Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

KADE POV

The Mating Ball was loud. Too loud. Three hundred wolves, all of them hoping. I could feel their eyes on me from every corner of the room.

I hated nights like this, with everyone looking at me. Waiting for me to pick someone.

I'd rather be in my office with a glass of whiskey and no one to impress.

Kyle didn't care about any of it. He'd been quiet all night. Bored.

Then he wasn't.

There.

I didn't ask what.

I just moved.

Halfway across the floor before I realized my feet were already gone. My body cut through the crowd before my mind caught up.

Rowan called something after me. I didn't hear it.

Kyle was pulling hard, the way he only pulled for two things — danger or mate. And we weren't under attack.

The passage was dark. Smelled like wax and dust.

She came around the corner and walked straight into me.

I didn't see her coming. Neither did Kyle. That never happens.

Glasses went everywhere. Champagne on my jacket. Dripping down my chest. One glass bounced off her head and she just stood there, dripping, looking up at me with wide eyes. Her hair was soaked.

Kyle lunged.

I caught myself. Didn't move or speak.

She was small. Shorter than me by a foot. Dark hair falling out of whatever clip had been holding it. An apron with a coffee stain. A cut on her hand she hadn't noticed.

She apologized quickly. Words tumbling out. Crouched to clean up. Didn't look at my face. Her hands were shaking but she hid it well.

She never looked at my face.

"Look at me," I said.

She froze.

Slowly, she looked up.

The bond hit, hard and fast.

Kyle went still in a way I'd never felt before, not calm, but recognizing. Like he’d been waiting his entire existence for this and didn’t know what to do now that it had arrived.

But something else hit too.

For one second, nothing else existed. Then I saw her properly.

The girl I had ignored for three years without realizing I was doing it.

From hallways and the edge of my vision while I walked to my office. From three years of seeing a maid with her head down and thinking nothing of it.

Sera.

She'd been in my house for three years. Cleaning my floors, changing my sheets. Walking past my office, emptying my trash. Serving drinks at parties while I walked right past her. And I'd never once looked at her directly. Not once. I'd never seen her face until now.

Kyle kept pulling harder now. He wanted to go to her, to touch her.

Then I heard footsteps. People coming from the ballroom. Three, maybe four sets, getting closer.

My mind snapped into place.

She had no pack standing. No family name. No protection.

A wolfless maid triggered an Alpha bond in front of three hundred wolves.

If the Council heard about this—

I looked at her.

Then at the blood on her palm.

I knew exactly what they would do.

I looked at her again, she stood up. Walk past me. Her shoulder almost brushed my arm.

"Your name," I said.

She stopped. Her back was to me. "Sera." Then she kept walking.

I watched her go. The dark of the passage swallowed her. Kyle screamed at me to follow. To stop her and claim her.

I didn't move.

---

I found her in the ballroom ten minutes later.

She was standing near the back wall, holding a tray of drinks she had no reason to be holding. Her hair was still damp from the champagne. Her face was blank.

Like nothing had happened.

Like she hadn't just shattered my entire world in a hallway.

The music stopped as I crossed the floor. Conversation followed as three hundred wolves went quiet.

I stopped in the center of the room and looked at her.

Something in me tightened.

The murmur started, confused at first.

The wolfless maid.

I heard it behind me. I continued to stare at her and didn't look away.

She didn't move or flinch either.

Then–

I opened my mouth and said it loud enough for everyone to hear.

"I, Alpha Kade of Silvermoon, reject you, Sera, as my mate."

The words hit the room like a blade dropped on glass.

She didn't react at first, she stood like something inside her had simply… shut off.

"The bond is a mistake," I said, my voice cold. "Leave tonight. Don't come back."

I held her gaze.

She stood there for a second. Then she placed the tray down carefully on the nearest table, like she was afraid her hands would shake if she didn't move slowly.

She turned and walked toward the door.

No tears. No plea. No wolf rising to defend her.

The room broke behind her.

Wolfless.

Omega.

Good riddance.

I didn’t move until she disappeared through the doors.

---

The passage was empty when I got there later.

But I could still smell her. Faint.

Kyle was pacing. Angry and lost.

"You hurt her." I didn't answer.

He stopped.

"You could've found another way."

I pressed my hand against the wall.

He was right.

That was the problem.

I left the hall without speaking again.

Rowan was waiting outside.

"You should sleep."

I walked past him. Past the ballroom, past the front doors and across the lawn.

"Where are you going?" He called after me.

I didn't answer.

I kept walking until I reached the pack boundary. The eastern ridge.

She'd stood here. I could still smell her.

"She's gone," Kyle said. "You let her go. Like Mathis."

That name hit harder than it should have.

I stopped. “I protected her.” The words sounded hollow even to me.

Kyle didn't soften. "Did you?"

Before I could answer, Rowan appeared behind me, phone in hand. "My Alpha."

I took it. "We heard about the mating bond tonight."

I went still. "It was a mistake."

"Of course." 

Silence.

Then, "Bring the girl to the Council."

My fingers tightened around the phone.

"She's not going anywhere."

A slow breath came through the line. "That wasn't a request."

The line went dead.