What Decision Should I Make

On the fifth day, I found a box on my doorstep.

No return address, no note. Just a simple wooden box tied with black ribbon.

I should have thrown it away unopened, have Margaret or Lydia called, or just someone who knew how to handle supernatural gifts. Instead, I brought it inside.

The box contained a single silver pendant on a delicate chain—a wolf's head with eyes made from tiny diamonds that caught the light and threw it back in rainbow refractions. It was beautiful, intricate and clearly expensive.

And when I touched it, I felt him. Like he'd poured a piece of himself into the metal.

There was a card tucked beneath the pendant, written in elegant script: A gift, not a claim. Wear it or don't—the choice is yours. But just know that I'm waiting. I'll always wait. -K

My wolf whined, wanting to put it on immediately. Wanting to accept this token from a male who'd promised I was his.

"Absolutely not," I said, dropping it back in the box like it burned.

But that night, I dreamed of wearing it, feeling the cool metal against my skin and knowing exactly what it meant to accept such a gift.

I woke up more confused than have ever been in my life.

Today's the seventh day, exactly one week since I had met Kael—I made a decision.

I was going back to the forest. Not because I'd accepted his insane claim, not because I believed we were fated or bonded or whatever impossible he thought had connected us. But because I needed answers to understand what the hell was happening to me before it ruined me entirely.

I dropped Ezra at Mrs. Ravenna's, claiming I had errands to run. She gave me a knowing look but didn't comment, just pulled my son inside and promised him cookies.

Then I drove to the forest's edge, my heart racing so bad and my wolf singing with anticipation.

The clearing was empty when I arrived. No silver-eyed man waiting at the oak tree. No sense of presence or power.

Disappointment warred with relief.

"You came."

I spun to find Kael leaning against a tree at the clearing's edge, looking infuriatingly casual in dark jeans and a jacket that probably cost more than my car. His silver eyes gleamed in the dappled sunlight.

"I have questions," I said, proud of how steady my voice was.

"I have answers." He pushed off the tree, moving into the clearing. "Though I suspect you won't like most of them."

"Try me."

He smiled. "Very well. Ask."

"What's a Silverblood?" The question I should have asked a week ago. "Margaret said you're the last one. What does that mean?"

"It means exactly what it sounds like." He held out his hand, and I watched in horror and fascination as his veins darkened, turning his skin translucent enough to see the silver blood flowing beneath. "We're the original wolves. The first ones blessed—or cursed, depending on your perspective—by the old gods before the Moon Goddess ever claimed dominion over our kind."

"That's... impossible."

"So is a bond forming between a broken she-wolf and an immortal predator, and yet here we are." He let his hand return to normal. "Silverbloods were the apex of our species. Stronger, faster, immortal. We could compel other wolves, bend them to our will. We were gods among monsters."

"Were?"

His expression darkened. "The Moon Goddess didn't appreciate competition. When she rose to power, she convinced the packs that we were abominations. Unnatural. Too dangerous to live. So they hunted us for centuries until there was only me left."

Horror crawled up my spine. "They genocided your entire bloodline?"

"Under the Goddess's blessing, yes." He said it matter-of-factly, but I heard the rage underneath. "She remade wolves in her image, gave them the mating bonds and pack structures that made them controllable. Profitable. The wild, untamable Silverbloods had no place in her new world order."

"And you survived by...?"

"Being stronger than everyone who tried to kill me. Being smart enough to disappear when I needed to. And eventually, being forgotten enough that hunters stopped looking." He met my eyes. "I've been alone for three hundred years, watching the world change, watching wolves become soft and domesticated under their Goddess's leash. Until you."

"Why me?" The question burst out. "You keep saying that, but you haven't actually explained. What makes me different from every other wolf you've encountered?"

"Because you're the first one I've met in three hundred years whose soul doesn't smell like hers." He moved closer, and I forced myself to stand my ground. "Every wolf touched by the Moon Goddess has this... stain. This mark of her influence. But you..." He inhaled deeply, his eyes sliding half-closed. "You smell like freedom, like wild magic and untamed power. Like the wolves we used to be before she leashed us."

"That's insane. I'm nobody. I'm a weak she-wolf who couldn't even keep her own mate."

