Chapter 69 The weight of choosing her
DARIAN
“Even if one of them is the man I’ve spent most of my life wanting to drag before the AlphaCouncil in chains.”
She winces at that, but doesn’t interrupt.
“Iris,” I say, softer now. “I’m not just risking my duty for you. I’m risking my family’s name. Everything we’ve built. But…” I exhale, shaking my head. “If this prophecy is true, then your existence has already shaken the future. And if I’m going to fall… I want to fall knowing I made the choice myself. Not because someone else dictated it.”
She doesn’t respond immediately, just stares at me like she’s seeing me for the first time.
Like I’m not just a prince. Or a threat. Or some cursed prophecy.
Just… me.
And then she speaks, her voice trembling slightly. “You’re really going to leave me here?”
“I’m not abandoning you,” I say quickly. “I’ll keep my distance, but I’ll stay close. Hidden, if I have to. I’ll post a few of my most loyal men near the perimeter, far enough not to raise suspicion. If there’s even a whisper of danger, I’ll know.”
“And what about your father?” she asks. “If he finds out?”
“I’ll handle him,” I say firmly, jaw tightening. “Let him come for me. But he won’t get to you. Not while I’m breathing.”
For the first time since we left the city, I see her shoulders relax slightly. She looks down at our feet, then back up at me.
“You know this doesn’t fix everything,” she says.
I nod. “I know.”
“There’s still the prophecy.”
“I know.”
“And the history between our families.”
I step closer, my voice low. “I know all of it, Iris. And I’m still standing here. Still choosing this.”
She stares at me like she’s trying to memorize the shape of my face, the tone of my voice, the madness of what we’re both walking into.
I reach out, gently tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear. “You stay here,” I murmur. “Where they can’t track you. Where you’re not a pawn in their games. I’ll take care of the rest. Even if it costs me.”
Her breath catches.
For a moment, we’re just two people. Not a prince and a threat. Not a prophecy and a punishment. Just a boy and a girl, caught in the unraveling of something ancient and dangerous.
Then she nods. “Okay.”
I exhale, the weight of that one word anchoring me in a thousand pieces of uncertainty.
But somehow… it feels right.
She turns toward the house again.
And I follow.
But the moment we step back into the house, the tension slams into me like a wall. It’s warm, sure, homey even, but the air feels off. Thick.
Iris is chatting softly with her grandmother, Nana, completely unaware, or maybe just pretending not to notice. But I feel it. The weight of her grandfather’s presence. The heaviness of his silence.
He hasn’t said a word since that first sharp “you”. He disappeared down the hallway almost immediately after, without so much as looking me in the eye again.
Good. Because I don’t know how I’d react if he did.
We’re sitting now in the small living area, and I try to look calm and composed, but my shoulders are tense and my jaw locked. I don’t want to be here. Not in this man’s house. Not under his roof. Every second feels like I’m betraying something I was raised to believe in.
Iris’s grandmother is warm and sweet, smiling easily, talking like there’s no bad blood in the world. But even she can feel the unease. I see the way she glances at me, then toward the hallway, then back again.
I can’t do this.
I stand up quietly, brushing imaginary lint from my pants. “Nana,” I say, voice low.
She turns to me from where she’s been fluffing the couch cushions. “Yes, dear?”
I glance at Iris for a moment, she’s watching me with concern starting to cloud her eyes.
“I need to go,” I say. “But… I’m entrusting Iris’s safety to you.”
Nana pauses, her face softening. “You’re not staying?”
“I’ll check in as often as I can,” I continue. “But I don’t think it’s wise, for either of us, for me to stay here long. Not with…” I don’t finish the sentence, but she understands. The entire house does.
Her expression shifts. Still kind, but now knowing. “I see.”
“She’s safer off the grid,” I add. “This place, it’s the last place anyone would think to look. And you…” I look at her directly, “I can tell you’ll protect her like your life depends on it.”
“I would,” she says simply.
“Then that’s enough for me.”
Iris stands now too. “Darian, wait.”
“I’ll come back soon,” I promise her. “I just… can’t be here right now. You understand, don’t you?”
She nods, though reluctantly. Her fingers twist together in front of her, and I know she wants to say more.
I turn back toward the door, trying to fight the heaviness in my chest.
But before I can take another step, Nana speaks again. “Are you seriously leaving without eating anything?”
I blink and turn to her. “I hadn’t planned on staying for dinner.”
“You show up here, deliver my granddaughter like a parcel, and walk out?” she says with mock offense. “Boy, that’s not how we do things in this house.”
I actually chuckle, almost. “I didn’t mean to offend-”
“You did,” she teases, cutting me off. “Now sit your proud Lycan behind down and eat something. I cooked, and I hate leftovers.”
I hesitate. My eyes shift again to Iris.
She’s not saying anything. But her expression… it says enough.
She’s looking at me like she wants me to stay. Not because she’s in danger now, but because she wants me here. Because maybe dinner together, in the safety of this quiet house, could be a slice of normal neither of us has had in too long.
Her eyes plead with me. Just stay a little longer.
I let out a slow breath and nod once.
“Alright,” I say. “Just for dinner.”
Her smile is immediate, and soft. Not wide, not beaming, just gentle. Like I’ve done something that matters.
“Perfect,” Nana says, already heading toward the kitchen. “You’ll love the roast.”
I glance around once more at the hallway where her grandfather vanished remains empty.
He’s avoiding me. And I’m fine with that.
Iris walks over to me, voice barely above a whisper. “Thank you. For staying.”
I shrug. “It’s just dinner.”
“No,” she says, “it’s not.”
I don’t argue. Because she’s right. It’s not just dinner.
It’s a choice. A small one, maybe, but one that means something to her.