Chapter 8 – The Beta’s Vow
1264 Words
Celina’s POV
THE ESTATE felt colder with Lucien in it.
Not temperature—he kept the fireplaces roaring like they could burn away the political wolves already circling—but the kind of cold that sank into your ribs and stayed there.
I told myself I’d keep my head down, keep quiet, and survive whatever this arrangement was. But I didn’t expect Rhys to follow.
Did Lucien send him? No. I saw in the Alpha’s eyes how he hated Rhys now. He wouldn’t let him come near me now. Rhys shouldn’t be here.
The morning after the Council’s visit, I stepped into the hallway and nearly walked into him.
“Guest quarters,” he said before I could even open my mouth. “Top of the west wing. I’m not leaving you here alone.”
I glanced over his shoulder, half expecting Lucien’s shadow to emerge from the gloom. “You can’t stay here. Lucien won’t—”
“Lucien doesn’t get a vote,” Rhys cut in, voice sharp. “Not on this.”
My chest tightened. “Rhys…”
He stepped closer, lowering his voice. “I know you’re pretending this is just about the baby. But I’m not blind. You’re scared. And you don’t trust him.”
He was right. I didn’t. But there were degrees of danger, and I wasn’t sure anymore which man was the greater one.
Before I could answer, the sound of boots on polished wood echoed behind us. Lucien.
His gaze swept over Rhys first, cold and calculating, before settling on me like a physical weight. “The Beta has a pack to run.”
“My Alpha can manage without me,” Rhys said. His tone was polite, but his posture was pure defiance.
Lucien’s jaw flexed. “This isn’t a negotiation.”
“Neither is my loyalty,” Rhys replied.
The air between them thickened, wolf against wolf, and for a moment I swore I could feel their power pushing against each other, rippling through the hall.
“Enough,” I said quickly, stepping between them before they decided to settle this in teeth and claws. “I don’t care what arrangement you two have to make—just don’t do this in front of me.”
Lucien’s eyes softened for half a second when they met mine, but the look he threw Rhys as he walked away promised this wasn’t over.
RHYS KEPT his word.
He was everywhere—at the training yard when I walked past, in the gardens when I tried to breathe fresh air, leaning in doorways when I dared leave my room after dark. It should have been suffocating, but it was the first time since the cabin I didn’t feel like I might wake up with a knife at my throat.
One night, I found him on the balcony outside my room, leaning on the railing. The moonlight painted him silver.
“You’re still here,” I said quietly.
“Where else would I be?”
I didn’t have an answer for that.
He turned, his expression gentler than I’d seen in weeks. “Do you remember the night you told me you wanted to disappear? Before all this—before him?”
I nodded. “I meant it.”
“I know.” He looked down at his hands. “I thought… maybe I could give you that. Not the running part. But the quiet. The peace. A home where no one was looking over your shoulder.”
I exhaled, my breath catching on something I didn’t want to name.
“I still want that,” he said. “With you. A real life. Marriage. Kids. Not because you’re carrying his, but because I’ve wanted it for years.”
The words sank into me like heat I didn’t know I’d been freezing without. “Rhys…” I tried to look away, but he stepped forward, closing the space between us.
“You don’t owe him anything,” he said, low and fierce. “Not your body. Not your loyalty. And sure as hell not your future.”
The dangerous part was that I wanted to believe him.
But in the space between us, there was the truth neither of us could erase: Lucien’s claim wasn’t just a word—it was law, blood, and power. And walking away from him wasn’t like leaving a man. It was like walking off the edge of a cliff and hoping you could sprout wings.
Still, my hand moved before I could stop it, resting lightly against Rhys’s chest. His heartbeat was steady, strong, a rhythm that felt like home.
“Rhys…” I started.
The scent hit me first—cedar, smoke, and the faintest edge of winter air.
Then his voice.
“Touch her again,” Lucien snarled from the doorway, “and I’ll rip your damn throat out.”
THE SOUND was pure alpha command, and I flinched despite myself.
Rhys didn’t move his hand from the railing. He didn’t even blink. “We were talking.”
“That’s not what it looked like.” Lucien’s eyes glowed in the dim light, predator-bright.
I stepped back, putting space between me and both of them. “You’re overreacting—”
“I’m not in the habit of repeating myself,” Lucien said, his voice dangerously calm now. He took a step inside, closing the door behind him like he was shutting out the whole world. “The Beta can take his vow and keep it far from my mate.”
“She’s not your mate,” Rhys said, and the way he said it—like a blade to the gut—made my heart lurch.
Lucien’s lip curled. “You think that matters? She’s carrying my heir. That makes her mine until the bond is severed. And it won’t be.”
Rhys stepped toward him, every inch of him coiled with challenge. “You’re mistaking possession for protection. She’s not a trophy, Lucien. She’s a person. She gets to choose who she lets near her.”
“And she chose you? Is that what you’re telling yourself?” Lucien’s voice dropped to a growl. “I’ve seen the way you hover. You’re not here for her—you’re here to get under my skin. And congratulations, Beta. You’ve succeeded.”
Rhys’s mouth twitched in something that might have been a smile. “If your skin’s that easy to get under, maybe you’re not as in control as you think.”
For a heartbeat, I thought Lucien might actually shift right there in my room. His hands flexed, claws just beneath the skin, his shoulders bunching like he was seconds from lunging.
“Stop it, both of you,” I snapped, louder than I meant to. “You want to tear each other apart? Fine. Do it somewhere else. But not here. Not where I have to watch.”
They both turned to me, neither of them softening.
Lucien’s gaze lingered on my face like he was memorizing every reason he had to keep me. “You stay away from him,” he said finally. “Or I’ll make sure he doesn’t have the option of coming near you again.”
He left as abruptly as he’d arrived, the door clicking shut behind him.
The silence after was deafening.
Rhys looked at me, jaw tight. “You know he meant that.”
“I know.”
And the worst part was, a part of me wasn’t sure if that was a threat I wanted to stop him from keeping.
- Writer
