Chapter 13 The plan
Three days passed in suffocating tension. Lila remained in her tower while Adrian buried himself in council meetings. Through the bond, she felt his frantic planning, his desperation to find a solution that would satisfy everyone. But she knew better. There was no solution that let them both survive intact.
On the fourth night, a pebble hit her window. Then another. Lila opened it to find Adrian in the courtyard below, gesturing urgently for her to let him up.
She should refuse. Every secret meeting made things worse. But she stepped back and let him climb, watched him pull himself through her window with the easy strength that came from his wolf.
"I have a plan." He said immediately, before she could speak. "A way to fix this without you leaving the kingdom."
"Adrian." Exhaustion colored her voice. "There is no fix. Celeste gave us a week. Three days are gone. In four more days, she goes to the council."
"She won't need to. Because you'll be gone from the palace." He pulled out a map, spread it across her small table. "There's an estate three hours north. Blackwood Manor. It belonged to my mother before she died. Isolated. Secure. Far enough from the palace to appear proper, but close enough that we can still..." He stopped, jaw clenching.
"Close enough that you can still feel me through the bond." Lila finished flatly.
"Yes." He met her eyes. "You'd have your own household. Servants. Protection. Everything you need. Celeste would be satisfied because you're out of the palace. The council would approve because it maintains propriety. And I could..."
"Visit me?" The words tasted bitter. "Keep me as your secret? Install me in a pretty prison close enough to ease your wolf but far enough to hide from your wife?"
Adrian flinched. "It's not like that."
"It's exactly like that." Lila pushed the map away. "You want to send me away but not too far. Want me gone but not really gone. It's a half-measure, Adrian. And half-measures won't work."
"What else can I do?" Frustration crept into his voice. "I can't let you disappear to the southern kingdoms where I'll never see you again. I can't keep you in the palace where Celeste will destroy us both. This is the only solution that gives us both a chance at survival."
"Survival isn't living." She stood, putting distance between them. "You want me to spend my life in a house three hours away, waiting for stolen moments when you can escape your duties. Watching from a distance while you raise a family with Celeste. Growing old alone because the mate bond won't let me accept anyone else." Her voice rose. "That's not a solution. That's a slower death."
"Then what do you want me to do?" Adrian's control cracked. "Tell me. Give me an answer that doesn't involve losing you completely."
"There isn't one." The truth hung between them. "This was always going to end with one of us destroyed. The mate bond doomed us from the moment it snapped into place."
"I refuse to accept that." He moved toward her. "There has to be a way. Some compromise that lets us both survive."
"Your compromise is a cage with prettier bars." Lila's hands clenched. "You want me close enough to ease your pain but far enough to hide your shame. You want me available when you need comfort but invisible when duty calls. You want everything without sacrificing anything."
"That's not fair."
"None of this is fair." Her voice cracked. "You think I want to leave? You think I want to run to the southern kingdoms where the bond will torture me every day with your absence? I'm trying to save you, Adrian. Trying to give you a chance at a real marriage and a legitimate heir and a kingdom that doesn't whisper about scandal."
"I don't want a real marriage with Celeste. I want you."
"You can't have me." The words came out harsh. "You're a king. You have a pregnant wife. You have responsibilities that matter more than what you want."
"Stop telling me what matters." Adrian's voice rose to match hers. "Stop deciding for both of us what's important. You're not some martyr sacrificing herself for the greater good. You're my mate, and I'm fighting to keep you."
"By putting me in a house three hours away like a kept woman?" Anger flooded through her. "By visiting when you can spare time between ruling and pretending to care about your wife? By making me wait in the shadows while you live your real life elsewhere?"
"It's better than nothing."
"It's worse than nothing." Lila's control shattered. "It's torture. It's watching you be everything I need while knowing I'll never really have you. It's stolen moments and hidden meetings and constantly looking over our shoulders. It's a life built on secrets and shame."
"Then what's your solution?" Adrian shouted. "Since mine is so terrible, tell me what you'd do differently."
"I'd leave." She shouted back. "Completely. No half-measures. No convenient distance. I'd go so far south you couldn't follow. I'd build a life without you in it. I'd learn to live with the bond aching in my chest because that ache would be better than this slow destruction we're doing to each other."
"Your solution is to abandon me."
