Free Web NovelChapter 31: Chapter 30: The Choice
"You have to go," she said quietly.
All three brothers looked at her sharply.
"We can’t," Damian said immediately.
"You have to," Eve repeated, her voice stronger now. "There are children being held hostage. Twenty-five children. You can’t abandon them."
"And you?" Damon demanded. "What about you? What about what Elder Markov said?"
"What did Elder Markov say?" Eve asked, looking at each of them.
They’d been careful not to share all the details of that conversation with her. Protecting her, probably, from the full weight of what was coming. But now, with this crisis, Eve needed to know everything.
"He said the binding spell is close to breaking," Silas said slowly. "Days away, maybe less. And when it breaks, when you transform, we need to be here. Physically present. Touching you, maintaining the bond. Because without us....."
"Without you, I might not survive the transformation," Eve finished. "Or I might survive it but lose myself. Become something monstrous. I know. I figured that part out on my own." frёewebηovel.cѳm
"Then you understand why we can’t leave," Damian said.
"I understand why you think you can’t leave," Eve corrected. "But you’re wrong. You have to go. Those children need you."
"You need us," Damon said roughly. "What good is saving those children if we lose you in the process? What kind of alphas would we be if we chose duty over our mate?"
"The kind of alphas those children need," Eve said firmly. "The kind who put innocent lives above their own happiness. The kind worth following."
"Easy to say when it’s not your life on the line," Damon shot back.
"But it is my life on the line," Eve said. "And I’m the one telling you....I can handle three or four days alone. The spell might not even break while you’re gone. Elder Markov said days, maybe even a week. It might hold long enough for you to get back."
"And if it doesn’t?" Damian challenged. "If it breaks on day two, or day three, and we’re too far away to get back in time? What then?"
"Then Dr. Thorne will be here," Eve said. "You were already going to call her, right? To monitor me? She can do that while you’re gone. She’ll know what to watch for. What signs mean danger."
"She’s a researcher, not a physician," Silas pointed out. "She studies supernatural transformations. She doesn’t treat them."
"Then she’ll know more than Mrs. Blackwood," Eve argued. "She’ll know more than I would on my own. It’s better than nothing."
The brothers looked at each other, that silent communication passing between them. Eve could see the war in their eyes.....duty versus desire, pack versus mate, the impossible weight of having to choose. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
"We call Marcus back," Damian said finally. "Tell him we need more information. Exact numbers, positions, what resources Konstantin has, what advantages we might have. We need intelligence before we can make any decisions."
He picked up the phone and dialed, putting it on speaker this time so everyone could hear.
"Damian?" Marcus answered immediately. "What’s the call?"
"I need a full tactical report," Damian said. "Everything you know about Konstantin’s forces. Numbers, weapons, positioning. And I need to know about our pack members....are they injured? Scared? How is he treating them?"
"Fifty wolves like I said, all armed with standard pack weapons....claws, teeth, some carrying silver-edged blades. They’ve fortified the town square and community center. Guards on every entrance. They’re not taking chances." Marcus’s voice was tight. "As for our pack members....they’re scared but unharmed so far. Konstantin is keeping them fed and sheltered. He’s not stupid.....he knows harming them before the challenge would violate pack law and turn every allied pack against him. But the threat is there. Implicit. He’s made it very clear that if you don’t respond, things will change."
"What about our resources in the area?" Silas asked. "How many warriors do we have within striking distance?"
"Twenty-three," Marcus replied. "Good fighters, all of them. But we’re outnumbered more than two to one. And without you three there, without alpha authority backing us up, we can’t issue a counter-challenge. We’d just be starting a war we can’t win."
"What’s your assessment?" Damian asked. "If we send you in with our warriors but don’t come ourselves, what are the odds?"
Silence. Then: "Honestly? We’d lose. Not just the fight.....we’d lose the territory, lose the pack members, lose everything. Konstantin has the numbers, the position, and the legal high ground. Without you three responding to the challenge personally, pack law is on his side. Every other pack would have to honor his claim."
"Fuck," Damon muttered.
"There’s something else," Marcus said, his voice dropping. "Konstantin sent a message specifically for you three. Said to tell you that he knows about the girl. Knows you’ve found a mate. Said he’s counting on you choosing her over your pack. That’s why he’s doing this now....because he thinks you’re too distracted, too weak, too compromised to respond properly."
Eve’s blood ran cold. He knew. Konstantin knew about her, knew about the bond, and was using it against them.
"He’s trying to force us into an impossible choice," Silas said quietly.
"And succeeding," Damon added bitterly.
"What do you want us to do?" Marcus asked. "We’re ready to move on your order. Just say the word."
"Stand by," Damian said. "We’ll call you back within the hour with our decision. And Marcus? Keep our people safe. Whatever it takes. Understood?"
"Understood. We’ll hold position."
Damian hung up and the room fell into heavy silence.
"He knows," Eve said softly. "He knows about me and he’s using it. He probably planned this whole thing around it."
