A Minute to Decide

Vander released his iron grip on her jaw with a rough, dismissive shove. The sudden loss of his hold sent Celeste stumbling backward across the study floor. Her boots slipped on the vintage Persian rug, and her spine hit the solid oak door with a blunt, bruising thud. Oxygen punched out of her lungs in a sharp gasp. She scrambled to grip the cold brass doorknob behind her back, using it as a desperate anchor to keep her trembling legs from giving out. Her gaze plummeted to the polished floorboards. She could feel his dark, predatory stare boring into her skin, tracking her every rapid, shallow breath. The silence in the room was deafening, broken only by the frantic hammering of her own heart against her ribs.

The sheer, horrifying gravity of his threat crushed down on her chest like a physical weight. Every single cell in her fragile body shook with cold terror. He was going to slaughter her pack. He had promised a massacre. A small, desperate part of her brain screamed that it was a bluff. Why would a ruthless Alpha infiltrate enemy territory without a massive, armed guard? But the chilling, unyielding certainty in his voice suffocated that sliver of hope. He was a warlord who ruled the north with an iron fist. He did not make empty threats.

Her mind raced, frantically searching for a way out of this nightmare. If she ran out that door and told her brothers the truth, they would declare war without hesitation. They would fight him head-on right here in the hallway. Gideon, Soren, Jaxon, and Enzo against one Alpha. The odds mathematically favored her family. But Vander was a lethal, unknown variable, a beast forged in constant warfare. What if someone fell in the crossfire? The agonizing memory of Tessa’s death flared in her mind, burning behind her eyes. She remembered the blood on the snow, the haunting wails of Tessa's mate, and the tiny pups left behind. That loss had struck a brutal blow to their pack, a festering wound that had barely scarred over. The Thorne family had barely survived the overwhelming grief. If another innocent life was extinguished because she sparked a battle in their own home, the guilt would eat her alive.

If anything happened to Soren, what would she say to Valerie? How could she ever look her sister-in-law in the eye again? More importantly, she would never forgive herself. What about the innocent families sleeping in the pack lands right now? Men, women, and pups would lose their lives in a bloodbath just because she refused to go with her enemy mate. Surrendering to Vander meant ruining her own life forever. She would leave the safety of her home and step into a nightmare. But she could not be selfish enough to let innocent blood spill for her freedom.

She had to be smart. She needed a strategy to stall him. She mentally formulated a frantic plan. If she could just get away for a few minutes, she could have her brothers send scouts to the border. They could verify if the Frost warriors were actually stationed out there. If the borders were clear, they could surround him. Her family had two Alphas and a Beta. They possessed the martial skill to capture a solitary enemy. Once he was in silver chains, she could safely reject him. Her brothers would handle the rest. It physically hurt to scheme against the man the Moon Goddess chose for her, but he was a monster. He wanted to butcher her people.

She kept her eyes glued to his boots. "I... I need time to think."

"You can have a whole damn minute." Vander dictated smoothly, his deep voice grating against the quiet room.

Her head snapped up. Wide, terrified eyes clashed with his pitch-black gaze. He was shutting her down.

Her knuckles turned white around the doorknob. "No... I need more time."

Vander tilted his head. He stalked forward, closing the distance with the predatory grace of a hunting beast. "Forty seconds."

Panic clawed at her throat. This was not working. He was tearing her stalling tactics to shreds. Her frantic gaze darted around the study, desperate for anything heavy or sharp. A solid brass letter opener rested on her father’s desk. A thick crystal decanter sat on the side table. If she could just land one strike, it might give her brothers an opening.

Vander read her intention before her muscles even twitched. He let out a dark, mocking sound. He took another deliberate, threatening step toward her. He crossed his thick arms over his broad chest, towering over her frame. The sheer mass of him eclipsed the light from the chandelier. Her mouth went bone dry. The oppressive weight of his Alpha aura slammed into her senses. He would snap her neck before her fingers even brushed a weapon.

He stepped into her personal space, erasing the remaining distance. He hovered over her, his imposing frame caging her against the wood. The scent of pine and dark magic wrapped around her like a suffocating shroud. He leaned down, placing his face inches from hers.