"My solution is to save us both."
They stood facing each other, both breathing hard, months of frustration and pain exploding between them. The bond screamed at the conflict, demanding they stop fighting and come together. But neither would yield.
"I won't let you go." Adrian's voice dropped dangerously low. "I told you before. If you run, I'll hunt you. My wolf won't allow you to disappear."
"Then your wolf will make you a terrible king." Lila's eyes filled with tears. "Because you can't rule a kingdom while chasing across continents after a woman you can never have."
"Watch me."
"This is exactly what I mean." She gestured between them. "You're so focused on keeping me that you can't see how this destroys everything else. Your marriage. Your heir. Your kingdom. All of it burns because you won't let go of something that was never supposed to be yours."
"You ARE mine." His eyes flashed gold. "The Moon Goddess made that choice, not me. You're my mate, my other half, and I won't apologize for fighting to keep what belongs to me."
"I don't belong to you. I belong to myself." Lila's voice shook. "And I'm choosing to leave because staying will destroy us both."
Before Adrian could respond, urgent knocking rattled her door. They both froze. No one knocked this late unless something was wrong.
"Your Majesty." A male voice came through the wood. Marcus, Adrian's Beta. "I know you're in there. You need to come out. Now."
Adrian crossed to the door, opened it to reveal Marcus looking grim and worried. The Beta's eyes flicked between his king and Lila, taking in their elevated emotions, their fighting stances.
"What is it?" Adrian demanded.
"The Queen is meeting with the council. Right now. Emergency session." Marcus's jaw clenched. "She called it an hour ago. They're waiting for you in the council chamber."
Horror flooded through Lila. Four days left. Celeste had promised a week, but she'd moved early. Probably heard about Adrian's plan to send Lila to the estate and decided to strike first.
"What's the meeting about?" Adrian's voice went cold and kingly.
Marcus hesitated, then spoke quietly. "The Queen is formally requesting Lady Lila's exile from the kingdom. She's calling her a threat to the royal marriage and the unborn heir."
The words landed like stones. Lila's knees weakened. Adrian's face went white with fury.
"When did this meeting start?" He demanded.
"Twenty minutes ago. I came to find you immediately, but you weren't in your chambers." Marcus's expression made clear he knew exactly where his king had been. "Your Majesty, you need to get to that council chamber. Before the Queen says something that can't be taken back."
Adrian turned to Lila. Their eyes met across the room, years of pain and desperation contained in a single look. Then he moved, grabbing his formal jacket from where he'd draped it over her chair.
"Come with me." He said to Lila. "If they're deciding your fate, you have a right to be present."
"Adrian, I can't just walk into a council meeting."
"You can if I command it." His voice carried absolute authority. "Marcus, escort Lady Lila to the council chamber. Now."
They rushed through empty palace corridors, footsteps echoing off stone walls. Lila's heart hammered. This was it. The moment everything fell apart. Celeste had decided to force the issue, and now the council would decide Lila's fate with all the weight of law and tradition behind them.
The council chamber doors loomed ahead, heavy oak carved with the kingdom's crest. Voices carried through the wood, raised in argument.
Adrian didn't knock. He shoved the doors open and strode inside like the Alpha King he was. Lila and Marcus followed, stepping into a room full of shocked faces.
Celeste stood at the head of the long council table, one hand resting on her pregnant belly. She looked beautiful and fragile and absolutely certain of her righteousness. When she saw Adrian and Lila enter together, something victorious flashed in her eyes.
"Your Majesty." Councilor Thorne rose from his seat. "We were just discussing the Queen's concerns about Lady Lila's continued presence in the palace."
"I can see that." Adrian's voice could have frozen fire. "What I can't see is why my wife felt the need to call an emergency council session without informing me first."
"Because you would have stopped me." Celeste's chin lifted. "Because you're so determined to protect her that you can't see what she's doing to our marriage." She addressed the council. "My husband is having an inappropriate relationship with my sister. I have evidence. Witnesses. And I will not allow it to continue while I carry the heir to this kingdom."
Silence fell like a hammer. Every councilor's eyes turned to Adrian and Lila. The accusation hung in the air, poisonous and damning.
"She's a threat to my marriage and my child." Celeste's voice rang clear. "And I'm formally requesting her immediate exile from the Northern Kingdom."