Chapter 4

The moment he saw me, he pressed his lips together. His face went pale.

"You said you want to end the Bond?"

After I told him yes, I did want to end the Bond, Cain went quiet.

He stood there thinking for a moment.

Then he asked: "If the Bond is dissolved, will you still take care of me?"

I almost laughed. "Cain. Dissolving the Bond means we go our separate ways. I won't be your Mate anymore. I have no obligation to take care of you."

"Understood."

The rain picked up. It came at him sideways and soaked one of his shoulders.

Cain looked at me steadily and shook his head. "I won't agree to it."

I hadn't expected that.

"Why?" I asked.

"If the Bond's gone, no one will take care of me."

"You care about Serena, don't you? She could take care of you."

But Cain kept shaking his head. "No. She's busy. She has her music."

"She can't be home all the time."

"You're free. You take care of me."

I looked down at a shallow puddle on the ground and felt cold settle in my chest.

In his mind, Serena had a life worth protecting. He wouldn't trap her at home.

And me — the woman he found boring and worthless — was apparently born to orbit around him.

"Cain, if you need someone to care for you, you can hire someone. Before I came, Nora's predecessor did just fine. Why does it have to be me?"

I tried to reason with him.

But he dug in. He insisted it had to be me.

As we argued, he balled his hands into fists, and I could see the marks his nails were making in his palms.

This was how his episodes started.

I didn't want to fight anymore. I walked back toward the house.

He followed me, repeating "I won't agree, I won't agree" the whole way.

When I didn't answer, he pressed his nails in deeper until his palms bled.

The Thorne Pack had more than enough money to hire a full-time caregiver. I didn't understand why he was being this stubborn.

I asked him.

He struggled to get the words out for a long time and finally managed two: "Used to it."

"Being used to something is something you build over time," I told him. "When you first let me take care of you, you weren't used to me either. Everything takes adjustment. Give it time and you'll adapt."

He dug in harder than a mule when he got like this.

When he saw I wasn't giving in, he started shouting.

"No! I won't! You have to listen to me!"

I knew there was no point in arguing when he got to this stage.

I stopped talking.

He thought I'd agreed. The locked muscles in his face slowly started to ease.

Then Serena arrived at the front door, and his eyes lit up immediately.

The Bond dissolution was completely forgotten.

He and Serena went into the study together.

Before he went in, he locked the study behind him.

Like he was afraid of someone walking in uninvited.

A little while later, the sound of piano music drifted out.

And the girl's bright laugh mixed in with it, and everything sounded alive and warm.

Serena came out at ten that night.

Outside, the rain was heavy. Cain looked at it and called out to stop her.

"It's raining. You'll get sick."

"Just stay here tonight."

Serena blinked and smiled at him. "I didn't bring anything to sleep in. How exactly would I stay?"

Cain pointed at me. "She has things you can borrow."

"That's for your Mate to agree to, not for you to decide." Serena smiled and looked over at me.

Before I could respond, Cain cut in.

"She agrees."

Serena tilted her head and gave him a playful look. "You can't just answer for someone else."

Cain pointed around at the house. "This is my home. Not hers."

He pointed toward the wardrobe. "The clothes were bought with Pack money."

"I decide."

So Serena turned to me sweetly and said: "Then I'll be staying tonight, Ember. Hope we're not intruding on you two."

Cain reacted faster than I did.

He jumped to correct the assumption, waving his hands around.

"We don't do that."

"That sort of thing. It's disgusting."

I sat there quietly looking at my phone. I didn't look up.

Cain was right. This wasn't my home.

I'd already decided. I was leaving.

Finding a place wasn't easy.

When I lived in the Forsythe Pack, I never had my own money. If I needed something, I asked the house manager and they usually took care of it.

When I came to Thorne Manor, Gerald gave me fifty thousand a month.

It sounded like a lot. But it had to cover Cain's medication, his therapy sessions, his meal plans, and the wages and living expenses of everyone at the Manor.

When I broke it all down, I was lucky to keep a few thousand for myself each month.

My savings weren't much.

After two days of searching, I found an apartment with a reasonable price.

I was packing my clothes when Cain came home.

Since the last time I'd brought up dissolving the Bond, his attitude toward me had shifted slightly.

Very occasionally, he'd start a conversation on his own.

Like right now.

He looked at what I was doing. "Are you throwing those out?"

I shook my head. "No."

He looked at the stack of folded clothes. "Throw them. They're ugly."

"You have no taste. You can't match anything."

"These are all terrible."