Chapter 10: Choose

The sirens were getting louder.

Two short blasts. Then one long. Council enforcement pattern. They do that before they breach a clinic. Protocol for containing a feral Alpha. I knew it because Dad made me memorize it when I was 16.

Grayson was still kneeling. Forehead to mine. His bloody knuckles on my cheek, smearing. He smelled like cedar and copper and rain. His eyes were still silver - he hadn't pulled it back since last night when he shifted inside my father's house. Inside city limits. Felony. Ten years if Council wanted to push it.

Collins shut the laptop with a soft click. "We have six minutes before they come up the stairs. They are legally required to wait after Right of Mate Testimony is invoked, but they won't wait long."

Marcus was already at the window, blinds down two fingers, watching the parking lot below. "Two black SUVs. Four enforcers. Standard silver-plated cuffs. No weapons drawn yet. They are waiting for order from Elder Rhea."

Grayson didn't look at them. He didn't look at the door. He looked at me. Only at me.

"Everly."

"Don't," I said. My voice broke. The wolfsbane still coated my throat. Doctor said 2% concentration, not 10%. If it had been 10%, my heart would have stopped before Grayson even smelled it. "Don't make me choose right now. You are about to be arrested because you saved my life. Your company - Gray, your company - your board -"

"My company is four walls and a stock ticker. You are my mate." His thumb wiped my tears and left a streak of his own blood across my cheekbone. "But I need to hear you say it. Not because I marked you in secret. Not because your father gave me permission when you were too young to understand. Because you want to. Here. Now. While you still can."

On the floor, the TV was still sparking where he threw it, screen cracked in a spiderweb. Damian's frozen, tear-streaked face staring up from the carpet. Perfect makeup covering his scar. Perfect performance. Predatory behavior. Grooming.

The rage that had been sitting in my stomach since I saw that tiny black dot on my bedroom ceiling finally ripped open and burned through the poison.

I had been barefoot in that room. I had cried in that room about my mom. I had changed after showers in that room thinking I was safe because it was my father's house, because it had guards, because it had Old Joe at the gate who always called me Princess.

For three weeks. He watched me.

"Collins," I said, and my voice didn't sound like mine anymore. It sounded like my mother when she was angry, low and cold and too calm. The voice she used right before she left and never came back. "Send that footage to the board. Now. And to Pack Council. And to that GMA reporter who loves Damian so much. And to my father."

Collins nodded once, fingers already flying. "Already uploading to secure cloud. Timestamped, geotagged, chain of custody intact. Your father's estate system keeps backup for 30 days. He can't say it's AI."

"Good." I tried to sit up again. This time Grayson helped me, one arm behind my back, careful not to touch the IV still taped to my arm. The wolfsbane still made my head swim, but the burn in my throat was turning into something else. Fire. "Do you trust me?"

He stared at me like I'd asked if the sky was blue. Like I'd asked if wolves howl.

"With my life," he said.

"Then don't vacate your office. Don't resign. Don't let them take Alpha title." I grabbed his bloody hand tighter, ignoring the sting of his cuts. "You said you'd burn his entire world down for what he did to me. I want to watch you do it. But we do it my way. Not with fists. With proof. Let him keep talking on TV. Let him bury himself."

Grayson's jaw clenched, then released. The silver in his eyes flickered, just for a second, back to that warm brown I saw when he was 31 and I was 18 and he taught me how to drive his old truck in an empty parking lot and never touched me once, never even sat too close.

He nodded to Marcus. One short nod. Alpha to Beta.

Marcus tapped his earpiece. "Tell Council enforcement we're invoking Right of Mate Testimony. Miss Hart is conscious, lucid, and wants to give statement before any arrest under Article 7. They have to wait. It's law."

Outside, the sirens cut off mid-wail.

The silence after was worse.

---

Pack Council Hall at noon smells like old wood and old wolves and lemon polish.

I had never been in it before. Dad always said it was no place for daughters. It's a round room, all windows, no cameras allowed - except today, Collins got special permission to bring one laptop because of felony evidence.

I wore Grayson's shirt. It went to my knees. My own clothes were in an evidence bag. I was still pale, IV bruise purple on my inner arm, hair messy. Grayson was behind me in handcuffs - not because he was convicted, but because felony shifting in city limits requires silver-plated cuffs until Council hears you. His wrists were already red and raw where the silver burned. He didn't make a sound. He just breathed against my hair.

Across the circle, Damian.

Clean suit. Scar covered with expensive makeup. No wheelchair. Hair perfect. His uncle Old Joe was not with him - Collins told me Old Joe had already been detained by estate security after the footage leaked to Dad at 8 AM. Dad had called Grayson and said only four words: Bring her home safe.

Damian looked at me and his face did that soft, worried thing. Like I was fragile. Like I was unstable, like my mother before she was hospitalized.

