Chapter 9 False Alarm
The healers moved with practiced efficiency, their hands glowing faint blue as they examined Celeste. Adrian stood frozen in the doorway, his face a mask of carefully controlled nothing. Lila pressed herself against the wall, trying to disappear, trying not to exist in this moment that belonged to husband and wife.
"Your Majesty, please lie down." The head healer, an elderly woman named Iris, guided Celeste toward the bed. "We need to examine you properly."
"The baby." Celeste's voice broke. "Is the baby dying?"
Iris didn't answer, her glowing hands moving over Celeste's abdomen. The other healers worked in silence, their faces revealing nothing. The room felt thick with tension, with the weight of something precious hanging in balance.
Lila shouldn't be here. This was private, intimate, a crisis between husband and wife. But her feet wouldn't move. She watched Adrian's hands clench and unclench at his sides, watched his jaw work as he fought for control. Through the bond, she felt his confusion. Not grief. Not fear for Celeste. Just hollow obligation mixed with guilt that he felt so little.
"The bleeding is slowing." Iris straightened after what felt like hours. "Your Majesty, when did you last eat?"
Celeste blinked. "I... this afternoon. I had tea."
"Just tea?"
"I wasn't hungry. I've been nauseous for days."
Iris exchanged glances with the other healers. "Your Majesty, you're pregnant. Very newly pregnant, perhaps three weeks along. The nausea is normal. The bleeding..." She paused. "The bleeding was caused by severe stress and malnutrition. Your body is struggling to sustain the pregnancy because you're not giving it what it needs."
The words hung in the air. Not a miscarriage. Not a crisis. Just a warning.
"The baby is fine?" Celeste's hand went to her stomach.
"The baby is fine. For now." Iris's voice carried a warning. "But you need to eat properly. Rest properly. Avoid stress. This is a delicate time. Your body needs strength to carry a child to term."
"I didn't know." Celeste looked up at Adrian, something vulnerable in her face. "I didn't know I was pregnant. We haven't... in weeks, I thought..."
Adrian moved finally, crossing to stand beside the bed. His hand rested on Celeste's shoulder, a gesture of duty more than affection. "You should have told me you weren't feeling well."
"You're never there to tell." The words came out sharp, bitter. "You're always in your study or with the council or..." Her eyes cut to Lila, accusation clear.
Lila flinched. Adrian's hand tightened on Celeste's shoulder in warning.
"The Queen needs rest." Iris broke the tension. "Everyone out except His Majesty. I'll leave instructions with the kitchen staff about proper nutrition. Your Majesty, you'll need to eat small meals every few hours. No more skipping food because of nausea."
The other healers filed out. Lila moved to follow, desperate to escape, but Adrian's voice stopped her.
"Lila, wait in the sitting room."
It wasn't a request. Celeste's eyes narrowed, but she was too exhausted to protest. Lila slipped into the adjacent sitting room and closed the door, giving them privacy. She sank into a chair, her whole body shaking with aftershocks.
A baby. Celeste was carrying Adrian's baby. The reality of it hit like a fist to her chest. This wasn't theoretical anymore. This was a child, a heir, a permanent bond between Adrian and Celeste that couldn't be undone or ignored.
Through the wall, she heard Adrian's low voice, heard Celeste's responses. They spoke too quietly for words to carry, but the tone was clear. Dutiful. Strained. Two people who shared a marriage but not a life.
Lila pressed both hands to her face. Minutes ago, Adrian had been about to kiss her. His lips had been a breath from hers, the bond singing between them, his wolf ready to claim what belonged to him. And now he stood in his wife's chambers, discussing the baby they'd created together.
The door opened. Adrian stepped into the sitting room and closed it behind him. He looked exhausted, years older than his thirty-two. His eyes had returned to their normal ice-blue, his wolf buried again under layers of control.
"She's resting." He leaned against the door. "The healers gave her something to help her sleep."
Lila couldn't meet his eyes. "You should stay with her."
"I know what I should do." Bitterness colored his voice. "I've spent my entire life doing what I should. Doesn't make it easier."
