Page 74 of Fated (The Bonded Legacy #1)

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

KAI

K ai’s night had been restless, his dreams haunted by fractured images of Ava’s accusatory stare and Lena’s distant gaze.

Each fragment clawed at his mind and heart, leaving him raw and unsteady.

The ache beneath his ribs had become a constant companion, a dull throb that tightened with every breath.

When he finally dragged himself out of bed, the sunlight streaming through the cracked window seemed almost cruel, mocking the turmoil that churned inside him.

Kai ran a hand through his hair, the strands falling messily into his eyes. Ava’s voice echoed relentlessly in his mind: “She’s leaving tomorrow. Do you really think she gives a damn about you?”

He wondered if Ava was right. Lena had every reason not to care. He’d resisted her from the start. Pushed her away even after she offered him patience, kindness, and understanding.

Why wouldn’t she leave? Move on with someone who’d give her everything I’d refused?

The bitter fear that she would—and should—move on ripped at his insides, threatening to take root. He paced the room as his mind conjured images that contradicted Ava’s poison.

Lena’s gentleness when she asked about Ava. How she’d been curious without judgment, wanting to understand rather than accuse…

She had every right to hate him for what happened the last night of the summit, yet she hadn’t. She’d given him space to figure it out, even though it hurt her.

The images in his mind shifted to Moonshadow.

The way Lena stood up to her father, defending him when he hadn’t deserved it. As if she’d known instinctively that he needed someone to fight for him in that moment…

Their first run together—her vulnerability after they’d made love…

Kai hadn’t forgotten the way she’d looked at him that night, like he was more than the sum of his failures.

Those memories alone were enough to carve an empty space within him. The pain intensified as other moments crashed through his defenses in rapid succession.

Lena’s attempts to comfort him in the aftermath of the rogue attack…

Her touch when her father delivered the news. Her insistence on being there for him so he wasn’t alone…

Her time in Bloodstone. She hadn’t hesitated. She’d cared for his people, even when she didn’t have to. She cared for him, even when he didn’t let her…

The evidence was overwhelming: Lena had shown him in a thousand ways how she felt about him, that she saw him.

Ava was wrong. Kai knew that now with an ache so sharp it felt like it might split him in two.

But Lena was still leaving.

Orion growled, the sound low and reverberating. “You can’t fix it if you let her leave.”

Kai yanked open a drawer, movements clumsy as he searched for a clean shirt. His hands trembled. His breath came in short, uneven bursts. The room felt too small, the air too thick.

He needed to move.

To act.

To stop her.

Orion’s presence was steady in the back of his mind, a grounding force amidst the chaos. “You panic because you know what you’re losing.” There was no judgment in Orion’s tone, only the brutal, primal honesty that wolves possessed.

Kai froze, grip tightening on the edge of the drawer. He swallowed hard, throat dry. Tension radiated through his body, coiling tighter with each heartbeat until his ribcage felt like an iron vise being cranked shut.

More memories flooded him—not of Lena’s actions but of the way she made him feel —consuming him with their intensity:

The rightness of her in his arms when she’d thrown herself at him that first night of the summit, like she belonged there. The way his wolf had stilled, satisfied in her presence, as if it had been waiting for her all along…

The flash of possessiveness and jealousy that burned through him when he’d seen her with Jace at Moonshadow. How he hated how natural their connection looked, how easy it had seemed between them, because he’d wanted to be the only one who could bring her that kind of ease…

The quiet, grounding warmth of her pinky hooking with his. That small, simple gesture that anchored him in ways he couldn’t explain…

Or the way her voice would soften when she called him “mate,” as if the title was a promise, not just a fact…

The overwhelming need to give her everything when they made love—the way she unraveled beneath him and pulled him apart all at once. He’d wanted to give her every pleasure, everything she deserved, because in those moments, nothing else in the world felt as right as her…

Kai’s heart stilled, the depth of his feelings for Lena overwhelming his system. She’d given him everything, and he’d given her so little in return.

Orion’s voice came again, softer this time, a nudge rather than a push. “You love her.”

The declaration knocked the breath from his lungs.

Love .

The realization triggered an avalanche of truth: it wasn’t the bond. It wasn’t Selene’s will. It was Lena . Her fire, her strength, her kindness. The way she saw him—not as the alpha-heir, not as her fated, just him . It had always been her.

Kai stumbled back, pressing a hand to his chest. His heart thundered beneath his palm, each beat pulsing with the truth he’d been too afraid to face.

I love her… I love Lena.

“Find mate,” Orion urged. “Talk to her. Before it is too late.”

The desperation in Orion’s voice propelled Kai into motion. He grabbed his jacket and bolted for the door. He didn’t know what he was going to say, but he had to find her.

