trade of grooms, Captain becomes everything he hates. The boys lose their brother, sort of. Maddoc would be forced to watch me at Captain’s side.
Forever?
I lick my lips and look to the ground.
No sacrifice too big.
“No.”
Cap’s face falls and Collins smirks.
“No?” Donley repeats, almost as if he doesn’t like my answer.
“I don’t want him.” I step away from Captain, moving toward Collins.
“No,” Cap says.
“Raven,” Royce starts.
“I said no!” I shout, looking to my boys, but it’s too much, so I break the contact just as quick.
“Brayshaw stays on top. Brayshaw keeps control and Collins gets his wife. Me.” I look to Donley, the others still struck by my decision. “It’s what you wanted walking in here. I will be everything expected of me, I swear, but only for him.”
At my words, Maddoc snaps, the indifference he tried to put off for the others in here gone.
He rushes me before anyone can stop him. Gripping my shoulders, he tugs me close.
“Stop it,” he growls, eyes wrecked.
“No,” I whisper, attempting to tear away from his touch.
“Baby,” he breathes, so low I almost miss it. His grip tightens, his hands shaking against me though nobody else could spot it. “Don’t.”
“You knew why I was coming here.”
“And now there’s a better choice.”
“If it’s not you, it doesn’t matter.”
“Yes. It does,” he growls. “Marry Captain.” His brows meet in the center, deep creases buried in his forehead.
“I can’t.”
“May my family have a moment alone outside?” Rolland asks.
Before an answer is given, Maddoc yanks me down the hall and out the front. He pulls me around the corner, telling the security standing there to leave.
He turns to me.
“You love him,” he rushes out, desperation screaming behind his green eyes. “You could love him more.”
“I don’t want to.”
“He’s saving you.”
“By breaking you.”
He steps against me, his hands sliding up both sides of my face.
I lift my chin, and his palms slide farther, tangling into my hair, his thumbs on my cheekbones.
“Nobody can break me but you, snow,” he whispers. “And you will, you will fucking shred me if you marry Collins when you could have Captain instead.”
“No. We both win or we both lose.”
“That’s fucking stupid!” he hisses. “Why when you can have more, be safe?”
“I won’t destroy your family so I can sleep easier at night.”
“You think we’ll be functional knowing you gave your life for us? We won’t.”
“Maddoc please...”
His lips push against mine, but they don’t move. They don’t demand, and they don’t take as they should. They plead.
He pulls back, eyes sloped at the edges. “Let me go, give me peace of mind. Cap will love you, he will protect you.”
“And you?”
He looks to the ground. “I’ll never replace you, but if you don’t accept him, I’ll hate you.”
“I’m okay with that.”
“I’ll wreck your world.”
“It’s already wrecked!”
He glares, jerking away from me, tearing my heart a little more in the process. “I will leave them.”
I freeze, my eyes bouncing between his.
Abandon his family?
“I’ll leave this place, right fucking now and everyone in it, never looking back.”
“Maddoc—”
“Don’t test me, Raven.” His eyes turn to stone, freezing me out in a moment’s notice.
My eyes start to water without permission, so I look to the sky, denying their escape.
Damned if I do, damned if I don’t.
“You’re backing me into a corner, Big Man.”
“Where I can protect you.”
I look back to him, giving a slow shake of my head. “I won’t be yours to protect.”
I swear his eyes haze over, but he blinks the pain away. “You will always be mine where it matters.”
“Don’t make me do this.”
“Don’t make him wait.”
With that, he turns and walks back inside, and I’m left standing there, a dozen men waiting only feet away for me to seal my fate.
I squeeze my eyes shut, wipe my face with my sleeves, and take a deep breath.
I know I look busted and weak, everything a girl in their world is likely known to be, but I go back in with my head held high.
I step forward, into the room full of men I don’t know, men I do, and the only people in the world I trust.
The ones I trust, who are asking me to deny one, give up the other, and take another.
Everyone knew I’d give myself for them, it’s why the boys were fearful, and how the Gravens were so sure. Dangle Zoey and I’d save her, for them. It’s what Perkins meant when he said I would make the decision once I learned the alternative. It’s why Collins helped hide Zoey