Chapter 8: Interference

SERA

I paced Kade's sitting room like a caged animal, my footsteps taking a path in the wooden floor. Through the window, I watched rogues move in formation across the compound, weapons ready, faces hard.

They were preparing for war and I was stuck inside like a child sent to her room.

"You'll create a hole in the floor," Elena said from her chair, not looking up from the herbs she was grinding.

"I should be out there." I turned from the window, frustration burning in my chest. "I'm the one Aldric wants, i should be helping."

"You are helping by staying alive." Elena finally looked at me, her expression gentle but firm. "Kade needs to know you're safe so he can focus on defending this compound. You running around out there would only distract him."

"I'm not some helpless Omega anymore," I snapped. "Yesterday I destroyed a tree with my power and today I'm supposed to hide in the house and wait?"

"Yesterday you also nearly lost control of that power," Elena reminded me. "Training and real battle are very different things, child. Aldric is not a tree, he's a trained killer who's spent decades perfecting his craft."

I wanted to argue, but she was right. The truth tasted bitter. I had power, yes but control? That was still shaky at best.

Still, sitting here doing nothing while others risked their lives for me felt wrong.

A knock at the door made us both tense. Marcus stepped inside, his face serious.

"Elena, Kade wants you ready in the clinic, we might have injured ones coming in soon." His eyes shifted to me. "Sera, stay here, lock the door behind me, don't open it for anyone except Kade or me."

"What's happening?" I asked.

"Just being careful." But the way his hand rested on his weapon told me it was more than that.

He left, and the silence that followed felt like it was choking me.

Minutes passed by, then an hour. I tried to sit, to be patient, but my body wouldn't let me. Every sound outside and shadow past the window made my heart race.

Finally, the door opened again. Kade walked in with Marcus right behind him. One look at Kade's face told me something had happened.

"What is it?" I asked. "Did you find Aldric?"

"Not exactly," Marcus said, and there was an edge of amusement in his voice that seemed completely out of place.

Kade's jaw was tight, his eyes hard. "Someone else found him first."

My stomach dropped. "What do you mean?"

"Thorne." Kade's voice was flat. "Your former mate decided to play hero. He attacked Aldric on our territory and injured him."

I stared at him, trying to process the words. "Thorne attacked Aldric? Why would he…"

"To impress you," Kade interrupted, and there was an edge to his voice I'd never heard before. "To show you he's still your protector, to win points with you."

"That's ridiculous," I said, but even as the words left my mouth, I wondered if they were true.

Would Thorne really risk the Council's wrath just to... what? Prove something to me?

"Is it?" Kade stepped closer, and I could feel the anger coming off him in waves. "He rejected you, threw you away like garbage, and now that you're powerful and protected, suddenly he's willing to fight for you?"

"I didn't ask him to do that," I shot back, my own anger rising. "I didn't ask for any of this."

"But you're not exactly upset about it either, are you?"

The accusation stung. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means maybe part of you still wants him to want you back."

The words stuck in the air between us, sharp and painful.

"That's not fair," I said quietly. "You don't get to tell me how I feel."

"Then tell me I'm wrong." Kade moved even closer, his eyes searching mine. "Tell me you don't care that he risked everything to protect you, tell me it doesn't matter."

I opened my mouth, then closed it because I didn't know what to say. Did it matter? Part of me was angry at Thorne for interfering but another part, a part I didn't want to admit existed, felt something else.

Not love, not anymore but maybe... validation? Proof that I wasn't as worthless as he'd made me feel that night?

"I thought so," Kade said, his voice going cold. He stepped back, putting distance between us.

"Kade.."

"We need to focus on Aldric," he cut me off. "He's injured but not dead, that makes him more dangerous, not less. Injured animals are the most vicious."

Elena cleared her throat from her chair. "The king is right, we need a plan."

Marcus nodded. "Aldric will either retreat to heal and regroup, or he'll get desperate and attack fast. Either way, we need to be ready."

Before anyone could respond, the door burst open. A young rogue stood there, breathing hard, eyes wide.

"King Kade," he gasped. "Someone's at the border, she's demanding to speak with you."

"She?" Marcus asked, his eyebrows rising.

The rogue nodded, swallowing hard. "Says her name is Cassandra. Says she's pack, and she needs to come home."

The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees.

Kade's expression went completely blank, which somehow seemed worse than anger. "Cassandra."

The way he said the name made my stomach twist into knots.

"Who's Cassandra?" I asked, looking between Kade and Marcus.

They exchanged a look I couldn't read, full of meaning I didn't understand.

"Someone I thought I'd never see again," Kade finally said, his voice cold and hard. "And someone who's going to be a problem."

The way he said it, the way Marcus's expression went carefully neutral, told me everything I needed to know.

This woman, whoever she was, mattered to Kade and from the ice in his voice, not in a good way.

"Should I let her in?" the young rogue asked nervously.

Kade was silent for a long moment then he nodded once.

"Let her in but keep guards on her at all times." He looked at Marcus, "Get everyone ready. If this is a trap, I want us prepared."

Marcus left immediately, the young rogue followed.

Elena stood, gathering her herbs. "I'll be in the clinic if you need me." She paused at the door, looking at Kade with something like sympathy. "Be careful with this one."

Then she was gone, leaving me alone with Kade.

The silence stretched between us, heavy with everything unsaid. The argument about Thorne, the jealousy I'd heard in his voice and now this mysterious woman who'd just appeared.

"Kade," I started.

"Not now, Sera." His voice was tired, "Just... not now."

He walked out, leaving me standing in his sitting room, feeling more confused and frustrated than ever.

Who was Cassandra? Why did her arrival make Kade look like he'd seen a ghost? and why did I suddenly feel like the ground under my feet had just become a lot less stable?

Outside, I heard voices rising, the compound filled with tension.

Whatever was about to happen, I had a feeling it was going to change everything.

Again.