Nova
I didn't expect him to come after me.
Not right away.
So when the door creaked open and Kain stepped inside—jacket in hand, face shadowed, eyes scanning mine like he wasn't sure if I'd still be here—something inside me folded in on itself.
He didn't speak at first. Just stood there, like the silence was too loud to break. Like he didn't know how to fill the space between us anymore.
He looked… different. Like something inside him had burned out. The golden sparkle I had woken up to this morning—gone. His eyes were dim. Tired. Worn.
"How long have you been standing there?" I asked, my voice raw and scraped from crying.
"Long enough" he rasped.
Just two words, but they hit like a punch to the ribs. His voice sounded like it had been dragged through gravel—low, rough, aching.
I looked away.
Of course he'd heard it all. My conversation with Cami. My plan to leave. My heart unraveling
"I want to know what happened" he said, stepping closer. "Please."
I stood, slowly, but I didn't meet his eyes. "I met your fiancée."
That was all I gave him. That one sentence carried everything I couldn't say out loud. All the venom, all the hurt, all the humiliation that came with standing across from a woman so deeply stitched into his world that I barely mattered in her presence.
Kain's expression changed instantly. His jaw locked. His eyes darkened. "What did she say to you?"
I chuckled. Bitter. "Does it matter?" I asked. "Everything she said was true."
He looked like I'd just kicked the air out of his lungs.
"Nova—"
"I don't belong here."
The words came out soft. But they felt sharp. Final.
He stepped forward again, reaching for me, but I stepped back. I couldn't let him touch me. Not now. His touch would make me believe things that couldn't ever be true.
"You do belong here," he said quickly, and there was something almost frantic in his voice now. "With me."
I let out a broken sound that might've been a laugh. "With you? Kain, look at me. Look at this. An omega as Luna? You really think the council's gonna accept that? You think the pack will respect that?"
"You're not just an omega—" he started, but I cut him off.
"But I am," I snapped. "And you're the Alpha. The chosen one. The future. And I'll be the reason you didn't uphold your duties. That's all they'll see."
His lips parted but produced no sound. His silence was louder than any answer he could've given.
He said nothing but the gave me that look — pity. Sympathy. He knew that that was the truth, he knew that being his mate wasn't going to change anything and I was just being delusional. But behind the sympathy there was something else, he looked almost —helpless, I was used to seeing that expression in the mirror but on his face it was so foreign.
What could put a man like him in a situation that he felt helpless. And then it finally clicked
I stared at him, eyes narrowing. "What did they say in that meeting?"
Nothing. His lips were sealed as he avoided my gaze
I waited, feeling my eyes burning as I looked away, the reality that the council had rejected his request dawning on me.
"That bad, huh?" I said before letting out a hollow laugh.
He didn't deny it.
Didn't even try.
And that silence—that goddamn silence—told me everything I needed to know.
"You see?" My voice cracked. "Being with your mate—falling in love—it shouldn't be this complicated. This hard. Maybe…" I swallowed hard. "Maybe the Moon Goddess made a mistake."
He flinched. I saw it. Saw it hit him like a blade to the chest.
I didn't take it back.
I couldn't. It was the truth, and we were long past soft lies.
I stared into his eyes, breathing hard. The tears burned, but I kept blinking them back. He looked at me like he didn't know how to fix any of this. Like part of him had already given up. And behind that intense stare… I saw grief. Real grief. The kind that comes when you finally realize you're about to lose something that actually matters.
Even he knew we had no future.
A sob rose in my throat and broke free before I could stop it.
"I was gonna leave, Kain." My voice cracked again, lower now, shakier. "I was gonna leave this pack. Leave my family. Leave the life that's been eating me alive since I was a kid. The assaults. The bullying. The stares. The whispers. The humiliation."
He didn't move. Didn't breathe, his jaws clenched like he couldn't bear to hear about my life ..
"I was gonna leave being… this," I gestured to myself, choking on the bitterness. "A failed wolf. An omega. I was gonna leave being me."
My voice broke again.
"And then I met you," I whispered. "And for a second I thought—maybe I don't have to run. Maybe things could be different this time. Maybe I could finally belong somewhere."
I shook my head, voice going flat. "But it's the same thing. Over and over. I can never belong, Kain. Not here. Not with my parents. Not in this pack. Not with wolves."
Kain stood still, like his guilt had frozen him in place. Like he didn't know how to carry all the pain I'd just handed him.
"You don't know what it's been like," I said, my words hardly audible now. "The bruises I had to hide. The way I was afraid to sleep at night. The way I'd walk home hoping someone didn't follow me this time. The way everything was always my fault, no matter what I did. Like I had a choice."
"Nova…" his voice broke too. Barely a whisper. His eyes were glassy, wet.
"I was invisible, Kain. Until they wanted someone to hit. Or blame. Or use." I could barely speak now. "You think we can be together, but we can't. I've spent my whole life enduring pain. You have no idea what that does to a person. I can't keep going like this. I can't keep being hurt."
I took a breath—deep, shaking. "And if I stay here, with you… it's only a matter of time before this becomes just like my past."
I looked him in the eye.
"I can't, Kain. I have to leave."
He stepped forward again, slower this time, like I was something fragile. Something already broken.
"Then let's run."
I blinked, confused. "What?"
He took my hands, firm but gentle. "Let's run, Nova. Let's leave it all behind. The council. The expectations. The pack."
I stared at him like he'd lost it.
"Kain—"
"I'm serious," he said, and his voice picked up speed, like he needed to say it before he talked himself out of it. "We elope. We go where no one knows us. I'll leave my title. I'll walk away from it all."
My breath caught.
"You'd give up being Alpha?"
"Yes." No hesitation. "If it means I get to have you. If it means I can love you without hiding, without apologizing."
My hands trembled in his.
"But the pack…"
"They'll survive. Marcus could lead. He's not Alpha, but he's strong. Loyal. They'll be fine."
He looked at me with all the fire I thought he'd lost.
"I can't sacrifice this. What we have. What we could have. We belong together, Nova."
And I wanted it. I wanted it so badly it hurt.
But if he left… he'd lose everything.
"You would loose everykain, your position here. Control of the mines. The money. The power. Everything."
"I'd lose everything if I lost you."
The air left my lungs in a rush.
"I don't want to be the reason your pack loses its Alpha," I whispered.
He stepped even closer wrapping me in his scent like he knew that it could weaken my resolve. "And I don't want to be the Alpha that loses his mate."
I pulled away, shaking, my body aching from how much I wanted to stay right there in his arms.
But I couldn't breathe.
"I need time" I whispered.
He nodded, jaw tight, pain flickering in his eyes. "Take all the time you need. Just… don't leave yet."
I looked at him, unsure. Torn down the middle.
This wasn't just a choice.
It was a war inside me—between what I wanted and what I believed I deserved.
And I didn't know which side would win.