Chapter 4

Kade stood frozen outside my bedroom door for a day and a night, but I never opened it for him.

The night before the alliance departure, the dim hallway lights cast his tall shadow under the door crack. It was long, straight, and motionless.

Finally, his deep, hoarse voice broke the dead silence.

"Cora," he said at last.

His voice was very low, showing extreme restraint. For a man making a decision against his own heart, this calmness was cruel.

"You win. Tomorrow, I'll marry you as the Alpha arranged. I'll mark you, and make you my mate."

I sat on the carpet with my back against the cold door, saying nothing.

"I'll spend my life making up for pulling a weapon on you," he continued.

He spoke each word clearly, as if reciting a warrior's oath he'd lived by since childhood.

"I swear to the Moon Goddess. Not as your mate, but as a warrior."

There was a moment of silence outside the door.

"I'll protect you just as I would fight to the death for this territory," he finally said in a low voice.

"With my blood. With my life."

He said so much, but from beginning to end, there wasn't a single mention of love.

He simply offered the bargaining chip closest to eternity that a warrior could promise.

I remained silent the whole time. Through the door, I could hear his breathing. I could smell the scent of cedar and iron on him.

That scent squeezed through the crack in the door, and my wolf whimpered in my chest.

After a long time, his footsteps retreated down the hallway, steady and restrained. It was like turning around and leaving was just executing another order.

Inside the room, I pressed my forehead against the door.

I gave a bitter smile. A tear dropped onto the floor.

Just as dawn broke and the Northern convoy crossed the border, I changed into a white wedding dress and got into the car.

I was entirely alone. No maids, no escort convoy, and no one calling my name from behind.

This wasn't supposed to be a grand wedding anyway. It was just a transaction.

This was my shackle. Dragging others into it was pointless.

To cover up the bride swap and prevent Kade from making trouble, my father skipped the public daytime ceremony. He waited until evening for Kade to enter the mating chamber and marry Ruby.

By the time he stepped into the mating chamber tonight, he'd get the parting gift I left for him.

Despite my planning, I never expected to see him standing in the middle of the road as the car left the territory.

Dark privacy windows hid my face. His gaze locked onto the rear window. He lingered before stepping closer.

"I'll escort you part of the way."

I sat in the shadows and didn't make a sound. The bulletproof glass sealed my scent inside.

The driver checked the rearview mirror. Following my hand signal, he drove right past him without stopping.

He turned around, got into his SUV, and pulled up beside me. Only an arm's length separated the two cars.

"Do you hate me?" he asked loudly through the half-lowered window, the wind messing up his hair. "Because I'm marrying your sister today?"

I froze. He thought Ruby was in the car.

This meant he had been waiting on this road since before dawn. He waited for so long that he hadn't even gone back to the packhouse to uncover the truth I left for him.

And he hadn't stayed for my sake. Not even for a moment.

"But it's what I owe her," he continued.

His tone was terribly steady, almost like reading a regulation. "I broke her heart once. I can't ruin her a second time."

I looked straight ahead, not saying a single word.

His throat bobbed. After a pause, he added in a low voice, "I'm sorry."

"Right up until the last minute, I still couldn't get the Alpha to withdraw the order to send you away."

"If you don't want to go to your death..." With a screech of brakes, his SUV swerved and blocked the road in front of us.

He got out of the car, strode over, and grabbed the door frame. "I can take you away right now. Leave the territory. Today."

His knuckles turned white. He looked ready to smash the window right open.

This reckless madness was something he had only ever shown on the battlefield during life-and-death struggles.

"I'll never watch you get sold to the North as a bargaining chip. Never."

I turned to look at him. He couldn't see clearly inside, but I could see him perfectly.

There was no tenderness in his eyes. They were cold. He refused to watch anyone get sacrificed for the 'big picture'.

For him, this was probably just his duty as Commander.

But I always misunderstood, because it sounded so much like love, especially towards Ruby.

I signaled the driver to hit the gas, ignoring Kade completely. The engine roared, and the car sped away.

A bride sent North should have had a convoy and guards. Instead, she left like she was already forgotten.

Kade stayed where he was. Long after the checkpoint gates shut behind the car, and the highway returned to silence, he stood motionless in the wind.

Only then did he get in his car and head back to the packhouse.

He didn't know why, but something felt wrong. His mind was a mess. He couldn't grasp exactly what the problem was.

Ruby's behavior today had been too unusual.

She had dismissed the prearranged escort convoy and rejected all the accompanying maids and bodyguards.

She hadn't spoken a single word to him from start to finish. Even when he approached, she was as dead silent as a stranger.

No crying. No goodbyes.

When the car left the territory, she didn't look back once at the place she lived in for twenty years.

This scared him more than her tears. Strange memories flashed in his mind.

In some blurry memory he couldn't quite grasp, Ruby had cried her eyes out in public. She'd tugged on his sleeve, begging him to save her with desperate eyes.

Back then, he drove alongside the convoy, following closely, believing this was the only thing he could give her.

But this time, he didn't see a single tear from her.

By the time he raced all the way back to the packhouse, the last glow of dusk had already been swallowed by the dark night.

He kicked open the door to the mating chamber and strode into the room.

His sharp werewolf senses delivered the cruelest slap in the face.

The cool pine scent he expected wasn't there. Instead, the air was thick with a cloying, overly sweet perfume.

It was Ruby's scent.

The woman in the wedding dress turned her head at the sound, revealing that face he was all too familiar with.

"Ruby?!"

It was all wrong. This was absolutely absurd.

The panic that gripped his heart since the border gates closed finally morphed into the cruelest reality.