WHETHER YOU AGREE OR NOT

Elaris's POV

Averic arrives back before it is fully dark over the house.

I hear the horse first,

but this time there is the sound of a second set of hooves trailing after him.

Neryss moves towards the window, but I already know who has arrived.

Averic walks inside with a woman carrying a large leather medical bag.

She is older than the healers I have known at the palace, her hair streaked with silver and her clothes simple enough to suggest that she has spent most of her time healing the sick rather than advising the council.

Averic tells me that she is a senior healer from a neighboring pack,

"she has no position in this territory, no reason to answer to our council."

The woman looks at him briefly.

"I answer to patients."

Averic moves aside to allow her to see closer, and her eyes narrow over my stomach before she checks my skin color.

"We should begin."

There is no fuss, no reassuring words, just determination.

The examination is not as short as I expect it to be.

She takes my pulse a few times, assessing the state of my essence rather than just my physical condition, and looks at the child's resonance separately from my own.

At one point she asks me to close my eyes as she places her palm near my stomach, and the child responds almost immediately.

The healer's expression does not change.

"That is good."

I open my eyes.

"Good?"

"The child is drawing strongly."

That should reassure me, but I see the other implications in her expression.

She reassesses my essence again, and this time her frown deepens.

"When did the severe fatigue begin?"

"Several days ago."

"Sudden or gradual?"

"Gradual."

"Episodes of blurred vision?"

"Yes."

"Breathlessness?"

"Yes."

She asks me about the recent smoke exposure, the months of enclosure, my pregnancy, my history of essence donation, and how often I had given essence before coming to Averic's territory.

I answer all of her questions honestly, and when she finishes she sits back, giving me her diagnosis.

"The remaining damage has reached a critical threshold."

It is as if the room has shrunk around me.

"How long?" Averic asks.

The healer looks at him.

"Without substantial intervention, days."

Not weeks.

Days.

Averic is completely uncharacteristically still, and I watch as he processes the news.

He does not ask whether there is another potion, whether rest alone will be enough, nor does he glance towards the door, as if hoping someone else will come in with a better solution.

Instead, he asks the one question that burns in my own mind.

"Is my essence still compatible?"

The healer studies him for a moment.

"Yes."

Averic waits.

"After everything?"

"Yes."

Her answer is just as firm.

"The connection between your essence and hers has not disappeared simply because neither of you completed a formal bond."

I look away.

I do not want that fact turned into anything sentimental.

The healer continues.

"Your essence still recognizes hers. More importantly, her body can receive yours without rejecting the transfer."

Averic asks how much.

The healer does not answer right away.

"Enough that you should understand the consequences before we discuss quantity."

Averic nods.

"I understand."

I am no longer sure that I do.

I push myself higher against the pillows.

“I won’t accept it.”

The healer turns towards me.

"I won't take his essence if the result is that he loses his wolf."

She studies me, but does not judge.

Then she says the one thing that no one else has dared to say.

"Then you will die."

The room goes still.

She does not soften that either.

"And the child with you."

My hand moves over my stomach.

She continues.

"You have reached the point where refusal does not preserve your choices. It only determines which outcome you receive."

I stare at her.

"You don't know what this will cost him."

"I know exactly what it will cost him."

Her voice is even.

"That is why I am telling you before I touch either of you."

She gathers one of her instruments.

"Pride has nothing to do with this now. Neither does guilt. We are discussing whether three lives continue."

The word three sticks with me.

Mine.

My child's.

Averic's.

And suddenly, my refusal no longer seems like protection.

It feels like another decision that could destroy someone.

Before I can return to the political argument, Averic speaks.

"The council has already been notified."

I look at him.

He continues.

"I told them I would be unavailable for the remainder of the day."

"You already told them?"

"Yes."

"What about the palace?"

"The captain has command of the perimeter."

"You left your territory without—"

"I did not leave it unprotected."

His answer is calm.

He has already taken care of the practical matters before arriving here.

There is no dramatic surrender of authority, no announcement, no confrontation with the council yet.

Just preparation.

I realize something else.

He did not come here expecting me to convince him.

He came here after making certain that, should I agree, no one would be able to interrupt the decision halfway through.

That frightens me more than his certainty.

The healer finally explains the transfer.

She does not use vague language.

"The amount required is not a restorative donation."

She places several measuring instruments on the table.

"This will be a major essence transfer."

I watch her hands.

"You will feel his essence enter your system gradually. Your body will draw from it aggressively because your reserves are depleted."

She looks towards Averic.

"The quantity required will exceed what an Alpha can safely regenerate."

My stomach tightens.

"How much?" I ask.

She meets my eyes.

"Enough to permanently sever his ability to shift."

The words are almost too plain.

I stare at her.

"If he completes the transfer, his wolf will not recover."

Averic does not move.

The healer continues.

"He will remain alive. His physical body will survive. But the wolf will be gone."

She pauses.

"And without his wolf, he cannot remain Alpha."

The political consequence follows naturally.

"The council would have grounds to remove him from the position."

There is no uncertainty left in the room.

