I shook my head. “He was with her for three years, laid with her, told her he would mate her, then chose the other one over her. It broke her, Rivik, and she’s terrified of being broken again. You know I want her, what she is to me. She knows there is something between us, but I haven’t told her about the bond. I didn’t want to scare her, I wanted her to come to me on her own. To her, this will sound like she has no choice. She deserves more than that. She deserves to be chosen because someone wants her, not because someone needs to protect her."
Rivik closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I understand, and I agree. She deserves a courtship. She deserves time, and choice, and a male who comes to her with nothing but love in his hands. She deserves everything I cannot give her and everything you should have the chance to give her properly." His voice dropped. "But we don't have that luxury. We have fourteen days."
I pulled away from him and walked to the edge of the overlook, staring down at the camp below without seeing it. The rain was coming harder now, a steady, cold curtain that blurred the firelight and turned the paths between shelters into dark ribbons of mud. Somewhere down there, Ellie was probably sitting in my cave, wrapped in the furs I'd given her, with the salve still drying on her arm where Nathan had grabbed her. She'd be frightened. She'd understood enough of what Karik had said to know exactly what was at stake, and she'd be sitting there in the firelight trying to figure out how to survive this, because that was what Ellie did. She survived. She adapted. She found a way.
"There has to be another way."
"There isn't." He said it with flat finality. "I have considered every option, Daska. I cannot think of another option that will protect her, and not pull apart our pack. Our family.”
I took a shaky breath. “Your family, Rivik. Your pack. The one that won’t accept her.”
He shook his head, his eyes meeting mine. “You understand, then? You take Ellie as your mate and it will protect her from Karik, and it will protect the pack.” The gold had faded to his normal grey brown colour, and they were filled with so much pain, I couldn’t bear to see it. The magnitude of what he’d proposed and what I was agreeing to had hit us both, and the consequences of that decision.
“It’s Ellie,” I whispered. “There is no other choice for me. She is my heart now, brother. She is my home.”
Rivik nodded, not saying anything, and I reached out and pulled him into my arms, squeezing him tightly for just a few moments. He returned it.
“I am going to miss you, my brother.”
CHAPTER 21
ELLIE
Something was wrong. Something washappening. Rivik had left, I had no idea where Daska was, and the camp seemed to be in chaos. All around, people were whispering and watching me, and I couldn’t even get straight in my head what I’d just heard. Torin led me inside the biggest cave to the largest gathering space in the den. It was a wide chamber with a vaulted ceiling and a fire pit at its centre. Smoke curled toward natural fissures in the rock above, and the walls reflected firelight in rippling gold.
Nathan, Megan, and Dev were already there.
Nathan stood with his arms crossed, shoulders tight, his jaw rigid and Megan stood beside him, pale but composed, her hands folded in front of her like she was waiting for an interview. Dev lingered near the entrance, pulling me into a hug the moment I stepped inside.
"What's happening?" I murmured into his shoulder.
"Don't know exactly." Dev's arms tightened briefly, then released me. He stepped back, and I could see the strain around his eyes, the slight pallor that told me he'd been on his feet too long. His walking staff was propped against the cave wall behind him. "Rivik called everyone in about ten minutes ago. Sent Torin to fetch you."
"Did he say why?"
Dev shook his head. "He said something to Ryke, but I couldn't follow it. My vocabulary doesn't exactly extend to whatever this is." He gestured at Torin and our teammates.
"Are you alright? You shouldn't be standing without—"
"I'm fine." He said it with a faint smile that told me he was in more pain than he was letting on. "Ellie. What happened out there? With Karik?"
"Karik wants me," I said quietly. "He claims I'm unclaimed. Unprotected. That by pack law, I belong to whoever found me first." I paused, watching the colour drain from Dev's face. "He found me first. Or close enough that he's willing to argue the point."
Dev stared at me for a long moment. "Found you." He said the words very carefully, like he was testing their weight. "As in—"
"As in property." I held his gaze. "He was quite explicit about what he intends to do with me."
"Jesus." The word came out soft, barely audible, more exhale than speech. His hand found my arm and gripped it. "Ellie—"
"Rivik agreed. Half a moon cycle." I glanced toward the cave entrance. "Fourteen days, roughly."
"And then what?"
“Then he hands me over to him.”
Dev's hand tightened on my arm.
"No," he said. "No, Ellie. That's not—… we'll figure something out. Nathan's nearly got the scanner working, if we can just—"
