Chapter 29 Impossible Choices (Ember's POV)
Trey won the second challenge.
Barely.
He caught the lean male with scars across his face in a joint lock that forced submission. But it took twenty minutes of brutal fighting, and by the end, Trey could barely stand.
The third challenger stepped forward immediately.
"No." Trey held up a hand, breathing hard. "Give me five minutes. Let me catch my breath."
"You don't get rest." The female with short black hair smiled. "Real threats don't wait for you to be ready."
"Then real threats can go fuck themselves." Trey straightened despite the obvious pain. "I won twice. That should count for something."
"It counts for nothing." She started circling him. "You're still standing. That means you can still fight."
"This is insane!" I pushed forward again, and again Ms. Silvermoon caught my arm.
"Let him finish," she said quietly. "He's almost there."
"Almost where? Almost dead?"
"Almost respected." She released me. "One more victory and the challenges stop. For today, at least."
The third fight was shorter but more vicious. Trey was too exhausted for strategy, so he went for brutality instead. Quick, savage strikes designed to end things fast.
It worked. The female challenger went down with a broken arm and a gash across her ribs that would take days to heal properly.
"Enough." Trey swayed on his feet, blood dripping from multiple wounds. "Anyone else want a piece of me, come back tomorrow. I'm done."
No one stepped forward.
He limped toward the exit, and I finally broke free from Ms. Silvermoon's restraint. I caught up to him in the hallway, sliding under his arm to support his weight.
"I've got you."
"I'm fine." But he leaned on me anyway, his breathing ragged.
"You're not fine. You're bleeding from about ten different places." I guided him toward the nearest bathroom. "We need to clean these wounds before infection sets in."
"Wolves don't get infections."
"Don't care. You're getting cleaned up anyway."
The bathroom was empty, thank God. I locked the door and helped Trey lean against the sink while I gathered paper towels and wet them.
"This is going to sting." I pressed the damp towels to the worst of the cuts, the one across his ribs, deep and still bleeding.
He hissed but didn't pull away. "You shouldn't have had to watch that."
"I shouldn't have to watch any of this." I cleaned the wound as gently as I could. "This is my fault. They're challenging you because of me."
"They're challenging me because pack politics are fucked up and everyone wants to prove they're stronger than everyone else." He caught my hand, stilling my movements. "Em, look at me."
I did, seeing the exhaustion and pain in his eyes.
"This isn't your fault," he said firmly. "None of it. Not the challenges, not the severing, not any of it. These are my choices. My consequences."
"Consequences that might kill you." My voice cracked. "Trey, you can barely stand. What happens when they challenge you again tomorrow? And the day after? How long can you keep this up?"
"As long as I have to."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only answer I have." He released my hand, turning to look at his reflection in the mirror. "Jesus. I look like I went through a meat grinder."
"You kind of did." I continued cleaning his wounds, trying not to think about how much worse this could get. "There has to be another way. Something that stops the challenges without you dying."
"There is." Ms. Silvermoon's voice came from the doorway. I hadn't heard her unlock it. "Ember could reject the mate bond. Send Trey back to Ravencrest. Then the challenges stop because he's no longer claiming her."
"I'm not doing that." I kept my focus on Trey's wounds.
"Then the challenges continue." She moved into the bathroom, studying Trey with clinical detachment. "You're healing faster than a human would, but not fast enough to sustain this pace. Three fights today. Probably two or three tomorrow. More the day after. Eventually, you'll lose one."
"I won't lose."
"Everyone loses eventually." She pulled out a small vial from her bag. "This will help with the healing. Accelerate your natural processes. But it's temporary and it's painful."
"Everything's painful lately." Trey took the vial, drinking it without hesitation.
His body went rigid, every muscle tensing. I caught him before he fell, supporting his weight as whatever was in that vial worked through his system.
She left, and I held Trey through the pain, feeling his body shake as the potion worked.
That night, back at the cabin, I watched Trey sleep. His breathing was even now, the worst of the wounds already closing thanks to Ms. Silvermoon's potion. But exhaustion lined his face even in sleep.
Sarah sat beside me, her expression troubled. "This can't continue."
"I know."
"He's going to die, Em. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next week. But eventually, someone will challenge him when he's too weak to win." She looked at me. "You have to do something."
