn to protect above all else… and the same woman I had banished from my pack, my territory, and my life.

She was on her knees, barely clothed, soaked and bloodied. Shackled. Broken.

The whip was already in motion when I arrived. The brute holding it was seconds away from striking a child—a fucking child.

And the moment I saw her—saw him, that shitty rogue Alpha—I snapped.

Everything else was a blur.

Gilles, my Beta, caught the scent change the same second I did. The moment we realized who she was, and who the child was, our objective shifted. No more scorched-earth revenge. No more surgical precision.

This was an extraction.

“On my mark,” I’d growled to Gilles, rage slicing through me like lightning.

He nodded once, and then we moved.

We descended on them with fury—wolves shifting mid-air, roars echoing. The crowd scattered as chaos erupted. Blood spilled. Flesh ripping. Screams and agonizing cries.

But all I could see was her.

I reached them before the whip came down on the child. My teeth met the brute’s forearm, digging in and ripping it clean as I bit it off.

His screams mixed into the chaos and he bowed over in agony.

Sylphie collapsed, her body losing consciousness and I swiftly shifted back to my human form, catching her brutalized body in my arms before she ever registered it was me. Her limp body trembled. Her lips were cracked and bloodied, whispering one word over and over again.

Kian.

The little boy came cradling at his mother’s side, tears running down his face as he tried to shake her awake.

My heart broke at the sight. I called my Beta through the mind to take the boy with him. But he started to protest wildly, not wanting to leave his mother’s side. I could tell from the horror I'd just briefly witnessed, this little boy had seen just as much of what he should never have.

I had to compel him to sleep and then I carried Sylphie in my arms, her face nestled against my chest, and warmth, one I haven't felt in ages washed over me in torrents.

I didn’t give Axel a chance to utter a word. I’d warned him once before that another offense would be his last.

I didn't even know why he'd attacked.

Things might have been tense between our packs but we weren't at war either. And given the situation I’d just walked in on, the attack on my pack now seemed a bit suspicious.

Almost as though the fucker had no clue about it.

But regardless, this was his last. He should have controlled his wolves better. The sudden ambush had left him and his pack overwhelmingly confused.

We left the rogue territory in flames.

That was yesterday.

Today, I couldn’t stop pacing my office. My thoughts snarled in every direction.

Sylphie hadn’t looked at me once since she woke—since our last confrontation.

She’d only asked for her son and had refused to speak unless it was about the boy. And when I ordered Doctor Harlan to bring him to her, she lit up like the sunrise the instant she laid eyes on him.

Her arms had opened, and he’d run straight into them with a cry of joy and a smile as bright as his mother's.

She had buried her face in his smooth dark locks and sobbed quietly into his shoulder while he patted her like he was the parent. Their reunion stirred a warm, inexplicably familiar sensation through my chest.

He was a sweet child—too quiet until he was around his mother. Cautious too—a trait you don't easily find with a child his age. Pups his age were usually carefree.

But what struck me was the way he looked at me. Curious. Guarded. But familiar.

His eyes were like hers. But the shape of his mouth, the color of his hair, the tilt of his jaw…

They were all mine.

It was like seeing my younger self in miniature.

And suddenly, the past came crashing down on me.

Four years ago, Sylphie had begged me to believe her. She’d tried to tell me something—I hadn’t let her. My judgment had already been passed.

I had been cold. Angry. Wounded by what I thought was a betrayal.

But one look at her now and it dawned on me.

What if she had been telling the truth all along?

What if… she had been pregnant too?

I sat heavily in the chair behind my desk, pressing my hands to my face, willing the pain away.

None of this made sense. Except it did.

The timelines added up. The resemblance. The bond I felt to the boy the second I saw him.

But none of it mattered now unless she admitted it.

She wouldn’t.

I couldn’t even get her to look at me for more than a second.

But she was almost broken. Vulnerable. A shell of the fierce, bright woman I’d fallen in love with.

The sight of her—scarred, bruised, thin from starvation and years of hardship—cut me deeper than any battle wound ever had.

I didn’t know how to reach her.

A sharp bang rattled the door, forcing me out of my thoughts and before I could react, it burst open. Zenya stormed in like a tempest, eyes blazing with fury.

“Cassius, what the hell is the meaning of this?!” She snapped.

I sighed, not having the strength to deal with her tantrums today but she wouldn't let up until I attended to her.

I rubbed my temple, eyes seeking her out. “What are you talking about?”

She marched straight to my desk and slammed both palms against it. “Don’t fucking play dumb with me! Why is that fucking traitor bitch back here?!”

I stood, before I even registered my movement, towering over her. My patience, thinning fast.

“Watch your mouth, Zenya,” I growled. My voice lowered, threateningly.

She didn't flinch though, only rolling her eyes as she scoffed. “Isn’t that true though? She's a traitor and a bitch and after everything she did to you, you brought her back?”

“You don’t know what she did or didn’t do,” I said quietly, my voice cold. “You only know what we all thought at the time.”

“What the hell are you talking about?!” she spat. “She’s nothing but a treacherous wretch, Cassius. A rogue slut who wormed her way back into your good graces with some pathetic sob story and a brat—”

“Enough.”

I didn’t raise my voice, but the room dropped into silence. Zenya blinked, caught off guard by my tone.

My jaw clenched. “You will not speak about her like that. Not in this house.”

She stared at me, eyes narrowing. “You… You still love her. Don’t you?”

I said nothing and maintained a neutral composure.

Her lips curled into something cruel. “She’s poisonous. If you keep her in this pack, you’ll regret it.”

“You don't have the right to dictate what I do in my own pack, Zenya. ” I said flatly and she recoiled like I’d struck her.

“You’re making a big mistake, Cassius.” She hissed, turned on her heel, and left, slamming the door shut behind her.

I sank back into my seat with a heavy sigh. The room, finally quiet again but I felt the storm overhead.