Chapter 58: Haze State
Kaden’s POV
Her fingers trailed over my face, moving slowly, as if she were trying to draw my features in the dark.
For a moment, I couldn’t deny how good it felt to have her touch me like this.
"You are so handsome," she whispered sleepily.
I inhaled sharply, annoyed by how much those words affected me.
"Tell me..." She paused, moving her fingers to my cheek and drawing small circles on it, making me take a sharp breath. "Why do you look so familiar, like I’ve seen you somewhere?" she asked in a dazed tone.
I frowned, holding her gaze. Because you know me... I said inwardly.
With my hand still wrapped around her waist, she moved her fingers downward from my face, passing my neck and resting on my chest. Her fingers stopped right on top of a thick scar on my chest, and she frowned. She traced the jagged mark gently, her brow furrowing as she studied it.
"What happened here?" she asked softly.
I hesitated, her touch almost making me forget who she was.
I couldn’t remember the last time anyone had looked at my scars with such curiosity, such innocent interest. But I knew I couldn’t stay silent because, in her hazed state, she would just keep asking until I gave her a response. Besides, she probably wouldn’t remember any of this by morning.
"This," I started, not believing I was actually going to tell her... "was from when I was fourteen. My father... he always pushed me incredibly hard during training. He expected me to be perfect, to be the strongest Alpha King. He sent me deep into our pack’s training grounds in the royal woods one night, completely alone, to prove myself."
I paused, remembering the heavy pressure, but also the deep respect I held for the man who shaped me. I didn’t have a bad childhood, and I loved my father, but his lessons were brutal.
"A wild animal... it attacked me out there in the woods. I barely survived. It was a savage fight for my life."
She blinked slowly, her fingers still hovering over the scar, as if trying to understand the depth of the story. "You killed it?" she asked, her voice faint with disbelief, as if she couldn’t quite tie the softness of her touch to the violence of my tale.
I nodded, the memory flashing in my mind as if it had happened just yesterday. "Yes. It was my first real test from my father... to survive. I wasn’t strong enough at first, but I fought back, kept pushing. And eventually... I killed it."
There was a quiet pause between us, the weight of my words settling into the space. She didn’t move, her fingers still tracing the scar, her face pensive.
"That’s... incredible," she whispered after a moment, her tone filled with awe.
The way she said it, with admiration rather than fear, made something shift inside me. I felt her gaze linger on me, not with fear or hatred, but something closer to concern.
For a brief moment, I glanced into her hazed gaze, captivated by the absolute beauty of her eyes.
She stared at the scar for a little longer, her eyes turning distant and sad. "I always wanted to be a nurse..." she murmured softly, her voice trailing off as if she were speaking to a memory. "A healer. I wanted to care for people, to fix their wounds and make the pain go away."
Suddenly, a bitter, breathless laugh escaped her lips, and she looked back up at me with glassy, tear-filled eyes. "But look at me now... a nobody."
Hearing those words, a strange, sharp discomfort tightened around my heart. It felt like something was squeezing my chest, making it hard to breathe. What the hell was happening to me? Why did her sadness matter so much?
Before I could figure it out, Rebecca reached up and held my face with both of her hands. Her touch was warm, and her eyes locked onto mine with a sudden, intense focus.
Then, she pulled me down for a kiss.
Logically, I was supposed to push her away. I should have thrown her off the bed. But damn it... the moment her lips touched mine, all my control snapped.
Instead of pushing her back, I wrapped my arms around her waist, pulled her tightly onto my lap, and kissed her back with a fierce, burning hunger.
I let out a low moan into the kiss, completely lost in the taste of her. But just as the kiss deepened, her body suddenly went completely limp in my arms.
She slumped back, unconscious as she was finally dragged back into a deep, dreamless sleep.
I pulled away, letting out a heavy sigh of pure frustration. My heart was hammering against my ribs, and my skin felt like it was on fire.
I carefully laid her back down on the pillows, pulling the heavy blanket up to cover her naked body. Standing beside the bed, I stared down at her quiet, sleeping form and shook my head in anger at myself.
This girl was completely messing with my head. She was a dangerous distraction, and I needed to stay far away from her before she ruined my sanity completely.
Turning my back to her, I lay down on my side of the bed and closed my eyes. But sleep didn’t bring any peace. All through the night, my mind twisted into a restless, chaotic sleep. I kept seeing Helen. Beautiful, painful memories of my dead mate flashed behind my eyelids, mixed with the agonizing sound of her last breaths, torturing me in the dark.
When I finally opened my eyes, the pale light of early dawn was filtering through the curtains. It was morning.
Still trapped in the heavy weight of my nightmares, I immediately turned over, expecting to see Rebecca lying right beside me on the bed.
But the sheets were empty. She wasn’t there.
