I give him a pat on the chest and a sad smile before I drop my hand and shrug. “Before they met Haven, the Calloways had another scent match, a fated mate who died far too young. Creed broke his bond to the pack because he disagreed with the way the others were treating Haven, and when they formed a new pack bond, they formed a new scent match with Haven. They got a second fated mate.” I wait as what I’m telling them sinks in. “I can only assume it would be the same here.”
“No,” Court rasps out. “No, but she died. She was dead when the pack bonds broke for them. Maybe it wouldn’t be the same. You’re still here, with us.”
The look I flick over my shoulder at him is sad. “Maybe. But maybe not. Or maybe if Forsythe leaves the pack, and the scent match breaks, maybe that will heal me? Maybe if you’re no longer my fated pack, the RMD will just vanish. Or maybe it breaks our fated mate bond, and nothing will help me get bettereveragain. Not your proximity. Not your touch. Not your mating bite if you ever deigned to give it to me. Maybe it would just kill me faster.” I tilt my head back to meet Forsythe’s gaze. “There’s only one way to find out. Care to play Russian roulette with my life, your highness?”
His jaw ticks as he bites back words. I know he thought he found a solution, know he viewed this matter as closed. He would do his duty to the crown and to his pack, and the only one to really suffer would be him. After all, we would be together, and that would be enough, wouldn’t it?
But it might not be.
I don’t really have any idea what would happen to me if he breaks his bond to his pack. But neither does he. This situation we find ourselves in is unprecedented.
And he’s finally realizing it.
Just like he’s realizing I’ve backed him into a corner he won’t easily escape from. His solution isn’t a solution at all. Unless he really is willing to gamble with my life. Which I already know he’s not.
“I suppose,” I say softly. “You could keep the pack bond but tell the world you didn’t. You could bond with Isadora, and I could bond with them, and we would feel each other all the time. I would feel when you're with her, and you would feel when I’m with them. It might be a solution, but I’m not sure I could bear it. I think I would go mad from feeling you all the time at my periphery, but never actually having you.”
He blows out an angry breath and I know it’s partially because of me, because of the holes I pointed out in his plan, but I also know most of it is because of the situation. The one he views as impossible.
When the solution is simple. So simple.
He just refuses to see it.
“The other option,” I say slowly, softly, pressing my hand harder into him so he can really feel me. “Is that you do your duty to us, your pack. That you be brave enough to choose this, chooseus.That you don’t let your grandmother bully you into a decision you will regret for the rest of your life.”
“I won’t regret it,” he says, sounding like he will. “I won’t regret it. I can give everyone what they need. I can do my duty to you and to the crown.”
“Don’t hide behind your duty to the crown, Sythe. You’re better than that.” I blow out a harsh breath, feeling my omega shrivel up a little bit, realizing that he’s not going to budge on this. Not now. “But I suppose that’s easier than making a decision yourself, isn’t it? You never have to bear the weight of responsibility for your actions if you can just point to your grandmother and say, ‘I was only following her orders. Doing my duty.’”
He barks out a harsh laugh. “You think I don’t feel the weight of my actions, Florence. Really? That’sallI fucking feel. Every second of every day, my duty presses down on me, so tight I feel as though I can’t fucking breathe. I have a whole bloody country watching my every move, judging me and by extension my family, the crown, our entire fucking government.” He narrows his gaze on me and I know in that moment he’s solidifying his determination to find a way to do his duty to the entire fucking world, no matter that he’ll tear himself apart in the process. “You can stand there and tell me how easy it is to choose you, because you’ve never felt that fucking weight, Florence. And you never will.”
With that parting shot, he spins on his heel and strides out of Haven’s house, slamming the door behind him.
We stare after him, the windows still rattling. Court shakes his head, disappointment hanging heavy in his expression. “You really fucked up there, Pixie. I’m not gonna lie.”
“Maybe,” I say, fisting my trembling hands to try to stop their shaking. “Or maybe he needed to hear it.”
“Oh, he did,” Grieves agrees, curling his hand around mine and tugging me backward, until I collapse onto Court’s lap again. “But you could have been nicer about it.”
“Hard to be nice when you’re calling someone a coward.” The alpha I’m sitting on wraps his arms around me, holding tight, like he’s afraid I might slip away.
“He’s not a coward, Pix. What he offered is terrifying. Giving up his pack, his entire chosen family for you. So you can have us instead. That’s… pretty fucking brave if you ask me.”
“No, it’s stupid,” I say stubbornly. “Especially since he has no idea of the repercussions. He just made this grand self-sacrificing scheme without even considering the fallout, for all of you and for me.”
I can tell they are having a silent conversation based on the looks they give each other. But I don’t bother to try to decipher them.
“Well, at least one good thing came out of that,” Thayer says, picking up my hand to press a kiss to my palm.
“Oh, yeah? What’s that?”
“You agreed that you deserve to have your fated pack with you, which means you haven’t written us off entirely.”
Shit, I had said that didn’t I? In fact, I tried pretty damn hard there to convince Sythe to pick me over duty, which definitely implies I’m open to being with them, to forgiving them for their rejection, and the awful proposal they’d made about me being what amounts to a mistress.
I scoff and try to pull away from him, but he’s not having it. None of them are. In fact all four males press closer.
Court kisses the hollow behind my ear and I don’t have it in me to protest.
