Chapter 219
Casper's POV
I slammed my fist into the wall again, feeling the plaster crack beneath my knuckles. The pain was nothing—nothing—compared to the agony tearing through my chest.
"She can't leave!" The words ripped out of me, raw and desperate. "Cassian, she can't—"
"She has to." My brother's voice was cold, clinical. Like he was discussing pack logistics instead of ripping our world apart. "Watching her pregnancy progress while pretending we don't care? We'd break, Casper. Both of us."
He's right, Leo whispered in my mind, but even my wolf sounded devastated. You know he's right.
I didn't want him to be right. I wanted to grab Elowen, run as far as we could, and tell Selene and her fucking ultimatum to go to hell.
"You love her." Cassian's statement wasn't a question. His ice-blue eyes locked onto mine, reading me like he always could. "More than you've ever loved anyone."
"Of course I fucking love her!" I shouted, my hands shaking. "She's my mate, she's carrying my—our—children, she's everything, Cassian! And you want me to just—to just let her go?"
"Not let her go." Cassian moved closer, his expression shifting from cold calculation to something that looked almost... broken. "Make her hate us enough that she wants to leave. There's a difference."
The distinction felt meaningless. Either way, we lost her.
"I can handle it," I said, even though I could barely breathe around the lie. "Whatever happens, I can—"
"Can you?" Cassian cut me off, his voice sharp as a blade. "Can you really handle watching her belly swell with our children while she's officially 'single'? Can you handle other males approaching her, courting her, touching her?"
My vision went red. Leo surged forward, teeth bared, and before I knew it, my fist was through the wall again. And again. And again.
"Fuck!" I roared, plaster dust coating my bloody knuckles. "Don't—don't fucking say that—"
"Answer the question, Casper." Cassian's voice was relentless. "Because that's what will happen if she stays. She'll be unmated in everyone's eyes. Fair game. And you know damn well there are males who've wanted her for years. What happens when one of them makes a move? When she goes on a date? When she—"
"Stop!" I was shaking, my wolf clawing at my insides, desperate to get out and claim what was ours. "I can't—Cassian, I can't think about that without wanting to kill someone!"
"Exactly." Something flickered in his eyes—pain, maybe, or understanding. "That's why she has to leave. Go with Ronan to meet the Lycan King. Get far away from here, from Sarah, from all of this."
Sarah. Just her name made my stomach turn.
"I won't mate her," I said flatly. "I don't care what your plan is, Cassian. I won't fucking do it."
"I'm not asking you to actually mate her." Cassian's jaw clenched. "God, Casper, I wouldn't want to touch that bitch either. But we need everyone—especially Selene—to believe we chose her over Elowen."
"How?" The word came out strangled. "How the hell do we make that believable when everyone knows we're obsessed with Elowen?"
Cassian was quiet for a long moment. When he finally spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper. "Sarah will make Elowen's life hell if she stays. You know she will. She'll flaunt whatever fake relationship we create, rub it in Elowen's face every chance she gets. The stress alone could harm the pregnancy."
The thought of Elowen in pain—of our babies in danger—made something primal snap inside me.
"So we're doing this to protect her," I said slowly, trying to make sense of the nightmare we were planning. "We're going to destroy her emotionally... to keep her physically safe."
"Yes." Cassian's single word carried the weight of the world.
I wanted to argue. Wanted to find some other way. But deep down, I knew he was right. Elowen was too kind, too forgiving. If we gave her even the smallest reason to hope, she'd stay. She'd endure Sarah's cruelty, the pack's judgment, all of it—because she loved us.
And that love would kill her.
"What about Raven?" I asked, grasping at straws. "You said you had a plan with him?"
"I do." Cassian's expression darkened. "But I don't trust him, Casper. He's been manipulating us from the start. This whole situation—Dad's death, the ultimatum, everything—it reeks of his interference."
"Then why work with him?"
"Because I don't have a better option!" Cassian's control finally cracked, his voice rising. "You think I want to rely on a demon? You think I don't know he's probably playing his own game? But what choice do we have? Selene gave us an impossible situation, and Raven is the only one offering a solution."
I thought about drugging Sarah. About forcing her into some situation where we could claim a relationship without actually touching her. But even as the idea formed, I knew it was stupid.
"We could drug her," I muttered, hating how desperate I sounded. "Make her think something happened when it didn't—"
"Sarah would figure it out," Cassian interrupted. "She's vindictive, not stupid. If we try to fake it with drugs or manipulation, she'll know. And then she'll tell everyone, and we're fucked."
He was right. Again.
"So how do we tell Elowen?" My voice cracked on her name. "How do we explain that we're... that we're choosing Sarah over her?"
"We don't tell her the truth." Cassian's words hit like a physical blow. "We can't, Casper. If she knows it's fake, the bond will give it away. Selene will see through it."
"Then what?" I demanded. "We just... what, fuck Sarah in front of her? Make her watch us destroy everything we built?"
"We make her think it's inevitable." Cassian's jaw worked. "We tell her Selene appeared, gave us some message about fate and divine will. Make her believe the separation is the Moon Goddess's design, not our choice. That way, she'll be angry at Selene, not us. At least not entirely."