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“Honestly?” Ebony’s smile was cold. “Was just curious if I really had it in me to push an alpha that far.”
It was Cerus who stepped back, reaching into the fireplace and drawing out an iron rod.
My heart turned to stone.
I knew what it was.
And I knew, before Zeus spoke, that what he would ask for was an impossible request.
“I want your brother on his knees before a mate he’ll never have,” Zeus said. “And I want to watch as he cleaves from your pack.”
FIFTY
LOVE
“No.” My voice was rough. Not that. “Ask for anything else.”
“There is nothing else, Love.” Zeus’s eyes were bright with delight. “That’s the price of her bond.”
A harrowing silence passed, and my eyes slid to Ebony, finally trying to withdraw from the bond as my dread became infectious. I felt a flicker from Rook, as if he realised the truth like I did.
It was perfectly impossible. No one could force an alpha to cleave; it had to be by intent. The process was dangerous and unpredictable, sometimes leaving an alpha unable to ever form a pack bond again. He would never be able to rejoin our pack—and that was if it didn’t kill him.
It felt like the world was crumbling around me. What he was asking for crashed in like a storm.
Ebony was absolutely still at my side, eyes fixed on Vex.
Was he running through the options just as I was?
Had he come to that same conclusion?
I knew, already, what the outcome would be.
For all I’d spoken to her about Ebony offering something comparable to love, it fell to pieces before this request. My brother was a man of claim and victory. It was the only two things in the world from which he could comprehend value.
There was no beyond.
No sacrifice.
And it was in that distinction that lay the impossibility. It came down to one simple thing: If he cleaved, she would no longer be his.
He would never do it.
“No.” Vex’s desperate voice tore through thoughts made of tar. “It could kill him.”
“He was willing to take that risk with my brother,” Zeus said.
“If he cleaves,” I said, scrambling for a way out. “The scent match could shatter. Then she won’t be our mate, and you won’t be able to complete your end of the deal.”
That was it, right?
Hecouldn’task for this.
“I would have suggested you offer her the princess bond for insurance. She’ll join your pack the moment our bargain completes. But you were desperate enough to have done so already.”
“Ask for something else.”
“This is it, Love.” Zeus was so sure. So absolute. He shoved her from his lap, fist clenched around the chain holding her steady as he got to his feet. He grinned, one arm spread as if he’d won. “Proof that your pack is more broken. Broken enough to leave your own mate in the arms of—”
