Noah.
I cleared my throat the mont the assassins disappeared from sight, their bodies and footsteps fading into the distance until only silence remained.
The sudden battlefield suddenly felt much quieter and the mont I looked up, I realized why.
The quadruplets’ attention was now entirely on —four pairs of eyes and four unreadable expressions.
Four n who had just stepped into a battle that wasn’t theirs.
I imdiately straightened my shoulders, because there was no way I was going to let this beco awkward.
"Don’t think saving would make feel guilty about having Maria!" I blurted out at once.
The words ca out faster than I intended, but I didn’t regret them, not even in the slightest bit.
Because I knew exactly how these things worked.
People did favors, then expected sothing in return.
And considering the complicated situation surrounding Maria, I wasn’t foolish enough to believe this rescue had co without expectations attached.
At least, that was what I told myself.
For a brief mont, none of them said anything.
Then Adrien scoffed, the sound was sharp and filled with mockery.
"Well, Damien, this is the ingrate you emphasized principles on," he said, his voice dripping with annoyance.
I frowned imdiately.
I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.
Principles?
What principles?
Whatever conversation they had before arriving here clearly had nothing to do with .
Still, judging from Adrien’s expression, he wasn’t exactly pleased that I was standing here alive.
Not that I cared.
Honestly, I didn’t mind at all.
If he regretted helping , that was his problem.
"Well, our principles are what make us human, Adrien," Damien replied calmly, his voice lacking the irritation his brother displayed, but sohow that made it worse. "Whether it’s soone we like or dislike doesn’t matter. Whether the person is grateful doesn’t matter either."
Then his gaze settled on and the disgust in his eyes was impossible to miss.
I felt my jaw tighten.
There was sothing infuriating about being looked at like that, like I was so unpleasant obligation he had been forced to fulfill.
"I would rather not be human than waste my ti on soone ungrateful," Davian declared.
Unlike Damien, he made no effort to hide his anger or his irritation.
Every word ca out harsher than the last. His eyes flashed with annoyance before he abruptly turned away and started walking toward his horse.
The conversation was clearly over for him.
I stared after him.
What was with all this drama?
Seriously.
Did I ask anyone to save ?
Did I send them a letter begging for help?
Did I sohow force them to ride all the way here?
No.
So why were they acting as though I owed them so grand emotional reaction?
Or was this all part of so elaborate attempt to make feel guilty?
If so, they were wasting their ti.
Because it wasn’t working, not even a little.
"Let’s go," Aidan said, his voice short and emotionless, as if the words carried no weight at all, as if everything that had just happened ant nothing to him.
Then he followed after Davian without another word, his steps steady and unhurried, already pulling away from the tension that still hung thick in the air behind them.
One by one, they began heading toward their horses, their movents almost synchronized in a quiet, practiced rhythm that made it feel like this decision had already been settled long before I was even given the chance to process it.
And for the first ti since this conversation started, my confidence faltered slightly.
It wasn’t obvious at first—just a small, almost invisible crack in the wall I had been holding up. But it was there.
My eyes shifted toward my own horse.
The poor animal stood unevenly, clearly injured, its posture unstable and its breathing heavy. There was no way it could carry anywhere—not in this state, not across anything resembling distance or safety.
Then I beca painfully aware of the blood still staining my clothes.
It clung to in a way I had ignored earlier, but now it felt impossible to overlook. The wounds I had brushed off during the fight suddenly made themselves known again, as though waiting for this exact mont to remind of their presence. They felt heavier, sharper, and far more real than they had monts ago.
I watched the brothers continue toward their horses.
Their backs were turned, their focus already shifting away from , as though I had already been ntally removed from their equation.
Were they seriously leaving here?
In the middle of nowhere?
My horse was injured.
I was bleeding.
And despite everything I had been telling myself just monts ago, the possibility that they might actually ride away without suddenly didn’t seem impossible at all. It sat in my chest like a slow, cold realization I couldn’t shake off.
Adrien turned to leave as well, clearly done with both the conversation and my existence. There was no hesitation in him, no second thought reflected in the angle of his shoulders or the direction of his gaze.
His boots had barely taken a few steps when Damien’s voice suddenly rang out across the battlefield.
"Co on, brothers. Let’s just finish what we started."
His words echoed loudly through the otherwise quiet surroundings, cutting through the thinning tension like a blade.
Imdiately, the other three stopped.
The reaction was instant.
They turned simultaneously, almost as one unit, and fixed Damien with deadly glares that cut through the air like sharpened blades.
The kind of glares that would have made most people reconsider their life choices on the spot, the kind that silently warned of consequences without a single weapon being raised.
"Are you out of your mind?" they all echoed in unison, their voices overlapping with the sa disbelief, the sa irritation, and the sa refusal to even entertain what he had just said.
For a brief mont, the sight almost distracted from the pain coursing through my body, as ridiculous as it was that this argunt was happening here, now, in the middle of everything.
But Damien didn’t seem intimidated in the slightest.
If anything, he appeared even more determined than before, as though their reaction only reinforced his stance. His expression remained firm and unshaken as he faced his brothers without flinching.
"I am not," he said. Then he paused briefly, letting the silence stretch just enough to draw their attention tighter before continuing. "You can’t just do an incomplete job."
His voice carried steady conviction, the kind that suggested he had already made up his mind long before he ever opened his mouth.
Davian imdiately scoffed.
The sound was sharp, loud, and full of disbelief, as if the very idea insulted him.
"Were we hired in the first place?" he asked, raising his chin arrogantly, his tone edged with sarcasm and challenge.
His irritation was obvious.
Every word seed designed to challenge Damien’s argunt.
And while they continued debating, I shifted my weight slightly.
The movent turned out to be a mistake, as a sharp wave of pain tore through my body.
I winced imdiately, as my vision flickered.
For a second, I thought it would pass but It didn’t. Instead, the dizziness intensified.
The wounds I had stubbornly ignored throughout the confrontation suddenly demanded attention.
My legs felt heavier and my breathing beca uneven. Each breath seed harder to draw than the last.
I blinked several tis, trying to focus on the arguing brothers but their voices were becoming strangely distant.
As though they were standing far away instead of only a few feet from .
"Can you just listen to yourself, Davian?" Damien asked, his voice reaching faintly. "When did we beco so childish?"
I watched him walk slowly toward his brothers.
Or at least, I thought I did.
Everything had started blurring together and their figures seed less defined now.
The edges of my vision darkened slightly.
"Get your head straight, Damien, and let’s leave here. We still have more important things to do."
Aidan’s voice sounded firr than the others.
This ti, he mounted his horse, and ghe movent caught my attention briefly.
I tried to focus on him and tried to keep myself alert but my body no longer seed interested in cooperating.
My knees weakened slightly.
I inhaled deeply, attempting to steady myself but It didn’t help.
The voices around continued growing fainter. Their conversation beca little more than fragnts of sound.
Then ca silence.
Or perhaps they were still talking.
I honestly couldn’t tell anymore.
The darkness creeping into my vision expanded rapidly, swallowing everything piece by piece.
My body felt strangely light, and weightless and then darkness consud completely.
Yet even as consciousness slipped away, I wasn’t entirely alone.
Deep within my subconscious, another voice remained persistent and determined, refusing to surrender.
It was my wolf.
"We can’t die now." He echoed repeatedly through the darkness. "Maria still needs us."
Those last four words beca the only thing holding together as the darkness swallowed everything else.
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