Page 68 of Once You Go Pack
The sound of fighting erupted outside—his pack warriors engaging with the rogue wolves Zarik had brought as backup. The distraction was exactly what they needed.
Mila’s eyes met Cade’s, and in that moment, their bond flared with perfect understanding. They moved as one entity, two halves of a unified whole.
Mila drove her heel back into Zarik’s shin while simultaneously jamming her elbows into his ribs with every ounce of strength she possessed. The dual assault made him stagger, his grip loosening just enough for her to break free.
Cade lunged forward, but Zarik was already shifting, his human form exploding into his massive black wolf with supernatural speed. The beast launched itself at Mila with murderous intent, forcing Cade to shift mid-leap to intercept.
The two wolves collided in a thunderous crash of fur and fangs, their combined weight slamming into the cabin’s far wall hard enough to shake the entire structure. Zarik’s black wolfwas enormous, but where Cade fought with controlled precision, Zarik attacked with desperate savagery.
“Get him cornered!” Mila shouted, pressing herself against the wall but staying close enough to help. “Don’t let him reach the door!”
She positioned herself to block Zarik’s escape route, showing the same fierce courage that had first captured Cade’s heart. Her presence gave him strength, their bond humming with shared determination.
Zarik’s wolf snapped and clawed with increasing desperation, realizing his grand plans were crumbling around him. But cornered animals were often the most dangerous, and his attacks grew more vicious as his options dwindled.
Finally, with Mila’s strategic positioning and his own superior combat skills, Cade managed to pin Zarik against the cabin’s back wall. The black wolf struggled frantically, but there was nowhere left to run.
Cade’s jaws found Zarik’s throat with lethal precision. One powerful bite, and the threat that had haunted his reign was finally, permanently ended.
As the black wolf’s body went limp, Cade shifted back to human form, breathing hard from the exertion and adrenaline. Mila rushed into his bloodied arms without hesitation, her lips finding his in a kiss that tasted of relief and victory.
“Thank you for saving me,” she whispered against his mouth.
“I’m sorry I doubted you,” he replied softly. “I’ll never make that mistake again.”
She smiled up at him, her blue eyes bright with forgiveness and love. “I know you won’t. Now let’s go home.”
TWENTY-FIVE
MILA
The royal car’s engine hummed steadily as they wound down the mountain path, leaving the hunting cabin and Zarik’s lifeless body behind. Mila pressed her cheek against the cool window, watching the purple forests blur past in streaks of lavender and violet. Her body still trembled from the adrenaline, but it was the emotional aftermath that left her feeling raw and exposed.
I almost died today,she thought, her fingers unconsciously touching her throat where Zarik’s grip had left faint bruises.I almost lost everything before I even had the chance to truly live it.
The memory of being kidnapped sent a fresh wave of nausea through her stomach. She’d been walking back to the castle after fleeing the council chamber, tears streaming down her face as doubt and humiliation consumed her. The way those council elders had looked at her—like she was some manipulative human who’d tricked their sacred Moonfire Trial. And Cade’s doubt, that flicker of uncertainty in his green eyes, had cut deeper than any physical wound.
She’d been so lost in her misery that she hadn’t noticed the shadows moving through the trees until it was too late. Zarik andhis two rogue wolves had surrounded her before she could even scream, their hands rough as they dragged her deeper into the forest.
“You know what the difference is between you and me?” Cade’s voice broke through her spiraling thoughts, low and rough with suppressed emotion.
Mila turned to look at him, taking in the dried blood on his temple and the way his shirt hung torn from their battle. Even disheveled and battered, he captured her complete attention.
“I let fear make me doubt,” he continued, his green eyes fixed on the winding road ahead. “But you? When faced with that psychopath’s twisted plans, you fought. You strategized. You trusted in us.”
His raw admiration made her chest tighten. “I was terrified,” she admitted softly. “When he told me about wanting to make me his queen... I wanted to run. But then something inside me just said ‘fight for what you want.’”
Cade’s right hand left the steering wheel to find hers, their fingers intertwining with desperate intensity. “And what did you want?”
“You,” she said without hesitation. “This life. Nova Aurora. Our future together. I wanted to be your queen, not because some council blessed it, but because I choose it. Because I choose you.”
When Zarik had been strangling her, darkness creeping at the edges of her vision, she’d whispered a silent prayer to her ancestor Celeste Aylward.
Help me,she’d pleaded.Help me save what we’re building here.And somehow, miraculously, that scuffle had erupted outside just when they needed it most.
The castle’s familiar spires came into view as they crested the final hill, and Mila felt her shoulders relax.Home. This was truly home now, in a way Earth never had been.
Cade parked in the courtyard and immediately moved to her side of the car, his alpha protectiveness on full display as he helped her out. Before they could even reach the front steps, Lyra burst through the castle doors like a whirlwind of dark hair and frantic energy.
