MAKE ME CHOOSE YOU

YVONNE POV

For several seconds, Calder said nothing.

The wolves kneeling along the bank seemed afraid to breathe. Even the Everstead warriors kept their heads lowered, waiting for their king to punish the rogue who had rejected him before the mate bond had fully settled.

Calder only studied me.

Surprise flashed through his golden eyes, followed by something darker and far more dangerous. Interest.

"Never is a strong word," he said.

"Then you will remember it." Cold water ran from my hair into my eyes, but I refused to look away. "Put me down."

His arm tightened once around my waist. The bond reacted instantly, sending heat across my skin while Nyx pressed towards him with a desperate need that was not mine.

'He is our mate.' She cooed.

'He is also holding us after I told him not to.'

Calder's jaw hardened as though his Lycan disliked the order as much as mine disliked being separated from him. Then he lowered me carefully onto my feet and removed his hand.

The sudden loss of his warmth left an ache beneath my ribs. I ignored it.

'He listened,' Nyx said.

Before either of us could speak again, the guard who had pulled Matron Flora from the lake rose from beside her body.

"Your Majesty, she is dead."

A cry came from behind the kneeling warriors. The young maid who had delivered Flora's message pushed forward and stared at the body.

"She killed her!" The maid pointed at me. "Matron Flora came here to speak with her, and now she is dead. Yvonne murdered her."

Several Everstead attendants lifted their heads. Their shock quickly turned into accusation when they looked at me standing beside the lake.

Calder's gaze moved from Flora's body to my face. "What happened?"

The question carried authority, but not judgment. He was giving me the chance to answer instead of deciding the truth for me.

"Matron Flora asked me to meet her here alone," I said. "When I arrived, she told me I would never enter Everstead. Then she tried to throw me into the lake."

"That is a lie," the maid said quickly. "Matron Flora would never attack Alpha Aldric's daughter."

"Which daughter do you mean?" I asked. "The one whose blood carries his scent, or the one Flora served?"

The maid went pale.

I turned to the pack leader. "You heard her ask to speak with me privately. Your wife saw this maid deliver the message. Is that correct?"

He rose slowly from his knee after Calder gave him permission with a glance.

"It is. I also told the maid that Matron Flora could speak to Yvonne in the courtyard, but she insisted the matter concerned Luna Weston and had to remain private."

The whispers began immediately.

I lifted my injured arm. Dark finger-shaped bruises were already forming around the cut Duncan had left there.

"Flora seized the same wound before she pushed me. Her scent will still be on my skin. The mud at the edge will show where she drove me backwards, and the healer can examine both of us." I looked at the maid again. "If you believe I murdered her, summon the Werewolf Council. I will wait here while they investigate everything, including why Jacinda's personal attendant lured Everstead's missing heir to an isolated lake hours before she was supposed to bring me home."

No one answered.

They had expected fear, denial or pleading. A formal investigation was the last thing they wanted. It would not stop with Flora's death. The Council would question every servant who had known about the meeting and ask whether Jacinda had sent the woman who tried to kill me.

The maid recovered enough to glare at me. "You admit you were alone with her. Until Alpha Aldric decides what should be done, the Everstead warriors must restrain you."

One of the warriors stepped towards me.

Calder did not raise his voice. "Touch her, and you will lose the hand."

The warrior stopped so quickly that mud slid beneath his boot.

I looked at Calder. "I can defend myself."

"I have noticed." His gaze briefly dropped to Flora's body. "But this is no longer only an Everstead matter. A Council-recognised heir was attacked before her succession hearing, and my mate has been accused of murder in my presence. My guard will preserve the scene. No one leaves until every statement is recorded."

"Your mate?" I repeated.

One eyebrow lifted.

"My name is Yvonne. If you are ordering an investigation, use it."

The bank went silent again. Calder could have reminded me that kings did not accept correction from rogues. Instead, he turned to his guard.

"No one is to touch Yvonne or Matron Flora's body until the royal healer arrives. Take the maid's statement separately."

The first thread of my anger loosened.

He had listened twice.

The maid began protesting, but Calder's guard led her away. The remaining Everstead attendants watched me with fear now. I had left the settlement expecting to fight Jacinda for my name. Before I had even crossed the border, one of her closest servants had tried to kill me and another had attempted to have me chained.

Calder removed his black coat and held it towards me. "Take it."

"Is that another royal command?"

His mouth moved as though he was suppressing a smile. "It is an offer. You are shivering."

Only then did I notice how violently my hands were trembling. I accepted the coat and pulled it around my wet dress. His scent surrounded me, cedar and frost with something wild beneath it. Nyx settled almost immediately, pleased by the warmth and by the man standing too close.

'He smells like home.'

'We do not have a home yet.'

Calder's eyes lowered to my wrists. The coat had slipped far enough to expose the red burns left by Duncan's silver cuffs. His hand lifted, and every muscle in my body locked.

He stopped before touching me.

The hunger in his eyes disappeared beneath sudden understanding. "May I see?"

