Kimberly Pov

The pain that seared through me from Kayden rejection and my subsequent acceptance almost brought me to my knees.

It took all of my strength to keep my body from shaking, as I walked out of the field.

When I gone far away from everyone, I finally released the sob.

I stripped off my clothes as I headed for the forest, desperate to get under its protective shadows. As soon as I passed the treeline, I shifted, taking off at full speed.

I was surprised I was able to transform again.

I let Amber feel all the pain. I didn’t try to hold her back anymore.

We would mourn the loss of our fated mate. The loss of the one person who was supposed to see us for who we were. The one person who was supposed to always put us first, without demands or expectations. We would mourn the loss of never getting to experience that.

But we wouldn’t mourn him.

We ran until we could barely breathe. Until Amber stopped at the edge of our pond — our place of solace — and let out a heartwrenching howl into the night air. Shifting at the end as she retreated back into my mind, out of reach to heal her broken heart, while I let the torrent of tears finally fall.

I fell to the forest floor, curling into myself as the sobs wracked my body, intensifying the burn that was still there from our bond being ripped from my heart. I lay there and cried until I had nothing left in my body, and my eyes drifted closed on the image of the moon and the stars reflecting on our peaceful little pond.

Chapter four

Kayden pov

It had been one month since I last saw Kimberly but the bond was still there.

The bond was still here. Nothing has changed. I felt the same way toward her. I still wanted her. But I just opened the door for me to mate with another she-wolf.

And I have chosen Grace for myself.

The burning in my chest wouldn’t go away. I didn’t understand and it was driving me crazy. I had been in an awful mood because of it.

I had taken to holing up in my office most of the time. I didn’t want to snap at GRace, or my mother, which had become hard to avoid by each passing day.

They didn’t deserve that. Grace definitely didn’t deserve that. I was glad I had a good reason for me being so busy all of a sudden.

My father the Alpha was sick. He was diagnosed with a progressive disease almost a month ago.

It had gotten to the point that he and my mother were concerned about the toll the Alpha role was taking on him. So, he decided it was time to hand the title down to me.

It wasn’t official yet. We were planning on making the change at the same time as Grace and my mating ceremony.

Actually, that’s why I decided to make Grace my official mate. Alpha’s were always stronger with a strong Luna by their side. With the circumstances of my father’s abdication, our pack needed to be as strong as possible.

But there was still a lot to take care of and a lot I had to learn about being an Alpha before that time. So it wasn’t hard to convince her that it was the stress that was causing me to be distant.

There was a knock on my office door, and Grace poked her head in before I had a chance to answer. She walked around my desk with a bright smile.

“There you are, mate,” she cooed, sitting in my lap. “You’ve been up here all day.”

“I’m sorry, babe. I’ve been working.”

She ran a hand up my chest, leaning in to kiss me. Kia growl started immediately. He had spent the whole month giving me the silent treatment, except when Grace was around. Then all he did was growl and snarl. It was getting exhausting.

Grace pulled away. “I know. I understand. I just wanted to check on you.”

“Thanks,” I said with a smile. She really was sweet.

“I’m fine, just knee-deep in all this paperwork. Did you need anything?”

She tried to hide her pout, but I saw it for a moment.

“What is it, Grace?”

“I don’t want to bother you. You’re already so busy.”

“You can ask me for anything. Don’t ever feel bad for doing so,” I insisted.

Her face brightened. “Well, there’s this necklace I want and really wants to wear it for our mating ceremony, but it's quite expensive"

I sighed and said;

“fine. I will get it" I said.

She kissed me again, accompanied by my wolf’s protests again, and pulled away with a smile.

“Thank you, baby. You’re the best.” She moved to get up but paused. “Are you coming to see me tonight?”

“I’ll try. If I don’t get done here too late.”

“You better. We miss you.”

"Lyre doesn’t.’

Lyre was Grace wolf. Kia had never had a problem with Lyre, but he never really showed much interest in her either. It wasn’t that surprising.

Our wolves only reacted to their fated mates.

The only way to change that was to mark someone else and be marked by them. So I had never been too worried about it. But now I was. If I couldn’t completely sever the bond between me and Kimberly, he could end up taking control and stop me from marking Grace.

I would need to do something about this.

“I miss you, too. I promise I’ll work something out soon.”

“Okay,” she said with a sigh. “I’ll let you get back to work then.”

She kissed me on the cheek and sashayed out of my office. I couldn’t keep avoiding her. It would hurt her if I stopped showing interest in her. I didn’t want to do that. I had to do something.

Just when Grace left, my best friend Logan walked in.

"Logan?” I called surprised.

"You have been acting weird Kayden. You should talk to me. I'm your best friend. Stop avoiding everyone!" He said and I signed.

He's right. I can't keep lying to everyone.

“ found my mate.” I said

He gasped and looked up at me.

"Kimberly is my mate. She's Grace elder sister" I said.

“It happened the day I arrived from the Alpha camp. I could sense and smell her" I said.

"What are you going to do?" He asked.

“She can’t be my Luna, Logan.” l said.

“What? Why?” He asked.

“She is an Omega.” i said. “She is not strong enough to be a Luna. I need someone stronger.”

“You are kidding me, right?” he yelled.

“You are going to throw away Goddess’ gift because you don’t think she is strong enough?!”

“It is for the pack.” i said calmly. “You know our pack needs strong leadership. Especially now that rogues are attacking even more frequently.”

“Alpha is always stronger when he has his Luna by his side.” my best friend growled.

“He is. And I will have my Luna.” I said. “ And that's why I'm taking Grace as my chosen mate.”

“Why didn’t you already do that earlier enough if you think she will be a great Luna?”he asked.

“I wanted to wait for my true mate.” I answered. “To see if I was gifted with a strong she-wolf. But now that I see that is not the case, I can freely choose somebody else.”

“I can’t believe this.” he muttered quietly.

"I hope you're doing the right thing" he said to me and left.