Chapter 44-No Purchase

Zion’s POV

  “You said no purchase until she understands the options,” Orian replied. “You did not say we would ask whether she wants us gathering options.”

  “She cannot evaluate land she has never seen,” I argued defensively.

  “True,” he warned. “She also cannot tell us what matters to her if we decide the requirements first.”

  I leaned back and looked at the list I had created. Water, roads, defenses, healers, distance, farmland, and wards were reasonable needs. Not one line asked whether Odett wanted forest, open fields, a nearby town, an old settlement, or untouched land she could shape herself.

  The omission irritated me because Orian was right. It did not stop me from adding the southern river tract to the inspection list. Gathering information still felt harmless when compared with leaving her nothing.

  Orian and I drove to the eastern tract that afternoon in a patrol SUV, officially to inspect a damaged boundary marker. The crown owned the land, so we needed no excuse. I used one anyway, as if naming the visit an inspection made it less like a choice. Orian noticed and kept quiet.

  The property opened into a broad winter field surrounded by pine and oak. An old stone foundation remained near the tree line, and a narrow stream cut behind it before joining the larger river farther south. From the highest point, the castle towers were barely visible through the cold haze.

  “Too close,” Orian decided with immediate certainty.

  “We can barely see the castle,” I protested while measuring the distance.

  “And that is with bare trees and clear weather,” he replied. “She will know exactly where we are every time she looks north.”

  I imagined Odett standing on the field as its Alpha, with our watchtower on her horizon. No guard would need to cross her boundary for our presence to feel like supervision. I crossed the tract off my list and hated doing it.

  Ryker didn’t like it, either. He remembered when Odett was small enough for us to carry through the castle, and he remembered the danger that had found her before she came to us. She didn’t need to be held anymore. Some part of me still wanted to pick her up and take her somewhere nothing could reach her.

  The memory shifted without warning to the council chamber after my parents died. Their chairs had remained empty while advisers waited for me to know laws I had barely studied and alliances my father had expected to explain later. Grief had not delayed a single decision.

  I had inherited a kingdom with laws and a council and still felt as though I had been dropped into deep water. Odett might have to build both while people looked to her for answers. I wanted to place something solid beneath her feet before she ever had to ask.

  “The twins will have our pack, our council, and both of us when their responsibilities increase,” I said.

  “Yes,” Orian answered gently.

  “Odett may have to build all of it while learning to lead it,” I continued with growing guilt. “Sam is still on the road, she has not finished the Academy, and these reports prove other hybrids may need somewhere prepared sooner than we expected.”

  “The reports prove they need support,” Orian stated matter-of-factly. “They do not prove they need Odett to rescue them.”

  Orian was right about the reports. I still remembered how quickly welcome could sour when fear found a voice on a council. I wanted Odett to have the choice of a pack without making her responsible for saving every frightened family.

  We returned to the castle before dinner with mud on our boots and the eastern tract crossed from my private list. I carried the remaining maps to my office instead of the council chamber. Rain was sitting behind my desk when I entered.

  She had arranged the hybrid reports on one side, the land surveys on the other, and my inspection orders between them. Her bright green eyes moved from the papers to me with the patient expression she used when allowing someone one final opportunity to tell the truth voluntarily.

  “How much land have you almost given our daughter without asking whether she wants it?” Rain asked with deceptive calm.

  “I have not given her anything,” I answered cautiously.

  “That was not my question,” she replied.

  Orian stepped backward into the hallway. Rain pointed at the chair across from her without looking away from me, and he immediately returned to stand beside it. Betrayal apparently came naturally to Betas when Queens were involved.

  “We were identifying possible options,” I explained.

  “You ordered inspections, created requirements, and crossed one property off the list before Odett knew there was a list,” Rain said.

  “I am trying to make sure she does not begin with nothing,” I admitted as the defense left my voice.

  Rain’s expression softened, though she kept my inspection orders in front of us. She knew how my parents’ deaths had made me trust preparation more than promises. She had also seen how easily my preparations became decisions for everyone else.

  “You are trying to save her from the beginning you had,” Rain observed.

  “She should not have to build a pack while finishing school and waiting for Sam to return,” I replied.

  “Then help her when she asks,” Rain warned. “Do not build the life first and call it a gift when she arrives.”

  I hadn’t set out to take Odett’s pack away from her. I had wanted to spare her the helplessness I remembered. Rain sat beside me while I looked at the maps again. None of those good intentions changed the fact that I had started choosing before I asked my daughter what she wanted.

  Rain reached across the desk and covered my hand with hers. The maps remained between us, useful and incomplete. For the first time that day, I stopped treating them like a solution.

  “We talk to her before another order leaves this office,” Rain decided with calm authority.

  “We talk to her,” I agreed without hesitation.

  Orian exhaled like a man who had survived a battle by standing very still. Rain gave him a look that promised his part in the conversation was not over. I almost enjoyed that until she turned the same look back on me.

  Odett could have our help and the information we gathered. The land, the pack, and the shape of her life still had to be hers to choose. I folded the maps and went to find my daughter.