The Beta holds the backdoor open for me and Lily as we enter my parent's house. With everyone outside, he takes us into the living room and motions for us to sit. Lily does so readily, but I wait near the coffee table with my arms crossed.

"Please sit, Celeste."

I give Lily a grim look.

"The Alpha is coming. You can't be disrespectful," she warns.

I clench my jaw and drop beside her just as Alpha Rowan sets foot in our quaint living room alone. He first acknowledges his Beta—silent yet discerned—and then faces Lily and me. I adjust on my cushion, always having felt apprehensive about such a scenario. As children, when we behaved badly, Mom used to threaten us with meetings similar to this.

"So, Celeste, I hear Alpha Draven is your mate," the Alpha starts.

I want to counter that he isn't just my mate, he's my Alpha now, not you, but I avert my attention to my lap.

The Beta says, "This will go a lot smoother if you're willing to clarify what's true."

"Just say whatever it is you want to say about it because I have to go. People are waiting for me," I tell them.

Alpha Rowan says, "Regarding your safety, I believe you would be better off if you didn't return to Draven territory, and I say this with your well-being in mind. Alpha Draven is not someone I recommend involving yourself with."

"But I have to go back."

"No, you don't," Lily protests. "You need to listen to the Alpha and stay."

"Lily, I—"

"Alpha?"

I turn and see my parents entering the living room. Caught off guard, I stand from the couch.

"Has something happened?" Mom asks with a kinder voice than usual. "If one of my girls did anything to—"

"I requested your presence because it came to my attention that your daughter Celeste is mated to Alpha Draven."

Mom's head snaps to me with a blinkless stare. "She's what? Celeste, is that true?"

I open my mouth yet nothing comes out.

"It's true," Lily says. "She told me earlier, and now the Alpha thinks she shouldn't return to him, but Celeste isn't listening. He's dangerous."

"Then she'll stay," Mom tells Alpha Rowan.

"What? No," I reject.

"Excuse her, Alpha. She's not thinking clearly. Obviously, the mate bond is skewing her ability to be rational about this."

"That's not—"

"What do you think, Dear?" Mom asks Dad. "She can't be with someone like that. Shouldn't she remain here as the Alpha says?"

Dad clears his throat and then mutters, "As the Alpha says, yes. Draven is a threat to us. She can't be near him."

I move around the table in front of me and head for the hall.

"Celeste, where are you going?"

"To the washroom," I grumble and shut the bathroom door a touch too hard behind me.

With a wall to isolate me, I let my frustrations teeter into upset. I bury my face in my hands and run them up over my head, smoothing my hair.

"Come on," I mutter under my breath. "Come on, Celeste."

There's a window on the top half of the wall above the toilet. I drop the seat cover and climb onto it to open the pane and contemplate heaving myself out, but when I slide the glass open, I catch sight of a guard wolf patrolling the perimeter of the house; they're here with the Alpha.

A knock raps on the door. I step down and open it only to find Lily on the other side. She pushes her way in and closes the door behind her.

"How could you? I asked you not to tell anyone—you promised," I accuse. "Theo told me not to say anything, but I thought you were different than them. Now I'm screwed."

"Listen to yourself, Celeste. He's dangerous. Thank Goddess I told Ben. All of this is for your safety."

I scoff.

"I told him not thinking much of it—I thought it was good news—but apparently Alpha Draven is a bad man who has a bad history with our pack," she explains. "He isn't someone you should be mated to."

"He's treated me fine—given me no reason to stay away from him," I argue, glossing over important details.

"You've only been with him for a few days, you don't know."

Extremely irritated yet again, I push past Lily and leave her behind in the washroom, but she catches the door before it shuts. She follows closely behind me into the living room.

"...want what's best for her, but this is over my head. What should we do?" Mom asks the Alpha.

"Nothing," I answer. "He's my mate; the Goddess paired us."

The Alpha sighs. "She'll be more secure at the pack house than here."

"Whatever you think is necessary."

My head starts to ache as they talk around me. Lily comes out from behind me and says, "Celeste can stay with me and Ben, so she doesn't have to be alone. I should be with her."

"I should be with my mate," I murmur, concluding that here is definitely the greater evil.

"That is very sweet of you, Lily," Mom praises. "Could that work, Alpha? Celeste staying with her sister and the Beta?"

"I'll position guards to watch over the house for the first week or so in case Draven retaliates, but if he crosses onto my territory, he'll be brought to me first."

"Week?" My mate bond strains in my chest.

Mom advises Lily, "Why don't you and the Beta go and enjoy the rest of the celebration, hm?"

"But I—"

"Come on, Lily," the Beta interrupts her and holds out his hand; Lily hesitates before stepping up and taking it. She looks back at me, and I watch her until she and her mate are out of sight.

"How could you not tell me the truth?" Mom interrogates the second Lily is gone. "You lied to my face earlier and now look—your sister's party is almost ruined." She turns to the Alpha and says, "I'm truly sorry for all this trouble, and I'm sure Celeste is as well. We're all beyond grateful for your help."

The Alpha nods. "Everyone can continue to enjoy the party. I have enough wolves monitoring the area."

I can't help but notice Alpha Rowan's subtle glance at me when he says the last part. He heads out of the room, and Dad walks with him while Mom stays behind. I brace for further reprimanding, but she merely shakes her head and leaves as well.

I wait alone in the living room for a moment, fighting my impulse to scream, and then I storm upstairs to my bedroom. It's been too long since sunset; Theo's men must have gone back to tell him something is wrong, but what if he's mad at me? What if he thinks I've chosen to stay?

