Todos os capítulos de Oh My Beta!: Capítulo 61 - Capítulo 70

Chapter 57Aria’s POV“Slowly,” I whispered, supporting Riven’s weight as we descended the Cold Palace stairs.Every step made him wince, but he kept moving. Olive was on his other side, the three of us forming an awkward triangle as we made our way through the darkened halls.“I can walk,” Riven muttered.“You can barely stand,” I shot back. “Save your strength.”We’d wrapped his wound with fresh bandages, dressed him in clean clothes, and given him what little pain medicine Marta had. It wasn’t enough—not nearly enough—but it would have to do.The horses waited in the garden, already saddled. I’d chosen the gentlest mare for Riven, one that wouldn’t jostle him too badly.“Luna, are you sure about this?” Olive asked as we reached the door. “If he falls off during the ride—”“Then we catch him. But we’re out of time.” I looked at the horizon where the first hints of dawn were beginning to lighten the sky. “Claire is coming back today. We have maybe six hours before she arrives with he

Aria’s POVRiven pulled me down and kissed me like he’d been starving for it.His mouth was hungry, and demanding, with his hands already pulling at my nightgown before I could catch my breath. I lifted my arms and he yanked it over my head and threw it somewhere behind me. His eyes dropped and stayed there, moving over my bare chest slowly, and the look on his face made heat pool between my thighs before he even touched me.His hands cupped my breasts, thumbs brushing over my nipples, and I inhaled sharply. He watched my face while he did it, learning what made my breath catch, what made my back push forward into his palms. When he pinched lightly I made a sound I didn’t recognize as my own voice.He sat up and pulled my right nipple into his mouth.“Riv…en” His name dissolved into a moan as his tongue worked slow circles around it, sucking, then releasing, then sucking harder. My fingers dug into his hair and held him there. He moved to the other one and gave it the same attention,

Aria’s POVI woke before him.The room was pale grey, that thin early light that couldn’t decide if it was dawn yet. Riven was warm at my back, his arm heavy across my waist, his breathing slow and even. The bandage on his chest had dried overnight. Still needed changing but not bleeding. I exhaled quietly.I started to slide out from under his arm.He pulled me back firmly.His arm tightened and he tucked me back against his chest like I was something that belonged there and pressed his lips to the back of my head without opening his eyes.“Where are you running off to,” he said. His voice was thick with sleep.“Marta. Your bandages need…”“Five minutes.”“Riven…”“Five minutes, Aria.”I softened against him before I’d decided to. His warmth was everywhere, his heartbeat steady against my spine, and the mate bond hummed low and content in my chest like something that had finally been fed. I told myself I would get up in five minutes. I would be responsible and practical and fetch Mar

Aria's povTwo guards appeared around the side of the palace before Riven could pull the door shut behind us. Beta trainees, broad and blank-faced, moving with the mechanical purpose of men following orders they hadn’t been asked to consider. They walked past me like I wasn’t standing there and took Olive by both arms.“Get off her—”They didn’t even look at me.Olive didn’t struggle. That was the thing that broke something in my chest, she didn’t struggle because she already knew it would make it worse, because she had lived in this world long enough to know exactly how this went. She let them take her arms and walk her out into the yard and I stood there watching them wrap her in the rough burlap sack, binding it around her shoulders, and I couldn’t move.The wooden platform was already there as if someone had set it up while Cassius was inside drinking his tea.He stood behind it with his hands folded at the small of his back, looking out at the frost-dead garden like a man waiting

“He’ll do it again,” Olive said finally.“I know.”“Next time he comes. If he finds anything else to correct. He’ll do it again and it’ll be worse because now he knows you’ll come out to stop it which means he can use me to get to you whenever he wants.”She wasn’t being dramatic. She was being precise. That was the thing about Olive — she never catastrophized, she just saw clearly and said what she saw.“Yes,” I said.“So what are we going to do about it.”Not a question. A statement with a question’s shape.I opened my mouth.The door opened and Riven leaned in. He looked at Marta’s empty place and then at us and read the room in about two seconds.“Am I interrupting?”“No,” Olive said. “Come in. We’re problem solving.”He came in and pulled a chair up and sat with his forearms on his knees, his eyes moving to Olive’s back briefly before coming to my face.“She’s right,” I said. “Cassius will use her against me every time he wants to remind me of my position. As long as Olive is the