Chapter 15 Confessions
The last undecided wolves were visited by noon the next day and the final count came in at ninety-eight for Kade and ninety-seven for Marcus with five refusing to pick sides.
One vote difference.
Sage sat on the couch in the penthouse and stared at the numbers written on paper. One single vote separated Kade from having clear pack support.
“It doesn’t matter,” Kade said. He was doing pushups in the middle of the living room. Testing his strength. “The challenge is not decided by votes. It’s decided by who’s still standing at the end.”
“But if the pack does not support you…”
“They will after I win.” He stood and his shirt was soaked with sweat. “The pack follows strength, I beat Marcus and they will fall in line.”
Sage wanted to argue but she was too tired. They had been campaigning for two days straight with barely any sleep. The challenge was tomorrow at dawn, they had less than twenty hours away.
“You should rest,” she said. “Save your strength.”
“I have been resting for two days while you and the others did the work.” He grabbed a towel. “I need to train and make sure the poison is out of my system.”
“The levels are almost normal. You are as ready as you are going to be.”
“Almost is not good enough.” He threw the towel down. “Marcus is going to try to kill me tomorrow, I need to be perfect.”
“You cannot be perfect. Nobody can.”
“Then I will die.” His voice was flat. “And Marcus will kill you right after.”
The words hung in the air between them. The truth they had been dancing around for days.
“Is that what you are afraid of?” Sage asked quietly. “That you will die and leave me alone with him?”
“Yes.” Kade sat beside her. “He won’t let you live. You are a symbol of everything he hates about my leadership. He will make an example of you.”
“So we run. We leave Seattle tonight. Disappear.”
“And abandon the pack? Let Marcus take over and destroy everything my father built?” He shook his head. “I can’t do that.”
“Even if it means dying?”
“Even then.”
Sage turned to face him fully. “Why? Why is being Alpha more important than your life?”
“Because it is all I have.” His hands clenched into fists. “I have been Alpha since I was eighteen. It is the only thing I know how to be. Without the pack, I’m nothing.”
“That’s not true.”
“Isn’t it?” He looked at her and his eyes were raw. “My father died and left me this responsibility. I have spent fourteen years trying to live up to his memory. Trying to be the Alpha he would have been. If I walk away now, if I let Marcus win, then what was it all for?”
“Your life is worth more than a title.”
“Not to me.” He stood and paced to the window. “You don’t understand. You have been running from your father’s legacy your whole life. I have been trying to live up to mine.”
The words stung because they were true. Sage had spent fifteen years hiding from what she was while Kade had spent fourteen years drowning in responsibility.
“What if you win tomorrow?” she asked. “What happens after?”
“We rebuild, unite the pack and figure out what really happened with our fathers.”
“And us? What happens with us?”
He was quiet for a long moment. “I don’t know.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It is the only one I have.” He turned to face her. “The mate bond is real. I’m not denying that anymore but everything else is complicated. Your bloodline. My father’s death. The pack politics. I don’t know how we navigate all of that.”
Sage felt something crack in her chest. “So even if you win, you are not sure you want me.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.” She stood. “I should go so you can have enough time to train.”
“Sage…”
“It’s fine. I understand.” She headed for the door. “I was always just a contract to you anyway. One year and I’m free. That is what we agreed.”
“That’s not what this is.”
“Then what is it?” She spun around. “Because from where I’m standing, it looks like you are already planning your exit. Win the challenge, deal with Marcus, then get rid of the inconvenient mate with the wrong bloodline.”
“You think I want to get rid of you?”
“I don’t know what you want! You won’t talk to me about anything real. You just give me orders and expect me to follow them.”
“I’m trying to keep you alive!”
“By pushing me away? By treating me like I’m a problem to solve instead of your mate?” Her voice broke. “I’ve spent my whole life feeling like I didn’t belong anywhere. Like I was too human for wolves and too wolf for humans. I thought maybe with you I’d finally found a place. But you can’t even tell me if you want me here after tomorrow.”
Kade crossed the room and grabbed her shoulders. “You want to know what I want? I want Marcus dead. I want my pack safe. I want answers about what really happened twenty-four years ago. And I want you.”
“You want me.”
“Yes. I want you here. I want to complete a real mate bond not just the contract. I want to figure out how to make this work despite everything working against us.” His hands tightened. “But I’m terrified that I’m going to die tomorrow and you are going to be left alone with no protection and no pack and it will be my fault.”
Sage stared at him. “You are afraid.”
“Of course I’m afraid. I watched my father die when I was eight. I know exactly what Marcus is capable of. I know there’s a real chance I lose tomorrow.”
“Then why accept the challenge?”
“Because the alternative is worse. Living as a coward, running away, letting Marcus win without a fight.” He pulled her closer. “I rather die fighting than live knowing I abandoned my pack.”
“Even if it means leaving me?”
“Especially then. Because if I die, at least you might escape. But if I run, Marcus hunts us both down and we die anyway.”
Sage felt tears burning her eyes. “I don’t want you to die.”
“I don’t want to die either.” His thumb brushed her cheek. “But I need you to promise me something. If I lose tomorrow, you run. You don’t stay and fight. You don’t try to avenge me. You just run as far and as fast as you can.”
“No.”
“Sage…”
“No.” She grabbed his shirt. “I’m your mate. If you die, I die beside you. That is how this works.”
“That is not how this works. You survive, you live and you honor my memory by staying alive.”
“I honor your memory by fighting for what you believed in.” She met his eyes. “We win tomorrow together or we die together. Those are the only options I’m accepting.”
He stared at her for a long moment. Then he kissed her.
It wasn’t gentle. It was desperate and hungry and full of fear. She kissed back with the same intensity. Clinging to him like he might disappear.
They made it to the bedroom somehow. Clothes came off in a rush. He picked her up and she wrapped her legs around him. They fell onto the bed tangled together.
This time was different from before. Not angry or aggressive. Just two people trying to feel alive before they might die.
Afterward they lay together breathing hard. His arm was around her. Her head on his chest listening to his heartbeat.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “For locking you up. For pushing you away. For not trusting you.”
“I’m sorry for hiding what I was. For not telling you the truth from the start.”
“We are both pretty bad at this.”
“Terrible.” She smiled against his skin. “But we are trying.”
“Yeah.” He kissed the top of her head. “We are.”
They stayed like that for a long time. Not talking, just being together. Tomorrow would come too soon. Tomorrow they would face Marcus and fight for their lives and their future.
But tonight they had this. Each other. The mate bond that had pulled them together despite everything trying to tear them apart.
“I love you,” Sage said. She hadn’t meant to say it. But it was true and she wanted him to know before tomorrow.
Kade’s arm tightened around her. “I love you too.”
It was the first time either of them had said it.
Maybe the last time too depending on how tomorrow went.
But it was enough.
For now, it was enough.