<h4>Chapter 514: What She Wants</h4>


    <strong>Evaline:</strong>


    By the time I finishedying out everything that had happened inside Alpha Grey’s office, my bedroom fell into a silence so thick I could almost taste it. The kind that presses at your lungs,presses your ribs, and makes you aware of every passing second.


    I didn’t me them.


    The things Elion had said...


    The offer...


    The heritage...


    The implication that he knew more about me than even I knew about myself...


    Even I couldn’t wrap my head around it.


    Truthfully, I doubted I had spoken in apletely coherent order. My mind had been a whirlpool ever since the moment I stepped out of Elion Grey’s office. Thoughts circling, crashing, choking. The shock of his persistence. The worry over what River might say. The temptation - sharp and shameful - of discovering the truth behind my healing ability. All of it mixed into a storm that refused to calm.


    River had been away at Nightshade Pack.


    Oscar and Kieran were at the base camp, busy with the entrance exams for Silver Moon’s new students.


    That left me alone with my spiraling thoughts for hours.


    And when the three of them finally returned home around dinner... they noticed immediately. Of course they did. It took them only five minutes to corner me in the bedroom once I had tucked Lioren into his crib in the nursery.


    I hadn’t been trying to hide anything... not really. I just... didn’t know how to say it. How to bring up Elion Grey of all people. And certainly not how to exin everything he had offered.


    Now the room was heavy and unmoving.


    River stood with arms crossed, leaning against the floor-to-ceiling ss wall.


    Oscar sat on the edge of the bed, elbows on his knees.


    Kieran leaned against the back of the couch, his expression sharp and unreadable.


    For a long moment, nobody spoke.


    It was Oscar who broke the silence.


    "Why," he said slowly, "would Alpha Grey use something like that to make you agree to his offer?"


    Three pairs of eyes shifted instantly toward River.


    I did too.


    He was the ruling Alpha of the Rogue Community, a council member as well. He interacted with Alpha Grey more than any of us. He would know... if anyone did.


    River exhaled quietly, brushing his thumb across his jaw as though collecting his thoughts.


    And I braced myself.


    I expected him... especially him... to tell me to reject the offer. To stay away from Elion Grey. To forget everything he had said.


    But instead... River was calm. Thoughtful. Almost startlingly objective.


    "He’s smart," River said finally. "Very smart. Smarter than most people realize. And he doesn’t waste time with strategies that don’t serve a purpose. If he revealed something as big as that to Evaline... something he shouldn’t logically know.... it wasn’t random."


    The room seemed to tighten around us.


    River looked up at me then, his gaze deep and probing. "I have worked with him enough to understand this much - Elion Grey doesn’t take risks unless he’s sure of the oue. If he’s this persistent about making you his assistant... then he must believe there’s something unique about you that he needs. Or values."


    He paused.


    Amd went quiet.


    Too quiet.


    "Unless..." he said, then stopped.


    But Oscar, of course, didn’t let it slide. He chuckled. "Unless he’s interested in our mate."


    My head snapped toward him. "He’s not."


    "I’m just saying what River looked like he was thinking."


    "I wasn’t thinking that," River muttered... but his ears turned a very faint shade of red.


    I pressed my fingers to my forehead. "Oh my goddess..."


    Honestly, they were impossible sometimes.


    But the truth was - I hadn’t felt even a flicker of romantic interest from Elion Grey. Not once. Yes, he was handsome. Very handsome. That tall, clean, quietly intense kind of handsome that was almost unfair. But beautiful men weren’t new to me. And nothing in the way he looked at me felt... like <i>that</i>.


    This was strategic.


    Purposeful.


    Calcted.


    But why?


    Kieran cleared his throat softly, pulling us back to the real issue. His voice was calm, but beneath it I sensed tension... threads pulled too tight.


    "How did he even know?" He asked. "About your healing powers?"


    I had been asking myself the same question.


    "Either he investigated you and someone talked," Kieran continued, "or he somehow infiltrated our circle."


    River shook his head. "Elion isn’t sloppy. If he infiltrated anything, we would have noticed it. And if he investigated her... it might have reached us already, especially after we recently cleaned our teams."


    "Or..." Oscar added quietly, "...he might know something we don’t."


    That thought sent a shiver through me.


    Because if Elion Grey had answers about my healing power, then he had ess to information that even we didn’t understand.


    My fingertips tingled.


    And despite the uncertainty twisting in my stomach... there was something else inside me too.


    Curiosity.


    Hope.


    A desperate, sharp longing.


    "What if," I whispered, "he really does know something... something real?"


    River’s eyes softened when he looked at me. "Evaline..."


    I swallowed.


    "I have wanted answers ever since I got this power," I said, my voice trembling before I steadied it. "I have wanted to know about my mom’s lineage ever since I was little."


    None of them spoke.


    None of them interrupted.


    They just listened, truly listened.


    And I realized something that made my chest ache... they weren’t trying to push me away from the decision.


    Not even River.


    They were letting me think for myself.


    I sat down on the edge of the bed beside Oscar, clutching the nket between my fingers.


    "I don’t want to walk into someone else’s pack politics," I admitted. "But if Elion actually knows something about my bloodline... about why I can heal-" My voice cracked. "I can’t ignore that."


    Kieran moved first, stepping closer until he stood directly in front of me.


    "Then don’t," he said softly. "Just don’t rush."


    Oscar nodded. "We are not saying go. We are not saying don’t go. But don’t make the choice in haste."


    River crouched down in front of me, taking my hands gently into his.


    His touch always grounded me.


    "You don’t owe Elion anything," he said. "But you also don’t owe us the sacrifice of something important to you. Whatever you choose, we’ll support it."


    My chest tightened again... this time with warmth.


    With love.


    With the quiet certainty that whatever storms came next, I wouldn’t be facing them alone.


    I looked at all three of them, my voice barely audible.


    "What if epting his offer changes things? What if it turned out a trap or something?"


    River squeezed my hands. "Then we’ll deal with everything. Together."


    I exhaled shakily.


    Their words didn’t erase the uncertainty.


    But they did something gentler.


    They steadied me.


    And deep inside... beneath the confusion, the anxiety... something small and fragile whispered...


    <i>You know what you want, Eva.</i>


    And maybe I did.


    Maybe the truth of who I was mattered more than the fear of what might happen.


    But it was still worrying.