You Don't Decide Where I Go

By morning, Eric's offer was still open on my phone, and I had run out of reasons to avoid answering it. His audit team was leaving Crown territory that afternoon. If I wanted the Black Ridge job, I had to decide before they went.

I sat at the kitchen table with Malik's account notice beside the phone and read the offer again. I cared about four parts: salary, housing, medical benefits, and the cross-pack transfer condition. I read every one of them twice.

The salary and housing terms gave me a practical way to make Malik's costs less frightening. The medical-benefit language mattered too, but I did not pretend it fixed his account problem. It did not say that. The transfer condition was the part I studied longest because my mate status was still pending. Nothing in the offer erased the Crown hold. Yesterday's clerk had made that clear.

So Black Ridge was not a magic exit. Good. I had started to distrust anything that looked too much like one.

The harder part was Eric Anderson. Yesterday, he had looked at my work instead of my body or my job title. That was useful evidence about one afternoon, not a lifetime guarantee. He was still an Alpha, still powerful, and I would be walking into his pack because I chose a job there. I needed to remember all four parts of that sentence.

Mom stood across the kitchen with both hands wrapped around a mug. "Black Ridge is far."

"I noticed. That's one of its better qualities."

Her mouth tightened. "Janiah."

I put the phone down. Mom did not need a joke. "I know."

"You barely know Alpha Anderson."

"I know the job he offered."

"He's still an Alpha." She looked at the table instead of me. "Powerful men can be kind until they aren't."

That landed because I had spent the last two days collecting evidence for exactly that argument. "That's why I'm reading the document instead of deciding because he was decent to me once."

Mom nodded, but she did not look relieved. I could not promise her Eric would never become controlling. I did not know him well enough to promise myself that. What I could do was choose based on what was in front of me and keep paying attention after I left.

Nadia came into the kitchen dressed for the day, neat as always. She stopped when she saw the offer on my screen. "You're taking it?"

"I'm deciding."

She hesitated. "Then I should tell you something before you do. Tyler asked me to stand with him at the coming royal events."

For a second, I heard the Moon Assembly again. Too large. Too loud. Tyler saying I did not fit the Crown image while a room full of people watched me stand there and take it. Now Nadia would stand beside him instead.

The bond hurt under my ribs. I pressed my palm against the table until the sting eased.

Nadia watched me carefully. "I didn't ask him to reject you."

"I know."

"I also didn't ask him to choose me for this."

I believed that she had not controlled his invitation. I did not know why Tyler had made it, and I was not going to invent an answer just because the obvious possibilities hurt. "Are you going?" I asked.

Nadia looked away for half a second. "Yes."

There it was. Her choice. Mine was still waiting on my phone. I looked at Mom, then Nadia, then Malik's notice. If I stayed because Mom was afraid, that was not my decision. If I left because Tyler had found someone else to put beside him, that was not my decision either. And if I accepted because Eric was an Alpha who had treated me like I had a brain, I would just be handing another powerful man too much credit.

I wanted the work. I needed the money. The package could make Malik's costs more stable while his account problem was still unresolved. I wanted distance from the Crown badly enough to admit it too, but distance was a benefit, not the whole reason.

I opened the acceptance message and typed two words: I accept. I read them once, then sent it.

Nothing exploded. No goddess appeared to congratulate me on basic adult decision-making. My phone simply showed that the message had been sent. "I took the job," I said.

Mom closed her eyes for a moment. Nadia stayed quiet.

I stood. "I'm packing." I kept it limited: enough for the first days, what I needed to leave that afternoon, and the folder holding Malik's account papers and the copies I had made. I was changing jobs, not fleeing civilization with a handcart. By the time I zipped the bag, the fear was still there. So was the bond pain. Neither one changed the answer I had already sent.

That afternoon, I reached the transfer area at the edge of the Crown administrative compound with my bag over one shoulder and Malik's folder held against my side. A Black Ridge vehicle waited ahead. Eric stood near it with two other people from his group. Crown security was close enough to see the transfer without crowding it.

Eric looked at me as I approached. "You accepted."

"I did."

"Still your decision?"

I almost smiled. "Yes." He gave one short nod and stepped aside so the path to the vehicle stayed open. I walked toward it.

All of a sudden, Tyler stepped directly into my path.

I stopped so hard my bag swung against my hip. Before I could move around him, his hand closed around my upper arm.

Pain shot through the spot beneath his fingers. I jerked back, but his grip held. "Let go of me."

Tyler's jaw was tight. "You're leaving with him?"

"I'm leaving for a job. Let go."

His fingers pressed harder. Heat spread under my skin, and a red mark was already forming where his thumb dug in.

I looked straight at him. "You rejected me in front of the entire Moon Assembly. You don't get to decide where I go."

"The bond isn't severed."

"That doesn't make me yours to hold. Release me."

Behind Tyler, Eric took one step closer. He did not speak.

Tyler glanced over his shoulder toward the Black Ridge vehicle, then back at my face. His hand stayed locked around my arm. "No."

My stomach dropped, but I kept my voice steady. "Take your hand off me."

Tyler did not move. "My mate isn't going anywhere."