Chapter 104: The Choice Offered
Chapter 104: The Choice Offered
Vivian’s POV"Oh, I know. But do you want to hear something more interesting?" I tilted my head as his smug grin started to falter. He was watching me now with far more caution than arrogance. He didn’t trust me, not fully. Good.
"You won’t break out of them," I said. The words were delivered gently, but with absolute conviction. "Because I’m asking you not to. Because you owe me that much. If anything you said about mates meant a damn thing to you, then sitting here like this might be your first real shot at earning your way back onto my good side."
He looked shaken. The dark rage in his eyes faded back into their lighter, striking blue: shock and understanding flickering behind them like lightning across a stormy night sky.
"I don’t know about you," I added quietly, stepping closer to the bed, "but I’ve been alone my whole life. And right now? That still sounds a hell of a lot better than being with someone who thinks love means control."
He was quiet for a long, heavy moment. I could almost hear the rusted gears of his mind turning, processing the shift in our dynamic.
"Is that what you want?" he finally rasped. His voice sounded raw, stripped of its usual absolute authority, like he was reaching for something precious but didn’t know how to hold it without crushing it.
I didn’t answer right away. I just crossed my arms and stared back at him, unyielding.
His jaw tightened until a muscle jumped in his cheek. "Fine," he muttered, leaning back against the pillows. "I’ll play along."
"Welcome to my version of couple’s therapy."
He scoffed, shaking his dark head like he couldn’t believe what he’d just gotten himself into.
"So this is it? I expected you to be pissed, sure. But I didn’t think you’d chain me up and plan my emotional rehab."
I arched a cool brow at him. "You’re breathing, aren’t you? So I didn’t really kill you. Just... pressed pause. Call it unwilling unconsciousness."
His blue eyes narrowed into sharp slits. "So what now? You going to leave me here until you feel better?"
I let out a short, dry laugh that echoed off the high ceiling.
"Oh, please. That would be completely pointless. This isn’t just about punishing you, Zaliver. It’s about teaching you. How to communicate. How to rein in that primal impulse to bulldoze over people, especially me."
I took a deep breath and walked right up to the edge of the mattress, letting him really look at me, forcing him to hear me this time.
"You’ve got two choices, Zaliver. Break out of those chains and keep walking down your lonely, dictatorial path. Because I refuse to be with someone who lies, commands, and crushes my voice. That’s not love. That’s tyranny."