Chapter 4 4

CHAPTER 4

KILLIAN'S POV

It had been seven painful years.

Seven years since I last saw her face, since Liana walked out of my life without a single word or a second glance, since I broke her heart and walked away like it didn't mean anything, like I hadn't just lost the only person who ever truly mattered to me.

and now?

Now I was drowning in the same silence I forced on her.

I kept telling myself I did it for her. That I was doing the right thing. That if I was cruel enough, if I pushed her far away, if I shattered her heart first, maybe she'd forget me. Maybe she would move on and be free from the mess I had become.

But that was a lie.

She never left me.

Not even for a second.

She lived inside my chest like a scar that refused to fade. I saw her everywhere. I heard her laugh in my dreams. I felt her hands on my skin even when I touched other women. It was never the same. It never would be. She was stuck in my head.

I had built an empire since then. Wolfe International. I was the youngest alpha to rule both the human world and the werewolf world. I sat on top of a throne built with power, money, respect. I had every damn thing a man could want.

But I didn't have peace.

Because I didn't have her.

and I knew I didn't deserve her.

She was my fated mate, the one the moon gave me. But I ruined it.

I ruined her.

She was only sixteen when I felt the bond snap into place, that burning connection that tied her soul to mine. She was my stepsister. a human. The daughter of the man who married my mother. Sweet. Innocent. Untouched. Everything I shouldn't want.

But I did.

I wanted her more than I wanted air.

So I stayed away. I told myself it would fade. That if I disappeared long enough, the bond would break. I ignored my mother's calls. I missed holidays, dinners. I buried myself in work just to avoid her.

It didn't work.

When she turned nineteen, my mother begged me to come home. I told myself I could handle it. Just one dinner. One night.

The second I stepped inside the house and took in her scent... I knew I was totally screwed.

I couldn't look at her. I couldn't speak. I sat across from her like a robot while my whole body burned.

That night, I made her mine. Because she was mine.

But after it was done... when she lay there with trust in her eyes and hope on her lips, I left.

I didn't even say goodbye.

I ran like a coward. Just like my father did.

He was an alpha too, fated to a human, my mother. But he let the elders pick his Luna. He pushed my mother aside and married someone else. She left him. She rebuilt her life. She married Andrew Rivers and raised me the right way.

and stil, I became the same monster.

I came back to that house a few weeks later with another woman by my side.

Cynthia. The Luna they wanted for me. The perfect choice on paper.

But not the one I wanted.

Not the one I needed.

Not Liana.

and the second the ache became too much, I did the unthinkable again. I went to her room like

a thief in the night and took what never stopped being mine.

and after I took her... she begged me. I could remember it vividly, her voice trembling, her hands shaking, little streaks of tears on her face.

"Don't marry her‚" she said. "Please. I'll be anything. Just don't marry her."

and I walked out again.

That was the day I destroyed everything.

Because after that day, she disappeared.

No note. No warning. Just gone.

Her father searched everywhere. He blamed himself. But I knew the truth. I was the reason she ran.

I made her feel used. I made her feel disposable. and I've been punishing myself every day since.

Until today.

a knock on my office door snapped me out of my thoughts.

One of my men stepped in, his face pale, his voice tense.

"Alpha‚" he said. "We found her."

I stood up so fast my chair hit the wall.

"What?"

"She's alive‚" he said. "She's working in a hotel as a janitor."

"A janitor?" I asked in disbelief.

"But that's not all..."

He slid a photo across the table.

I picked it up.

and everything inside me shattered.

There she was.

Thinner. Paler. Tired.

But still mine.

Still the girl who haunted every dream.

and next to her...

a little boy.

Curly black hair. Dark eyes.

My son.

"She has a child‚" he whispered. "He's six."

My throat closed. My heart exploded in my chest.

"She didn't list a father. But she's been struggling, working double shifts. Sometimes skips meals so he can eat. She walks him to school. She's received two eviction warnings."

My hands curled into fists.

My mate. My child.

and I wasn't there.

"Bring. Her. To. Me." I growled.

"Alpha... I think we should-"

"I said NOW!"