I sit on the edge of my bed and try to steady my quickening breaths. I lie against my pillow to further calm myself because I'm spinning out of control, but before I know it, Mom is calling, "Celeste!"

I check my clock which must be wrong and then scramble off my bed and peer outside at the tent. Most everyone has gone home.

"Celeste!"

I can't go with Lily and the Beta where wolves will guard me every hour of the day. I go to the door, jerk it open, and yell back, "I want to stay here!"

Incoherent muttering sounds from the bottom of the staircase. I wait with my head sticking into the hall, but footsteps drum up the stairs and Lily appears. She comes towards me and backs me into my room.

"Have you packed anything?" She asks then spots my canvas bag. She takes it and opens it up. "You need more than this."

"I'm not going. I want to go back to my mate."

Lily ignores me, opens my dresser drawers, and starts taking things out.

"Imagine if they were doing this to you," I say. "Imagine if you were being kept from Ben."

"Ben isn't a heartless killer," she defends and takes another bag from my closet. "Ben doesn't torture people, or scare people, or attack other packs. Alpha Draven does."

I shake my head. "He isn't like that."

She looks me dead in my eyes. "Are you sure? There isn't a doubt in your head that Alpha Draven could be dangerous?"

"He... He isn't like that with me."

She stuffs more clothes into the second bag and loops them on her arm. "Come on."

Doubting I have the speed to outrun Alpha Rowan's circling guards, I follow Lily downstairs where my parents and the Beta are waiting.

"The guards will accompany us to the house," the Beta tells my sister.

"And that's to keep me safe, not to keep me put?" I question.

"Let's just go," Lily says. She hugs Mom and Dad goodbye. "Thank you for the celebration; it was really beautiful."

"You're welcome, Dear. You and Celeste stay safe. Listen to the Beta."

Lily nods. "I will, don't worry. We'll be fine."

***

In the Beta's house, I sit on a spare bed in the dark until Lily comes in and turns on the lamp by the door. She closes the curtains over both windows on either side of the bed and then slows in front of me. "Don't you want to change and put on something more comfortable to sleep in?"

I stare at the wall, as I have been, unmoving, for over an hour.

"I'm sorry this is happening. You don't deserve this," she says softly and touches my knee.

"Then talk to your mate and stop this."

"Please just try to understand where we're coming from."

I close my eyes. "He isn't going to hurt me."

"After everything I've heard, I don't believe that," she dismisses.

"You haven't even met him."

Lily ambles to the door and holds its handle. "I'm here for you when you're ready."

I bend at the waist and cover my face with my hands while she closes the door particularly slowly to ensure it doesn't make too much noise. Guards roam the exterior of the Beta's house; I don't need to look outside to make sure. Four different scents drift through the cracked windows, cycling in the same order.

I lie back with my legs dangling off the side of the mattress, and I fixate on the ceiling while my mind wanders to Theo. Tears well in my eyes and glide down my temples, joining the roots of my hair or sliding in the crevices of my ears.

Theo and I didn't start off perfectly, but he didn't treat me like this, locking me in a house and telling me it's for my own good. I had some control—something I'll never have here.

I remain like a weeping corpse for what feels like hours until a bead of light sprouts in my chest and steadily blooms—the bond. I palm the neckline of my dress and push upright.

With no desire to wait, I slide off the bed and rush to the door. I head into the hall and down the enclosed stairwell but descend upon the Beta and two other guards in the main room of the house. They're standing between the kitchen and the living room, and the Beta turns to look at me from his seat on the backrest of the couch.

I take the final step cautiously.

"What is it?" one of the men questions me, but the Beta does not need to.

His eyes pierce through me. He stands and mutters, "He's here," while striding to the door.

The Beta leaves his house while the two remaining men turn to me. Unfortunately, they don't go with him, so I plant myself against the wall next to the stairs.

Footsteps sound through the ceiling, and Lily comes down the stairs in her pajamas. She glances at me and then asks the guards, "Where's Ben?"

"He's gone to the Alpha. Draven is here," one answers and stares accusingly at me.

The other says, "If Draven's smart, he won't be violent. He'll go with the Alpha and listen to what he says."

"Why can't I see him?" I ask.

The guard continues with a grin, "The Alpha is probably telling Draven that his mate doesn't want to go with him."

I push off the wall and aim for the door, but the smiley guard grabs my arm and yanks me away. Lily leaves the stairs and shouts, "Let go of her!"

"And what? Have her run out after him? Why don't you go back upstairs and wait for the Beta to come home."

The bond flourishes more; it nearly bursts through my ribs.

"You can't speak to me like—"

Lily jumps with the rest of us when a formidable bang rams into the front door and cracks it down its middle. The guard opposite me looks to his comrade and then reluctantly opens the splintered door. From my spot, I see a hump of tan fur laying motionless on the doorstep. Lily moves back.

The guard lifts his chin and stares at something in the night, and by the scent blowing into the house, I know it's my mate.

"Theo!" I yell before my holder slaps his hand over my mouth and coils around me like barbed wire. I writhe to get away from him.

"Let her go," the other guard says suddenly, not turning away from the open door.

"But we—"

A guttural, daunting growl steals his voice.

"Just let her go."

The man releases me, and without thinking, I run past the frightened guard and climb over the lifeless wolf on the porch. Lily calls after me, shouting my name, but the moment I see Theo's wolf, I'm possessed. I sprint to him, and he lowers to the ground. I pull myself up and onto his back, and I wrap my arms around his neck, breathing deeply and holding tight.

Without delay, he launches into the trees.