"A baby." The word felt foreign on her tongue. "You're going to be a father."
"Yes."
"That changes everything."
"No." Adrian crossed to her, crouched down until their eyes were level. "It changes nothing about what you are to me. Nothing about the bond. Nothing about what I feel when I look at you."
"It should." Lila's voice broke. "It should change everything. You're going to have a child with Celeste. A family. That's real, Adrian. That matters more than a mate bond we never asked for."
"You think I don't know that?" His hand reached for hers, stopped inches away. "You think I don't feel the weight of it crushing me? But it doesn't change the fact that you're my mate. That my wolf recognizes you as ours. That every cell in my body screams for you even when I'm standing beside my pregnant wife."
"Then we're both cursed." Tears spilled down her cheeks. "Because I can't stop wanting something I have no right to want. I can't stop feeling you through this bond. I can't stop dying a little bit every day watching you live a life I'll never be part of."
Adrian's control cracked. His hand caught hers, fingers threading together. The touch sent electricity up her arm, the bond flaring hot and desperate.
"Don't cry." His voice was rough. "Please don't cry. I can feel it through the bond and it destroys me."
"Let me go." But even as she said it, her hand tightened on his. "Let me leave. Let me build a life somewhere else. It's the only way either of us survives this."
"I can't." He brought her hand to his chest, pressed it over his racing heart. "My wolf won't allow it. If you leave, he'll take over completely. He'll abandon the kingdom, the throne, everything to hunt you down." His eyes met hers. "And part of me wants to let him. Part of me wants to say to hell with duty and crown and consequences. Part of me wants to run away with you and never look back."
"But you won't."
"But I won't." The admission sounded like defeat. "Because I'm not just a man. I'm a king. And kings don't get to choose happiness over responsibility."
They stayed like that, hands joined, the bond pulsing between them. Outside, dawn was still hours away. The palace slept, unaware of the crisis narrowly avoided, unaware of the two people sitting in the dark holding onto each other like drowning victims.
Finally, Adrian released her hand and stood. "Celeste can't know about tonight. About what almost happened in the corridor."
"She won't hear it from me."
"The council is going to demand you stay away from her now. They'll say stress is dangerous for the pregnancy. They'll use it as an excuse to banish you from this wing."
Lila nodded. She'd expected as much. "Where will I go?"
"There's a suite in the west tower. Isolated. Away from the main palace." His jaw clenched. "Three floors away and across the courtyard. Far enough to appear proper."
Far enough that they wouldn't accidentally meet in hallways. Far enough that Lila wouldn't overhear Adrian and Celeste in the night. Far enough to pretend the bond didn't exist.
"When?"
"Tomorrow. I'll make the arrangements." Adrian moved toward the door, stopped with his hand on the handle. "Lila."
She looked up.
"I meant what I said in the corridor. Every word. The baby changes the circumstances, but it doesn't change what you are to me." His voice dropped. "And it doesn't change the fact that if you try to leave again, I will hunt you down."
He left before she could respond. Lila sat alone in the sitting room as gray dawn light began filtering through the windows. In the next room, Celeste slept with Adrian's child growing inside her. In the corridor, servants would soon begin their morning routines. And in the west tower, a new prison waited for Lila, one with thicker walls and greater distance.
She'd tried to escape tonight. She'd been ready to run, to save them both from this impossible situation. But Adrian had stopped her. And now Celeste was pregnant, and leaving had become even more unthinkable.
Lila pressed both hands to her chest, feeling the bond pulse with Adrian's distant presence. He'd returned to his own chambers, putting physical distance between them even as the bond kept them tethered together.
She was trapped. By duty. By circumstance. By a mate bond that refused to fade no matter how much distance they forced between them. And now by the knowledge that somewhere in this palace, a baby grew who would bind Adrian to Celeste forever.
The sun rose over the Northern Kingdom. Lila watched it climb through the windows
, painting the sky in shades of pink and gold. Beautiful and terrible, like everything else in her life had become.