Ss’ POV
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The blood drained from my face as I gripped the steering wheel, fingers trembling despite my will to keep them steady.
If one day Freya decided I was no longer useful to her… would she discard me the way others always had?
No.
I couldn’t let that happen.
I would never survive being abandoned by her.
A growl rumbled low in my chest before I jerked the wheel and mmed the brake. Tires screeched against the asphalt, the car skidding before stopping along the edge of the street.
“Ss, why are you stopping so suddenly-”
She didn’t finish. I had already unbuckled my belt and leaned across the console, closing the space between us.
Her wide eyes lifted to mine. Moonlight from the windshield lit the delicate curve of her face. “What is it?” she asked softly, and though her words were calm, I knew she saw the fear in me.
I clenched my jaw. My voice came out raw. “If I lose my worth one day… would you abandon me?”
The question scraped from my throat like a wound torn open. My wolf’s aura quivered, restless, afraid.
Freya blinked, stunned for a heartbeat, then something in her gaze shifted. Understanding. Compassion. “No,” she whispered, her voice fierce and steady. “Even if you were stripped of everything, I would never abandon you.”
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“Truly?” The word fell from me, desperate. I searched her eyes as though they might betray me, as though she might change her mind in the next breath.
She pressed her lips together, the faintest frown tugging at them. I knew—some scars go too deep to be erased by words. I had lived with mine since birth. But Freya… she looked at me like she had time. Like she would carve away at the rot inside me, piece by piece, until I finally believed her.
Her hands lifted, small and warm, cupping my face. And then-gods-she kissed <ol><li></li></ol>
Her lips pressed against mine, soft and burning. I froze at first, caught in disbelief, before the warmth seeped through the ice I had carried all my life.
“Ss Whitmor,” she murmured against my mouth, “whether you are strong or broken, useful or useless, I love you. I love you.”
Her wolf’s essence poured into me, warm and unyielding, searing through the fear that had knotted in my chest. Myshes trembled, and slowly, finally, I let my eyes fall shut. I kissed her back, the ache in my chest unraveling beneath her promise.
When she pulled away, the absence of her lips felt like loss, sharp and aching.
“Enough,” she whispered. “Drive us home. We can’t linger here.”
She was right. This wasn’t the ce-cars moved around us, humans and wolves alike ncing at the sight of two figures entangled in a parked car. But in that moment, I hadn’t cared.
I forced myself back behind the wheel, started the engine, and let the car glide back onto the road. My chest was still raw from her words, but lighter too.
Twenty minutester, the looming walls of the Whitmor estate rose before us. The iron gates creaked open at my signal.
And then I saw him.
A figure stood waiting at the gates.
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Freya stiffened beside me, eyes narrowing as the headlights washed over him. Recognition shed across her face. “Kade…” she whispered.
My wolf bristled instantly. Kade.
The same wolf who had called her sister, the same wolf whose eyes had lingered on her too long at gatherings in The Capital. He had called hertest night- Freya had told me herself. And now he was here, not a dayter, standing at my gates like he had a right.
I parked the car. Freya reached for her belt, but before she could step out, I seized her hand, holding it tight.
Her eyes darted to me. “Ss?”
I swallowed the growl wing at my throat. “Nothing. I just… wasn’t expecting him.”
“It is unexpected,” she admitted. “But we’ll know why soon enough.” She slipped her hand from mine with a gentle tug, the warmth leaving my palm like a wound, and stepped out of the car.
I sat for a moment longer, staring at my empty hand before lifting my gaze to the wolf outside.
Kade ckridge. He was no surprise, not really. A wolf like him couldn’t watch from the shadows while I imed Freya openly. His presence here only proved what I already feared-her ce in his heart was greater than he ever admitted.
And that made him dangerous.
I stepped out of the car, moving toward them. Freya’s voice carried to me on the night wind.
“Kade, what are you doing here? You didn’t even call.”
He smiled faintly, the kind of smile that wanted to hide what it truly meant. “I wanted to surprise you. When I heard in The Capital that you’d chosen Ss Whitmor…” His eyes flickered, darkening. “…let’s say I was shaken.”
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His gaze cut past her to me, sharp as a de.
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Two Alphas, staring each other down. The air between us crackled with the collision of dominance. My wolf surged, pushing against my skin, demanding I make my im clear.
“You’ve only been in Ashbourne for a short while,” he said to Freya, his voice low. “Are you certain-absolutely certain-that you want to be with him?”
Freya smiled softly, calmly, as though his challenge meant nothing. “I didn’t expect it myself. But yes. I am certain. I want to be with him.”
His expression faltered. The honesty in her tone left him no room to excuse it as coercion or mistake.
I stepped forward, closing the distance, and reached for her hand. My fingersced with hers deliberately, a silent deration. My im.
“Yes,” I said evenly, meeting his stare. “We are together.”
Kade’s eyes darkened, fury shing like lightning. He looked at our joined hands as though the sight itself burned him.
“Freya,” he bit out, his voice almost a snarl, “why him? What could you possibly see in Ss Whitmor?”
Her hand tightened in mine. I felt my pulse hammer in my veins, the question digging under my skin. My grip on her fingers clenched tighter, betraying the fear I refused to voice.
Because the truth was, I needed her answer too,