Chapter 10: The Unforeseen Heir
1286 Words
The moment Rhys closed the private suite door behind them, the rigid control he had maintained all evening shattered. The air, which had been thick with political hostility and feigned calm, now pulsed with a dangerous, unrestrained tension—the raw energy of two powerful wolves who had just affirmed their bond to the world.
(The chapter continues through the morning, up to the public address.)
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Rhys began his address, his voice a low, powerful baritone that resonated with authority. He spoke of unity, of the strength of the Mate Bond, and the security of the territory.
“And now, I present to you, your Luna,” Rhys concluded, squeezing Lila’s waist in a powerful public declaration. “She is the strength of the Mate Bond, the future of this Pack, and she is mine.”
A cheer began to rise, the tension finally breaking into acceptance and celebration.
The Unforeseen Heir
It was at that exact, triumphant moment that the door to the great Hall burst open, letting in a swirl of wind and snow, and shattering the fragile peace.
A woman stood in the doorway, silhouetted against the blizzard light. She was beautiful, heavily, unmistakably pregnant.
The Pack’s rising cheers died instantly, replaced by a collective, horrified gasp.
Lila felt the shock hit Rhys first—a violent, physical tremor that ripped through the Mate Bond, instantly replacing his dominant pride with a spike of pure, raw confusion and alarm.
The woman, Seraphina, announced her identity and her claim: a half-blood Alpha heir carried in her womb.
The chaos that erupted was immediate. Whispers turned to shouted questions. The Pack Elders, led by the Head Priest, stepped forward, attempting to restore order and begin the ancient process of verification. The priest raised his hands, preparing to intone the sacred words of the Law of Progeny.
Lila stood, the perfect picture of a composed Luna, her chin high. But inside, the Mate Bond was an open wound, broadcasting Rhys’s guilt, his confusion, and the searing, primal pain of her own wolf’s betrayal. The pain of the intrusion—of Rhys’s past actions directly threatening their future—was absolute.
She stared at Seraphina’s rounded stomach, then at Rhys’s desperate, commanding face. The crushing weight of her submission, the political maneuvering, the mark on her neck—it all collapsed under the sudden, ugly reality of his past. The Luna mask shattered.
Before the priest could finish the first line of the sacred law, Lila’s voice—clear, steady, and utterly devoid of fear—cut through the tension.
“I am done with all this bullshit,” Lila declared.
The Hall fell into a sudden, shocking silence. Every eye—Damon’s triumphant sneer, Seraphina’s cold pity, Rhys’s blazing horror—was locked on her.
Lila stepped back from Rhys’s protective touch, tearing her waist free of his grasp. The Mate Bond screamed a warning of extreme danger, but she ignored it, her own defiant human will asserting itself over the wolf’s instinct.
“I am done with all of it,” she repeated, her gaze sweeping over the judging faces of the Inner Circle. “The submission, the protocols, the endless law, and the secrecy. You want an Alpha, you have one. You want a Luna, you have one. But I am not here to play sacrificial lamb for two hundred years of your emotional baggage and political cowardice. This is enough.”
The shock on Rhys’s face was absolute, a fissure in his dominant composure that threatened to collapse his entire authority.
“Luna, silence!” Rhys roared, sending a massive wave of pure, terrified Alpha dominance through the bond, trying to force her to submit instantly.
The dominance hit her, demanding she drop to the ground. But the pain of the betrayal had made her immune. She stood her ground, her body shaking, but her eyes locked on his.
Flashback: The Unbearable Wait
In that instant of utter chaos, as Rhys fought to reassert control over his defiant Mate and the Pack stared in stunned silence, his mind fractured. The memory of the past—the secret, agonizing truth of his relationship with Seraphina—flashed behind his golden eyes.
The Alpha’s body was a prison. Two centuries of life, two centuries of pure, unspent Alpha energy and the raw, biological mandate to mate and secure the bloodline. Rhys was nearing a precipice, a state of mind where the unfulfilled dominance would turn inward, tearing him apart. His wolf was a desperate, primal thing, needing contact, needing submission, needing to claim the pack territory through a shared, intimate connection.
He found Seraphina in a distant, nomadic Pack—a strong, beautiful she-wolf, dominant in her own right, but who, crucially, understood the needs of an Alpha who was waiting for his destined Mate.
“I cannot offer you the Mate Bond, Seraphina,” Rhys had stated, his hands gripping her shoulders, his wolf trembling beneath his skin. “I can only offer control. I need the submission of a she-wolf to ease the pressure. I need to claim something, or I will lose the Pack to madness.”
Seraphina, proud and pragmatic, had accepted the arrangement. She was a temporary balm, a dominant partner who would willingly submit to his Alpha claim to release the crushing pressure on his wolf.
Their intimacy was not love, but a brutal, desperate explosion of need. Rhys would take her with a savage, commanding dominance that bordered on violence, driven by the absolute necessity of reaffirming his control. Her submission was a lifeline. In the chaos of their union, he could feel his wolf settle, his mind clear, and the threat of self-destruction recede. It was a temporary, necessary fix—a physical and emotional claim that mimicked the Mate Bond just enough to keep his authority absolute. The result of one such desperate, dominant night—despite precautions and centuries of experience—was now standing pregnant in his Hall.
The New Battlefield
The memory lasted only a second, but it flooded Rhys with guilt and a desperate, renewed need for control. His past act of survival had just become his greatest political vulnerability.
He took a slow, deliberate step toward Lila, his gold eyes radiating a new level of dangerous intensity. He was no longer trying to control her with the bond; he was imposing his authority through sheer physical will.
“You will come with me, Luna,” Rhys commanded, his voice shaking with restrained rage. “Now. We will settle this. Seraphina’s claim is my weakness, but your defiance is a threat to the stability of the entire Black River Pack. You will not risk our lives for the sake of your pride.”
Lila stood firm for another long, defiant moment, her face a mask of exhausted resolve. She knew the consequences of defying the Alpha in public, but she had achieved her goal: she had bought time, and she had shown the Pack that the Luna was not a docile servant.
She finally took a slow, calculated step toward him, her head still held high, her movement one of tactical retreat, not submission.
“Let’s go, Rhys,” she said, her voice heavy with scorn. “You have a pregnancy to explain and a pack to lie to. We have a lot of ancient law to rewrite.”
Rhys reached for her, his grip on her wrist tight enough to bruise. He didn't bother with the door; he pulled her roughly past the terrified Pack members and toward the private, secure hallway, his dominance now focused entirely on containing the dual threats of the unexpected heir and his defiant Luna.
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