Chapter 35 A meeting with Seth
Celine’s POV
“Let’s go for a walk,” Lila said softly.
Her fingers traced my cheeks, collecting the last tear like it was something fragile, something she could fix. She’d done this all day each time I broke, she quietly pieced me back together.
I wanted to trust her. I almost did. But some wounds refused to be shared—the rogues, the memories, the blood. If I pretended silence was healing, maybe I could believe I was getting better.
The room was dim, but she hadn’t left. Her presence brought warmth—a calmness that felt like something I used to know.
The feeling was familiar, though the memory behind it was vague. Just snippets, rare and fleeting. That group of rogues had caused it.
“A walk will help,” she said.
“A walk?”
I didn’t think my stay in this room was over, so I didn’t believe a walk was possible. But if anyone could make it happen, it was her.
“Outside this palace. No watchful eyes. Just you and me, so you can catch some fresh air. That would be great.”
“And how is that supposed to happen?”
Tristan’s visits to this room—his constant need to check on me—made me a high priority. He wouldn’t want me to escape, especially since he believed I was his mate. He couldn’t have made it that easy for me to leave.
“By taking you out of here.” She pulled the blanket off my feet, urging me to stand.
“What if I’m caught?”
“It’s all on me.”
I sighed. I didn’t believe this would end well.
“You have doubts?” she asked, helping me to my feet.
“My doubt is valid, don’t you think?”
She nodded, opening the wardrobe. Inside were rows of dresses—I didn’t know when they’d been placed there. They couldn’t have been meant for me. Maybe she’d arranged them while I slept. Whatever the case, it was a small detail in a larger risk.
“You think my doubts aren’t valid?”
“Yes, I do.” She pulled out a dark dress. “It’s normal for you to be concerned.”
“Then why do it anyway?”
She placed her hands on my shoulders. “From the moment you arrived—before I realized we had a connection—Tristan put me in charge of you. I’m still in charge.”
“And?”
“If I’m seen, I’ll come up with something. And if all hell breaks loose… Tristan is fond of you, falsely or not.”
“Meaning?”
“He’ll pretend to care. He won’t harm you.”
“What if he actually cares?”
She shook her head. “He can’t.”
“Then what happens to you?”
“Don’t worry about that,” she said with a soft smile.
“I can’t not worry.”
She shut the wardrobe and looked at the black dress once more. “It’s perfect. Put it on.”
I did, though reluctantly.
“I need you to meet someone,” she explained. “Someone you can talk to.”
The risk of going outside Tristan’s palace couldn’t have been for a simple stroll.
\---
About an hour later, Lila and I were outside the palace. We’d managed to slip past the gammas’ watch, our dark dresses blending with the night.
It was my first time seeing the pack’s territory. Where Colt and I had lived wasn’t far from here—not within the Blightmoon Pack, but still under Tristan’s rule. Colt’s betrayal was the reason I’d ever crossed into this world. My first time seeing Tristan, my first time stepping inside the palace… and now, my first glimpse of the territory.
But it was the wrong hour to truly see it. The moonlight was faint; the houses only faint outlines.
I stopped, clutching Lila’s hand.
“What is it?”
I heard faint growls—low, unnatural. The kind that told me there were wolves lurking, hungry and wild. I shouldn’t have come.
“Celine?”
I didn’t answer, just turned in a slow circle, scanning the trees. My imagination blurred with memory—the rogue wolves coming for me as I escaped the massacre of my parents.
“I heard growls,” I whispered, pointing toward the thick path of trees. “Werewolves. Everywhere.”
“Hmm.” She frowned. “You’ve always been among werewolves, haven’t you?”
“I know… but this feels different.”
“I’m one of them. Your father was too—except your mother.”
I stepped back. It hadn’t occurred to me to think of her as a werewolf. She’d built such a gentle closeness with me that I’d forgotten what she really was.
“You do remember that?” she asked.
I nodded. I hadn’t thought of it in a long time, not since everything fell apart.
“I wonder if there’s any trace of wolf in your blood,” she murmured, brushing my hair back, pulling me close.
“What do you mean?”
“Just thinking aloud.”
We walked quietly after that, her arm around me until we reached a house off the path. The place was dark, but light flickered through the window—not candlelight.
“We’ll go in,” Lila said.
“And you’re sure it’s safe?”
“I wouldn’t let him hurt you. Trust me.”
Inside, the light came from burning wood placed in spaced intervals along the walls.
“Welcome,” a man said.
He was old—older than Aiden—but strong.
I squeezed Lila’s hand. “Who’s he?”
“He’s a latent wolf,” she whispered. “They don’t transform. He’s a mage.”
He stood a few steps away, listening, but not interrupting. His silence was patient—measured.
“You’re sure he won’t sell us out to Tristan?”
“Far from it. He can’t.”
I wanted to believe her. I had to.
The walls were marked with drawings—not patterns, but images of wolves, bones, knives. They looked almost alive in the firelight, their shadows shifting. I reached out, then hesitated, afraid one of the drawn fangs might bite.
“I’m Seth,” he said.
Okay… so where were we supposed to start?
“You came for?” he asked.
I didn’t know. I didn’t even know why Lila had brought me here. Everything confused me—my connection to the rogue wolves, the gaps in my memory, my parents’ deaths that haunted me no matter how hard I tried to move on.
And then there was Tristan—his belief that I was his mate.
How was I supposed to untangle all of this?
What exactly was I looking for?
I wasn’t sure it was peace. Maybe grief was the only thing keeping me alive.
“Celine,” Seth said, drawing my attention.
My gaze flicked between him and Lila. “You already know my name?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” he replied, his eyes holding too much knowledge to belong to a stranger.
The air grew heavier. Even the flames along the walls seemed to bend toward him.
When his hand found mine, the warmth wasn’t comforting—it was ancient, familiar, like something deep inside me had been waiting for this touch.
“You came to understand your past, your present… and what’s still coming, didn’t you?”
The way he said it made my heartbeat falter—as if he already knew the answer, and maybe, so did I.