And now he looked at a human woman—their enemy—with more tenderness than he had ever shown her.
Slowly, Lila returned her head, her pale eyes shimmering with unshed tears that she refused to let fall but transformed into deeper anger slowly taking root for that woman.
But if she acted hastily, Javrian would start to hate her, which was worse than this.
However, she still couldn't ignore this all and turn a blind eye; she needed to handle this now.
"Javrian." Her voice came out steady, despite the storm raging inside her chest. "You know what this means for the pack."
The other wolves looked at her with growing alarm, recognizing the dangerous territory she was entering.
"Lila—" Vera started, but Lila cut her off.
"No." She took a step forward, her gaze fixed on Javrian's face. "This has to be said."
'I'm sorry, Javrian. But if I can't have you, at least I can save you from making a mistake that will destroy everything we've built.'
"You are the last pure bloodline of our people," she continued, each word feeling like swallowing glass. "The future of our entire race rests on your shoulders. Every decision you make affects not just us, but every wolf who might be born in the next century."
Javrian's expression hadn't changed, but something flickered in his silver eye.
"She is human, Javrian. She cannot bear wolf cubs. She cannot strengthen our bloodline. She cannot lead our people when battles come."
The pack was dead silent now, everyone understanding the gravity of what Lila was saying.
"So choose," she whispered, the words barely audible over the mountain wind. "The tribe that has bled for you, died for you, followed you through every nightmare... or the human woman who represents everything we've fought against."
The silence that followed was deafening.
Luna, who seemed to have once again awakened with her ears perked up, could sense the tension, stirring slightly in Javrian's arms even though she wanted to remain uncaring.
Kael, Vera, and Darius looked between their leader and Lila with growing horror, realizing that their pack—their family—was about to be torn apart.
Javrian stared at Lila for a long moment, his jaw working silently as if grinding stone between his teeth.
Then his grip on Luna tightened, drawing her even closer to his chest, and his voice cut through the night like a death sentence.
"Then it seems the tribe needs to either accept Luna as their Alpha Female..."
His silver eye swept across each of their faces, lingering on Lila's with something that might have been regret.
"Or I will leave."
The words hit the pack like a physical blow.
Darius actually staggered backward. "You... you can't mean that."
"The last bloodline," Vera whispered in horror. "If you leave..."
"Our people die with you," Kael finished, his voice hollow with disbelief.
But it was Lila's reaction that shocked them most.
Instead of the triumph they might have expected, her face crumpled with devastation. She had pushed for this choice, demanded it—and now that she had it, the reality was crushing.
'He would rather abandon his entire race than give up a human woman he met tonight.'
The thought sent a cold spike of despair through her heart.
'I truly never had a chance, did I?'
Then, from behind them, came a sound that made everyone freeze.
A soft, sleepy voice, barely above a whisper:
"Javrian... you shouldn't take such foolish steps."
Luna called out as she woke up and retreated her head back to meet the man who held her, her crimson eyes meeting his silver without hesitation, as she did not fear death or abandonment.
But seeing how Javrian was just fighting his own people for her sake when she didn't have any relation to him made her take the stance.
Until now, she thought he was healing her to hurt, but slowly as her mind became clear due to some strange reason, she started to understand this was more than it.
She didn't know why, but so close to him, the aphrodisiac effect vanished and her body was recovered to good condition, even her mind, which had been influenced by deep drug effect, cleared the fog to think rationally and see this man was being too naïve.
How can he stand for her when they just met today? She never met someone doing it.
Looking straight into his eyes, given normally Alpha males have pride, she declared.
"You are a fool, Javrian."
The words hit the mountain air like a physical blow.
The silence that followed was so complete it seemed to swallow sound itself. Even the wind stopped howling through the peaks, as if nature itself had frozen in shock.
Kael's massive frame went rigid, his scarred face draining of color. In all their years following Javrian through blood and battle, through impossible raids and desperate survival, no one had ever—ever—dared to call their leader foolish.
Vera's gray eyes went wide as saucers, her breath catching audibly in her throat.
Darius actually stumbled backward, his young face twisting with horror at what he'd just witnessed.
