Chapter 66 CHAPTER 66
Lisa’s spoon slipped from her fingers.
It hit the edge of her plate with a sharp, metallic clatter that cut through the warm dining hall like a crack of thunder. The conversation died instantly. Servants paused near the doorway. Even the candles along the walls seemed to flicker in alarm.
Inside Lisa’s mind, Celia’s voice trembled.
“I went to the wolf realm… and I saw him.”
Her vision blurred at the edges.
Across the table, Ethan rose from his chair so fast the legs scraped the stone floor. “Lisa?” His voice was tight with urgency. “What’s wrong? Are you dizzy? Is your body reacting to the long day you had at the city?”
Beside him, Liam straightened in his seat, all the easy calm he’d shown minutes earlier draining into rigid alertness. Isabel, who had been mid - bite, froze with her fork halfway to her lips.
Lisa swallowed, but her voice came out thin. “It’s… Celia.”
Ethan’s wolf surged forward. His eyes flashed gold.
“What about my sister?” Rex demanded through Ethan’s mouth, his voice low and ancient enough to make the air tremble.
Celia stepped into Lisa’s awareness, her energy steady but shaken.
“I’m alright, Rex,” she said softly in Lisa’s mind. “But I… I saw him.”
Ethan stiffened. Liam’s hand closed around the edge of the table. Isabel’s eyes widened, darting between them in confusion.
“Him?” Rex growled.
“Our mate,” Celia said. “Kael.”
Her voice cracked. “I saw him at the wolf’s realm. Something is wrong with him. Very wrong. I couldn’t get close to him because the bond is not fully complete but I could see from afar that something is definitely wrong with him.”
Silence swallowed the room whole.
Rex’s energy churned like a storm. He hated Sebastian and Kael too - hated that wolf for hurting Celia, for rejecting Lisa, for everything - but the mate bond was not something a wolf could ignore.
“If something happens to him while the bond is still intact…” Rex said darkly, “it could hurt you. It could also hurt Lisa.”
Lisa’s chest tightened painfully. She gripped the table, trying to steady her breathing.
Celia took a shaky breath. “I can show you, Rex. If you want. I’ll take you to him.”
Rex hesitated only a heartbeat.
“Take me to him,” he said. “Now.”
The shift was instant.
Lisa gasped as Celia’s presence tore forward, leaving her hollow. Ethan’s breath hitched as Rex surged out of him in the same moment.
Neither of their bodies moved.
But something vital - something ancient and wolf-born - slipped out of the human realm.
Celia and Rex vanished into the wolf realm.
Lisa swayed. Ethan gripped the table, steadying himself.
They were alone in their bodies again.
Empty.
Bare.
Breathless.
Liam noticed it first.
“Well,” he said, brows rising, “why do you both look like you just saw a ghost?”
Ethan opened his mind link with Liam, “It’s Lisa’s mate’s wolf, Celia says that he is…”
“Will you stop with the secrecy?” she snapped, voice shaking, making Ethan both lose their concentration hence breaking the mind link.
Liam blinked. Ethan went still, none spoke a word. They could feel the anger carried in Lisa’s voice.
“I know something is wrong, something that involves Celia and I,” Lisa said. “I’ve known for days. And I’m tired of you both pretending everything is fine and treating me like a child.”
Isabel lowered her fork, face draining of colour.
Lisa pushed herself up from her chair, breath faltering. The golden light from the chandeliers reflected off the tears gathering in her eyes.
“You think I’m weak,” she whispered. “You think I’m traumatised by my past experiences at silver pine.”
Ethan shook his head. “Lisa…”
“Don’t lie to me.”
Her voice cracked hard enough to leave an echo in the hall.
“You shelter me. You hide things from me. You decide what I should or shouldn’t know. You treat me like I’m going to fall apart if you breathe too hard near me.”
Liam’s jaw tightened. He didn’t deny it.
Lisa looked between them, her face tight with hurt.
Her voice softened, trembling.
“But everything I went through in Silverpine didn’t destroy me. It made me stronger. It made me fight harder. It made me survive when no one cared if I lived or died. I’m not some fragile princess that you should shelter from the rain. I’ve been through fire and survived it.”
Isabel’s eyes shone with unshed tears.
Lisa swallowed again, harder this time.
“What you’re doing now,” she whispered, “this secrecy… it feels exactly like Silverpine.”
Ethan inhaled sharply, pain flickering across his face.
Lisa blinked, tears finally slipping down her cheeks.
“It feels like I’m irrelevant,” she said. “Like my feelings don’t matter. Like I’m a burden. And that feeling…” Her voice broke. “That feeling sucks.”
Liam shifted uncomfortably - not from annoyance, but from guilt.
Ethan looked like her words had carved into him with a knife.
Isabel reached across the table, touching Lisa’s wrist gently, her small voice trembling. “Lisa… you’re not irrelevant. Not to me at least.”
Lisa's shoulders shook. “please stop treating me like I’m made of glass Ethan. Let me play my part in protecting this kingdom. I don’t want to play princess – dress ups and fancy parties – I want to know the good and the bad that entails my job as the princess of Mooncrest.”
The hall fell into a suffocating silence.
The earlier warmth - the laughter, the teasing, the cosy closeness - collapsed like a dropped plate.
Ethan exchanged a long, weighted look with Liam.
A silent conversation passed between them. Liam nodding in silence perhaps in agreement to what Lisa was saying.
Finally, Liam exhaled and set down his fork.
“Let’s finish dinner first,” he said, his voice steady but low. “Then you, Ethan, and I will speak in his study.”
Lisa didn’t trust her voice, so she just nodded.
The hall returned to a dreadful stillness.
Isabel didn’t even try to fill the silence - a rare first. She simply ate in small, distracted bites, sneaking worried glances at Lisa.
Ethan barely touched his food. He stared at his plate like it held the answers he refused to speak aloud.
Liam ate with slow, mechanical movements, thoughts clearly elsewhere.
Lisa picked at her bread but didn’t swallow anything.
Her appetite had vanished, replaced by a sick, heavy dread that churned in her stomach.
The light seemed too bright.
The air too still.
Even the warmth of the hall felt hollow now, like it was only pretending to be safe.
She kept glancing at Ethan, waiting for him to say something - anything - to reassure her.
He didn’t.
He just looked… afraid.
Not of danger.
Of the truth.
Maybe of hurting her with it.
Isabel reached for her water, hands trembling slightly. “Lisa,” she whispered, “whatever it is… I’ll be with you. No matter what.”
Lisa forced a small, grateful smile.
But she felt Celia’s absence like a missing heartbeat.
She felt Rex’s absence like a severed connection.
Something was happening in the wolf realm - something terrible - and she was sitting here with a fork in her hand while her wolf fought alone.
Her stomach twisted.
Please be okay, Celia.
Please.
She didn’t know how long the silence stretched.
It felt like hours.
Maybe it was only minutes.
Eventually, the servants returned to clear the plates. Their steps were soft, cautious, sensing the tension hanging thick in the air.
Lisa sat quietly, staring at the tablecloth, fingers curled into fists in her lap.
Everything had changed in a heartbeat.
And the worst part?
She didn’t even know why.
Dinner limped to an end. No laughter. No chatter. No warmth.
Isabel stood first, helping gather plates even though the servants insisted she didn’t need to. She needed something to do with her shaking hands.
Liam rose silently. Ethan followed.
Lisa stayed seated for a moment longer, staring at the empty space in front of her where Celia’s presence used to hum.
Then she stood, wiped her cheeks, straightened her shoulders…
…and walked with Ethan and Liam toward the study.