Chapter 45: What If He's Lying - Callista's POV

I couldn’t breathe. Riven had months, maybe years at best. The Alpha King’s words echoed in my mind, each one drowning out the hope I had been clinging to since the Moon Goddess appeared in my dream.

Love won’t cure his darkness. It merely postpones the inevitable.

That means…my dream could be real.

I glanced sideways, my eyes locking onto the side of his face. In the vision, he hadn’t looked much different, if any, which meant that I could lose him within the next year or so.

My heart sank as I fought back tears. There had been twenty-five wolves just like him, and not a single one survived.

Conflict warred on his face. He was considering the Alpha King’s offer to train him. I could feel it through the bond, and part of me understood why. He wanted to hope that he could be saved.

But something felt wrong about all of this.

“I’d need you to stay here, of course,” the Alpha King said, his voice low. “It would be best. Miss Monroe could also stay here.”

Riven looked at me then, his eyes narrowing as he studied my face. “How long would we need to stay here?”

“That depends on your progress. Months, perhaps. It could be a year or more, or until you get through school. As soon as I’m confident that you have the tools necessary to manage the demon long-term, then you’re free to leave.”

"And what about me?" I asked, finding my voice. "What happens to me while Riven is being trained?"

“You would stay here as well, of course. The bond must be maintained and I won’t separate mates, especially when that bond is the only thing containing the entity.” His gaze shifted to me. “You’d continue your education at Silver Moon Academy, but I will have you pulled to work with one of the elder seers. Your abilities need a bit more development, though I know I’ve had you help in the past.”

I remembered the few times I’ve helped him. It wasn’t much. He had me read over some texts and an elder seer speak to me. That was really all there was. But this would be different and the way he said it made my skin crawl, like I was a resource to be used rather than a person.

“We need time to discuss this with our families,” I said firmly.

The Alpha King studied us for a long moment, then nodded. “Take ten minutes and go talk to them. I’ll wait here.” He moved, standing to look out the window. “But consider this carefully, Miss Monroe. Every moment you delay is another moment the demon grows stronger.”

“What do we tell them?” Riven asked, his voice hesitant. “I can’t just tell them that a demon lives in me.”

“Tell them that I noticed your strength during the match and would like to…train you as a successor.”

We both looked at him with a narrowed gaze.

“Why would you need a successor?” Riven asked, his voice cracking toward the end. “You have a son who will take over.”

The Alpha King’s expression shifted into something darker before he regained his composure. “My son can’t inherit the position, because he has his own complications.”

“What kind of complications?” I asked, suspicion creeping into my voice.

The Alpha King was silent for a long moment, then sighed. “It’s similar to yours, Mr. Nightshade. My son was born with the same darkness you carry.” His gaze shifted to Riven’s, and I saw genuine pain there for the first time. “He’s twenty-two now and is the twenty-sixth case. I have him confined to the east wing of the mansion under constant supervision. The demon has progressed too far for him to ever rule.

My blood ran cold as I glanced up at him. It all made sense now. “That’s why you know so much and have studied it. Your own son is like Riven.”

“Yes.” The word was heavy with years of grief. “I’ve been studying this condition since the day my son was born and I realized something was wrong. Some of these cases happened long before he was born, while a few happened after. I hoped to save him or find something that would give him a normal life.”

“And you haven’t?” Riven asked quietly.

“When he was younger, there were a few things that helped. The medication I told you about will suppress the demon’s voice, but as he grew older and stronger, the demon adapted. It learned to work around the treatments. By the time he was eighteen, he could no longer control it reliably. At twenty, he almost killed his mate.”

"His mate?" I gasped.

“Well, she would have been. They rejected each other to save her life. She lives in a different territory now, protected by some of my men.” His hands gripped the edge of his desk. "My son begged me to do it and said he'd rather die alone than risk hurting her again."

The pieces were falling into place now, creating a picture I didn't like.

"So this whole thing," I said slowly, "offering to train Riven and bringing us here is all about saving your son, isn't it? We're just another experiment."

“Yes, and no. If you are cured and I can cure my son, then you get the position, because he doesn’t want it anyway,” he said, his voice low. “What do you have to lose? Right now, the odds are against you.”

I closed my eyes for a moment, thinking back to the vision. Riven was the Alpha King in it. There was a chance that if we do this, then we’re playing right into that vision.

“What should we tell our families about your son?” Riven asked, his voice calm.

I glanced at him, my eyes locking with his. He seriously couldn’t be considering this.

“Tell them he died, because once you take over, we’ll disappear.”

I squeezed his hand, hoping that we could talk more about this before he agreed, but he just nodded and stood, pulling me with him.

“We will talk to our parents now.”

I followed him out of the office and as soon as we were alone, I turned to him. “Something is wrong. You can’t be considering this. He isn’t just going to let you take over as Alpha King.”