"Your mate was an idiot who didn't deserve you." Kael's voice dropped to a growl. "And you're not weak. You're starving. That's the difference.The Goddess's bonds only work fully when both wolves accept them. You never did. Some part of you has always resisted Damien's claim, which is why the bond never settled properly. Why did you always feel like something was missing?"

My breath caught. "How do you...?"

"I can see it in you. The hunger for something real. The desperation for a bond that actually fits." He reached out, his fingers stopping just short of my cheek. "I can give you that. Not the Goddess's pale imitation, but something ancient and true. A bond forged in power and choice, not divine manipulation."

"At what cost?" I stepped back. "Lydia said Silverbloods don't give without taking. What do you want from me?"

"Honestly?" His smile was almost sad. "Everything. Your loyalty, trust and presence. I'm not interested in half-measures or casual arrangements. If you accept this bond, you accept me. All of me, the monster and the man."

"And if I don't?"

"Then I'll let you go." He said it simply, but I heard the lie in his voice,or maybe not a lie, but an impossibility. "But you won't refuse. You're too curious and desperate for something real after years of pretending. You'll come back, again and again, until one day you just... stay."

"That's not a choice," I whispered. "That's coercion."

"No." His eyes flashed. "Coercion would be forcing the bond, compelling you to submit. This is me laying out the truth and letting you decide. You can walk away right now. Go back to your safe little apartment, raise your son, maybe even find another weak mate to play house with. But you'll always wonder, feel the pull and always know that somewhere in these woods, there's a male who sees you as you are, not as what you failed to be."

The truth of it hit like a physical blow.

"I need time," I said desperately. "I can't just... this is insane. I barely know you."

"You have time. All the time you need." He turned away, dismissing me again. "But Sera? Every day you spend resisting is a day wasted. The bond is already forming. You felt it the moment we met. Delaying it won't change the inevitable, it'll just make you more miserable."

I wanted to argue and tell him he was wrong, that I had complete control over my choices, that destiny wasn't real and bonds could be broken and I would never, ever submit to an arrogant immortal wolf with a god complex.

But my wolf was silent, content and at peace in a way she'd never been with Damien. And that made it the most terrifying thing of all.

"I'm leaving," I announced, turning toward the path.

"I know. But you'll be back."

I ran from the clearing, his certainty chasing me through the trees. I didn't stop until I reached my car, I couldn't breathe properly until I was back on paved roads with humans around me.

But even as I picked up Ezra, made dinner and helped with a puzzle and did all the normal mother things I had promised myself I would focus on, I felt it.

The bond grew stronger and more insistent. That night, I finally took the pendant out of its box just to look at it, to understand why he had sent it.

The wolf's head was exquisite, clearly custom-made. The diamonds in its eyes caught the lamplight, making it look almost alive. And when I touched it, I felt... safe, protected like whoever wore this would never be alone again.

The choice is yours, the card had said.

But was it? Could I really choose to resist this pull, to ignore the bond forming whether I wanted it or not or spend the rest of my life wondering what might have been?

Or was Kael right, that refusing was just delaying the inevitable?

I stood at the window, holding the pendant, staring at the forest.

And for the first time since Damien told me about Vivienne, I allowed myself to consider a possibility I'd been afraid to acknowledge:

What if I didn't want to resist? what if the broken bond, the failed mate, the years of not being enough... What if all of it had been leading me here? To a clearing in a forbidden forest, to a male who shouldn't exist, to a connection that defied everything I thought I knew about wolves, fate and choice?

What if the Moon Goddess hadn't made a mistake with Damien, she'd just been clearing the path for something older and darker and infinitely more terrifying?

I brought the pendant to my throat, and felt the cool metal against my skin. One choice that would change everything.

Wear it or don't, accept or refuse, submit or resist. My hands shook as I fastened the clasp.

And the moment the pendant settled against my skin, I felt a rush of power and presence, like Kael had just walked into my apartment. The bond snapped fully into place, no longer tentative but solid, and I gasped at the force of it.

From the forest, I heard a howl. Triumphant, possessive and mine. "What did I just do?" I whispered.

But I already knew, that I had made my choice and there was no taking it back