Bailey paced back and forth wearing a hole in her apartment floor. Felicity sat curled up on the couch watching her best friend have a panic attack. “I know you don’t want to hurt either of them, but there has to be one you like more than the other.”
She didn’t get it. No one could. “Both of them enrich my life in different ways. Neither of which I’m okay with letting go of. Not to mention, my entire relationship is tied up in this bid for leadership, so I won’t just be picking a guy, I’ll be destroying someone’s life.”
Felicity took a sip of her tea. “Isn’t that a bit hyperbolic?”
“No. Both of them have dedicated their entire life to getting this position. Now the clan is waiting to see what I’m going to do before they vote. How can I do that to either of them?”
“Then don’t. Call that matchmaker lady and have her give you another one.”
Bailey sighed. “They aren’t paper plates. I can’t just toss out the used ones and pull another from the stack. Meeting a guy like Jaxon or Levi is something that happens once in a person’s life. And now it’s happened to me twice over. If I ruin this with both of them, there is no way I’m getting a third chance. If I don’t pick, I lose everything.”
Felicity sat down her mug and walked over to her friend. She rubbed her back in circles. “Don’t worry. When it comes down to the wire, you’ll look at the two of them and you’ll just know which of them makes your heart race. You’ll just know.”
Bailey hoped what her friend was saying was true, but she had her doubts. If after all this time she’d been unable to choose, why would a second’s notice make the difference?
A knock at the door made her jump.
Felicity headed over to answer it. “Gentlemen…” She gestured for them to come inside. “I told her to have a drink before heading to your meeting thing, but she refused, so she’s wound up pretty tight. Do me a favor and tell her she won’t be breaking your psyches by not choosing you.”
“We’ll talk to her,” Levi told Felicity while Jaxon collected Bailey who couldn’t seem to make her feet move toward the door without effort.
Why did it have to be so public? Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad if after making a decision she didn’t have to announce it to their entire clan. But as news of Jaxon and Levi pursuing the same woman reached the ears of the clan, the elders asked that her choice be made public as it might impact the vote.
Their meeting hall was a cabin in the same woods as Jaxon’s. The Southoak Clan had a hundred twenty four members and ninety-four of them were old enough to vote. The young remembered no other clan leader but Jaxon and supported him. Some of the older members still held a grudge over what Jaxon’s father did and thought that Levi should be restored to the status that was his by birth. For others, it was a matter of practicality. They just wanted whichever was the most likely to produce an heir a.s.a.p., so they’d never have to make a choice like this again. Bailey empathized with all of them.
Jaxon was the heart of the clan, under his leadership, they’d remain tight and could weather any storm. But Levi was the head. With him, the clan could prosper to heights most of them wouldn’t dare dream of. Who was she to choose the path for these people? She was no one. She had no right.
The meeting started and Jaxon spoke first. He talked about the shame he felt over his father’s actions, but that he was not his father and listed all the good he’s done for the clan over the years when there was no one else to do it.
Then Levi spoke. He told them about his father’s final days, the promise he made. He vowed that he wouldn’t punish the clan for mistakes in the past. He wanted to look forward. To move forward, with them.
Then it was Bailey’s turn. She stood in front of the clan and the room went silent. Jaxon sat to her left. Levi to her right. She looked into their eyes and an answer never came to her. “They are both the best men I’ve ever known and you’ll be lucky to have either of them.” She looked between them again. “I’m sorry. I can’t.” Without another word, she ran down the center isle and hid in the bathroom.
She sat on the toilet and sobbed her eyes out. She’d let everyone down and now she didn’t know what would happen. If they chose someone, the other would have to leave in exile. Would she stay with the one they chose or go with the one they sent away? This still wasn’t over.
She hid in the bathroom for what felt like forever until she heard a familiar knock at the door. She opened it, her face puffy and red.
Jaxon stood there looking deflated.
“So they chose Levi?” she asked softly.
“No. The vote was a tie.”
“Now what happens?”
“It goes to the elders for a vote. One abstained, so that was also a tie.”
Oh God, were they just going to flip a coin at that point? “So…how?”
“The law says in this situation the winner is determined by combat.”
Bailey recalled how scratched up they’d both became the last time they fought and knew they’d be even less forgiving this time. “I don’t want you to fight. You might hurt one another.”
“It’s a fight to the death.”
She snapped out of her depressed fog. “What?! You can’t. Are you serious?”
Jaxon sighed and Bailey recognized his mood for what it was—sad resolve. “It’s a very old law. Things like this don’t happen very often, but it is our way.”
“Screw your way. You’re both taking this too far. Levi was once your friend. Are you really going to go out there and try to kill him?”
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Maybe if leadership was all that was at stake I would…” Someone called him from the other side of the building. “I have to go. One way or another, it’ll be over soon.”
Before she could say anything else, he’d run off toward the front door. She didn’t miss the last thing Jaxon said, this was about her. They were going to try to kill each other because she couldn’t make a choice. She’d gone from figuratively costing one of them their lives to literally. She had to stop them. She ran out the front door of the cabin.
But she was too late. In the center of spectators stood Jaxon and Levi in their shifted forms trying to murder one another.
They were already tearing chunks out of each other, claws and fangs were flying. She had to do something, but what could she possibly do?
There wasn’t time to think. She had to act. She ran between them, certain she was going to die. But better her than either of them.
She was only there a split second before Levi’s claws tore across her back. Causing her to fall towards Jaxon as his fangs pierced her shoulder.
She could feel the blood pouring out of her, but even so, she was smiling. It worked. Her boys had shifted back. She had saved them.
She didn’t realize she’d fallen until she was looking up at Levi, holding her in his arms, his face twisted with worry. “You promised,” she blubbered. “Anything I want. Moons and dragons, anything. I don’t want this. You promised.”
Jaxon came into view. She touched his cheek with her bloody hand. “No more. You’ve done enough. Promise me.”
Tears threatened to spill from his eyes. “I promise. We’ll find a way. Just promise me you won’t die.”
She felt incredibly cold and wasn’t sure she could keep a promise like that. “I’ll do my best,” she offered.
And then the darkness found her.