Kade POV
Kade walks into her room to find the bag.
It's not hidden well this time. Not tucked under the floorboards or shoved into a corner. It's sitting on her bed like she ran out of time to hide it properly. Like she was planning to leave tonight and something interrupted her.
The contents spill out when he picks it up. Clothes. Food. A knife.
Everything a person needs to disappear.
Something inside his chest cracks open and bleeds.
She was going to leave. Again. After everything. After the kitchen and the strategy room and the way she looked at him like he was her entire world. She was going to pack a bag and vanish into the darkness and he would have searched the territory every night for the rest of his life, never finding her, never understanding why she abandoned him.
His wolf doesn't roar. It doesn't move. It just goes completely silent and deadly inside his chest.
Kade holds the bag and feels himself unraveling thread by thread. All the control he's built over five years, all the walls he constructed after Elena rejected him, all the rules he made about never needing anything. Gone. Shattered. Obliterated by a girl with dark eyes and a warrior's spirit.
He needs to shift or his human mind is going to fracture completely.
Kade walks to the empty stretch of land behind the compound and lets his wolf take over. The transformation is violent and painful. His bones crack and reform. His skin splits and regrows. The scream that tears from his throat sounds like something dying.
When he's fully shifted, he runs.
The forest blurs past. His massive black wolf form crashes through brush and leaps over fallen trees. But no matter how fast he runs, he can't escape the feeling that she's leaving. That she's already gone. That he's going to turn around and she won't be there anymore.
When he shifts back to human form, he's standing at the edge of the territory looking out at the vast darkness beyond. He could follow her out there. He could track her scent through the wilderness. He could bring her back and lock her away where she can never leave again.
But that's not love. That's just possession wearing a prettier name.
And he's done pretending his obsession is anything other than what it is.
Kade walks back to the compound with his body still shaking and his mind completely shattered. He finds her in her room where she's probably waiting for him to discover the bag. She's sitting on the bed with her hands folded in her lap and her dark eyes are calm.
Like she's made peace with what she's about to do.
That's what pushes him over the edge.
Before she can speak, before she can explain or lie or do anything, he moves. He's against her and caging her between his body and the wall. His hands are on either side of her head. His forehead is pressed against hers. He's breathing hard like he's been running for hours.
"Tell me you were thinking about me," he demands. His voice is barely human. It's something raw and broken and desperate.
She doesn't answer so he pulls back just enough to look at her face.
"When you were packing that bag," he continues, his voice shaking with barely controlled violence, "when you were putting your life in a pack and planning to disappear, tell me you were thinking about me. Tell me I crossed your mind for even one second."
Nora stares at him with eyes that are completely clear and completely honest.
"I was thinking about you the entire time," she says quietly. "That's why I have to leave."
The words hit him like a blade.
"No," he says. It comes out shattered. "You don't get to leave. You don't get to pack a bag and vanish because you care about me. That's not how this works."
She tries to push against his chest but he doesn't move. He needs her to fight. Needs her to push back because if she just accepts this, if she just takes whatever he does next without resistance, it will break something in him that even he can't repair.
"I can't stay," she says, voice breaking. "I can't be the reason you destroy yourself. I can't watch you get weaker because of me. I can't let Iris be right."
Kade pulls her away from the wall and crushes her against his chest. His fingers tangle in her dark hair. His other hand grips her back like she might dissolve if he doesn't hold tight enough.
"You have to stay," he says. The words come out shattered and raw. "Because I don't know who I am without you anymore."
She fights him but he doesn't restrain her. He just holds her closer, lets her push against him, lets her realize that running won't work because he's not going to let go.
"That's not fair," she whispers against his chest. "That's not love. That's just keeping me caged."
"I know," he says. He's not even trying to pretend anymore. "I know it's not fair. I know I'm broken and obsessed and completely wrong. But I'm telling you the truth. Without you, I don't know how to exist."
She pulls back and looks at him and he sees tears running down her face. Tears he caused. Tears because he's too damaged to love her the way she deserves.
"Then let me go," she says softly. "Let me leave so you can learn how to be whole without me."
"I don't want to be whole without you," he says. "I want to be broken with you. I want to fall apart next to you every single night for the rest of my life."
He lowers his head and his lips find hers.
It's not gentle. It's desperate and claiming and completely selfish. He's pouring everything he can't say into the kiss. Every obsession. Every need. Every piece of his shattered heart.
And she kisses him back.
For one moment, she stops fighting. She stops pushing away. She just holds him and kisses him like she needs this too. Like she's falling just as hard.
Then there's a sound from the doorway.
Cole stands there with warriors behind him and his expression is ice cold. But it's what he's holding that makes Kade's blood freeze.
The packed bag.
"Found this in the kitchen," Cole says quietly. His voice is smooth like poison. "Seems our little captive has been making preparations. Makes me wonder what else she's been preparing. Makes me wonder about those communications I found with Shadow pack. Makes me wonder if the spy has been here the whole time."
Nora goes completely still in Kade's arms.
Kade looks at Cole and sees the betrayal in his Second's eyes. Sees the opportunity he's been waiting for. This is the moment Cole has been planning for. This is the moment he uses Kade's weakness against him.
"Cole," Kade says carefully, "don't do this."
But Cole is already pointing at Nora with accusation in his eyes.
"She's the traitor," Cole says to the warriors. "She's been working with Shadow pack the whole time. The bag proves she was preparing to leave. The communications prove she was feeding information. And the Alpha's obsession with her proves he's been compromised."
Kade steps in front of Nora instinctively.
"That's a lie," he says.
But even as he says it, he's wondering if it could be true. Because she was leaving. Because she packed a bag. Because Cole's evidence is probably fabricated but the bag is real.
And if Nora is the spy, if she's been using him this whole time, then everything he's built is about to collapse.
Kade looks back at Nora.
"Tell me it's not true," he demands.
Her dark eyes meet his and he sees the answer before she even speaks.
"It's not true," she says quietly.
But she doesn't sound certain anymore.