"Then the woods. God, the woods." His voice dropped lower. "Watching you run from me. Chasing you. Catching you. Having you beneath me in the dirt and knowing....knowing that you were mine and I still could not mark you. Could not complete what Rhen was screaming for. It was the hardest thing I have ever done, pulling back from you. Leaving that mark incomplete."
He reached up and touched the partial bond mark on her throat again, felt it pulse under his fingers.
"And now I have done it again. Left you with half a bond. Half a claim. And you might hate me for it when you wake up."
The fear of that was almost worse than the incomplete bond.
"I need you to wake up," Sebastian whispered. "I need you to look at me and tell me you understand why I did it. I need you to choose me. Choose us. Because I do not know how to survive if you do not."
The silence stretched, Lilith didn’t answer and Sebastian felt something break inside his chest.
An hour passed. Maybe two. Sebastian didn’t move from the chair, didn’t let go of her hand, just sat there watching her breathe and feeling the incomplete bond pull at him.
The door opened and Dr. Aldric stepped back inside, his medical bag in hand. "I wanted to check on her one more time before I rest."
Sebastian didn’t protest, just moved aside slightly so the doctor could examine her. Dr. Aldric checked her pulse, her breathing, the temperature of her skin. He touched the partial mark on her throat and frowned slightly.
"It is settling," he said quietly. "The bond is incomplete but it is there. Stable."
"When will she wake up?" Sebastian asked.
Dr. Aldric was quiet for a moment, his eyes still on Lilith. "Her body needs to recover. The spell drained her significantly. The partial marking drained her even more. It could be hours. It could be a full day."
Sebastian felt his stomach drop. "A day?"
"Possibly. Magic like this takes a toll. She needs rest."
"And when she does wake up..." Sebastian hesitated. "Will she remember what happened?"
Dr. Aldric straightened and looked at him directly. "I do not know. Magic like this....compulsion magic, it leaves marks on the mind as well as the body. She might remember everything. She might remember nothing. Or she might remember fragments that do not make sense to her."
"The mark I left," Sebastian said quietly. "The rejection. Will she feel it?"
"She will feel the incomplete bond the moment she is conscious," Dr. Aldric confirmed. "It will pull at her the same way it is pulling at you. She will know something happened even if she does not remember the specifics."
Sebastian nodded slowly and Dr. Aldric gathered his things.
"Get some rest, Alpha Sebastian. You will need your strength when she wakes."
"I am not leaving her."
Dr. Aldric didn’t argue, just nodded and left the room quietly.
Sebastian returned to the chair and took Lilith’s hand again, and this time he let his head drop forward until his forehead was resting against their joined hands.
The fear was eating him alive.
He was terrified she would wake up and hate him for marking her without her consent. Terrified she would reject completing the bond. Terrified that whatever had taken her into the forest would come back and he would not be able to stop it.
"Please do not leave us," he whispered into the silence. "Please do not choose to walk away. I know we have kept things from you. I know we have made mistakes. But please. Please stay."
"She is ours."
Sebastian’s head snapped up at the sound of Rhen’s voice in his mind. The wolf had been quiet since the rejection, sulking and confused, but now his presence was clear and certain.
"She will choose us," Rhen continued. "The bond does not lie."
"She rejected the mark," Sebastian said aloud.
"She rejected being claimed without choice. When she wakes, she will choose. And she will choose us."
"How do you know?" Sebastian asked.
Because I felt her in the woods. I felt her surrender. I felt her want us. That does not disappear because she was unconscious. That does not change because we made a mistake.
Sebastian wanted to believe him. Wanted to trust that Rhen was right and Lilith would wake up and choose to complete the bond and stay with them despite everything.
But wanting something did not make it true.
"What if you are wrong?" Sebastian asked quietly.
Rhen was silent for a long moment. Then: "Then we let her go. Because keeping her here against her will is not keeping her at all."
Sebastian closed his eyes and felt the truth of that settle over him like a weight.
He had known from the beginning that this was dangerous. That bonding with three cursed Alphas was asking Lilith to risk everything. That she came to them because she had no choice and stayed because of a bond she did not ask for and did not fully understand.
But somewhere along the way he had started hoping. Started believing that maybe she wanted this too. Wanted them.
And now he was terrified that hope had been a lie he told himself.
"Please wake up," he whispered. "Please come back to me."
Lilith didn’t stir.
Sebastian lifted his head and looked at her face, peaceful and still and so far away from him he did not know if he would ever reach her.
He was exhausted. Emotionally wrecked. The incomplete bond ached in his chest like an open wound and every breath hurt.
But he didn’t move.
He just laid his head down on the bed beside her hand, still holding it, and watched her breathe.
Waiting for her to wake up.
Waiting to see if Rhen was right.
Waiting to find out if he had already lost her before he ever really had her at all.
The sun rose outside the window and painted the room in shades of gold and Sebastian did not sleep.
He just waited.
And hoped.
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