“I think you’re deciding things for me despite not having any right to. Like I’m just a problem to be pushed aside.”
I almost recoil at that, unable to ignore the bitter truth in the way she says it, like something long buried within her. “You’re not—”
“Yes, I am,” Lila returns, not letting me finish. “I always have been.”
Stopping myself before I can be too hasty, I pull in a slow, deep breath.
Every part of me wants to deny it, but the truth is heavier than I want to acknowledge.
She had always been an outsider, overlooked by the rest of the pack because of her parents’ poor standing. She didn’t look like the other girls growing up, and that earned her an unfair amount of torment. I was never innocent of that.
For the time being, I push the thought aside and gather my words, trying to stay on track.
“I’m going to be the Alpha soon.”
“I know that. Everyone knows that.”
“And the ceremony, along with the change in leadership, requires a mate by my side,” I finish, feeling more like someone coming back with their tail between their legs than an Alpha-to-be.
Lila’s unimpressed expression doesn’t move. “And this is where you tell me you need a stand-in. A placeholder until the right one comes along, all to keep a war from breaking out the moment you step into power.”
The words hit harder than I expected, and it needles me.
“No, Lila,” I say, sharper than intended but not any less honest. “That’s not what this is.”
“Then what is it?”
Testing the waters, I take a step closer, only for her to back up. Not getting the reaction I hoped for, I stop and maintain the distance she has deemed comfortable.
“I’ve been lying to myself for years,” I begin, more vulnerable than I care to be right now. “The pull is here… in my chest. I tried to deny it and to ignore it, but the moment I saw you again, all those attempts dissolved. The moment Iscentedyou, I realized it isn’t something I can just push away anymore.”
At my sincerity, her expression twists into something disbelieving. But despite the hitch in her breath, she doesn’t soften.
She blinks back at me, then holds up a dismissive hand. “Whatever you think you feel, it isn’t real. It’s guilt, Caleb.”
That burns my heart even more intensely than anything else.
Lila pulls in a sharp breath, considering her thoughts before letting them go, unbridled and a long time in the making. “Maybe it’s some twisted sense of duty after what happened between us, but a mate bond? No… You rejected that a long time ago. You rejected me.”
Swallowing hard, I try so hard not to jump to my own defense and try to talk away all the ways I hurt her. She deserves better than denial.
“I was wrong.”
She holds my gaze for a moment, then she scoffs. “Good talk.”
The moment she turns to leave, I reach out before I can stop myself, catching her wrist, gentle but firm. “Lila.”
She freezes immediately, and her pulse picks up beneath my fingers.
“Don’t walk away,” I murmur before she can say anything. “I just need you to hear me out.”
But instead, her eyes burn into mine, scathing and deathly serious. “Don’t touch me.”
With an almost anxious pull at my heart, I release her instantly.
That peace between us had already been precarious, and only in place for her daughter’s sake, but now, it feels fragmented. But in truth, it was broken long before this moment.
“You don’t get to come back here and make demands of me,” Lila says, just above a whisper, as if it pains her. “You don’t get to tell me what I am to you, or use these titles as leverage against rivals. I spent years repairing parts of myself, and you don’t get to tear it all open again.”
