Rebecca’s POV
Kaden didn’t say anything after that. He simply lay beside me, pulling me closer against his broad, warm chest while his fingers continued moving through my hair in a slow, hypnotic rhythm. The silence stretched between us until it started making me uncomfortable, the air in the room thick and suffocating.
I could practically feel him thinking, his dark eyes fixed on mine, heavy with thoughts he wasn’t voicing.
I lifted my head from his chest and looked at him. "You clearly have something to say, Kaden. Say it."
His fingers stopped in my hair. He let out a heavy sigh, his chest expanding beneath my arm as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Do you want me to come with you?"
A nervous wave passed through me, but I quickly forced a sarcastic smile. "Come with me where?"
"To dinner."
I stared at him for a second before scoffing, tossing my head back against the pillow as if the idea was completely ridiculous. "Hell no, Alpha Kaden."
His eyes narrowed softly, his voice dropping into that dark tone. "Kaden."
"Kaden," I corrected with a small roll of my eyes, shaking my head. "No. Why on earth would you come to a dinner I’m having with your own brother so I can break up with him?"
"I wouldn’t sit at the table with you."
"That somehow makes it less weird?"
"I could stay nearby."
"No," I cut in immediately.
Kaden released another heavy sigh, but something about his guarded expression made my brief amusement vanish.
"What?" I asked, watching him carefully.
"I have a bad feeling about it."
I swallowed hard, the knot of panic tightening in my throat, though I kept my face entirely blank. "What do you mean?"
"I don’t know," he said, his tone growing cautious. "You know Kane. He has a temper. I just don’t like the idea of you going somewhere alone with him to tell him you’re leaving him. He might get angry and do something stupid."
Was his wolf sensing something again? No, he couldn’t possibly know what I was actually planning.
"Kaden, Kane isn’t going to hurt me."
"You don’t know how he’ll react."
"I do."
"He could get angry."
I scoffed again. "Trust me, he won’t. In fact, Kane will probably be relieved I’m breaking things off."
"Relieved?"
"Yes," I said, making my voice sound as steady and resolute as possible. "I’ve known for a while that he wanted to end things between us. He’s just been stopping himself because of the baby, feeling guilty about leaving me while I’m pregnant. If I’m the one who ends things, I’m practically doing him a favor. I can’t keep pretending everything between Kane and me is fine when it isn’t. He’s disappearing, he won’t tell me where he’ing going, and whatever is happening between us..." I gestured gently between Kaden and me. "...I can’t keep doing both. So stop worrying. I’ll go to dinner, I’ll break it off with Kane, and then I will return back to you."
The lies slipped past my lips so easily, leaving a bitter taste in my mouth, every word feeling like swallowing glass.
I’ll come back to you. I wouldn’t. If everything went according to plan, the moment I left this mansion with Kane would be the last time Kaden ever saw Ruby.
Kaden looked at me for a long moment before letting out a quiet breath, the tension in his face loosening slightly. "You don’t have a cell phone."
"I don’t."
"I’ll get you one."
"Okay," I nodded, not wanting to argue about it.
I kept my expression calm, but inside, I already knew the truth. The moment Kane got me safely outside this territory, that phone was going straight into the nearest trash bin. Kaden was the Alpha King, and I wasn’t stupid enough to carry around something he could use to track me.
Kaden leaned down and kissed the top of my head, holding me close for a moment while his fingers moved lazily along my arm. "After everything is settled... do you want to go on a vacation?"
My heart sank into the pit of my stomach, a cold ache spreading through my chest. I looked up at him, forcing a quiet curiosity into my voice. "Vacation? Where?"
"Anywhere," he answered smoothly, a genuine warmth in his voice. "Pick any country of your choice, Ruby. Somewhere far away from all this shit. No Council. No pack business. No Kane. No guards following us every fucking second."
"That sounds impossible for an Alpha King."
"I’ll make it possible." There was such calm certainty in his voice that my chest tightened painfully.
"And what exactly would we do on this vacation?" I asked softly, managing a faint smile.
"Whatever you want."
"That’s very generous."
"I can be generous."
"Sometimes."
He laughed softly, his eyes locking onto mine with an intensity that made the air leave my lungs completely. He cupped both sides of my face with his massive hands, his thumbs brushing gently across my cheeks.
I hated how normal this felt—like we were actually a couple discussing our future once our problems disappeared.
"Think about it," he murmured.
"I will."
"Promise?"
I hesitated, then nodded. "Promise." Another lie.
Kaden seemed satisfied, but as he leaned down and kissed me softly, the slight smile faded from his face. The mood shifted, becoming heavy and reverent.
"I love you," Kaden said.
Everything inside me stopped. I stared at him, my breath catching in my throat as I genuinely wondered if I had heard him correctly.
"What?"
"I love you, Ruby."
My lips parted, but no sound came out. He had told me he had feelings for me, had shown me intense desire and possessiveness, but hearing him say I love you in that soft, vulnerable tone was entirely different.
"Kaden..."
"I know," he gave me a faint smile, resting his forehead against mine. "Probably not what you wanted to hear right now, but you don’t have to say anything. I’ve been trying to understand what the fuck is happening to me since you came here. At first, I thought it was attraction. Then I thought maybe it was because you were different from everyone around me."
I remained completely still, barely daring to breathe.
