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The Seat Beside Him

مؤلف: Clara Hatherleigh
last update تاريخ النشر: 2026-11-13 13:12:06

"Stay."

The word came out before I could stop it. Soft, shaky, and so clear that it echoed in the empty hall.

Rhys closed his eyes. "Are you sure?"

"No." I pushed myself up off the floor, wiping my face. "I am not sure of anything. But if you leave, people will ask questions. Cain will ask questions."

"That is the only reason?"

I looked at him for a long moment.

"It is the only reason I can say out loud," I whispered.

He nodded slowly. He understood.

I went back into my room and shut the door. I slid down against the wood and pressed my hand over my mouth.

What was I doing?

The next morning, the council room was packed.

Every senior wolf sat around the long oak table. Elders. Warriors. Beta Dane, a broad man with a gray beard. Cain sat at the head, calm and sharp in a black jacket. A chair waited to his right, the Luna's seat.

My seat.

I walked in with Rhys one step behind me, and my breath stopped.

Vivienne was sitting in it.

She looked up and smiled like a cat with cream on her whiskers. "Luna! Good morning. I hope you do not mind. I was reviewing the border reports with Alpha Cain, and it seemed easier to sit close."

I looked at Cain.

He did not look up from his papers. "Vivienne has the most current information on the patrol schedules. Sit anywhere, Selene."

Sit anywhere.

My seat. My place. Given away in one sentence, in front of twelve wolves.

Heat rushed up my face. It was not the heat of the bond. This was different. Sharper. Uglier.

Jealous, Thea said, almost amused.

I am not.

You are.

I do not even want him!

Mm-hmm.

I took a chair near the middle of the table. Rhys stood behind me, a silent shadow. I could feel him watching.

The meeting began. Dane reported on the border. The dead rogue. The mark.

"The brand is real," he said. "Fresh, within the last week. Whoever did this wanted us to see it."

A murmur ran around the table.

Vivienne tapped a nail on the wood. "Forgive me, Alpha, but I must ask what everyone is thinking. A rogue appears at our border carrying the Luna's family mark, just days after the wedding." She turned her pretty face toward me. "Awfully convenient, is it not?"

The room went still.

My hands curled into fists under the table. "What are you saying, Vivienne?"

"Nothing. I only wonder if the Ashford pack has been entirely honest about how many rogues it has been... dealing with."

"My pack has bled for two years against those rogues."

"Of course. Of course." She smiled. "I only ask what a careful person would ask."

Beta Dane shifted. Two elders exchanged looks. Doubt moved around the table like smoke.

I opened my mouth, but someone spoke first.

"The Ashford pack is protected by treaty."

Rhys.

His voice was low and cold. Every head turned. He stepped forward until he stood at my shoulder, his hand resting on the back of my chair.

"The treaty was signed by Alpha Cain himself," he said. "To insult the Luna's pack is to insult the Alpha's word. If you have proof, Vivienne, lay it on the table. If you do not, then be quiet."

Vivienne's smile twitched. "I only meant..."

"I know what you meant."

The air crackled. His wolf pressed against the room, a quiet warning that made two elders lean back.

"Rhys." Cain's voice cut through like a whip. "You speak out of turn."

"I speak the truth."

"You speak with too much heat." Cain finally looked up. His storm-gray eyes moved slowly from Rhys's hand, resting on my chair, to Rhys's face. "Since when do you defend my wife so fiercely?"

My stomach turned to ice.

Rhys did not flinch. "Since she became part of this pack."

"A good answer." Cain's tone was calm. Too calm. "Then you will not mind proving your loyalty."

"How?"

"You will lead the dawn patrol on the northern ridge. Alone. If the rogues have a camp there, find it. If someone is using my wife's family name, I want them found."

"Alone?" Beta Dane frowned. "Alpha, that is dangerous..."

"Then it will be a real test." Cain leaned back in his chair. "Well, Rhys? Do you accept?"

Rhys's jaw tightened. For one second, his eyes slid toward me. A silent apology.

"I accept."

"Good. Tonight, you will..."

A bell rang.

Not a gentle bell. A deep, furious clang that shook the windows and rolled through the whole house.

Every wolf in the room shot to their feet.

Beta Dane went pale. "That is the border alarm."

"How many bells?" Cain snapped.

The bell rang again. And again. And again.

"Five," someone whispered.

Nobody in the room had ever heard five.

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