Chapter 37: The Final Choice

-Rhys-

I watched as the car drove away, feeling like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. We had agreed to let Nova live. I simply couldn’t let go of her despite it all, and we all knew if we killed her, it might just make me go insane. So, we were going to let her live and figure out if we could trust her later. She might just spend her entire life in jail, but at least she was alive.

“Fuck!” I shouted.

Rogan came over to me, placing his hand on my shoulder.

“Sorry,” he said.

“No, I am,” I said and turned to him. “I let you all down.”

Rogan shook his head.

“She fooled us all. Now we need to be prepared. She will tell them everything.”

I sighed and nodded, as we walked inside again, hating the damn Goddess at that moment for giving me Nova as my mate. It had messed everything up.

-Nova-

“Honey, I am HOME!” my brother shouted, as we walked through the front doors.

I shook my head as I closed the doors behind us, but then my other brothers came running with a few other rogues.

“No fucking way!” Zane shouted as they walked towards us.

Keith went to hug my brothers, while I just stayed behind. I saw my brothers turn to me, all looking at me like they couldn’t believe I was there, except Keith, of course.

“How?” Zane asked and turned to Keith.

“Found her where I was held captured.”

“She was their prisoner?” he asked.

Keith shook his head.

“No, more like the guest of honor.”

“What?!” Zane asked and looked at me.

I swallowed hard.

“First let me change and let’s talk,” Keith said.

Keith continued on his way while Zane and Michael turned to me. We just looked at each other, but then Zane came over to me and wrapped his arms around me, Michael following right away.

“Good to have you back sis, you got a lot to explain,” Zane said.

I nodded.

“I know.”

***

We gathered in the living room just me and my brothers. Keith had taken a quick shower and changed his clothes and already looked so much better. I wondered if he had acted back there with Rhys and the rest. He had to have been. He let himself be weak, so I would try and sacrifice myself for him, and then create a distraction. He was smart … and I had fallen for it.

“So, explain,” Zane said.

“What is there to say?” Keith asked. “She is Rogan’s beta’s mate, and has fraternized with the enemy.”

“What?!” my brothers shouted.

I turned to Keith who was standing behind the couch I was sitting on and glared at him.

“You don’t know anything!” I shouted at him.

“I know you have given yourself to him, and who knows what you have told the rest about us,” he said.

“I never said anything!” I told him. “I told you this.”

“I am not sure we can believe you.”

“And should I trust you?” I asked and got up from the couch. “You used me as a fucking shield!”

“You know I didn’t actually plan to hurt you. I just knew they wouldn’t shoot if you stood in the front.”

“That is a shield!” I said.

“Come on, Nova. That is the least you could do,” he said.

“What?!”

“You were together with the enemy all this time, sleeping with him, eating with him,” he said. “You brought us into all this trouble as we tried to look for you.”

“I told you I tried to leave!” I told him.

“I don’t think you really did. I think they got you too,” he said. “Or did you hate it there?”

I didn’t answer, because he already knew I didn’t.

“That is what I thought.”

I shook my head and turned to Zane and Michael, who both looked so disappointed.

“You slept with him?” Zane asked.

“Please, I … you don’t understand,” I said.

“Oh, I think we do,” Zane said. “Clearly, we are not important to you.”

“That’s not true!” I shouted. “I told them nothing!”

“Do you swear it?” Zane asked.

I nodded.

“I swear it! I never said anything! You are my family!”

Yet as I looked at all three of them, I saw that we weren’t truly one. They doubted me now, or maybe they always had. Maybe they never thought I was good enough to be a rogue. I was too kind. Too sweet. I wasn’t cut out for it. They must always have known that, and I saw then that I didn’t belong there anymore.

“Were you really not going to hurt me?” I asked Keith.

“What?”

“You used me as a shield. How could you know that they wouldn’t shoot?” I asked.

“Because you are the beta’s mate,” he said. “I was certain of it.”

“Were you?” I asked.

“Oh, come on, Nova!” he said. “I was certain!”

I shook my head.

“I don’t think you really were.”

“What?!”

“I think if it comes down to it, you don’t want to sacrifice yourself for me,” I said, and then looked at my other brothers. “Any of you.”

“We went looking for you!” Michael said.

“And yet somehow it never occurred to you I might be with Rogan and the rest, even though I disappeared the night they had a trap made for you.”

“We didn’t know you had snuck out!” Zane said.

“I disappeared the same night,” I repeated.

My brothers just shook their heads, not listening to me.

“None of you would sacrifice yourself for me because you don’t really see me as one of you,” I said.

“Nova …” Zane warned, getting tired of this.

“Am I even family to you?” I asked.

“Stop this!” he shouted and got up on his feet. “I am tired of hearing this. It sounds like you want to go back!”

“Maybe I do.”

They all just stared at me.

“You held a knife to my throat,” I said and looked at Keith. “I would never do that.”

“I saved us!” he said.

“Do you want to leave?” Zane asked.

I turned to him and looked at him for a long time.

“Because if you do, then go ahead! But if you walk out of that door, you are officially one of them, and we will not show you any kindness, just because we share blood. So choose!”