I Bought Two Wolf Brothers For Warmth And The Comments Called Me Evil Chapter 03
Jaxon went still.
Then his expression went hard as stone.
“What did you say?”
“End the contract.” I met his eyes. “What part of that wasn’t clear?”
He looked at me like he was trying to figure out what kind of crazy I was pulling this time.
“Is this about the fox shifter outside?”
“It’s got nothing to do with her.”
“Nothing to do with her, and you’re pulling this stunt?” He scoffed. “I already told you. She was just helping someone out. Elara, how long are you going to keep this up?”
Keep this up.
That phrase sank under my skin like a hook.
It all came back at once.
The night my condition flared at 2 a.m. and I knocked on his door, he’d opened it with a scowl. Stop using your condition to mess with us.
The time Silas came back hurt and I waited outside the med tent for hours. He’d told me I was being dramatic. The healers have it handled.
Even when the cold got so bad I couldn’t get words out, they always gave me the same answer.
Stop making a scene.
Stop being difficult.
My grip tightened on the contract folder, and my voice went flat.
“I’m not making a scene.”
“I came here to tell you. Not to ask.”
The tent flap lifted behind me.
Silas walked in.
His eyes went to me first, then to Jaxon, then down to the contract folder in my hand.
“What’s going on?”
Jaxon didn’t move. His voice came out cold and mocking.
“She says she wants to end the contract.”
Silas stopped mid-step and looked at me.
The tent went silent.
He was the one who spoke first. He always was.
“Why?”
I couldn’t exactly bring up the floating comments. I couldn’t tell him I already knew I’d end up in the underground arena.
I looked at him for a long time, and what came out was the only thing I could say.
“I’m done.”
The air went still.
Jaxon erupted first.
“The hell did you just say?”
I lifted my chin and gave him the thinnest smile I had.
“I said I’m done. Three years of settling was plenty.”
Jaxon shot to his feet, his expression twisting into something dangerous.
“Settling?”
“Half the women in this camp would kill for a contract with us. We never turned you away, and you’re the one who’s done?”
I met his eyes, and something between a laugh and a sigh almost escaped.
“You never turned me away. Am I supposed to drop to my knees and thank you for that?”
I let that land. Then I kept going.
“And who says I can’t be the one to walk away?”
That one cut deeper. I could see it.
Jaxon’s jaw locked so tight it looked like something was about to snap. For a second, I thought he was going to pin me down again.
But Silas caught his arm.
He was watching me, still and quiet, like he was deciding whether I meant it.
A long silence passed. Then he nodded.
“Fine.”
Jaxon’s head snapped toward him. “Silas!”
“If she’s thought it through, then that’s that.”
Silas’s voice was light, like he was approving a supply request.
“We’re heading to Glacier Valley soon, and we won’t be back for a while. We’ll handle the paperwork once the mission’s done. You can stay at the house until then.”
I hadn’t expected him to agree that easily. For a second, I didn’t know what to do with it.
But then the relief came.
He was letting me go. That was enough.
I picked up the contract folder and turned to leave.
Jaxon’s voice followed me out, low and hard.
“Elara. Don’t come crawling back to us when you regret this.”
I didn’t look back.
I made it all the way to the camp gates before I realized I’d left one of the forms behind in Jaxon’s tent.
I turned back.
But the moment I reached the entrance, I heard his voice.
“Why would you agree to that?”
My feet locked to the ground.
Then Silas’s voice drifted through the canvas, as calm as ever.
“Relax.”
“With her condition, she won’t last without us.”
Every muscle in my body went rigid.
They kept talking.
“Twelve hours without physical contact and she’ll be shaking. All of this today? She saw Chloe and got jealous. She’s using the contract to force our hand.”
“Let her cool off.”
“Once the symptoms get bad enough, she’ll come crawling back on her own.”
Jaxon was quiet for a moment. Then he swore under his breath.
“And if she goes looking for another shifter?”
Silas didn’t miss a beat.
“Everyone in Sterling City knows she’s ours.”
“With our rank, no beast shifter in this city would touch her.”
“She has nowhere to go but back to us.”
I stood outside that tent, and the cold spreading through my hands and feet had nothing to do with my condition.
The floating comments tore across my vision.
[did you hear that. that’s what they really think]
[it was never about caring. her condition is just leverage to them]
[they’re not worried about her suffering. they’re just mad she’s acting out]
I stared at those words, and a laugh almost clawed its way out of my throat.
So that’s what it looked like when someone didn’t care about you. It was this obvious.
They didn’t just overlook my pain. They saw it, and weaponized it.
I didn’t go back inside. I turned and walked.
That afternoon, I went straight to Sterling City’s registry office and filed the termination myself.
The second my name hit the paper, something in my chest hollowed out.
But only for a second.
Because Silas was right.
Two days after the snow wolf brothers left, my condition flared.
