Chapter 26
Kaden
“What just happened?”
Kaden stood on the outskirts of the forest, staring after the form of the petite woman idisappearing out of his sight behind a grove of trees. He hadn’t meant to hurt her. Not at all. But clearly, his words had had a damaging effect. He’d never seen her be so disrespectful.
Actually, that wasn’t the right word. She had no reason to show him respect under the circumstances. He’d never seen her be so angry. Even when things were terrible for her, when Jenna was screaming in her face or humiliating her. Sienna had always kept that subservient mindset about her. She didn’t wince or cry. She didn’t even appear to look sorry for herself.
The woman truly was remarkable. The more time he spent around her, the more opportunities he had to speak with her, the more he began to realize there was something very special about her, something he couldn’t quite put into words.
Yet, he’d just told her she wasn’t good enough for him. He hadn’t meant it that way. In fact, he’d tried to be very careful about not saying it that way. But that’s clearly what she’d heard. He may as well have said, “Sorry, kowly servant girl. I am too high and mighty for you. Go back to your hole!” And then, in an attempt to kick her one more time when she was down, he had offered to help her. “Here. Let me hold your hair back our of your face while Jenna slaps you”
Kaden shook his head. He had never claimed to be particularly good with words, but he wasn’t usually such a dunce. He was really getting a lesson in love this time around
Love Had that been the word that came to mine? He shook his head and rolled his eyes at himself. He did not love Sienna. He didn’t even know Sienna. How could he love someone he didn’t know! Simple–he couldn’t. He didn’t. It didn’t matter what the Moon Goddess or anyone else decided he was supposed to do. The L word was off of the table.
Still mentally kicking himself, Kaden headed back to the house to take a shower and get ready for work. He had a lot on his plate that day. He needed to do his regular work, check in with the trainers and perimeter guards to see if there were any updates on Zane, and then check on all of his quests before he had to come back to the house to get ready for that night’s events.
He kept his footsteps light as he walked in front of Jenna’s bedroom door. She was the last person he wanted to see. Well, one of them anyway… Running into Sienna again right now would not be fabulous anyway.
He rounded the corner to see his grandmother coming out of her room. “Take your time, honey,” she was saying and almost didn’t see him. When she did she had a look on her face that let him know he was in trouble. Again
“Good morning, Grandma,” Kaden said, intending to pretend he hadn’t noticed her disagreeable look. He stepped around her and headed the few doors down to his own room
She followed.
He went inside and pulled
pulled out some clothes to put on after his shower.
Once again. Grandma Hannah was on his heels, closing the bedroom door behind them.
He turned and looked at her. “My next stop is the shower, so you might want to rethink this”
“Kaden James Stone!” Grandma Hannah exclaimed. “Really, what is the matter with you?”
He turned around, a defensive air around him, but as soon as he saw her face, he knew he couldn’t keep it up. “I don’t know!” he admitted. “Something!”
She shook her head and pressed her fingers to her forehead the way she did when he was giving her a headache. He’d caused many a throbbing head for her over the years. “Tasked you to be nice to her, and you send her back to me crying Was all of that necessary!”
“All of what?” he asked. “What did she tell you?”
“Nothing Grandma Hannah admitted.
- ed. “She didn
didn’t say anything at all 1 asked, but she said she was fine. She didn’t look fine.”
It seemed ridiculous for him to tell his grandma exactly what he’d said, that he’d told Sienna that he wasn’t looking for a Luna. Saying that out loud, away from the mute pull to someone who wasn’t in the same inuation as the two of them, made it sound like she had some ridiculous schoolgirl crush on him, and he told her in her dream. But that wasn’t what this was. It was much bigger than that, more powerful. He’d trivialized it and made it seem like he could tell within a day that he was going to be able to simply walk away from what the deity above them had in store.
Dnd he know for sure that he could do that? He lud to.
“But what if I can’t?” he thought to himself.
“Kaden? What did you tell hert”
“I, uh, asked her if she wanted my helps with Kent, and she said no. That was true. He had asked her that.
1/2
10:02 AM c D
Chapter 26
“Well of course, she said no? How embarrassing. I told you to talk to him, not tell her you were going to talk to him”
“I know,” Kaden said, “but i really think it will make it worse if I approach him.
“No, it won’t, Kaden. It can’t possibly be any worse!”
Π
Luna Hannah turned as if she were going to leave, which was fine with Kaden because he needed to take a shower and get on with his day. Before she opened the door, she stopped, holding the handle with the door pressed against her forehead. “Do you know that your father considered rejecting your mother?”
Kaden had been digging through his sock drawer but stopped. He looked into her eyes in the mirror in front of him and then turned to look at her.
“What’s that?”
She nodded, knowing he had heard her and just wanted clarification, not a repeat of the question. “Yes. And it was for the same stupid reason you want to give this little girl”
His grandmother’s definition of what a little girl was seemed different from his own. Granted, she was small, and he often thought of her as “that girl.” but the more time he spent around Sienna, the more he realized she was a woman. The way his body reacted to her wearing that towel the day before, the way she’d looked at him while he was getting dressed. Yeah, she was definitely a woman. “I didn’t know that about Dad,” he said.
“Your mother’s father was the son of an Alpha, but he wasn’t an Alpha since her grandfather had lost his pack before she was born. It wasn’t that though. Your father. Benjamin, thought that he was too busy to focus on his personal needs. He wanted to look after the pack, much the same way that you do. But Kaden, there’s a reason the Moon Goddess places her pull when she does. She does it when we are ready. She has designed Alpha and Luna to lead together in harmony. One without the other is a song without a tune. It simply does not work. You and I get by, but we are singing the same notes, born of the same blood. You need a balance. A partner. Someone to love.”
His grandmother’s face was soft and kind as she spoke, and Kaden listened not only to her words but the true message behind them. She wanted what was best for him, and it seemed that she believed–for some reason he couldn’t explain–Sienna was just that.
“Just think about it, dear,” she said. “Don’t be too quick to make up your mind.”
Kaden nodded and watched her walk out the door. The minute she was gone, his mind filled with all of the reasons she was wrong and all of the reasons he was right.
Even if he wasn’t.
Like a machine, he went into the bathroom to take a shower, thinking over all of the tasks on his list. If he just kept his feelings out of it and went through his day on autopilot like a robot, he wouldn’t have to worry about fated matches, moon balls, mistreated servants, or any of it.
Still, as he stood beneath the warm water, he couldn’t help but wonder what would’ve happened if his father had done what he’d originally intended and never gotten together with his mom. Obviously, he would’ve never been born. Would his father have been happy!
Kaden seriously doubted it. His father’s eyes twinkled when he looked at his mother. She made him laugh. She made him smile. They definitely balanced each other and created beautiful music together.
“But I’m not my dad,” he reminded himself. “And Sienna is not my mom.”
She was nothing like his mother, and she would never be able to replace Rachal Stone as the Luna of Light Sky Pack either. So there was no use in even considering it. His mind was made up. He would not follow through with the match. No matter what.