“I know,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “But what choice do we have? He’ll want to cure me for the sake of his son. This could be our chance. And if I become the Alpha King or even if it’s just as a possible successor, I can protect you better.”

“Riven, you protect me just fine.”

“I could have a better title, one that truly protected you. Even being named as his successor carries weight and no other alpha’s son is going to bother you,” he whispered as he stepped closer. “But it’s more than that. I have a chance to live and have you by my side.”

“What if he’s lying?” I asked, trying not to lean into his touch. “Think about it, Riven. He claims to have twenty-five documented cases, but no one has ever heard of demon-possessed wolves. No pack teaches about this. And now, conveniently, his son has the same condition as you and he needs a successor. Doesn’t this seem weird?”

“So you think he made it all up? Why would he?” Riven’s voice held doubt, but also a small thread of hope. “If there were other cases, they would have swept it under the rug and dismissed it.”

“I don’t know what to think anymore,” I admitted, frustration bleeding into my words. “But it seems too convenient. We mark each other and immediately get summoned here where he just so happens to have the perfect solution. What if he plans to use you?”

Riven was quiet for a moment as he glanced down the hallway both ways. His jaw worked. “But what if he’s telling the truth and his son is confined to the east wing? Wouldn’t that mean his research is real?”

"Or it means he's desperate enough to use us as test subjects to save his own son," I countered. "Riven, we're sixteen. We don't know anything about the Alpha King's real motives. What if accepting his help puts us in more danger than the demon does? Or maybe his son is just fine, and it’s all a lie. I don’t know what he’s doing.”

“How could we possibly be in more danger? Don’t you remember what happened in my bedroom where I almost—” His voice rose, then abruptly cut off. “Callista, you heard what he said. I have months, maybe years if I’m lucky. He’s going to keep getting stronger every single day and when it breaks free, I might kill you first. Think of the vision.”

Tears burned my eyes. "You don't know what will happen to us. And not only that, in the vision you showed me, you saved me for last.”

“I do know,” he said, cupping my face, his thumbs brushing away the tears on my cheeks. “I felt it two nights ago when the demon tried to take over completely. If you hadn’t been there and the bond pulling me back, I would have lost myself. But it was also dangerous because I felt the urge to—”

“Urge to what, Riven?”

“All he wants is death.”

"The Moon Goddess said—"

He shook his head. “What if it wasn’t the Moon Goddess, but the demon invading your visions?” Maybe he made you see what you wanted to see. How do we know what is real anymore?”

I didn't have an answer for that. The doubt he was voicing was the same doubt that had been eating at me since the Alpha King mentioned it.

"I know you're scared," I said quietly. "I'm scared too. But Riven, my gut is telling me not to trust him. Not completely.”

"Your gut or the demon?"

The question hit like a slap. "That's not fair."

“Isn’t it?” He pulled back slightly to look into my eyes. “You said it yourself that we can’t trust the visions anymore. The demon can manipulate those and what we see and what we feel. So how do I know your instincts are really yours? They could be influenced.”

“Because I know myself and I know when something feels wrong. This feels wrong, Riven,” I said, pleading with him. “All of it does.”

"Or maybe it's fate." His hands dropped from my face. "Maybe the Moon Goddess did mark us early because she knew this is where we needed to be. Maybe this is the path we're supposed to take."

"And maybe we're walking straight into a trap."

We stared at each other as the bond hummed between us. Fear, desperation, hope, and suspicion were all tangled together until I couldn’t tell what emotion belonged to whom.

"What do you want to do?" Riven asked finally. "Because I can't make this decision alone. We're in this together, remember?"

I closed my eyes, trying to think past the panic and doubt. Trying to find some kind of clarity in the chaos.

The Alpha king looked like the perfect solution, but it was…too perfect.

"I think," I said slowly, opening my eyes to meet Riven's gaze, "that we need more information before we commit to anything. We will tell our parents what he said about wanting to train you as a potential successor, just as he said, then we’ll ask for time to think about it.”

"He said every moment we delay—"

“I know, but one day won’t hurt, will it?” I asked, my voice hesitant.

Riven considered this, then slowly nodded. "Okay. We will ask for one day after we talk to our parents together.”

"Together," I agreed.

He pulled me close, pressing his forehead to mine. "I love you. And I'm sorry I questioned your instincts. I'm just—"

"Scared. I know. So am I." I wrapped my arms around him. "But we're going to figure this out with or without the Alpha King's help."

"I hope you're right."

"Me too."

We stood there for another moment, holding each other, before finally pulling apart and heading down the hallway toward where our parents waited.

I just hoped we were making the right choice.

Because something told me that once we walked into that room and told our parents what the Alpha King wanted, there would be no going back.