"Like what? Reject him? Send him back to a pack that wants to use him as a weapon against me?"
"Or claim your position." She said it quietly. "You're the last of the Silvermoon royal line. That gives you authority. Use it."
"I don't know how."
"Then figure it out. Fast. Because Trey doesn't have much time left."
She left me alone with my sleeping mate and impossible choices.
The next day brought two more challenges. Morning and afternoon.
Trey won both, but each victory cost him more. By evening, he could barely walk back to the cabin.
"This stops now." I helped him onto the bed. "Tomorrow, when they challenge you, I'm intervening."
"Em, you can't..."
"Watch me." I pulled off his blood-soaked shirt, examining new wounds layered over half-healed old ones. "I'm not watching you die for me. Not happening."
"If you interfere, they'll see me as weak. The challenges will triple."
"Then let them try." I met his eyes. "Because I'm done playing by rules that were designed to control me. To use me. To treat me like property that needs a strong enough mate to be worthy."
"That's not how it works..."
"That's exactly how it works!" My voice rose. "Every challenge is them testing you to see if you're good enough for me. Like I don't get a say. Like my choice doesn't matter because I'm just a bloodline and a prophecy and a weapon to be claimed."
"I didn't claim you. I chose you."
"And I chose you back." I touched his battered face gently. "So tomorrow, when they challenge you again, I'm going to make them understand that my choice is final. That you're my mate and anyone who has a problem with that can deal with me directly."
"Ember..."
"No arguments. Not about this." I lay down beside him carefully, avoiding his wounds. "Get some rest. Tomorrow changes everything."
The fourth challenge came during lunch again. Different challenger, a massive male from the Silvermoon Pack who looked like he bench-pressed trucks for fun.
"Trey Jarred." His voice boomed across the cafeteria. "I challenge you by right of ancient law."
"Of course you do." Trey stood, wincing slightly. "Let's get this over with."
"No." I stood too. "This ends now."
"Em, don't..."
"I said this ends now." I moved into the open space where Trey and the challenger faced each other. "You want to test if he's worthy of me? Fine. But you go through me first."
The challenger laughed. "The Silver Wolf wants to fight? How entertaining."
"I'm not fighting you." I looked around at the circle of supernatural students. "I'm stopping this. All of it. The challenges. The tests. The endless proving that my mate has to do because you're all too scared to challenge me directly."
"You're untested." Another Silvermoon wolf spoke up. "Never fought. Never proven yourself in combat. You're powerful by bloodline, but that means nothing without strength to back it up."
"Then test me." I spread my arms. "Right here. Right now. Any of you who think you're stronger than me, step forward."
"Ember, stop." Trey grabbed my arm. "You don't know what you're doing."
"I know exactly what I'm doing." I pulled free. "I'm claiming my place. My authority. My right to choose my own mate without needing permission from wolves who see me as property."
The massive challenger moved forward. "You want to fight me, little girl? I'll break you in half."
He reached for me, and something inside me snapped.
My wolf surged forward with a fury I'd never felt before. Not the tentative awakening from before. Not the partial shifts during volleyball. This was pure, primal power responding to a threat against my mate.
Against our children.
The shift happened faster than thought. My hands became claws. My teeth elongated. My eyes blazed silver so bright several students looked away.
And I released a sound I didn't know I was capable of making.
A dominance howl. Pure Alpha command laced with the power of the Silvermoon royal bloodline and something else—something prophetic, ancient, terrifying.
Every wolf dropped to their knees.
Not bowing out of respect. Forced down by the sheer weight of supernatural authority in that howl. Their wolves recognizing a power greater than their own and submitting involuntarily.
Even the massive challenger went down, his face hitting the floor, his body shaking with the effort of trying to resist.
I looked around at the kneeling wolves, feeling the power thrumming through me. My wolf was fully present now, merged with my human consciousness in a way that felt right. Complete.
"I am Ember Thorne." My voice carried power that made windows rattle. "Last of the Silvermoon royal line. The Silver Wolf of prophecy. And I claim Trey Jarred as my mate by right of choice and bond."
I moved through the kneeling wolves to where Ms. Silvermoon had also dropped to one knee, her head bowed.
"Any wolf who challenges my mate challenges me directly." I looked at each of them in turn. "And I promise you, I am not as merciful as he is."