"Everly, thank god," he said, taking a step forward, hands out. "I was so worried when they said you were with him - when I saw the blood - I thought -"

"Stop walking," Council Elder Rhea said. She is 70, hair white, and she hates everyone equally. She banged her gavel once. "Miss Hart, you invoked Mate Testimony. You have five minutes. Choose a mate or provide evidence that changes the charge against Alpha Vale."

My hands were shaking so hard my nails dug into Grayson's shirt. I could feel him behind me, not touching me because he couldn't with cuffs on, but close enough that his cedar scent wrapped me.

I looked at Damian. Really looked at him. The man I was supposed to marry last week.

"I drank water you left me," I said clearly. My voice carried in the round room, bouncing off windows. "On my nightstand. You said you drank it too. That you loved me. That I was dehydrated."

"I did," he whispered, eyes wet on cue. Perfect tears again. "I would never - I would never hurt you, Everly. You know I love you."

"Then why is there no wolfsbane in your blood?" I held up the lab report Collins had pulled from Silver Fang clinic and printed. I read the numbers out loud. "2% wolfsbane concentration in my tox screen. Drawn at 1:14 AM by Dr. Chen. You left estate at 12:47 AM according to gate log. If you drank it, where is it? Where is your tox screen?"

Damian's mouth opened. Closed.

"And if you loved me," I continued, louder now, the burn in my throat gone completely, replaced by ice and fury, "why did you enter my father's estate 21 nights in a row at 12:03 AM through the service gate? Every night. For three weeks. Before we were engaged. Before tape leaked."

Rhea frowned deeply. "What is this? What are you alleging?"

Collins opened the laptop. The first clip played on the big screen Council uses for territory maps. Grainy, timestamped, estate logo in corner. Black Bentley. Same one from last night. Old Joe waving through with a smile.

Then second clip. My bedroom. Empty. Night vision green. Time stamp 12:17 AM. Damian in black gloves, standing on my bed in his shoes, placing that tiny black dot in the corner of my ceiling, right above where I sleep. Adjusting angle.

Someone in the Council gasped. One of the female elders put hand to mouth.

Damian went white under his makeup. Sweat broke through. "That's - that's fabricated. That's AI. Grayson Vale has money to - to fake - he is billionaire, he can -"

"My father has the same camera system in his study," I screamed, and now I was crying, ugly crying like last night in hospital, snot and tears and shaking, but I didn't wipe it. I let them see. "You watched me! For three weeks! You got the tape from there! Not from my phone! You watched me change! You watched me sleep! You watched me cry!"

Silence. So thick I could hear the clock ticking and Grayson's heavy breathing behind me.

Grayson's cuffs clinked loudly. He had dropped to his knees behind me, not because they told him to, but because he was trying not to shift again and rip this whole hall apart. His eyes were full silver, locked on Damian, teeth bared.

Damian looked around the room for help. For one friendly face. No one would look at him. Even his own Pack lawyer stepped back.

"Predator," I whispered, looking right at him, using his own word from TV, throwing it back in his teeth. "You sat on Good Morning America at 9 AM and called him a groomer. You knew me since I was 18 and you watched me sleep at 22 through a camera. You told America you were scared for me. What does that make you, Damian?"

Elder Rhea stood slowly. Her face was stone. She looked at the enforcers by the door.

"Remove cuffs from Alpha Vale. Now. And detain Mr. Black for unlawful surveillance, unlawful entry, and attempted murder by wolfsbane pending investigation."

The burn on Grayson's wrists vanished as they unlocked silver. He was behind me, around me, in front of me in one second, arms around me, shirt around me, cedar and blood everywhere again, his hands shaking as he cupped my face.

"Miss Hart," Rhea said, voice softer now, almost kind. "Do you make a formal claiming choice under Pack Law, witnessed by Council?"

I turned in Grayson's arms. Looked up at him. Bloody knuckles. Exhausted eyes. 35 years building Silver Fang Enterprises from nothing in a garage. Youngest self-made Alpha billionaire in the state. Lost it in 12 minutes of fake crying for me. And would do it again without thinking.

I put my hand in his. Laced our fingers, just like last night in the hospital when he said worth it.

"I choose him," I said, loud enough for the whole round room, for my father watching stream, for Damian's mother watching TV. "I choose Alpha Grayson Vale. My mate. My godfather. My everything. And if you try to arrest him for saving my life again, you will have to arrest me too."

Grayson made a sound - half growl, half broken breath - and crushed his forehead to mine right there in front of Council, cameras, Damian, everyone. His lips brushed my temple, not a kiss, a promise.

"Good," he whispered, only for me, silver eyes bleeding back to brown. "Good girl. Now let's burn his entire world down like you wanted."

Behind us, Damian's chair scraped loud. He tried to run for the side door.

He didn't get far. The enforcers were already there.