Lethal✔️

Chapter 49

Cain's POV:

I closed the door behind me, suppressing the urge to slam it. My skin was burning, my fire crackling underneath my skin, begging to be released in a hurricane of flames. I could burn down the world if I wanted to.

Storming out of the house, once outside, I shifted into my wolf, unable to contain the wildness of my fur side.

Go to the Pack House and guard the Luna. She is sleeping upstairs. Do not disturb her, I growl through mindlink to Lucas and Zach. Even though my wolf had completely taken over, I still couldn't help caring for my mate, despite how infuriated I felt.

But apart from my rage, I felt another emotion that I had been experiencing regularly since meeting my mate.

Pain.

Not in the physical sense, though I would have preferred that. I felt... hurt. Something I didn't know I was capable of feeling until this last year.

My paws dig into the snow, but I'm immune to the cold as I push through the snow and deeper into the woods. I starting running around the perimeter of the territory, despite the fact that there were already wolves on patrol. The wolves I ran past must have been able to sense my anger, because they didn't say anything in greeting, only tilted their head in submission. It was a good thing they did, because my wolf would have gladly torn the throat out of anyone showing even the slightest sign of disrespect.

Ares' words had sliced through my heart, sharper than any dagger she could have summoned. She had a way of doing that, of knowing precisely what to say to cut through someone to tear them down.

It was my pup, too. She acts like she was the only one who suffered from the loss of the pup, but it was mine too. My pup.

Ares wasn't the only one who suffered a loss that day. But she never spoke of it, never allowed me to mention the pup, even though I could see her grieve in anguish and in silence for months.

I knew she felt guilty about losing the pup, about not being able to bear an heir for me, but I couldn't give less of a fuck about that. I didn't even care about having another pup. I just want my mate back.

I had already long given up hope on having a pup. And it hurt like hell to accept- but I did it. Ares clings on to the idea of a pup like it's the only thing tethering her to the earth.

And every day that goes by pup-less, I see her retreating further away from me.

She pushes, pushes me away further every day, and the more time we spend together, the less it seems I know her. She has a wall of ice barricading her heart, and it was impenetrable.

Not even I, her other half, could burn down those walls. I thought after all this time, after all we've been through, we would be closer, and she could be vulnerable with me, but she was just as distant now as she was when we first met.

My wolf makes a choking sound, somewhat resembling a sardonic laugh. Ares. Vulnerable.

Yeah fucking right.

While the death of our pup had brought us closer in some ways, it also pushed her away, and the walls strengthened with impossible resolve. I tried giving her time. Really- I did. But as each day goes by, I can feel her slipping through the cracks of my fingers more and more.

I don't know how I could have been so fooled for so long. Her touches, her kisses- they're a mirage meant to distract me from asking questions, from pushing her to open up, so she could stay within the confines of the walls she built around her icy heart.

Even after the Alpha transformation, she's still the same Ares. Cold. Calculating. Impossible to understand. Cruel.

The night our pup died, I didn't just lose my son.