Chapter 4

　　Eva's POV

　　I was on my feet before I had time to think about it.

　　Every muscle pulled tight at once, my wolf snapping to attention the way she does when something important gets too close.

　　"What are you doing here?" I asked.

　　Lysander stepped out from the tree line. He was still in his formal clothes from the ceremony, not a thing out of place, like he had watched my entire life collapse today and found it mildly inconvenient.

　　"I came to..."

　　"I don't care." I cut him off.

　　"Whatever you came to say, I don't want to hear it. Go back to wherever you came from."

　　He stopped a few feet away and looked at me with that expression, the one I had hated since I was sixteen years old.

　　Flat and unfazed, like there were other places he'd rather be.

　　"Are you finished?" he asked.

　　"Excuse me?"

　　"You're standing in a forest talking to trees. I asked if you were finished."

　　The nerve of him. I took a step forward.

　　"Don't do that. Don't stand there and act like I'm the unreasonable one when you are the reason I am out here in the first place."

　　He raised an eyebrow just slightly. "I'm the reason."

　　"Yes. You." I pointed at him. "You rejected me, fine. But you didn't stop there.

　　You stood up in front of everyone and announced that Julian was my Chosen Mate like you were signing off on a business arrangement. You decided my entire future without asking me  what I wanted."

　　"I made a decision that was best for everyone involved."

　　I stared at him. "Best for everyone."

　　"You were in no state to make that decision yourself. You were only sixteen."

　　"I was in no state…" I stopped.

　　"You are unbelievable. You sit up there on your throne and move people around like pieces and then act confused when things fall apart."

　　"I don't need your approval for the decisions I make," Lysander said, a faint edge creeping into his voice. "Things fell apart because your chosen mate made poor decisions."

　　"It has everything to do with you!" My voice bounced off the trees. "If you hadn't arranged that bond, I wouldn't have been standing at that altar today.

　　I wouldn't have been humiliated in front of both packs." I looked straight at him.

　　"Was this satisfying for you? Watching it all play out? Because you're the one who declared Julian was the more suitable mate for me. How did that work out?"

　　Something moved across his face but was gone faster than I could blink.

　　"You think I wanted this outcome? That I wanted you hurt?" he said, the restraint in his voice beginning to fray. "I made the decision I believed was necessary."

　　"You did what you wanted," I said. "Same as always."

　　We stared at each other. My wolf was pulling toward him in a way that made me furious with her, straining against everything I was trying to hold in place. I pressed her down hard.

　　"Go to your high castle and sit on your throne, Alpha King," I said. My voice had gone flat. "I'm done talking to you."

　　I turned and walked back through the trees, and I did not look back once.

　　The house was in a solemn mood when I returned. I came in through the side door and heard my parents before I reached the hallway.

　　My mother's voice first. "You are sacrificing her happiness, and you know it."

　　My father. "It is about the pack."

　　"It is about your position, don't lie to me." My mother's voice was steady, but there was steel underneath it.

　　"And before you say another word, don't forget how you came to hold that position. Don't forget who gave it to you."

　　I stopped walking.

　　I had heard pieces of this over the years. Careful conversations that ended when I walked into rooms.

　　My mother had been the rightful heir to the Frostwood Pack. Not my father. She was the one born to lead, and somewhere along the way, out of love, she had handed that to him.

　　I had never heard her use it against him before.

　　I pushed the door open, and they both looked at me. My mother's expression shifted immediately. My father looked at me for a long moment.

　　"I'll respect your wishes," he said. "Whatever you decide."

　　I nodded and didn't say anything.

　　Lysander's POV

　　She walked away, and I let her.

　　I stood there in the dark and told myself it was the right call. That engaging with her further would have made it worse, that she needed space and none of what I could offer.

　　Then my wolf turned on me, and I had nothing left to argue with.

　　'You rejected her, and then you stood there while she broke and said nothing useful.'

　　I didn't respond to that.

　　'She is ours. She has always been ours. Why are you still standing here?'

　　Because going after her would change nothing.

　　I knew exactly how this ended. My mother had believed in the bond once too, had let it mean everything, and had paid the price for that with her health and eventually her life.

　　I had watched it happen from childhood and learned the lesson early. The one who loves more is always the one who suffers most.

　　Years later, when I finally accepted my own fated mate, Isolde, politics took her from me too.  One gunshot and the sea closing over.

　　The bond went silent in my chest between one breath and the next.

　　I was not doing that again. I was not handing anyone that kind of power over me.

　　My wolf snarled. 'Coward.'

　　I ignored him and turned back toward the tree line.

　　I had first seen Eva six years ago at a Pack Assembly. She was sixteen, attending as heir for the first time, and she stood up in front of a room full of alphas and argued for fated mate theory like her life depended on it.

　　I had argued against her publicly, and she had pushed back with everything she had.

　　Nobody had ever done that before. Not to me.

　　I looked into her afterward out of curiosity. Found out she was already an established pianist at sixteen.

　　I listened to one of her recordings, expecting nothing, and sat there for two hours without moving. My wolf, who was restless on a good day, went completely still. My insomnia, which had followed me since I was a boy, disappeared the moment her music started.

　　I had listened to her play every night since. She never knew.

　　When I found out she and Julian were considered the perfect couple, I buried it and moved on.

　　When our mate bond surfaced, I rejected it within the hour because I already knew how it ended.

　　When my wolf howled at me for three days straight, afterward I ignored it.

　　I was good at moving on.

　　'Go after her,' my wolf said again, quieter this time.

　　I walked back through the trees alone.

　　~~~

　　Across the city, Valerie stood in the hospital room with her arms folded and her patience gone.

　　"You should have used the child months ago," she said. "I told you that. You could have forced his hand long before any of this."

　　Cynthia sat in the chair by the bed, unbothered. "If I had forced his hand, Julian would have resented me for it. Guilt is more useful than resentment. Guilt makes people compliant."

　　"And if Eva forgives him?"

　　"She won't." Cynthia smoothed the blanket across her lap. "Julian refusing to dissolve the bond only makes things worse for her. The more he chases her, the more she pulls away, and the more she pulls away, the more room I have to work with."

　　Valerie looked at her daughter for a long moment. "This is a lot to gamble on."

　　Cynthia leaned back against the pillows and smiled.

　　"This is only the beginning," she said.