Chapter Six: Seven Words

Mira read the note three times before the words made sense.

One week, Ashfeld. Choose her, or lose everything.

"They want you to send me away," she said quietly.

"Yes." Adrian replied, and continued "or they will take you the way they almost took Elena."

"So what happens now?" Mira asked, her eyes widening.

"Now you go upstairs and rest." Adrian folded the note and put it in his pocket like that would make it disappear. "We will talk about this in the morning," he added.

"No." Mira crossed her arms saying, "Let's talk about this now."

Marcus shifted near the door, not sure if he should stay or go. Helena gave him a small nod, and he slipped out quietly, leaving the three of them alone in the ruined study.

Adrian rubbed a hand over his face and for the first time since she met him, he looked tired.

"There is nothing to talk about, Mira. The Dravens gave me an order and I either end this marriage or I put you in a war you did not choose."

"I already chose it," Mira said. "The moment I signed those papers," she added.

"You did not choose this, my father chose this for you before you ever knew my name." Adrian raised his voice with a sharp and frustrated tone.

"Then let me choose now." Mira stepped closer, refusing to back down even though every part of her wanted to. "You keep deciding things for me, Adrian. What I see, what I know, what I am allowed to be afraid of, but now, I am done with that."

Something sparked behind his eyes, a frustration mixed with something softer he could not quite hide.

"If you stay," he said quietly, "the bond will keep growing. And if it finishes forming, there is no going back. Do you understand what that means?"

"No," Mira admitted. "Nobody has explained it to me."

Helena cleared her throat gently. "Perhaps this is a conversation for the two of you. Let me go check on Elena."

She left without waiting for an answer, closing the door softly behind her.

Adrian was quiet for a long moment, staring at the broken window and the dark gardens beyond it.

"A mate bond is not like a human marriage," he said finally. "It does not end with papers or a courtroom. Once it locks into place, it links us. My strength, my instincts and even parts of my mind opens up to you and yours open to me as well."

"That sounds..." Mira searched for the word. "Big."

"It is more than big." Adrian turned to face her. "It makes me stronger than I already am. Strong enough to finally hold the eastern territory without fear of losing it. That is exactly why the Dravens want it broken before it finishes. If the bond is completed, they lose their only chance at taking what my family built."

"So this was never really about me," Mira said slowly. "It was about what I could make you become."

"It became about you the second I saw you stand in that study without running," Adrian said, quiet and rough. "But yes, to them, you are a weapon, a threat that has not fully loaded yet."

Mira wrapped her arms around herself and asked "And if I leave and you send me away like they want, what happens?"

"Then the bond stops growing before it finishes. You go somewhere safe, far from all of this. You get to live a normal life and you also get to survive."

"And you?" What about you? Mira asked.

"I keep fighting and keep protecting what is left." He looked away from her. "That is the only part of this that matters."

"That is not true." Mira's voice cracked slightly, surprising even her. "Adrian, look at me."

"If I leave," she said, "you lose the one thing that makes you strong enough to win this war and I will lose the first place in five years where someone actually looked at me like I mattered." Her eyes stung, but she refused to look away. "Tell me, is that a fair trade?"

For a long moment, neither of them said anything. The fire crackled low in the grate, the only sound in the wrecked study.

"You do not understand what you are offering," Adrian said finally, voice barely above a whisper.

"Then make me understand," Mira said. "Stop protecting me from the truth, and let me decide for myself."

"If you stay," he said quietly, "there is no going back. Not for either of us."

"I know and they will not stop coming for you." Mira replied.

"I know that too." said Adrian.

He lifted his hand and brushed a strand of hair back from her face, his touch was more gentle than she expected from someone who had claws an hour ago.

"Then say it," he said. "Say you understand exactly what you are choosing."

Mira's heart pounded so loud she was sure he could hear it. "I choose to stay."

The moment the words left her mouth, something changed in the room like a string pulled between them. Adrian's breath caught and his eyes flashed gold, then settled, it was brighter than before.

"Mira," he said, "Do you feel that?"

Before either of them could say another word, the study door burst open again. Helena stood there, pale, breathless, a phone clutched tight in her hand.

"Sir," she said, with her voice shaking. "It is the Draven alpha, he wants to speak with you directly. He says if you do not answer now, he will assume you have made your choice, and he will act on it tonight.”