Cade's POV
The ceremonial robes felt like a noose around his neck.
Cade stood in front of the mirror and tried to fasten the silver clasp. His hands wouldn't stop shaking. The fine metal kept slipping between his fingers. He'd worn these robes once before, when he became Alpha at nineteen. That night he felt powerful. Unstoppable. Tonight he just felt sick.
He set the clasp down and pressed his palms flat against the marble counter. Three deep breaths. That's what his old trainer used to say. Three breaths and you control your body again. Except his body wasn't the problem. His wolf was clawing at his insides, screaming at him to stop.
Somewhere below him in the pack house, she was there.
The mate bond pulled at his chest like an invisible rope tied around his heart. Cade didn't have to close his eyes to feel her. Rowan. He could sense her heartbeat across the distance, steady and resigned. He could feel her sadness like it was his own sadness. And underneath that, he could feel her fear. She knew what tonight meant. She'd probably known for days.
He'd made sure she knew.
"Get it together," Cade muttered to himself. He gripped the edge of the counter hard enough to feel the marble bite into his palms. This was the right choice. The only choice. An Alpha didn't lead with his heart. His father had taught him that before he died, had beaten it into him like a lesson carved in blood.
Power first. Always power first. Everything else was weakness.
The phone on his dresser buzzed. Cade ignored it. Then it buzzed again. And again.
He finally picked it up and saw the messages flooding in from the council members. From the elder wolves who'd served his father. From every voice that told him how an Alpha was supposed to act.
Do not falter. The ceremony begins in one hour. Do not be weak.
The last message made his wolf snarl. It came from Marcus, the pack council leader. The man who'd raised him after his father fell in battle. The man who kept reminding him that emotions were a luxury for lesser Alphas.
Cade typed back a single word: Understood.
He lifted his eyes to the mirror and barely recognized himself. The man staring back looked confident. Powerful. Like someone who had everything figured out. Like someone who didn't have his entire world tearing in half right now.
Another buzz.
This time it was a different message. From Jaxon, his Beta, his closest friend since they were kids.
Have you actually thought about this? Or are you just doing what Marcus tells you to do?
Cade's jaw clenched. He didn't respond. Couldn't respond. Because if he started thinking about this, if he admitted even for one second that this was a mistake, everything would fall apart. And falling apart wasn't an option for an Alpha.
The mate bond pulled harder.
Cade sucked in a sharp breath. He could feel Rowan moving around somewhere on the pack grounds. In the healing center probably, where she always was. Fixing broken wolves with those careful hands of hers. His wolf whimpered. Actually whimpered like some kind of weak animal. It wanted to run. It wanted to find her and pull her away from everyone, declare her his, and burn the entire pack house down before he let anyone else claim him as their mate.
Instead, he fastened the silver clasp.
The robes settled around his shoulders like a straightjacket. Formal. Official. Final.
Victoria was already in the hall. He knew because his scouts had reported it an hour ago. She'd arrived in a white dress that probably cost more than most pack members made in a year. She'd gotten her hair done. She looked like a Luna. She looked like the kind of powerful, connected, valuable woman that an Alpha was supposed to choose.
She wasn't his mate.
The thought hit him like a punch to the chest. The mate bond was still burning. Still pulling him toward Rowan. The connection between them was real in a way that nothing in his life had ever been real. When he'd first felt it three weeks ago, when Rowan had walked past his office in the pack house and their eyes had met for the first time, something inside him had cracked open. Something he'd spent ten years building walls around.
She'd looked at him like she saw through the Alpha title. Like she saw the broken kid underneath who'd lost his family at nineteen and had to learn how to be a monster just to survive.
And then everything had changed.
Victoria's family had approached him two weeks ago with an offer. Mate with the Ashford daughter and gain control of twelve new territories. Become the most powerful Alpha on the entire continent. Build an empire that would make the Stone Pack legendary.
All he had to do was ignore the screaming pull of his true mate.
All he had to do was choose power over her.
His phone buzzed again. This time it was a video message from Marcus. Cade opened it and watched as his old mentor sat in his office with a stern expression.
"You're doing the right thing," Marcus said through the screen. "I know it doesn't feel that way. But an Alpha who leads with his heart gets his pack destroyed. Your father learned that the hard way. Don't repeat his mistakes. Victoria is what you need. She's what the pack needs. The girl is a distraction. After tonight, she'll understand that she was never meant to be more than that."
The video ended.
Cade stared at the phone. A distraction. Rowan was a distraction. That's what everyone kept telling him. She was nobody. Omega class. A girl with no family, no connections, no power. She'd been living in her car before the pack took her in. She worked in the healing center for wages most pack members would consider insultingly low.
She was nothing compared to what Victoria represented.
So why did the thought of walking into that hall and crowning someone else as his Luna feel like he was about to cut out his own heart?
The mate bond twisted inside him, sharp enough to make him gasp.
Below, somewhere in the pack house, Rowan felt it too. Cade could sense her sudden pain through their connection. Could feel her bracing herself for what was about to happen. She wasn't going to cry. He could sense that too. Rowan didn't cry. She just shut down when things got too painful. She built walls around herself and became invisible.
He'd watched her do it dozens of times.
And tonight he was going to give her every reason to never come back down.
Cade took one last look at himself in the mirror. The ceremonial robes hung perfectly. The silver clasp caught the light like it was made of stars. He looked like a man who had won everything.
He looked like a man who was about to lose the only thing that mattered.
His phone buzzed one final time. The message made his blood go cold.
It wasn't from Marcus. Or Jaxon. Or any member of the council.
It was from an unknown number, and it had only three words.
Don't do this. Please.
Cade read it again. Then again. The handwriting on the phone screen looked shaky. Like someone had typed it with hands that were trembling.
Rowan.
She'd somehow gotten a burner phone. Somehow managed to send him a message that would disappear in seconds. One last plea before the ceremony began.
He stared at those three words and felt something inside him die.
His wolf howled. A sound that came out like a moan trapped in his human chest.
Then he deleted the message. Destroyed the only evidence that she'd ever asked him to stop.
Because stopping wasn't an option. Backing down wasn't an option. An Alpha didn't change his mind once a decision had been made. And he'd already decided.
He chose power.
He chose the empire.
He chose everything except her.
Cade turned away from the mirror and walked toward the door. His hand was on the handle when his phone buzzed one more time.
The text was from the pack hall.
"The ceremony is starting. Victoria is waiting. The music is playing. All three hundred wolves are here. Where are you?"
Cade stared at the message.
Then he opened his bedroom door and walked toward the one moment that would destroy his entire life.
And somewhere in the pack house, through the burning mate bond, he felt Rowan's heart break.