I stared at him. Wolves with power rarely asked. Duncan had called my resistance disobedience,Lillian had called it ingratitude. Calder stood close enough to force me but he waited.

Slowly, I extended my right hand.

His fingers closed gently around my wrist. The bond flared between us, hot enough to pull a breath from my lungs. His thumb hovered beside the burn rather than touching the broken skin. Nyx pushed forward, filling my mind with the urge to move closer, to press my face against his throat and breathe him in.

Calder's pupils widened. His Lycan felt it too.

"Silver," he said, his voice rougher than before. "Who chained you?"

"Duncan Thorn." I answered calmly like it was nothing.

"Where is he?" He asked.

"Dead." I lowered my voice.

His gaze rose to mine. "Did you kill him?"

"Yes."

There was no disgust in his expression. "Good."

The answer surprised me enough that I almost forgot to pull my hand away. The moment I did, he released me without resistance.

"Flora tried to kill you, but you could have let her surface after you stopped her."

It was not a question. He had read the truth in my calm face, or perhaps he simply understood what kind of woman could kill a man while weakened by wolfsbane.

"If I had released her, she would have lied and tried again," I said. "I do not give an enemy a second chance to take my life. If that makes you regret the bond, reject it now."

Calder stepped closer. The air between us heated until the cold morning disappeared.. "You expect me to fear you?"

"I expect you to understand me."

"I do." His eyes held mine. "Better than you think."

Since he had pulled me from the lake, I felt something more dangerous than the mate bond.

Curiosity.

I turned away before it could become anything else.

The royal healer arrived soon after and confirmed that Flora's scent covered the bruises on my arm. She also found mud and pieces of reed beneath Flora's nails that matched the place where she had seized me. It did not prove every part of my account, but it destroyed the maid's claim that Flora had never touched me.

Calder ordered his guards to take Flora's body and escort the maid to the nearest Council station to give her statement. The Everstead warriors did not object again.

When the others moved away, he joined me beside the waiting vehicles.

"You will not travel to Everstead today," he said. "You have wolfsbane in your blood, silver burns and bruises from an attempted marking. You will come to my residence until you recover."

The small amount of trust he had earned vanished.

"No."

His eyes narrowed. "You are injured."

"And every hour I remain away gives Jacinda time to turn Everstead against me. Flora tried to kill me before I reached the border. What do you think Jacinda will do once she learns Flora failed?"

"My territory is the safest place on this continent."

"A safe cage is still a cage."

His expression changed. His gaze returned to my wrists, and I knew he understood why I had chosen those words.

"I would not imprison you," he said.

"You called me your Luna before you knew anything except my name. You had already chosen my future."

"The bond chose us."

"The bond chose a mate. It did not choose my rank, my home or the life I must abandon for yours." I stepped closer so he could not mistake my meaning. "Everstead belongs to my bloodline. Lillian stole me because she wanted Jacinda to inherit it. If I hide behind your crown now, the pack will always say I returned because the Lycan King placed me above them. I need to win my position myself."

Calder was silent for a long moment.

"As my Luna, you would outrank every Alpha in North America," he finally said.

"Because you gave me the title. Everstead's Alpha title is mine because someone stole it from me." I held his gaze. "There is a difference."

Something in his face softened, but it was not pity.

It looked like respect.

"What do you want from me, Yvonne?"

He used my name without being corrected.

"The Council already confirmed my White Wolf blood, but Everstead can delay the succession hearing or bury what happened here. Make sure they cannot. Record Flora's attack as interference with a recognised heir and confirm that you found me alive, unmarked and on my way to answer Alpha Aldric's summons."

"You want the authority of my crown, but not its protection."

"I want you to make the rules apply to everyone. That is what a king is for."

Amusement touched his eyes. "And what is a mate for?"

"I have not decided whether I need one."

Nyx growled at me, but Calder laughed, low and unexpected. The sound warmed the bond before I could guard against it.

"Very well," he said. "I will notify the Council, preserve the evidence and escort you to Everstead myself. You will also allow my healer to treat the wolfsbane and the burns during the journey."

"No mark. No public claim over me at Everstead. And you will not interfere with the succession trial."

His Lycan flashed gold in his eyes at the first condition. For a tense moment, the power surrounding him pressed against every wolf nearby. Then he brought it under control.

"I will never mark you without your consent," he said. "I will not use our bond to take the Alpha title from you."

It was not everything I had demanded. He had made no promise to stop wanting me as his Luna. But he had offered me a choice when every other person with power over my life had tried to take mine away.

I extended my hand. "Then we have an agreement."

Calder looked down at it before enclosing it in his. Heat rushed up my arm, and his thumb moved once across my knuckles. This time, I did not pull away immediately.

"Claim Everstead," he said. "Prove you can rule it. But do not mistake my restraint for surrender. I still intend to make you choose me."

I withdrew my hand and opened the vehicle door.

"Then one of us is going to be disappointed."

His smile followed me into the vehicle, so confident and dangerous at the same time.