This is not a temporary sacrifice.

Not a weakened wolf that will recover after rest.

Not a few weeks of recovery.

The loss would be permanent.

I look at Averic.

He already knows.

That is the worst part.

There is no shock on his face.

No last minute calculation.

No hesitation.

"You knew."

"I knew enough to understand the risk."

"But not all of it."

"I know now."

"And you're still willing?"

"Yes."

My throat tightens.

"You would lose the wolf."

"Yes."

"The throne."

"Yes."

"Everything your family built."

His expression changes slightly at that.

Not because he doubts the choice.

Because he knows what it means.

"I know what I may lose."

I look at him for a long time.

For years, I thought that love meant giving until nothing remained.

Now I am watching someone else prepare to make the same kind of sacrifice for me.

I don't know whether that makes it beautiful.

I only know it terrifies me.

" Why?"

The question comes out quietly.

Not why would you do this.

Not why now.

Just.

" Why?"

Averic does not answer immediately.

When he does, there is no grand declaration.

"I failed you."

I say nothing.

"I believed what was convenient when you needed me to believe what was true."

His eyes remain on mine.

"I cannot change that."

He looks briefly towards my stomach.

"The child is mine."

Then back to me.

"And you are not dying because I made a mistake."

I shake my head.

"You don't owe me this."

"I am not doing it because I owe you."

His voice is steady.

"I am doing it because I choose to."

He pauses.

"And because there is a point where a title stops being worth protecting if protecting it requires me to watch the woman carrying my child die."

The healer remains silent.

Averic's next words are quieter.

"If I lose the throne, I will face that afterward."

He looks at me.

"If I lose my wolf, I will face that afterward."

"But I will not stand here and let you die simply because I am afraid of what comes after."

The healer begins preparing the room.

The transformation is subtle at first.

The table is cleared.

Clean cloths are placed within reach.

Small bowls are arranged.

Stabilizing draughts are measured.

A pair of essence-measuring instruments are set beside one another.

One for me.

One for Averic.

The room suddenly feels too small.

This house had been my refuge because it was separate from the palace.

Now the same walls seem to close around us.

Neryss brings another lamp.

The healer checks the fire.

"Keep the room warm."

Neryss nods.

"Do not allow unnecessary movement once we begin."

She points towards the cot.

"Her body needs to remain stable."

Then she turns to Averic.

"And you need to understand that once the transfer reaches a certain point, your wolf will begin fighting the loss."

Averic nods.

"What happens then?"

"You may experience pain. Confusion. Instinctive resistance."

"And if I stop?"

The healer looks at him.

"Stopping halfway could leave both systems unstable."

No one speaks after that.

The procedure has stopped being an idea.

It is now something that can actually happen.

Neryss comes to my side.

She takes my hand once.

Only once.

Her fingers close around mine.

"You don't have to be brave for everyone."

I almost smile.

"I don't know how to be anything else."

She releases me and moves towards the windows.

She checks the shutters.

The back entrance.

The front door.

Every possible point of entry.

No one is to disturb the house.

The isolation that once kept the palace away now serves another purpose.

No council member can interfere.

No messenger can turn the decision into politics.

No servant can carry rumors back to the palace.

For the first time, the walls are not holding me away from the world.

They are holding the world away from us.

I look at Averic.

He has removed his outer coat.

His sleeves are rolled back.

There is something strangely ordinary about the gesture.

That makes the moment more frightening.

He looks like a man preparing to sit beside someone he loves.

Not a man preparing to surrender the thing that makes him Alpha.

The healer tells me to lie down.

I obey.

My body is too exhausted to resist with any force now.

The cot feels narrow beneath me.

I adjust the blanket around my legs.

The child moves again.

Averic notices.

His expression softens for the briefest instant.

Then the healer directs him towards the low stool beside me.

He sits.

Not too close.

Not touching me.

Waiting.

I look at his hands.

They are steady.

Mine are not.

"You can still leave," I tell him.

He looks at me.

"I know."

"I mean it."

"So do I."

He will not be moved.

The healer checks both our essence levels one final time.

Her expression becomes serious.

"This is the last point at which either of you can withdraw without placing the other in immediate danger."

She looks between us.

The room seems to hold its breath.

The healer stands between us.

"Once the transfer begins, it cannot be stopped without risking both lives."

She looks at Averic first.

"I need a clear answer."

He does not hesitate.

"Do it."

The healer turns to me.

I stare at Averic.

At the man who was once afraid to believe me.

At the Alpha who now sits beside my cot knowing exactly what he may lose.

At the father of the child beneath my hands.

My voice is barely audible.

"If you lose the wolf…"

I swallow.

"do not put that on me for the rest of my life."

Averic holds my gaze.

"I will put it where it belongs."

His answer is immediate.

"On the choices I made before tonight."

The healer waits one final second.

Then she nods.

The instruments are positioned.

The first stabilizing draught is placed within reach.

Averic extends his hand.

The healer places her fingers over the transfer point.

And I realize that there is no longer any space between deciding and losing.

The procedure is about to begin.