Kai sprinted up the stairs and down the hallway, boots thudding heavily against the hardwood floor. His mind raced, the realization of his love for Lena fueling his urgency. He skidded to a stop outside the door to her guest suite, hand hovering over the handle for a moment before he knocked.

The door opened, and Ryker’s broad frame filled the doorway. The Moonshadow Beta-heir’s expression was stony, his normally soft brown eyes cold and hostile.

“What do you want, Bloodstone?” Ryker’s tone was clipped, devoid of the camaraderie they’d once shared. The last time he had called Kai “brother” felt like a lifetime ago.

Regret washed over Kai, the reality of his mistakes pressing heavily on his shoulders. “Is Lena here?” he asked, voice tight with urgency. “I need to talk to her.”

Ryker crossed his arms, his glare icy. “Why should I tell you?” He leaned forward, dropping his voice to a dangerous growl. “So you can rub your girlfriend in her face again? Haven’t you hurt her enough?”

The accusation cut deep. He stepped forward, his desperation breaking through. “Please,” he said, his alpha confidence stripped away, leaving only raw desperation. “I need to talk to her before she leaves.”

Tense silence filled the space between them. Kai nearly withered under Ryker’s gaze. Finally, Jace’s voice broke the stalemate.

“She’s in the dining hall,” Jace said from inside the room, voice measured and deliberate in that way that always made him sound older, wiser. “Saying goodbye to some of the pack members.” He paused, then softer: “Don’t waste this chance, Kai.”

Relief escaped Kai in a quick exhale, the knot in his chest loosening just slightly. “Thank you,” he said, glancing at Ryker. The Moonshadow Beta-heir’s gaze remained icy, a reminder of how much Kai had to make up for.

Without another word, Kai sprinted toward the exit. The hallway blurred around him as he ran. Each stride burdened by everything he’d left unsaid, everything he still had to say.

Kai pushed open the doors to the dining hall, the creak of the hinges barely registering over the rush of his breathing.

The quiet murmur of the pack moving about their day filled the space—clinking plates, the scrape of chairs, and the soft hum of conversation—all faded to static the moment he saw her.

Lena.

She sat across from Darius, their heads tilted toward one another as they spoke. Sunlight poured through the windows behind them, bathing them in a warm, golden glow. Kai stood paralyzed, unable to command his body forward.

They looked so natural together. Darius, who so rarely let his guard down, wore an expression that was almost gentle, and Lena…

Lena was radiant. Her posture was as poised as ever, but faint shadows under her eyes betrayed her exhaustion.

Despite it, she carried herself with a strength that drew in everyone around her, including his father.

A blade of regret twisted between Kai’s ribs. She’d done that. Lena had drawn something out of Darius that Kai had never been able to. Without even trying, she’d bridged a gap Kai hadn’t imagined possible, simply by being who she was. The realization burned through him, leaving an ache in its wake.

“Look at her,” Orion said, his earlier urgency tempered by affection. “She brings out the best in him. Imagine what she could bring out in you.”

Kai’s fists clenched at his sides. He didn’t need the reminder.

What could we be now if I hadn’t fought the bond at the start? Mated? Marked? Whole?

Sorrow bore down on him like an avalanche, but it wasn’t enough to hold him back. He forced himself to move, legs feeling like lead with each step. His pulse quickened, every nerve in his body felt taut, stretched thin as the distance between them closed.

Both heads turned to him as he stopped a few paces away from the table Darius’s expression shifted, his guarded mask slipping back into place, but it was Lena’s gaze that stole Kai’s breath.

Her golden-brown eyes met his, and in the space of a heartbeat, he thought he saw something flicker there—hesitation, maybe regret, but also quiet strength.

The kind of strength that had always drawn him to her.

“Can we talk?” The words came out sharp-edged and too abrupt, nothing like the practiced, careful way he’d imagined saying them.

Lena’s brow furrowed, but she nodded. “Of course.” She spoke with that careful neutrality she used when bracing herself.

Darius stood, movements deliberate. He placed a hand on Lena’s shoulder before stepping aside. His father’s departure left the air between Kai and Lena crackling with tension.

Kai’s throat worked as he tried to form words, but they wouldn’t come.

His hands curled into fists at his sides, nails digging into his palms. Orion was there, his presence like bedrock beneath shifting sand, his voice cutting through the static in Kai’s mind.

“She is home, Kai. Stop running from what’s meant for you. ”

Kai swallowed hard, throat dry as sand as he faced the female who held his heart, his future, and his very salvation in her hands. The realization crashed over him with stunning clarity—there were no more masks to hide behind, no more excuses to make.

His next thought burned through him like wildfire, consuming everything but this single, desperate truth: I can’t lose her. I won’t let this be the end. Not when I’ve only just found the courage to begin.