"That son of a bitch," Damon said. "He deliberately waited until now, until the bond was strongest, until separation would be most dangerous, to make his move."
"He’s strategic," Silas said. "I’ll give him that. He identified our weakness and exploited it perfectly."
"Eve’s not a weakness," Damian said sharply.
"To Konstantin she is," Silas countered. "And he’s betting that we’ll choose her over our pack. That we’ll fail to respond to the challenge, forfeit the territory, and prove to every pack in the region that we’re too compromised to lead effectively."
"Then we prove him wrong," Damon said.
"How?" Damian challenged. "By abandoning our dying mate to save our pack? By choosing duty over the woman the universe literally bonded us to? By gambling that she’ll survive three days alone when every instinct we have is screaming that she won’t?"
"Yes," Eve responded. "By doing exactly that. By being the alphas your pack needs instead of the mates I want. By making the hard choice."
"We don’t have to choose right now," Silas said. "We have forty-eight hours to respond. That gives us time to think, to plan, to find another option."
"There is no other option," Eve said. "You know there isn’t. You have to go, and you have to go soon. Every hour you delay is an hour those children are in danger."
"Every hour we delay is well spent," Damian said roughly. "An hour maintaining the bond. An hour we might not get back if this goes wrong."
The weight of those words hung in the air.
Eve looked at the three men who’d become her entire world in just four weeks. The three men she’d somehow fallen in love with despite knowing better, despite trying not to, despite every rational thought telling her this was temporary.
The three men who now had to choose between saving her and saving their pack.
"I need air," Damon said suddenly, standing and heading for the balcony.
"I’ll go," Silas said, following him.
That left Damian and Eve alone in the bedroom, the silence heavy between them.
"We can’t lose you," Damian said quietly, not looking at her. "I know what we should choose. I know what an alpha is supposed to choose. But the thought of leaving you, of you transforming alone, of coming back to find you gone....." His voice became rough. "that is a risk we wouldn’t want to take at all"
Eve moved to him, took his hand into her own and smiled. "You’re not going to lose me. I’m stronger than you think. Stronger than I thought. And I will survive three days. Four if I have to. Whatever it takes for you to save those children and come back to me."
"You can’t know that," Damian said. "Elder Markov was very clear about the dangers....."
"Elder Markov doesn’t know everything," Eve interrupted. "He’s never seen a transformation like mine. He doesn’t know how strong the bond really is, or what I’m capable of. We’re going into this blind either way.....whether you’re here or not."
"But if we’re here, we can help. We can anchor you through it."
"And if you’re not here, those children die," Eve said bluntly. "Or worse.....they live as Konstantin’s hostages, used as leverage against you for the rest of their lives. Is that what you want? To save me but damn twenty-five innocent children?"
Damian closed his eyes, his jaw working. "That’s not fair."
"None of this is fair," Eve agreed. "But it’s the reality we’re facing. And you know what the right choice is. You’ve always known. You’re just afraid to make it."
"Damn right I’m afraid," Damian said, his eyes snapping open. "I’m terrified. Because choosing duty over you, pack over mate.....it goes against every instinct we have."
"Then let me make the choice for you," Eve said softly. "I’m telling you....go. Save those children. Save your pack. Save your territory. And trust that I’ll still be here when you get back."
Damian pulled her into his arms, holding her so tightly she could barely breathe. "If you’re not," he said against her hair, "if we come back and you’re gone, if this choice costs us you....I will never forgive myself. Never."
"Then you’d better move fast," Eve said, trying to inject some lightness into her voice even though tears were streaming down her face. "The sooner you leave, the sooner you can come back."
On the balcony, she could hear Damon and Silas talking in low, urgent voices. Planning. Strategizing. Already accepting what they had to do even as every part of them rebelled against it.
"We’ll call Dr. Thorne tonight," Damian said, pulling back to look at Eve. "Get her here as fast as possible. Set up everything she’ll need to monitor you. Brief Mrs. Blackwood on emergency protocols. We’ll do everything we can to make sure you’re not truly alone."
"I know you will," Eve said.
"And we’ll move fast," Damian continued, his alpha authority seeping back into his voice now that a decision had been made. "Three days. Seventy-two hours maximum. We drive through the night, handle Konstantin immediately, secure the territory, and come straight back. We’ll make the journey as short possible. Just in and out as fast as possible."
"Three days," Eve repeated, trying to convince herself she could survive that long.
Damon and Silas came back inside, their expressions grim but resolved.
"We’re going," Damon said. It wasn’t a question.
"We’re going," Damian confirmed. "We leave at dawn. That gives us a few hours to prepare, to make arrangements, to....." His voice caught. "To say goodbye."
The weight of that word.....goodbye....hit Eve like a physical blow.
Because there was a very real possibility that this goodbye might be permanent.
That she might not survive the three days alone.
That they might come back to find her dead, or transformed into something that no longer knew them, or lost so deep in her own power that she could never come back.
Eve sent up a silent prayer.
Three days. Just let me survive three days.
