Chapter 10 — Choose Me Once
1201 Words
LIORA
The archive door opened twenty-three minutes after someone locked me inside.
Nora stood on the other side with a security officer behind her. Relief crossed her face, followed immediately by anger.
“What happened?”
“Someone used a key from the corridor.”
The officer examined the lock and the access panel beside it.
“A family-level override key,” he said. “Only a handful of people are authorized to carry one.”
“Can you identify which key was used?” I asked.
He entered a code into the panel. His expression tightened.
“The access record was erased.”
Of course it was.
I had photographed every relevant page before returning Eamon’s file to its exact position. His unfinished sentence remained on my phone, along with the black seal I did not recognize.
A crescent moon divided by three lines.
Nora waited until the officer left before closing the archive door.
“What did you find?”
“Eamon was investigating what I am.”
She glanced toward the cabinets. “Why your wolf never awakened?”
“He believed there was something inside me instead of nothing.”
Her attention returned to my face.
“What else?”
“I don’t know yet.”
A cramp tightened low in my abdomen.
I braced one hand against the desk.
Nora caught my elbow. “Sit down.”
“It’s already passing.”
“That does not make it harmless.”
“I need to speak to Ronan.”
“You need rest.”
“I need one answer from my mate while I still have the right to ask.”
Nora released me reluctantly.
“Do not let him use Alpha pressure.”
“I won’t.”
The strategy room overlooked the training yard.
Ronan stood at the central table with three commanders, studying a digital map of the northern border. Patrol routes glowed across the screen while reports came through a speaker near his hand.
He noticed a broken formation before the commander explaining it did.
“Move the eastern unit west,” Ronan ordered. “Anyone testing our response will expect us to reinforce the river.”
One commander frowned. “That leaves the road exposed.”
“No. It makes it look exposed.”
The men exchanged glances, then nodded.
This was the Ronan the pack trusted.
Controlled. Strategic. Certain.
He looked up and saw me.
The room changed.
“Leave us,” he said.
The commanders gathered their tablets and filed out.
Ronan waited until the door closed.
“You should be resting.”
“Someone locked me inside the medical archive.”
His stillness vanished.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
He crossed the room. “Were you hurt?”
“No.”
“What were you doing there?”
The photograph of the divided crescent sat inside my phone. Someone had removed Eamon’s conclusion and confined me before I could leave.
Until I knew who possessed that key, I would not hand the only evidence to anyone.
Not even Ronan.
“That is not the question I came to ask.”
His gaze searched my face. “Liora, someone trapped you inside a restricted room. I need to know why.”
“And I need to know whether my mate would ever choose me.”
The words stopped him.
Outside, wooden practice blades struck shields in a steady rhythm.
Ronan lowered his voice. “What does that mean?”
“If Selene and I needed you at the same time, who would you choose?”
“That would depend on what happened.”
“Not as Alpha. Not as Eamon’s brother.” I held his gaze. “As my mate.”
He looked toward the border map, as though strategy might offer him a safer answer.
“You are asking me to reduce people’s lives to a test.”
“I’m asking whether I come first anywhere in yours.”
“You are my Luna.”
“Then stand beside me like I am. Not only when the title is useful, but when the pack is watching.”
“You are my wife.”
“That is a fact. It is not an answer.”
His fingers pressed against the edge of the table.
“I know you are hurting.”
“Then why do you keep choosing the thing that hurts me?”
“Because you are stronger than she is.”
For a moment, I did not understand.
The words almost sounded like praise.
Ronan stepped closer.
“Selene breaks when she is left alone. Milo feels every absence like another death. You don’t.”
My throat tightened.
“Being strong does not mean I hurt less.”
“I did not say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
He exhaled and dragged one hand over the back of his neck.
“You have always survived difficult things.”
“And when did my strength become permission to abandon me?”
Pain crossed his face.
“I have never abandoned you.”
“You leave because you believe I will still be standing when you return.”
“Because you always are.”
The answer came without hesitation.
That was the worst part.
He believed it was love.
My hand almost moved toward my abdomen.
You already abandoned both of us.
The words rose behind my teeth.
I thought of the hidden test result. Nora’s warning. The cramp that had followed fear and confinement.
If I told him now, the baby would become another emergency to manage. Another duty to balance against Selene, Milo, the council, and the border.
I wanted our child to be wanted.
Not administered.
Ronan’s hand left the edge of the table.
“Tell me what you need.”
“One choice.”
He watched me in silence.
“Choose me once, Ronan. Not because I am Luna. Not because the bond demands it.” My voice shook, but I did not look away. “Choose me because I am your wife.”
“I am trying to protect everyone.”
There it was.
Not yes.
Not me.
Everyone.
And he would continue protecting everyone by sacrificing the person he believed could endure it.
The war bell rang above Blackwood Hall.
One deep strike.
Then another.
The rhythm of practice blades outside broke apart as guards began shouting across the yard.
Ronan turned before the third note sounded. The husband disappeared, replaced by the Alpha.
The strategy room doors opened. Commanders rushed back inside as phones and radios began ringing.
A guard entered without knocking.
“Foreign vehicles crossed the northern boundary.”
“How many?” Ronan demanded.
“Six armored cars. Royal markings.”
The digital map flashed red along the border road.
Ronan’s face went still.
“Whose banner?”
“The Lycan King’s.”
Another soldier appeared behind him, breathless from running.
“They aren’t requesting permission to enter.”
Ronan stepped toward the map. “What do they want?”
“An immediate audience.”
“With whom?”
The soldier looked from Ronan to me.
“The Alpha of Blackwood and his Luna.”
- Writer
