43. Shya

Chapter forty-three

Shya

I felt so relaxed; my muscles were like liquid beneath Mason. My fingers relaxed their grip on him, and I traced lazy circles over his beautiful abs as he brushed back my hair from my face and kissed my forehead lightly.

"Princess?"

"Mmmmm?" I could definitely get used to feeling this way.

"Don't go through with the mating ceremony," Mason said softly.

And my whole body went stiff.

He had to go and ruin it, didn't he?

"Mason—"

"Don't. Don't fucking talk to me about responsibility and duty when my fingers are still wet from you coming all over them."

Did he really just say that to me? How the hell did he get away with talking like that all the time?

I pushed him off of me and jumped to my feet. "What do you want me to say, Mason? That I'll give up everything, leave my family, and Pack when they need me the most … and what? Come live with you in Three Rivers? I've trained to be an Alpha my entire life. What do you expect me to do there?"

"I don't fucking know!" he admitted as he buttoned up his pants. "You can do whatever you want; we can work that out together. But that's the key, we do it to-fucking-gether."

"What if what I want is to be the Alpha?"

"Do you?"

I blinked, not expecting him to ask me that. No one had ever asked me that. I had never asked myself that; had always just assumed that it was what I would do.

I sank down onto the bed. "I don't know, Mason," I said, my voice husky. The weight of expectation, of duty, seemed to press down on me, making it hard to breathe. I closed my eyes, remembering the countless hours of training, the lessons in Pack politics, my father's hand on my shoulder as he told me how proud he was of me. "It's all I've ever known. It's what I've trained for."

I could see the faces of my Pack members in my mind. This wasn't just about Henry and Tucker. It was about Marnie and Summer, Danni and Ivan, Ethan and Due-lah. How could I turn my back on them now, when threats lurked at our borders, and uncertainty plagued our future?

I opened my eyes to find Mason staring intently at me.

"I never thought I had any choice, but right now, my family needs me. I can't abandon them. It's not in me, Mason. It's just not."

He studied me for a beat, and I couldn't tell what he was thinking. Then he sat down next to me, our knees brushing against each other. I leaned into him, my head resting on his shoulder. For a moment, we just sat there in silence.

Finally, he spoke. "Then I'll leave the Three Rivers Pack. I'll come here."

I stared at Mason, my heart pounding so hard I was sure he could hear it. His words echoed in my mind, a siren song of possibility and passion. For a moment, I allowed myself to imagine it—a life with Mason here, doing what I was born to do.

"Do you even want to be an Alpha of a Pack? Do you realize what's involved? How this would completely change your life?"

"I'm a quick learner, princess."

I looked into Mason's eyes and felt a yearning so deep it frightened me. This connection between us, this pull—it was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. But was it real? What if I made him leave everything for me, and this thing between us was just a temporary attraction to the hot bad boy from the next town? Could I do that to him? He would hate me forever. I would hate myself forever.

What if I chose duty over desire? The thought of mating with Edmond, of living a life dictated by obligation rather than love, made my stomach churn. But could I live with myself if I chose my own happiness over the safety and well-being of my Pack, over the safety and well-being of Mason?

"Being here means giving up everything you've ever known to be the Alpha of the Bridgetown Pack with me. It will be dangerous, Mason. Edmond is already accepted. You? They won't accept you. Not easily. We'll be challenged for at least the first six months, and they'll all be challenges to the death."

"I'll handle the challenges, princess."

I shook my head, frustration building. "You don't understand. This isn't just about physical challenges. It's about politics, traditions. We do this, and we're changing how we've done things for hundreds of years. They'll fight us every step of the way."

"Then help me understand, Shya. What exactly are we up against?"

I took a deep breath. "First, there's the issue of legitimacy. You're not from our Pack. Many will see you as an outsider trying to usurp power."

Mason's brow furrowed. "Okay, so we'd need to prove my loyalty. What else?"

"The internal politics. Every decision you make would be scrutinized. Many will resist any changes we try to make simply because the order came from you, and one wrong move could turn the entire Pack against you."

Mason was quiet for a moment, absorbing all this. "It sounds like a political minefield. And if I get it wrong, they'll turn against you for choosing me."

I nodded. "Yes. By choosing you, I'd be risking everything—my position, my family's legacy, the Pack's stability. I'm opening the whole Pack up to even more infighting, which outsiders would try to take advantage of. Just when this Pack needs stability the most, we'd be throwing the doors open to chaos. It's not just about us, Mason. It's about the lives of everyone here, and your life, as you know it, would be over. If you take the place Edmond is supposed to have, you'd be coming into a Pack that hates you, doesn't trust you, and wants you dead." I couldn't do that to him. "Mating with Edmond is for the best, Mason. Can't you see that?"

He stared at the wall, his face lost in thought. "I'll have to win them over, then. Do something for this Pack that is irrefutable."

He turned to me, cupped my head roughly, and kissed the living daylights out of me, his lips determined and delicious against mine.

Okay, wow!

"I promise you, I'll prove myself worthy to be your mate, to be the Alpha here."

"Mason," I whispered. "I don't want you to put yourself in danger for me. I can't lose you, too."

He stared deep into my eyes. "Don't worry about me, princess. You're my mate. My reason for breathing. My heart, my soul, my everything. I'd tear down mountains, challenge the Goddesses themselves, and walk through the fires of hell to keep you safe and by my side. There's no force in this world or any other that could keep me from you. I'm yours, completely and utterly, until my last breath and beyond."

I steeled my heart, knowing that was the most romantic thing I would ever hear. There would be no sweet words or passionate declarations from Edmond.

"I'm still going through with the ceremony."

He grinned again. "No, you're not. But it's cute that you think you are."

The cocky bastard kissed me one more time, then he ran, leaped, and slid feet-first out of the window. At the last second, his hand reached out and grabbed the sill, holding himself in place. "I like that you can use your knife but tell Edmond he needs to increase the patrols again. It's way too easy to break in."

Then he dropped out of sight.