Chapter 4

By the time I reached the hospital, Alpha Kayle’s parents were already there.

His mother, Ella, stood by the doorway like a storm about to break—shoulders stiff, mouth pinched, and rage radiating from her like heat off summer asphalt.

I approached carefully, keeping my voice respectful. “Mother.”

She turned slowly.

And slapped me. Hard.

Her palm cracked against my cheek, and I staggered a step to the side. The sharp edge of her ring split the skin just beneath my eye.

“You call this taking care of your Alpha?” she hissed. “Do not let there be a next time.”

She didn’t wait for an answer.

With a flick of her wrist, she turned and walked out, her guards trailing behind like shadows. She never even glanced back.

I stood there, cheek stinging, blood trickling in a warm line down my skin. Silently, I wiped it away and stepped into the room.

Alpha Kayle was reclined in the hospital bed, shirtless under a sheet, a bandage wrapped around his head. He held his phone in one hand, the speaker on full volume.

“Alpha Kayle, please,” Arlene sobbed on the line. “You scared me—again. Don’t do something reckless like that ever again, I’m begging you.”

His voice was tired, but gentle. Too gentle.

“You’ve said that already,” he murmured, voice laced with a quiet irritation. “Alright, alright. Stop crying. I get it. I was wrong, okay?”

I stopped short.

In my surprise, I knocked into a rolling medical cart, sending a tray clattering loudly against the floor.

He hung up instantly.

Without even glancing my way, Kayle leaned back and exhaled slowly, voice lazy and sarcastic. “Took you long enough. If I’d actually died, my precious Luna would’ve just been here in time to collect my corpse.”

I said nothing.

Not a word.

Just stood there in the silence that suddenly felt deafening.

The smirk on his face faltered. A flicker of confusion passed through his eyes as he turned his head toward the window.

We’d screamed at each other for years. Argued. Fought. Broken things. Made up and broken again.

But this quiet? This calm?

It unsettled him. I studied him carefully.

Even injured, even wrapped in bandages, Alpha Kayle was sinfully handsome. His sharp jawline, his tousled black hair, the wild energy in him that drew people like moths to flame... it was all still there. Still maddening.

I stepped closer, almost without thinking. My fingers reached toward his forehead, hesitant.

He slapped my hand away instantly.

I flinched.

His eyes locked on mine, frustration flickering across his features—until his gaze dropped to the blood smeared along my cheek.

He stilled.

Reaching up, he brushed the tip of his finger across the wound. Gently. Almost absently.

“Did she do this?” he asked, voice quieter now. The she needed no clarification.

His mother.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and forced a smile—crooked and bitter. “Yes, my dear Alpha. Will you avenge me?”

Our eyes met.

In another life, in a different time, if someone had even looked at me the wrong way, Kayle would’ve lost his mind. He would’ve flipped tables, stormed the council, burned the world down for me.

But now? He scoffed. A single, cruel laugh.

“She went too easy on you,” he muttered.

Then leaned back, eyes turning colder.

“This?” He gestured to the blood. “This pain is nothing. It doesn’t even scratch the surface of what I’ve been through.”

His words sank into me like ice water. I didn’t argue. There was nothing left to say.

The silence between us stretched long and heavy, thicker than any scream we’d ever traded.

Then finally, I broke it. Voice low. Calm. Final.

“Alpha Kayle,” I said, looking straight into his unreadable eyes, “why don’t we just dissolve the mate bond?”