Three

CAMERON POV

Rage tightened in my ribs, making breathing feel like an effort. I turned away from my sister and mate and leaned against the wall. "I won't do it. I have no interest in this absurd contract, and nothing you say will change my mind."

Nadia stepped closer and placed her hand between my shoulders. "Cameron, please calm down. This is the only solution we've come up with."

"Don't tell me to calm down, Nadia. You should have stopped this idea from even reaching Evangeline."

Behind her, Evangeline coughed so hard it echoed throughout the room. Nadia immediately turned and took her hand. Machines hummed near the bed, tubes piercing the covers and disappearing into Evangeline's arm. Her shoulders slumped onto the pillows as Nadia glanced at me.

"We know it’s awful. We’ve been putting it off for months, hoping another solution would present itself. The Council is starting to spread rumors. Without an heir before the winter session, they can force a vote of succession. If that happens, the crown will go to the next claimant to the throne, and Matthias is already campaigning for it. He’s been waiting for this moment since Father died. Are you really going to let that beast take the throne after everything he’s done to you?"

I remained silent as the familiar anger burned in my chest. The Council, Parliament, all those old bastards coveting the crown that weighed on my shoulders.

"Without an heir, they’ll contest your right to rule," Nadia continued. "They’ll never recognize a child conceived through medical means. The blood ritual takes place at conception. Without this ritual, the Council will reject the child."

Evangeline lay propped against the pillows, the machines beside her maintaining their steady rhythm. The illness had drained her of all color and so weakened her inner wolf that a pregnancy would be fatal. She raised a trembling hand toward me.

"Cameron... darling."

I stepped away from the wall and across the room. Her fingers closed around my wrist.

"Nothing changes between us," she said, her voice weak, ravaged by the illness. "It's still you and me. Just because we hire someone to carry a child doesn't make that disappear."

"You say it like it's a mere formality," I retorted. "I should sleep with her."

Tears welled in her eyes as she struggled to her feet. "I hate that we have to do this, but I want to. If you love me, then understand that sacrifices are necessary."

A raucous laugh escaped me. "You hate this, and the solution is for me to sleep with another woman while you’re here, hooked up to machines."

"The priestess can suspend the bond for the ritual. It’s ancient magic. I agreed to it months ago. You’re the one still resisting."

"You have trouble sitting up," I said. "And you want me to risk breaking the bond and making your condition worse?"

She swallowed and caught her breath. "It’s temporary. My mother will oversee everything. The girl will come from my pack, a trusted person who knows the rules. The Council won’t be able to accuse you of manipulation. This preserves the alliance’s neutrality." Her fingers tightened around mine. "Please, Cam. Do it for me."

Her voice broke, and she looked away, fighting back tears. "Even if I’m not here to see the child, at least I’ll know the throne is secure. I’ll know you’re safe."

I took her hand in mine. "You’re not dying. Stop talking like that."

She offered a weary smile. "This illness isn’t a polite guest."

"So let’s fight it and defeat it."

"If you want to make me happy, do it. Secure the throne. Forget what seems right or wrong to you and think of the pack."

My life has never known long periods of calm. Battles followed one after another. Evangeline's illness, the Council surrounding the throne, Matthias waiting for me to make a mistake. I stared at the machines by the bed, the thin line rising and falling on the screen. The throne could burn and the Council suffocate under the weight of its laws, but if I lost control, Matthias would take everything, as promised.

"Very well," I said. "I will."

Nadia breathed a sigh of relief.

"But only once," I warned. "Only once. If that isn't enough, you'll be responsible. And if the binding ritual harms Evangeline, I don't care what the Council says. I'll tear the contract to shreds."

Tears welled in Evangeline's eyes as Nadia, leaning against the table, crossed her arms. "You’ll have to go see my parents’ pack. There are volunteers. My mother has collected their names."

"That won’t be necessary. Your mother can choose whomever she wants. I don’t need to meet them."

Nadia frowned. "That’s a terrible idea."

"I’m not choosing a wife," I said. "I’m choosing a womb."

"Cameron," Evangeline said gently. "Please don’t be stubborn."

I looked away from the bed. The thought of standing in a room full of women who knew why I was there gave me goosebumps. Choosing one would mean looking at her and deciding that she was the one I would touch, and that’s how it had all started with my father.

"That’s not the point," I said.

"The priestess will test the compatibility before the rite," Evangeline replied. "You’ll have to meet her sooner or later." "I promise I’ll never hold it against you." Her thumb slowly caressed my hand. "You and I love each other. That won’t change. The contract brings in more than most families earn in a lifetime, and the surrogate mother relinquishes all parental rights."

The idea still seemed inconceivable to me. Worse than the idea of another woman was the possibility that the Council might be right. A throne without an heir was a throne just waiting to be usurped. A fleeting memory flashed through my mind. Nadia and I had been born of a similar arrangement. Our father’s marriage had never recovered, and we had grown up under the weight of his wife’s bitterness.

That memory weighed heavily on my chest. I looked down at Evangeline’s fragile hand clasping mine and made a silent promise. 

Whoever that woman was, she would always be a stranger. Foreign women are easier to forget. She would be nothing more than a contract, and after the child was born, she would have no place in my life or pack.