The Beta's Beloved

A Druid's Secret

AVERY’S POV

My father’s voice was final, slicing through the room like a blade. “The family will meet with the Nagles tomorrow,” he said, his tone devoid of any room for argument.

My stomach churned. “What about the celebration?” I blurted, my voice louder than I intended. “I’m one of the Maidens of Yule. I have a role.”

He barely glanced at me, already turning toward the door. “I do not care,” he said coldly. “Another family’s daughter will replace you. That’s it.”

And then he left, shutting the door behind him without a second thought.

I stood there, my chest heaving as his words replayed in my head. My role—one I’d trained for, one that meant something to me—tossed aside like it was nothing. The room felt too small, too stifling. I turned to my mother, desperate for something, anything, that might make this nightmare less real.

“This cannot be happening,” I said, my voice trembling. “You can’t be agreeing to this.”

She avoided my eyes, her hands clasped tightly in front of her. “Avery, it’s for the best,” she said softly, like she was trying to soothe a cornered animal.

“For the best?” I repeated, a bitter laugh escaping me. “Mom, have you forgotten what I am?” I stepped closer, my voice rising with every word. “Let’s forget for a moment that Dad wants to tie my hand to a f*****g Lycan. Marriage isn’t just in name, Mom. There will be… responsibilities. Like in the bed? And I won’t be able to fulfill them because I was born with a f*****g p***s!”

Her hand struck my face before I could even finish the sentence. The sound of it echoed in the room, sharp and loud. My cheek stung, but the pain was nothing compared to the shock that rooted me in place.

“Shut your mouth!” she hissed, her face pale with fury and something else—fear, maybe.

No, it was fear. I had seen it one too many times in my mother’s eyes.

I stared at her, my hand pressed against my throbbing cheek. “How can I?” I said, my voice breaking. “How can I shut my mouth when you’re letting this happen?”

Her anger and fear faltered, and suddenly, she was gripping my shoulders tightly, pulling me closer. Her eyes searched mine, desperate and pleading. “Do you really think I would throw you to the wolves?” she said, her voice shaking. “Do you think I would send you into this blindly?”

“Mom—”

“I have done my research,” she said, cutting me off. Her grip tightened, almost painful, as if she were trying to anchor me to her words. “I have done my research on the Lycan, Avery. The man you’re to marry… he’s…” She hesitated, her lips trembling. “The man is gay.”

Her words knocked the breath out of me. I blinked, certain I’d misheard her. “What?” I managed to whisper.

She nodded quickly, her eyes darting between mine as if she needed to convince me. “He’s gay,” she repeated. “If this marriage happens, Avery, you’ll be safe. Safe in the best way possible.”

Safe? The word bounced around my head like it didn’t belong there. “Isn’t that worse?” I asked, shaking my head as if I could dislodge her reasoning. “Mom, I’m a man pretending to be a woman. How is that safe?”

“As long as he believes you’re a damsel, which he will, you have nothing to worry about,” she said, her voice steady but full of insistence. “Nothing will happen.”

I stepped back, pulling myself free from her grasp. “Nothing will happen?” I repeated, my voice laced with disbelief. “Mom, I’m lying to him. To everyone. What if he finds out? What then?”

“He won’t,” she said firmly. “I’ve made sure of it. Everything about you, from the way you carry yourself to the way you look, it’s flawless.”

“Flawless?” I laughed bitterly, running a hand through my hair. “Flawless until someone who has not bought into the lie looks too close and starts to see the cracks and things that do not make sense.”

Her face softened, and she reached for me again, but I stepped further back, keeping the distance between us. “Avery,” she said gently, her voice almost breaking. “This is the only way. Your father… he won’t let you be anything else. This marriage will protect you from him, from all of this, especially that prophesy.”

I wanted to yell, to scream that she was wrong, but deep down, I knew she wasn’t. My father had made it clear what he thought of me—powerless, useless, and worth nothing more than what he could trade me for. If I fought this, if I refused, the consequences would be far worse than anything I could imagine.

But that didn’t make it right. It didn’t make any of this right.

“I’m still pretending,” I said finally, my voice barely above a whisper. “I’m still lying, Mom. To him, to the Lycans, to myself. What do you think will happen if the species that hate us as much as we hate them finds out I am a fraud, lying to them.”

Her eyes filled with tears, and for a moment, she looked like she might break. But then she took a deep breath, straightening her shoulders. “You’re surviving,” she said, her voice steady again. “And that’s what matters. As long as you remember what all this is for and there are no slip ups, you will be alright.”

Surviving. That’s all I’d ever done. But as I looked at her, standing there with tears in her eyes and determination in her voice, I realized that survival came with a cost. And no matter how much I hated it, that cost had already been decided.

“Why don’t we just… Your vision mum… why don’t we just kill whoever will be responsible for the m******e? It is Reece, is it not? Only his verdance is capable of such destruction.”

Her mother’s tears shimmered in the dim light, but she didn’t let them fall. She was composed now, her jaw set as she spoke. “We don’t know that, Avery,” she said, her tone firm but cautious. “What I saw wasn’t a clear path or a single face. It was massive destruction. Death for all who stand in the way of the throne.”

“But it has to be Reece,” I pressed, frustration bubbling just beneath the surface. “You’ve said it yourself, Mum. It makes sense. He has the ability, and if it happens shortly after his father’s passing, he’s the only one with a motive.”

Her lips thinned, and for a moment, I thought she might agree. But then she shook her head. “Reece is not power-hungry,” she said, her voice quiet but certain. “I’ve watched that boy since he was a child. I’ve seen his kindness, his reluctance to use his gifts unless absolutely necessary. He’s never once sought more than what he was given.”

“Then how do you explain your prophecy?” I shot back, stepping closer to her. “All that destruction doesn’t just happen for no reason. If Reece has the power and the timing matches, it has to be him.”

She closed her eyes for a moment, as if bracing herself. “There was a time,” she said softly, “when I considered killing the boy myself. His potential was undeniable, his strength terrifying. But every time I looked at him, I saw a child who didn’t ask for the gifts he was born with. A child who didn’t want the weight of what his bloodline demanded.”

I blinked, stunned. My mother had always been pragmatic, but hearing her admit to considering such a thing—against her own nephew—left me momentarily speechless.

She opened her eyes again, the steel back in her gaze. “I don’t know if it’s him,” she said. “That’s the truth. I’ve watched him, studied him, and yet… I don’t know. It could just as easily be one of the minor families. You know how many of them have motives of their own. Jealousy, ambition, greed—they’re all capable of violence when it suits them.”

I ran a hand through my hair, frustration clawing at me. “So we’re just supposed to wait?” I asked, my voice rising. “Wait for someone to die? Wait for chaos to break loose?”

“That’s exactly what we’re going to do,” she said firmly. “We wait. We observe. And you,” she said, pointing at me, “you meet with the Lycan.”

I threw my hands up, exasperated. “How is that going to solve anything?”

“Because maybe it will work out,” she said simply. “And maybe it won’t. But it’s a path we have to walk right now.”

I stared at her, my anger faltering. There was something in her voice—something resigned, but also desperate. She was holding onto this plan, flimsy as it was, because it was the only thing she had left. And that scared me more than anything.

“What do you see, Mum?” I asked, my voice quieter now. “When you look at all of this, what do you see with your verdance?”

Her eyes softened, the exhaustion in them cutting me to the core. “Nothing,” she said after a long pause. “Right now, nothing. But perhaps when I meet the Lycan… things will be different.”