010.

Cassie.

The silence stretched painfully as Axel drove back to the pack estate, Cam’s cold, fragile body nestled in my arms. 

His once-warm little face, now pale and empty, lay still against my shoulder. It felt as though my heart had been torn from my chest, replaced by an aching void that grew with each passing tree. 

I swallowed back the sobs clawing at my throat, gripping my baby tighter as if I could somehow bring him back as if warmth would seep into his skin, induce life back into his tiny form. But it was futile. Deep down, I knew that.

Axel didn’t bother saying anything, he didn’t even look over at me, or Cam. He hadn’t looked at Cam’s lifeless face since the moment he came to the cold warehouse, and I hated him greatly for that, but I held back from saying anything.

It wasn’t until we arrived at the pack estate, and I stepped into the pack house that every ounce of restraint shattered. 

My knees weakened, and a raw scream burst from my chest, filling the room with a sound I didn’t even recognize as my own. My vision blurred with hot, angry tears as I locked eyes on Axel, the one person who could have saved my son. But he hadn’t.

“You…you’re the reason he’s gone,” I choked out, each word a blade cutting through the thick fog of my grief. Axel turned to me, eyes wide in shock, but he recovered quickly.

“You left us there. Cam was innocent, Axel! He didn’t deserve this. He did nothing to you!” My arms tightened around my son, and I felt the tears slide hot and fast down my cheeks, unchecked. “You should have been there. You should have saved him, but now he’s… he’s dead because of you. ”

Axel’s face was unreadable his gaze cold and distant. But there was something deeper there, something he didn’t want to show. 

“What was I supposed to do, Cassie?” he replied, his voice thick. “I was grieving, too. I came back after the fight with the rogues and found Selena lying dead on the floor, blood everywhere. Do you have any idea what that did to me?”

I took a step back, my entire body shaking, stunned by the words coming from his mouth. Grieving? Grieving for her?

“Don’t you dare… don’t you dare make this about her,” I whispered, my voice venomous, as I recalled what she did that night. 

“You have no idea what she did, do you?” Tears spilled from my eyes as I watched him, “Selena led those rogues to Cam and me that night. She told them you hid us there, and–” my voice broke

Axel’s eyes sparked with anger.

“Now you’re resulting to telling lies about the dead?” He asked and I scoffed. Of course, he’d take her side even in death. There was no point telling him what she did. Axel knew she was horrible, but he defended her because she was his mate.

I took another step back, nodding, as my grip around Cam tightened. Axel followed my movement, his eyes finally landing on our lifeless child.

 “You’ve known Cam longer than you knew Selena, Axel. He was your son, not some fleeting part of your life. He would’ve been one year old next month. Can you even comprehend that? One year old.”

My voice broke on the last word, and I tasted salt as fresh tears traced their way down my cheeks. I took a shaky breath, looking down at Cam’s peaceful face, my heart twisting at the thought of the future he would never have. 

“He was innocent. And now he’s dead because of your selfishness.”

Axel’s jaw tightened, but he said nothing. The silence between us thickened, heavy with the unspoken words I could barely contain. My fingers brushed over Cam’s small, lifeless hand as I whispered;

“Now you’ve lost them both, Axel. Your mate and your son. But it doesn’t end there.” My voice was hoarse with grief, and I felt the weight of the final words pressing down on me, the realization dawning with brutal clarity. “You’re going to lose me, too. Not that I ever mattered to you.”

The words hung in the air, hollow and raw. Axel didn’t respond. Maybe he had nothing left to say, or maybe he didn’t care. Either way, I knew I was done waiting for an answer that would never come.

I turned towards the staircase, taking them two at a time as I went up to my room with my Cam in my arms. The moment I stepped in, tears, heavy and hot, flowed painfully from my eyes. The room smelled like him, and when I closed my eyes, I could hear his cries for food and attention. 

I fell to my knees as I wept, letting out the pain as I recalled our final moments in that cold building. I cried so hard I wasn’t aware when Warren came into the room to take Cam, to prepare him for his funeral.

Cam was a very young cub, so we couldn’t keep him for another day. He had to be buried immediately so his soul would return to the goddess in one piece.

We buried Cam later that afternoon, beneath the oak tree at the edge of the estate—the very spot I loved taking him for our strolls. I was convinced he loved it also because he would always giggle as the leaves danced in the wind above him. 

When Axel lowered him into the ground, a part of me crumbled and fell away, like pieces of shattered glass, irreparable and lost. 

For the first time, the pack members showed me sympathy, though it felt empty and hollow. But I wasn’t paying any attention to them as the world around me faded into a distant hum. 

Their words meant nothing because they had used those same mouths to suggest that Cam wasn’t Axel’s real son. Their sympathy was an unwanted gesture, too little, too late.

When the ceremony came to an end, I knew with instant certainty what I had to do. There was nothing for me here now—no love, no family, no purpose. The pack was a wound I couldn’t bear to live with, a wound that would fester as long as I remained.

That evening, I found myself standing in Axel’s room–the same one he had forbidden me from entering. It smelled greatly like him, a musky forest scent, but it was empty, void of Selena’s belongings. Axel was somewhere in the pack with his beta and others, probably drinking. 

I went around the room, checking drawers and his room desk, a black oak desk, for what had brought me into his room. Money.

I’d heard him talking to Warren multiple times about some money he kept in his room. It wasn’t a secret or anything, because he often took from it to give to pack members who needed quick help, and me, sometimes. 

I went into his walk-in closet and began searching. After nearly two minutes, I found it in a black bag. I contemplated taking some out of it, but without a second thought, I took the entire thing. Guilt had no place here, and I couldn’t care less about the consequences because he had taken everything from me already.

With the money bag clutched tightly in my hands, with a small bag containing a little of my belongings,  I walked out of the estate, leaving behind the only life I had ever known. I didn’t have any issues with the guards this time because the security was weak at the gate. 

The moon casted a dim light over the path ahead, and with a deep breath and tears streaming down my face, I turned to the gate. 

“I, Cassie Holt, hereby renounce all ties I have to Red Hollow Pack, detaching my wolf from my Alpha and my family. To this, Heaven, the Goddess, and my wolf bear me witness.”

Immediately I said the words, I felt my connection to the pack snap and was replaced with an aching, knowing that I was walking away from everything—even if Red Hollow no longer felt like home, and I was now a rogue.

“Where do we go now?” I heard a tiny voice in my head for the first time and my eyes widened in disbelief because I instantly knew the voice belonged to my wolf, Cy.