Chapter 217: Crazy Proposal
Rebecca’s POV
Kane stared at me like I had completely lost my mind.
For a terrifying second, he didn’t even speak. He just stood there with his eyes wide, his mouth slightly open, processing the crazy words that had just come out of my mouth.
"Are you insane?" he finally barked out, taking a step back as if my madness were contagious.
"Yes," I said immediately, leaving the bed and stepping toward him. "Yes, Alpha Kane, maybe I am! But I don’t have another choice!"
"No," Kane shook his head, waving his hand in the air to shut me down. "No, no, no. Absolutely not. Rebecca, do you hear what you’re saying? You want me to bring Alpha King Kaden’s pregnant, memory-erased mate into his own packhouse and introduce you as my woman?"
"It is the only way!" I pleaded, my voice cracking under the sheer weight of my panic. "If I go in as a servant, his guards will question my background. If I go in as a stranger, he will throw me into the dungeons to be interrogated! But if I am with you, under your protection, nobody will dare question why I am walking through those halls."
"He will question it!" Kane shouted, slamming his hand down on the edge of the wooden table. The loud bang echoed off the walls, making Stephanie flinch beside me. "Kaden knows me! He knows I don’t just randomly bring women into his packhouse to live with me! He will look at you, he will look at me, and his instincts will trigger. He might not remember your face, Rebecca, but his wolf is still in there. If he gets one scent of you, or if he senses his own child growing inside you, he will snap!"
"He won’t!" I argued, tears spilling over my eyelashes and running hot down my cheeks. "The spell wiped his memories completely! The choker is masking everything—it’s preventing his wolf from sensing the baby! He doesn’t know who I am anymore. Please, Alpha Kane, you have to help me. I am begging you!"
"I am trying to save your life!" Kane growled, rubbing his face with both hands, pulling at his hair in sheer desperation. "You are asking me to play with fire in front of a sleeping monster!"
"And you are asking me to walk straight back into a living hell!" I yelled back, my chest heaving as I fought for air. "You want me to just hand myself over to him? To let him remember everything? He owned me! He controlled every single breath I took, suffocating me until I couldn’t even feel like a human being! The pain, the heartache, the way he possessed my entire existence... I would rather die than be trapped in his grasp ever again!"
"It’s not just about you anymore!" Kane snapped, pointing a trembling finger toward my stomach. "You are carrying his heir! What happens if we do this, huh? Let’s say I agree to this suicidal plan. Let’s say I bring you into the mansion, Maeve casts her spell, and you actually manage to find where he hid that key. What next, Rebecca?"
He took two heavy steps closer, his gaze burning into mine with sharp, relentless reality.
"What happens the moment that choker falls off your neck?" Kane demanded, his voice low and dangerous. "What is your big plan then? You unlock the collar, release yourself, and run away into the night with his child? You think you can just disappear from the Alpha King?"
The room fell into a suffocating quiet.
I swallowed hard, the cold truth of his words landing heavy in my chest. My hands drifted down, resting gently over my flat stomach. I didn’t have an answer for him. I hadn’t thought about what came after the key. I was so consumed by the terror of being possessed by Kaden again—of returning to that invisible cage of his obsession—that I couldn’t see past the silver metal burning around my neck.
"I don’t know yet," I whispered, my voice trembling as fresh tears choked my throat. "I don’t know what comes next, Kane. But right now... right now I just need this collar off. Let’s just get the key first. Please. We can figure out the rest later."
Kane looked at me for a long, painful moment. His dark eyes were filled with a mix of pity, frustration, and exhaustion.
He slowly shook his head.
"No," Kane said, his voice dropping into a cold, flat line. "I won’t do it. I am not risking everyone’s lives on a gamble that has disaster written all over it."
Before I could grab his arm or say another word, Kane turned on his heel, pushed open the heavy wooden door, and stormed out into the hallway, leaving the door swinging in his wake.
"Alpha Kane! Wait!" I cried out, taking a step toward the hallway, but my legs felt heavy, anchoring me to the floor.
Beside the doorway, Elder Maeve stood silently. She didn’t try to stop Kane, nor did she scold me for my desperation. She simply looked at me, her wrinkled face holding a quiet, somber understanding.
"I understand your fear, child," Maeve said softly. "No soul craves the invisible chains it just broke free from. The hurt he caused you runs deep, but fear can blind even the sharpest mind to the danger right in front of them."
She adjusted the dark shawl around her shoulders and took a small step back into the corridor.
"Think carefully about what you are willing to burn down just to stay hidden," the seer added quietly.
Without another word, Elder Maeve turned and walked away.
I turned around and looked at Stephanie.
She didn’t say a single word, but the troubled look on her face said everything. Even she wasn’t in support of my idea. She pressed her lips together into a thin line, squeezing my hand once before letting go, unable to meet my eyes.
My knees finally gave out, and I sat back down on the edge of the bed. I wrapped my arms tightly around myself, staring fixedly at the open doorway where Kane and Maeve had just disappeared.
Strangely, something told me that Kane wasn’t truly done and he was coming back. He was furious, terrified, and overwhelmed by the madness of my proposal—but he cared too much to just walk away.