Even Lila, despite her anger and heartbreak, felt her pale eyes widen in genuine shock. She had pushed boundaries, yes—challenged his decisions, argued strategy.
But to call Javrian, the last pure bloodline, the shadow that made Empire nobles wet themselves in terror, foolish?
It was unthinkable.
The pack members exchanged rapid glances, each seeing their own disbelief reflected in the others' faces.
This human woman, this stranger who'd known their alpha for mere hours, had just done what none of them—his loyal packmates who'd bled beside him for years—had ever dared.
All eyes turned to Javrian, waiting for the explosion.
Waiting for that silver eye to blaze with killing intent, for his voice to shake the mountains with rage, for Luna to be torn apart where she lay.
Instead, Javrian's scarred face shifted into something far more dangerous than anger.
His silver eye narrowed, becoming as sharp and focused as a blade's edge. When he spoke, his voice carried that same deadly quiet that preceded his most brutal kills.
"What do you mean?"
The question hung in the air like a challenge, each word precisely enunciated and razor-sharp.
Luna, still cradled in his arms but now fully awake, met his gaze without flinching.
Her crimson eyes held none of the hollow emptiness from before—the strange fog that had clouded her mind since the aphrodisiac had finally cleared completely.
For the first time since waking in his arms, her thoughts were crystal clear, logical, rational.
It was as if his body scent, or perhaps he himself, had some magic.
"You're willing to abandon your entire bloodline—the future of your people—for a stranger you met tonight," she said, her voice carrying that same bland, matter-of-fact tone that had emerged when she'd ordered Victor and Livina's deaths.
No emotion. No dramatics. Just cold, logical assessment.
"You're threatening to leave wolves who have followed you through hell, who've bled for you, who see you as their only hope for survival." Her gaze swept across the pack members, taking in their stricken faces. "All for what? A human who can't even shift, who brings no strength to your bloodline, who represents everything your people have fought against?"
Javrian's grip on her tightened fractionally, but she continued with ruthless logic.
"That is foolish, Javrian. They're your family. Your responsibility. I'm nothing to you—a stranger whose life you've already saved. You owe me nothing more."
The pack watched in stunned silence as this human woman—this enemy—spoke truths they'd never dared voice, even in their most desperate moments.
But what shocked them even more was Javrian's reaction.
Instead of rage, his scarred face began to shift. The deadly sharpness in his eye softened, and slowly—impossibly—a smile began to tug at the corners of his mouth.
Not the predatory grin they knew from battle, but something warmer.
Almost... amused?
"It seems you took me wrong, Luna," he said, that dangerous quiet replaced by something almost gentle like he wanted to tell why he saved her. "Just because I supported you doesn't mean—"
"You're kidnapping me," Luna interrupted flatly, reading the shift in his expression with uncomfortable accuracy.
The word hit the pack like another physical blow.
Kidnapping.
Kael's hands clenched into fists. Vera took an involuntary step forward. Even Darius looked horrified.
"Wait—" Vera started, her voice sharp with alarm. "Javrian, if she's not consenting—"
"This isn't right," Kael growled, his loyalty to his alpha warring with his moral code. "Whatever she is, whatever she represents, we don't take unwilling—"
"No." Lila's voice cut through their protests like a whip, her pale eyes blazing. "Don't you see? She's manipulating all of you! Playing the victim while—"
"What?" And that realization from Lila's words made everyone look towards Luna as all of them slowly felt indeed, that woman might be playing the victim card as Javrian didn't have a reason to kidnap someone.
'Huh? Th-this woman...' Javrian on the other hand observing everything, blinked, looking towards Luna whose face was firm but to him she was like an open book, a smile that was all it came as he leaned.
'!'
"Wh-what are you—" Luna before could mutter felt him press his chin on her head, burying her face on his chest before he revealed something that showed how he caught her red-handed.
"You are smart, I accept, but to manipulate everyone into blaming you for all this... you know."
His words hit Luna's heart with a thud, lips parting before she clenched as indeed, reading the scene she wanted to take all blame by using Lila's hatred towards her but it seems, she underestimated her kidnapper.
He was far more dangerous for her and her heart as he completed his words in a soft hushed tone.
"...that, you are hurting me even more?"
thump thump