"Time's up. What is your decision?" He demanded with icy finality.

Just as the fatal words left his mouth, the brass doorknob jerked against her palm. Vander possessed sharp, terrifying instincts. His hand shot out, clamping around her arm. He yanked her hard to the side, pulling her out of the collision path just a fraction of a second before the heavy wooden door burst open.

"You bastard!" Jaxon snarled, storming into the study.

Celeste stumbled, rubbing her aching arm where Vander’s fingers had dug in. She looked up and watched her family flood the room. Jaxon, Soren, her father Gideon, and Enzo fanned out. The four men radiated pure fury. Their muscles were coiled tight, their expressions hardened into masks of lethal intent. The study instantly felt too small, the air thickening with clashing dominance.

Vander did not flinch. He narrowed his dark eyes at Jaxon, unaffected by the sudden influx of enemies. Before Jaxon could charge across the rug and throw a punch, Soren stepped in front of his younger brother, blocking his path. Soren squared his shoulders, his jaw locked tight.

"You claimed you were here alone. Then how come your Frost warriors are currently stationed at our borders?" Soren asked in a menacing, rumbling tone.

The question hit Celeste like a physical blow. Her heart plummeted straight to the floorboards. A cold, paralyzing dread washed over her limbs. He had not been bluffing. The troops were real. The threat of a massacre was real. Her throat closed up tight. The air suddenly felt too thin to breathe.

Vander effortlessly flipped a switch. The bloodthirsty monster vanished, replaced by a man of chilling, arrogant composure. He smoothed his expression into a mask of placid calm.

"I was here to attack, but then after finding her, I changed my mind." Vander stated smoothly. His eyes never left the Thorne men, but the casual tone of his voice was jarring. He was masking his lethal intentions so perfectly it made her stomach turn. He was playing a twisted game, acting as if he were just a male happy to find his fated partner. "I'd like to take my mate with me to my pack."

Jaxon shoved past Soren and planted himself directly between Vander and Celeste. He glared up at the Frost Alpha with blazing hatred. "No. Hell no! My sister will reject you right now, and you will leave our territory."

Vander remained eerie in his stillness. The aggression radiating from Jaxon did not even cause him to blink. "I will be taking my mate with me," he repeated, his tone adamant and laced with dark promise.

Gideon stood silent as the grave near the doorway. The older Alpha watched Vander with narrowed, calculating eyes, assessing the intruder’s every micro-expression.

Enzo stepped up beside Jaxon, his fists clenched at his sides. "You are not taking her anywhere."

Vander shifted his attention to Enzo. He had done his research before stepping foot on Moon pack territory. He knew exactly who the Beta was.

"You do not get to decide for her." Vander challenged, his voice dropping into a lethal, low register.

The heavy tension in the room snapped onto Celeste. Four sets of fiercely protective eyes and one pair of merciless, predatory ones locked onto her frozen form. The combined weight of so many dominant auras clashing in the enclosed space made the air feel thick and metallic, smelling of ozone, anger, and sharp pine. She shrank under the crushing intensity, dropping her gaze back to the floorboards. Her heartbeat roared in her ears, drowning out the ambient sounds of the house.

Enzo pleaded urgently, his voice strained with worry. "Reject him, Celeste."

Vander moved with blinding speed. He snatched the front of Enzo’s shirt, twisting the fabric into a brutal grip. Enzo reacted instantly, grabbing Vander’s collar in return. The two men stood chest to chest, glaring viciously into each other's eyes, separated by a razor-thin margin of control.

"I... I will go with him," she whispered shakily into the suffocating silence.

The words acted like a bucket of ice water. The Thorne men stiffened. Enzo dropped his hands. Vander released the shirt.

Soren’s eyes widened in sheer disbelief. He marched over to his sister, gently wrapping a large hand around her elbow. He pulled her away from Vander, shielding her with his broad back. He ducked his head, his voice thick with devastating emotion.

"I will kill him myself if you are saying this because he threatened you," Soren murmured, the promise of bloodshed hanging heavy on his tongue.

