Chapter 246: Choose
Scarlett’s POV
I whipped around to face Leo, my hands clenched into tight fists at my sides. "How dare you!" I screamed, my voice shaking with rage. "How dare you do that, Leo?!"
He didn’t even flinch. He just stood there by the desk, casually using his thumb to wipe away the blood trickling from his cut lip. He didn’t look sorry at all. His blue eyes were cold and dark as he stared back at me.
"It wasn’t your place to tell them!" I spat, tears of anger burning my eyes. "And telling them like that? Making it sound like some dirty game we played behind their backs? How could you do this to your own brothers? How could you do this to me?!"
Leo let out a low, bitter breath. He shrugged his broad shoulders, his face totally hard. "One way or another, the truth had to come out, Scar," he said, his voice completely calm. "They were going to find out eventually."
Seeing his total lack of guilt made something inside me snap completely. At that exact moment, I hated him so much it made my stomach turn. The man standing in front of me didn’t look like my fated mate anymore. He looked like a monster who had just destroyed our entire family without a single care in the world.
He absolutely disgusted me.
"You are making me hate you, Leo," I whispered, glaring at him. "I mean it. If you keep this up, I will never open our bond again."
I didn’t wait to hear his reply. Turning on my heel, I stormed out of the bedroom, slamming the door behind me. My mind was in complete chaos. I needed to find Liam and Leonard. I needed to explain the truth before this pain tore them apart.
I hurried through the quiet hallways of the packhouse, searching for their scent until I heard a heavy, violent sound coming from the training area. I pushed open the door to the gym and found the two of them there.
"Can we talk?" I asked breathlessly, my voice trembling as I stepped inside.
Leonard stopped what he was doing and whipped around to face me. His eyes were wild and full of pain. "So you and Leo even fucked under my nose in Australia?"
Liam looked up, his expression completely confused. He looked between Leonard and me, not understanding what Australia had to do with anything.
Leonard let out a dark, breathless laugh, looking right at Liam. "A year ago, I slept with a masked dancer at a club in Australia. I never knew it was Scarlett until we found out she was alive and she confessed it to me. But Leo was in Australia with her too. Now that I see the truth, I bet they fucked there, too!"
"Leonard, please calm down!" I begged, taking a step closer, my heart breaking at the pure agony on his face.
"Calm down?!" Leonard scoffed, his voice booming through the gym. "It’s completely obvious, Scarlett—you always wanted Leo. You always preferred him over us."
"That’s not true!" I cried, shaking my head as tears spilled over my cheeks. "You know that’s not true!"
"This is the exact reason why the sharing arrangement is never going to work," Leonard spat, his chest heaving as he turned his back on me. "We can’t share you."
Liam, who had been completely silent the whole time, finally spoke up. His voice was terrifyingly low, and full of shock and betrayal. "So... Leo slept with you two years ago. And Leonard slept with you a year ago."
"Liam, please listen to me," I sobbed, reaching out toward him. "Leonard didn’t know it was me in Australia. It was a mistake, he didn’t know—"
"But you knew it was him!" Liam roared, spitting the words out in pure jealousy. He slammed his fist into a nearby punching bag so hard the chains rattled against the ceiling. "You knew exactly who he was, Scarlett! And you still did it!"
"Yes, I knew it was Leonard!" I yelled back, my voice cracking as the tears finally spilled over. "And it was the hardest thing I ever had to do! Do you have any idea what it felt like to hold him, to feel his skin, and know I couldn’t even tell him my real name? I was drowning in sadness for all of you every single day!"
I wiped my wet cheeks angrily, glaring at both of them through my tears.
"You think you two were the only ones hurting?" I sobbed, my chest heaving. "While you were suffering at home, I was completely alone in exile! I had to hide, dying inside because I couldn’t come back to my mates. I didn’t do it to hurt you. I did it to keep you alive!"
The room went deadly quiet. The heavy chains on the punching bag slowly stopped rattling, but the air still felt thick with tension.
Liam stood completely still. The wild fury in his green eyes slowly turned into something much colder, a deep and final kind of pain. He looked at me, then at Leonard, and let out a long, hollow breath.
"This sharing can never work," Liam said, his voice entirely flat and empty. He shook his head, stepping back from me. "It’s over, Scarlett. You have to choose one of us."
Leonard let out a harsh, bitter scoff from the corner of the room. He turned his face away, his jaw clenching tightly. "I bet she’ll choose Leo," he muttered, his voice dripping with dark jealousy. "She always goes back to him anyway."
Liam didn’t even argue with him. He kept his dead, serious gaze locked straight on me. "I am giving you exactly one month to make your choice, Scarlett," he said, each word hitting me like a physical blow. "Choose one of us. Whoever you choose, the other two will reject you immediately. I am completely done with this game."
Without waiting for me to speak, Liam turned around and walked straight out of the gym, leaving the heavy door swinging behind him.
I stood there, completely frozen, my breath catching in my throat. I slowly turned to look at Leonard. The anger had completely left his face, leaving only a deep, raw agony in his dark brown eyes. He looked so incredibly broken it made my soul ache.
"I know I am the lowest on your list," Leonard whispered, his voice cracking slightly as he looked at me one last time. "So just meet me when you finally choose one of my brothers. I’ll be ready for the rejection."
He turned on his heel and walked out too, his heavy footsteps fading down the hallway until there was nothing left but silence.
My legs gave out. I stumbled backward and sank onto a nearby workout bench, buried my face in my shaking hands, and let the heavy sobs tear through my body.
Choose?
How could they ask me to choose? How could I ever pick just one of them?
It was completely impossible. I loved all three of them equally, with every single shred of my soul. They weren’t just three different men to me; they were the pieces of a puzzle inside my heart. Leo was my fierce fire, Leonard was my steady rock, and Liam was my safe haven. Together, they completed me. Without any single one of them, the picture would always be broken, and my wolf would never be whole.
If I chose one, I would have to watch the other two rip our sacred bond away and reject me forever.
No, I can’t do it.
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