"But it’s more than that," his eyes held mine, completely unguarded. "I think about you when you’re not around. I worry when I don’t know where you are. I want to know whether you’ve eaten, whether you’re sleeping properly, whether you’re safe. I want you around me all the fucking time, and when you’re not, something feels wrong."
My throat tightened.
"I’ve loved before. I loved Helen," my stomach twisted violently at the mention of her name. "I’ll never pretend I didn’t. She was my mate, and losing her destroyed something inside me. But what I feel with you is different."
I frowned slightly. "How?"
He was quiet for a moment, searching for the right words. "With you, everything feels stronger. My wolf reacts to you in ways I don’t understand. Sometimes I look at you and feel like I’ve known you much longer than I actually have. And now there’s the baby... even that feels connected to me somehow. None of it makes sense, but I don’t care anymore. I’m tired of fighting whatever this is. I love you, Ruby."
He expected me to melt into his arms, to offer tears or a soft confession in return.
Instead, a quiet, bitter anger ignited deep inside my chest.
How dare he? How fucking dare he act like the perfect, loving man now just because he had lost his memory? Where had this Kaden been when I was Rebecca? Where was this gentle man when I was falsely accused of murdering Helen? Where was he when I was terrified, humiliated, and trapped? Where was this man when he put this suffocating choker around my neck and stripped away my wolf?
Now he had lost his memories, and suddenly he knew how to be kind. He could hold me gently, buy me gifts, worry if I had eaten, promise to raise another man’s baby, and tell me he loved me.
No. He didn’t get to erase the horrific past simply because he couldn’t remember doing it. He needed to remember what he had done to me. He needed to remember the pain, the isolation, and the cruel torture he had put me through before he dared to speak of love. That past was the exact reason why I could never, ever be with him.
I looked at him, my voice tight as I forced myself to speak. "Kaden... I don’t know what to say."
Kaden offered a soft, understanding smile, completely misinterpreting my hesitation. "I’m not asking you to say it back, baby. I told you because I wanted you to know. I’m not rushing you, and I’m not asking you to love me today. My love is enough for the both of us right now."
My chest tightened until it physically ached. If only things were different, if only the nightmare between us had never happened, maybe these words would have meant the world to me. But love couldn’t rewrite history.
I couldn’t stand the suffocating weight in the room for another second.
"Kaden, I have to leave," I said, shifting slightly. "I need to get ready and wait for Kane."
"Alright," he agreed softly, nodding.
I pulled away from him and swung my legs out of the bed. As I stood up and began picking up my scattered clothes, my fingers discreetly slipped into the small coin pocket of my jeans. My heart gave a relieved thump when my skin brushed the tiny metal key. It was still there.
Kaden pulled his trousers on and dressed quickly as well. Before I could step toward the door, he reached out, wrapped his arms around my waist from behind, and pulled me back against his broad chest for a tight hug, resting his face in my hair.
"I can’t wait for all of this to be over," he whispered against my neck.
"Me too," I murmured quietly, meaning every word, though for a completely different reason. Kaden thought the end meant the beginning of us; for me, it meant freedom.
He kissed my forehead before taking my hand, and together we left his private suite.
The moment I stepped inside my room and closed the door, Stephanie jumped up from the chair where she was pacing near the window, anxiety written all over her face.
"How was it?" Stephanie asked, her voice hushed and urgent. "Did anything happen?"
I closed the distance between us, reached into my pocket, and held out my hand. Stephanie’s jaw dropped in utter shock, her hands flying to her mouth as she stared at the tiny silver key resting between my fingers.
"You... you actually got it?" she gasped. "No fucking way!"
"I got it," I whispered, keeping my voice low so it wouldn’t carry past the thick wooden door. "I opened Helen’s locket. It was inside, exactly where we thought it would be."
Stephanie grabbed my arm, her eyes moving to the metal band around my throat. "Then take it off!"
"No."
Her excitement vanished instantly. "Why?"
"Because I’m still inside Kaden’s territory," I explained, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "If I take this choker off now, my wolf comes back, my real scent comes back, and the mate bond comes crashing back with full force. Kaden will know who I am before I even make it downstairs. I told him I’m breaking up with Kane and asked him for a dinner away from here so I had a believable reason to leave the pack house without raising suspicion."
Stephanie slowly sat beside me. "And he believed you?"
"Yes. Once Kane gets me far enough away, outside the territory, I’ll take this thing off, Ruby will disappear, and Rebecca will finally be free. But before we do anything else, I have to speak to Alpha Kane to coordinate the exit."
Stephanie squeezed my hand tightly. "You actually did it."
"Not yet," I looked down at the tiny piece of metal in my hand. I still had to get out.
The hours dragged by with excruciating slowness. I sat on the edge of the bed, watching the clock tick away while my hands rested over my stomach. Six o’clock passed. Seven o’clock.
By eight, I was pacing the floor nervously. "Where the hell is he?"
Another twenty minutes passed before heavy footsteps finally sounded outside. The bedroom door unlocked and swung open, and Kane walked inside. He looked exhausted, his shirt sleeves rolled to his elbows and his face pale from whatever business he had been dealing with all day.
The second he closed the door behind him, I snapped into action. I stood up on my feet, stepping directly into his path, and looked him dead in the eyes.
"Alpha Kane," I called, holding the tiny silver key up between my fingers. "I have gotten the key to the choker."
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