Page 248 of Scarlet Wars
“You touch my First Offensive,” he hissed, the words shaking with every ounce of violence he was barely keeping chained, “and you die faster than you ever thought possible.”
Emma’s head jerked up—like she’d been underwater and the world finally broke through—and her eyes widened in horror the moment she saw Nino strapped, bruised, bloodied, helpless.
“So,” the High Chief said smoothly, “let’s give this another try, shall we? Mister Walker. As you can see, we have already killed Crown’s temporary First Offensive due to Ms. Thompson’s refusal to comply.”
He paused, smug as sin. “Luckily for us, you all have no shortage of people you care about. So this can go on for as long as you want. Or,” he smiled like he was offering a gift, “you can stop all of this right now by forcing the True Bond on your mate.”
A low growl ripped out of me before I knew I was making the sound, my Chela manifesting instantly in my grip, the blade humming with raw murderous intent.
“You want me to force the bond on Emma?” James’s question cracked the air, disbelief, horror, and fury all colliding in one breath.
The Chief gave a pitying sigh. “We regret this is the only way you’ll come to your senses. All we are asking is you to honor a deal you brokered with us.” His attention flicked to Emma, then to James. “You are Cyclos’s Leader. A powerful magus. And Ms. Thompson is weakened as we speak, due to a terrible loss onlyshe’sresponsible for.”
Emma whimpered in my arms, a broken, agonized sound that felt like someone drove a spike straight through my spine.
“Forcing the bond on her right now,” the Chief continued, “will be easy.”
“I’ll cut off your head before you make a single move,” I promised in a low, lethal voice I barely recognized as my own.
James straightened his back with the kind of rigid, unbreakable resolve I’d rarely seen in him, his gaze locking onto Nino with a tenderness so sharp it hurt, before shifting back to the man issuing the threat.
“I will not mind-rape Emma Thompson,” he said with unwavering conviction, “nor any other person in this fucking world.” He stepped forward. “And you will die for this illegal order.”
“Then prepare to watch your First Offensive suffer.”
James’s jaw tightened—every muscle in his face locking down—but he didn’t cave, didn’t blink, didn’t give the Chiefs the satisfaction of even a flinch. The dark-hooded man beside Nino lifted the Corona in a slow, deliberate arc, the glowing edge hovering inches from her neck, humming with the promise of a death that would take seconds and haunt us forever.
And then, before I could move, before James could protest, before the blade could finish its arc, Emma yelled, voice raw and shredded and ripped straight from the deepest place inside her: “WAIT!”
EMMA
I was breathing hard—too hard—like my lungs couldn’t find the air fast enough to keep me upright. I was wrecked, trembling,furious beyond anything I’d ever felt, grief tearing me apart from the inside out, panic clawing at my ribs like it wanted out, but underneath all of it, I wasdetermined.
Not again.
Not like this.
Not on my fucking watch.
“He won’t have to force it,” I choked out, every word scraped raw. “I’ll bond with him.”
“You bond with him right now, Ms. Thompson,” the High Chief replied smoothly, as if my entire world wasn’t bleeding out on those screens. “While we’re watching. You’ve had enough chances to do it on your own. Time’s up.”
My stomach lurched. My vision blurred. Rage and grief and terror collided so hard I thought I might pass out from the force of it.
“Okay,” I whispered, because there was no other choice left, because the world had backed me into a corner and expected me to die in it. “We’ll do it right now.”
“Over my dead fucking body,” Caden growled beside me, voice full of fury and hate, so much it made my heart twist painfully in my chest.
I closed my eyes—not to shut him out, but because looking at him hurt too much—because this, this, was exactly why I had fought my feelings for him for so long, why I had buried every spark and every pull and every goddamn truth, why I had run from him every chance I could.
Because loving him meant standing here now, torn open, forced to choose between him and the rest of the world, forced to let the Chiefs carve into the places I loved most.
This horrid heartbreak had always been the only outcome.
I should’ve known the Chiefs would outplay me. I should’ve known they’d go for the ones closest to me. I had too manypeople they could reach, too many they could twist, too many they could hurt, too many I loved with everything I had left.
I knew with a certainty that went beyond any limit of knowledge, if I didn’t comply right now, Caden would be next.
