Complicated?

Amara's POV

“Ryder…” I whispered, but the word felt heavy and useless.

Ryder’s eyes flicked to me, the betrayal in them cutting deeper than any blade could. “So, this is it,” he said, his voice low, trembling with restrained emotion. “This is what’s been happening behind my back?”

I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. What could I say? How could I explain something I didn’t fully understand myself?

“You said you needed space,” Ryder continued, his voice rising with every word. “You said you were trying to figure things out! And now I find you… here, with him?” His gaze darted to Caden, his expression darkening.

Caden stood, his posture rigid, shielding me instinctively. “Ryder, this isn’t what you think—”

“Don’t you dare!” Ryder snapped, stepping into the room. His voice cracked slightly, his mask of anger slipping just enough to reveal the pain beneath. “Don’t stand there and act like you didn’t know what you were doing.”

“Ryder, stop,” I said, finally finding my voice. I rose to my feet, stepping between them, my heart racing. “This isn’t about you and Caden. It’s more complicated than that.”

His eyes bore into mine, filled with disbelief and something that looked dangerously close to heartbreak. “Complicated?” he repeated, his tone bitter. “It wasn’t complicated when you told me I could trust you, Amara. That I mattered to you.”

“You do matter to me,” I insisted, my voice trembling. “But I—”

“But what?” he cut me off, his voice cracking. “You don’t feel the same anymore? Or maybe you never did.”

“That’s not fair,” Caden interjected, stepping closer. “You don’t know what Amara’s been going through—”

“Stay out of this!” Ryder roared, his anger flaring again. His gaze shifted to Caden, his fists clenching. “You’ve always been waiting, haven’t you? Lurking in the shadows, waiting for me to mess up so you could swoop in.”

“That’s not true,” Caden said firmly, his tone calm but edged with warning. “This isn’t about you, Ryder. Stop making it about you.”

Ryder let out a bitter laugh, the sound filled with disbelief and bitterness. “Not about me?” He gestured wildly between us. “Then what the hell am I supposed to think, Caden? I walk in and see her—the one person I thought I could trust—sitting here with you like—like nothing else matters.”

I stepped forward, my chest tight. “Ryder, please. It’s not like that. I didn’t mean to hurt you—”

“But you did,” he interrupted, his voice suddenly quiet, filled with a deep, aching sadness that stilled the room. His shoulders sagged slightly, his anger giving way to the weight of his emotions. “You broke my trust, Amara. Do you have any idea how that feels?”

Tears pricked at my eyes, my wolf whimpering softly in the back of my mind. “Ryder…”

His gaze softened for a moment, but then it hardened again as he stepped back, shaking his head. “You know what? It doesn’t even matter. Do whatever you want. Clearly, I don’t have a say in it anymore.”

He turned on his heel, storming out of the room without another word, leaving behind an unbearable silence.

Caden reached for me, his touch light but grounding. “Amara,” he said softly, his voice laced with concern.

I pulled away, shaking my head as tears spilled down my cheeks. “I didn’t want this,” I whispered, my voice trembling. “I never wanted to hurt him.”

Caden’s expression was pained, his wolf shining in his eyes. “You can’t carry this on your own, Amara. This isn’t just your fault.”

But even as he spoke, guilt coiled tightly around my chest, making it hard to breathe. Ryder’s words echoed in my mind, sharp and unforgiving. And no matter how much Caden tried to reassure me, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d just shattered something I could never put back together.

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Ryder's POV

I slammed the door behind me, the sound echoing through the empty room, but it didn’t make me feel any better. Nothing could. My chest felt like it was caving in, my breaths coming in shallow, ragged gasps as I paced the length of my room, my mind replaying the scene over and over.

Her. With him.

I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my palms. It wasn’t just anger—it was something worse. Pain. A raw, suffocating ache that I couldn’t escape no matter how hard I tried.

“She’s mine,” I whispered to the empty room, my voice trembling. “She’s supposed to be mine.”

But the words felt hollow, meaningless. Because no matter how much I wanted it, no matter how much I needed it, Amara wasn’t mine. She wasn’t anyone’s.

And that thought—that reality—was driving me insane.

I sank onto the edge of my bed, burying my face in my hands. My wolf howled in my mind, the sound a mix of anguish and frustration.

Why? he growled, his voice like a sharp blade cutting through my thoughts. Why isn’t she ours? Why is she bonded to all three of us? It’s not fair!

“I don’t know!” I snapped out loud, my voice breaking. “I don’t know why this is happening! Why her? Why us?”

But there was no answer, no clarity—just the same maddening questions spinning in my head.

I thought back to the way she looked at me, the way she had looked at Caden. The softness in her eyes, the way she reached for him like he was her safe haven.

It should’ve been me. It was supposed to be me.

“She told me I mattered,” I muttered bitterly, my voice barely above a whisper. “But if I mattered, then why does she let them in? Why does she let him in?”

The tears came before I could stop them, hot and relentless as they streaked down my face. I pressed my palms to my eyes, trying to force them back, but it was no use. The walls I’d built around myself were crumbling, and I was powerless to stop it.

“I can’t do this,” I choked out, my voice breaking under the weight of my emotions. “I can’t stand there and watch her… watch her with them. I can’t share her.”

My wolf snarled, his anger and despair mirroring my own. She belongs to us. To me. This isn’t right. It’s tearing us apart.

I let out a bitter laugh, the sound hollow and broken. “Tell me something I don’t know,” I muttered.

The bond—it was supposed to be a gift, something pure and sacred. But this… this felt like a curse. How could something that tied me to her, that made me feel closer to her than anyone else, also cause so much pain?

“Why couldn’t it just be me?” I whispered, my voice trembling. “Why couldn’t I be enough?”

But deep down, I knew there was no answer to that question. The bond didn’t work that way. It didn’t care about my feelings, my pain, my jealousy. It didn’t care that every time I saw her with one of my brothers, it felt like a knife twisting in my chest.

“I love her,” I admitted, the words spilling out before I could stop them. “God, I love her so much it hurts.”

And that was the worst part. Loving her wasn’t enough. It didn’t matter how much I wanted her, how much I needed her. She wasn’t mine to claim. Not completely.

The tears kept coming, my chest heaving as I sobbed into my hands. I’d never felt so broken, so helpless. My wolf whimpered, his anguish blending with mine as we sat there, drowning in the weight of it all.

I didn’t know how long I stayed like that, but when the tears finally stopped, the pain remained, a dull, constant ache in my chest.

“I can’t lose her,” I whispered, my voice hoarse. “But I don’t know if I can survive this, either.”

The room was silent, but my mind wasn’t. It was chaos—her laughter, her smile, the way she had looked at me like I was the only one that mattered… before she started looking at them the same way.

I clenched my fists, my jaw tightening. I didn’t know what to do, but one thing was clear: this bond was destroying me. And if I didn’t figure out how to deal with it, it was going to destroy all of us.