Celeste snapped her head up. Hot tears brimmed in her eyes, spilling over her lashes and tracking down her pale cheeks. She could not hold the burden alone anymore. She choked on a sob.

"He... he said he would kill all of you if I refused to go. He said he would slaughter the pack, and then he would still take me with him over your dead bodies." She confessed in a ragged, broken whisper.

The dark revelation hung in the air for a split second before the Thorne men reached the brink of a brawl. The study erupted.

Soren spun around to face Vander. His inner wolf pierced through his human facade, his eyes glowing with a terrifying, feral light. Enzo let out a deafening, chest-rattling growl, his muscles expanding as his beast fought to surface. Jaxon abandoned all restraint. The distinct, sickening sound of bone shifting echoed in the room as Jaxon extended his lethal claws to their full length, his hands transforming into deadly weapons.

All three of them braced their stances, ready to tear the Frost Alpha apart right there on the Persian rug, damn the consequences.

Vander stood his ground. His own eyes flared with dangerous hues of gold. His monstrous aura flooded the room, an oppressive force that pressed down on their lungs. He welcomed the fight.

"She is my mate. I will take her with me." Vander sneered, his voice dropping into a demonic cadence.

Jaxon took a half-step forward, ready to lunge. "Over my dead body."

Soren did not take his glowing eyes off Vander. "Leave, Celeste. Get out of the room."

Her legs felt like lead columns. The primal energy in the room was suffocating, urging her wolf instincts to cower, but she forced her frozen muscles to move. She needed to escape the impending bloodbath. She reached out, her trembling fingers wrapping around the brass doorknob once more.

Before she could turn the latch, Vander delivered a paralyzing, calculated blow to her family’s defense.

"I'll reject her." Vander said.

His voice was laced with a terrifying, serene calm. The sheer detachment in his tone froze Celeste in her tracks. She kept her back to him, her breathing hitching in her chest.

"But she'll die," he finished.

The words dropped like a physical bomb in the middle of the study. Gideon gnashed his molars together, the sound loud in the sudden, ringing silence. The older Alpha knew Vander was stating a biological fact.

Vander did not stop there. He brutally and publicly exposed the deepest, darkest secret she had kept hidden even from her own family.

"She is a defective hybrid. My wolf cannot even feel her wolf. Her fragile, weak body will never survive the agonizing physical trauma of a mate's rejection." Vander announced, his voice slicing through the heavy air.

He spoke the truth with surgical precision, dissecting her greatest shame in front of the people she loved. Celeste stood frozen like a statue carved from ice. She had never told her family the truth about her dormant wolf. The pack healer, Sybil, had promised she would feel her wolf presence after her eighteenth birthday, but the milestone had passed, and the connection remained hollow and dead. She had lived in silent denial, hiding the shame of her broken nature from the proud, powerful Thorne lineage. She had feared their pity.

Vander was right. A rejection from an Alpha mate severed the soul tie. For a normal werewolf, it was excruciating. For a defective hybrid like her, it would shatter her weak body. She would die a slow, agonizing death on the floor of this very house, coughing up blood while her mind fractured.

But right now, her own life was the least of her concerns. She was putting her family in lethal danger. If she stayed, they would fight a war they could not win without massive casualties. She had to swallow her pride. She had to swallow her tears. She refused to watch her fierce brothers and proud father humiliate themselves by begging this monster for her life. She had to seal her own fate to save theirs.

The fight drained from her spine. "I'll go with him."

Soren stepped toward her with wild desperation, shaking his head. "No. We will find another way. We will save you."

Gideon clenched his fists at his sides, his face a mask of silent agony.

Vander remained unfazed by their bared teeth and mounting desperation. He stood tall amidst the chaos he had orchestrated, assessing the broken family before him. He watched Jaxon’s jaw lock in frustrated rage. He took a slow, deliberate step forward.

"There is no other way," Vander stated smoothly. "We can make a deal."

He suggested it coolly, leaving her fiercely protective family agonizingly at the mercy of a devil in disguise.