Chapter 161

Chapter 161
Lirael

I carried him toward the exit, my legs shaking, sweat dripping into my eyes. The sounds of combat had shifted—fewer weapons firing now, which could mean victory or something far worse. My heart hammered against my ribs.

When I emerged into the compound, the scene was apocalyptic. Bodies littered the ground, smoke billowed from destroyed buildings, and in the center of it all stood Sebastian, covered in blood and breathing hard, his eyes wild with barely controlled frenzy. But alive. Still standing.

Relief crashed through me so hard I nearly stumbled, my vision swimming. "Sebastian!"

His head snapped toward me, and for a moment something raw and vulnerable flickered across his face before the Alpha mask slammed back into place. "Get on that helicopter. Now."

"Not without—"

"That's not a request!" he snarled, already moving toward me, his movements still predator-smooth despite the obvious exhaustion. He took the boy from my arms with surprising gentleness and practically carried us both toward the waiting aircraft. "Marcus is rigging the facility to blow. "

He lifted me into the helicopter with one arm, handed the boy up to waiting hands, and then—

"Get her out of here," he commanded, stepping back from the aircraft.

My stomach dropped. "What? No—Sebastian, get in!"

"Someone needs to make sure the charges are set properly," he said, his amber eyes locked on mine. "Someone needs to make sure the Foundation can't trace any of this back to you or your people."

"Then send Marcus! Send anyone else!" I lunged for him, but Selene's arms wrapped around me from behind, holding me back as the helicopter began to lift. "Sebastian, don't you fucking dare—"

"I'll be right behind you," he said, and the lie was so obvious it made my chest crack open. "I promise."

"Liar!" I screamed, fighting against Selene's grip with everything I had, my nails digging into her arms. "You're lying—Sebastian!"

The helicopter rose higher, and I watched him grow smaller, watched him turn and run back toward the burning compound, and something inside me shattered. The rational part of my brain knew he was probably right—knew someone needed to stay behind, knew he had the best chance of surviving whatever came next. But the rest of me, the part that had somehow gotten tangled up in this impossible Alpha, was screaming in wordless terror.

Around me, the rescued elves huddled together, some crying, some staring in numb disbelief. We'd done it. Against all odds, we'd saved them all.

But as the helicopter banked toward the mainland and I stared back at the island being consumed by fire, I couldn't feel anything except the hollow absence where Sebastian should have been, the cold certainty that I'd just watched him walk into hell and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

"Your Highness," Selene's voice cut through my spiral, still gentle but firm. "You need to breathe. You're hyperventilating."

I realized she was right—my breath was coming in sharp, painful gasps, my chest tight enough to crack ribs. I forced myself to slow down, to pull air into my lungs with deliberate effort, but my eyes never left the shrinking island.

"He'll be fine," Selene said quietly. "He's survived worse."

"You don't know that." My voice came out broken, raw. "You can't know that."

She didn't argue, which somehow made it worse. We flew in silence punctuated only by the helicopter's rotors and the quiet sounds of traumatized elves trying to process their freedom. Minutes crawled by like hours, each one tightening the knot in my chest until I thought I might stop breathing entirely.

My hand moved to the pocket where I kept my phone, fingers trembling. No signal out here over open water, but the moment we got in range—

"Lirael." Selene's voice had shifted, taken on a different quality. "Your Highness. I need you to focus for a moment."

"Not now," I said flatly, still staring at the horizon.

"Yes, now." There was something in her tone that made me finally turn to look at her, and I found her expression serious, almost sad. "Because once we land, once the immediate crisis is over, you're going to have to make some decisions. Hard ones."

"What are you talking about?" But even as I asked, dread pooled in my stomach.

Selene glanced at the rescued elves, then back at me, her voice dropping lower. "This thing between you and Sebastian—it was useful when we needed his resources, his protection, his connections. But now?" She gestured toward our people. "Now we have them back. Now we can rebuild without depending on a wolf clan that will never truly accept you as one of their own."

The words hit me like a slap, making me flinch. "He just risked his life for us. He's still down there risking his life—"

"I know," Selene said, surprisingly gentle. "And I'm grateful for that. But gratitude isn't the same as a future, Lirael. His father will never approve. The Council will demand he take an 'appropriate' mate. And eventually, he'll have to choose between you and everything he's built, everything he is."

"He's already chosen," I argued, but the words felt hollow even as I said them, especially with Sebastian still on that burning island doing god knows what. "When he went against his father, when he helped us—"

"He made a tactical decision to oppose his father's specific actions," Selene interrupted, her voice soft but relentless. "That's not the same as rejecting his entire world for you. And you know it."

I wanted to argue, wanted to defend what Sebastian and I had built, but my throat was too tight and my eyes were burning and all I could think about was him walking back into that compound, walking away from the helicopter, walking away from me with a promise we both knew he might not be able to keep.

"I can't do this right now," I whispered, my voice breaking. "Selene, please. I can't—not while he's still—"