Chapter 291: Until I Get to You

ÉTIENNE

“I know,” I said, my own voice breaking now. “I know. That was a low blow. I shouldn’t have said it.”

“No,” Laurent agreed. “You shouldn’t have.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I understand why you said it,” he said, his voice still tight. “I understand the pain you’re in right now, watching her do exactly what I would have once wanted to do. But understanding doesn’t mean I forgive you for it. Not right now. Maybe not for a while.”

I let that sit between us, the silence heavy and uncomfortable, before I forced myself to move past it, because there wasn’t time for either of us to properly grieve this right now.

“I want the army mobilized,” I said. “Tonight. We go to Beaumont and we bring her back, by force if necessary.”

Laurent’s expression shifted immediately, sharpening into something more alert.

“No,” he said.

“Excuse me?”

“The army isn’t ready,” he said. “You know that better than anyone. We’ve barely begun coordinating with the allied packs still willing to stand with us. Sentinels are still being pulled from training rotations. If we march tonight, half-prepared, straight into Beaumont territory where they have home advantage and three coalition packs already positioned, we don’t rescue Margaux. We hand them exactly the war they wanted, and we lose.”

“I don’t care about the odds right now.”

“I know you don’t,” Laurent said. “That’s precisely the problem.”

“Laurent!”

“No,” he said again, firmer this time, stepping directly into my path when I moved toward the door. “I am not letting you march an unprepared force into a slaughter because you’re grieving and furious and want to feel like you’re doing something instead of sitting here helpless.”

“Get out of my way.”

“No.”

“I am your Alpha,” I snapped, “and I am giving you an order.”

“And I am your Beta,” Laurent shot back, “which means my job is to tell you when your orders will get every single person in this pack killed. That’s the entire point of my position, Étienne. It’s not to blindly follow whatever you want in the moment. It’s to keep you from destroying everything the second your judgment is compromised.”

“Is that what this is?” I demanded. “You think my judgment is compromised because I’m angry?”

“I think your judgment is compromised because the woman you love just broke your neck and drove herself into what you deem enemy territory,” Laurent said, “and you are currently operating on pure instinct instead of strategy. That is not an insult. That is simply the truth. I am saying it as it is.”

“Then what would you have me do?” My voice cracked entirely now, all the fury draining out into something closer to desperation. “Sit here? Wait? While she’s out there alone, trying to negotiate with a father who wants my head and a man who’s already proven he’ll cross any line to get her?”

“I would have you trust that she made this choice with her eyes open,” Laurent said, his own voice softening slightly, “and give the army the time it actually needs to be useful when we do go. Rushing in unprepared doesn’t save her, Étienne. It gets more people killed trying, possibly including you.”

I stared at him, chest heaving, every instinct in my body screaming to override everything he was saying and simply move.

“Are you saying this because it’s true,” I said quietly, “or because you’re still angry at me?”

Laurent’s expression hardened instantly.

“Do you actually think that little of me?” he said. “Do you think I would let personal hurt dictate strategy that risks the entire pack? You know me better than that, Étienne. Or at least I thought you did, before today.”

“I don’t know what to think right now.”

“Then figure it out fast,” Laurent said, “because right now you need a Beta more than you need a friend, and I need you to trust that I can be both without letting one poison the other. Can you do that? Or are you going to keep swinging at me every time this gets hard?”

I didn’t answer immediately.

The silence stretched long enough that I watched something in Laurent’s expression start to close off, some door quietly shutting between us that I understood, distantly, might not open easily again.

“I need her back,” I gave in finally, my voice barely above a whisper. “Whatever it takes.”

“Then let me build you an army capable of actually bringing her back,” Laurent said, “instead of one that gets slaughtered trying.”

I nodded, though nothing about the decision felt like surrendering my need to find her. If anything, it made the waiting harder.

“How long?”

Laurent exhaled slowly. “I cannot lie to your face and says give me until morning. So all I can tell you is that you need to give me time.”

“That’s too long.”

“It’s what I have to offer.”

I looked toward the window at the end of the corridor. It felt like darkness had settled over the grounds, swallowing the trees beyond the glass. Or perhaps that was just my sight. Still… I could not get over the thought that somewhere out there, Margaux was driving toward people who would gladly use her to get to me.

“Okay,” I said. “I will take it. I will try my best to be… reasonable.”

Laurent gave a single nod.

“When I have the sentinels ready, you will be the first to know.”

He turned to leave, but I stopped him.

“Laurent.” He glanced back. “I’m sorry.”

His expression didn’t soften, but the anger in it shifted. “I know.”

Then he walked away.

I stood there alone, staring at the piece of paper still clenched in my hand. Her handwriting stared back at me, every word carrying the weight of the choice she’d made without me.

I pressed the note against my chest and closed my eyes.

“Just stay alive,” I whispered. “Please, Margaux. Just stay alive until I get to you.”