My In 9

Posted by admin, ? Views, Released on January 30, 2025

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Chapter 9: She Fell in Pool

(Celeste’s POV)

Scarlett’s tears shimmered as they trailed down her cheeks. Her small frame shook with each

breath as she crumbled before me.

Her wolf whimpered softly, folding into submission, but I didn’t feel moved. Not anymore.

Her emerald eyes found mine, wide and pleading.

“You have to believe me.” Her hands reached out faintly, as if to bridge a distance I didn’t

allow. “It wasn’t me, Celeste. It was Regina’s beta… The framed you.”

Regina? She is the Alpha King’s only sister. She is also the most powerful female Alpha in our

country. Why would her beta frame me?

Her words hung in the air, but my chest burned at the sound of her voice. I knew better than to

let it in.

My wolf stirred uneasily inside me, not convinced by her tears or her trembling form.

I tilted my head, my expression cold and unyielding. “It wasn’t you?” My voice was sharp,

cutting through her excuses like a blade.

“Then enlighten me, Scarlett. Where were you? When the Alpha King’s daughter pointed her finger at me? What were you doing when your wolf could have spoken the truth to save mine?”

Scarlett froze for a moment, her wolf letting out a pathetic whimper at my words. Her

shoulders sagged, and she cast her eyes down as though her fragile appearance might soften

me. It didn’t.

“I… I was just a newly–discovered heir,” she replied, her voice thin, weak. She looked up at me

again, her lips quivering.

“My wolf…” She inhaled sharply, struggling to speak. “My wolf was too afraid of the royal wolves. Their power–it paralyzed me. I couldn’t…”

I arched an eyebrow, saying nothing, my cold stare boring into her. My silence made her falter further, her excuses falling apart under the weight of my gaze.

She was lying. We both knew it.

“Too afraid?” I repeated, my voice laced with disdain. My arms crossed tightly over my chest.

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Chapter 9: She Fell in Pool

That’s what you tell yourself? That it was fear that bound your tongue?”

Scarlett flinched again, her wolf dropping even lower, pressing against her soul in fake remorse. She let out a shaking breath, and her voice cracked. “Celeste, I didn’t mean to-”

“You didn’t mean to?” I interrupted sharply. My tone made her head snap up, her emerald eyes

wide. “You didn’t mean to stand there while they dragged me to prison? You didn’t mean to

watch silently as I was whipped, burned, and ruined?”

Tears streamed down her face now, and her wolf whimpered louder. She pressed a hand to her

chest like she was trying to keep her fragile heart from shattering.

“I never wanted it to happen! Never, I swear!” she cried, her words shaky, desperate. “Sister,

please, you have to understand.”

I took a slow, deliberate step forward. Her wolf cowered, its false submission radiating

through every part of her trembling form.

My violet eyes narrowed sharply. “What I understand, Scarlett, is that you valued your position,

your safety, more than me.”

Scarlett gasped softly, stepping back slightly, but she didn’t drop her act. She wouldn’t dare.

“I can fix this,” she blurted suddenly, her voice rushing to fill the crackling silence. “I could give everything back, Celeste–your place, your rights, even Alexander! Whatever you want. Just forgive me. Please, sister.”

Her words hit me like cold water, but not in the way she intended. My wolf stirred sharply,

growling its distrust. There it was–the real reason she was standing here, spewing her

insincere apologies.

Scarlett wasn’t here to make things right. She wasn’t sorry for what she did. She was worried.

Worried about what I might want.

She wanted to know if I still thought about Alexander, if I cared enough to challenge what was

hers now.

I tilted my head slightly, my lips, curling into a cold, humorless smile. “Give everything back?” I said softly, my voice dangerously calm. I stepped closer still, watching her shrink under the

weight of my presence.

She nodded frantically, her hair bouncing over her shoulders. “Yes! All of it. You can have it all back. Just… just say the word.”

I took another step. Scarlett’s wolf cowered visibly now, whimpering louder as her emerald

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Chapter 9: She Fell in Pool

eyes darted nervously up at me. The flinch in her posture revealed that she knew. She knew I saw through her.

“I don’t want your gifts,” I said coldly, my voice low but cutting. “You can keep your territory. Keep your mate.”

Scarlett’s lips parted, her breathing unsteady as she searched my face for cracks in my armor.

There were none.

Her voice softened, trembling. “Please, Celeste…”

I stopped, standing tall above her. My wolf had stopped growling but not out of calmness-

pure disdain muted her voice. “There’s nothing to forgive, Scarlett,” I declared, my violet gaze

locking onto hers with icy precision. “Because there’s nothing I want from you.”

Scarlett froze, her wolf letting out a sharp whimper behind her emerald gaze.

“I care only about Elder now,” I finished coldly. My words hit like stone. “That is where my

loyalty lies. Not here with you or anyone else in this pack.”

My arms dropped to my sides, but the sharpness of my tone lingered in the air. Scarlett was

trembling, unsure if she could keep acting her pitiful role.

“Leave,” I said flatly, my tone final. “I’m done.”

She stayed planted for only a second longer than she should have before turning. She

stumbled toward the door, faded mutters of some weak excuse leaving her lips. I didn’t care to

hear them.

The door opened and then clicked shut behind her, but the weight of her presence stayed.

I stood by the window as the cold air filtered into the room. It numbed the warmth of my skin, but no amount of icy air could cool the fire burning deep in my chest.

My thoughts swirled, mixing anger and regret into a tangled mess I couldn’t pull apart..

Scarlett’s fake tears. Her trembling sobs. Her fearful promises. They all echoed in my ears, drowning out even the faint hum of my tired wolf.

“Nina,” I said, breaking the sharp silence of the room.

Her gray eyes flickered from the corner where she had been standing, watching, as always. She straightened instantly, moving into the light.

I turned fully from the window to look at her. My gaze was as cold and deliberate as my tone had been moments ago. “Your wolf,” I said quietly, accusingly, “it serves Lucas, doesn’t it?”

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Chapter 9: She Fell in Pool

Nina’s jaw tightened, and though her face stayed steady, a faint flicker of something passed

through her expression–hurt, maybe.

“You doubt me now?” Her tone was even, but there was weight behind it.

“You follow his orders,” I said. My lips pressed into a thin line, violet eyes hard as flint. “You

report to him.”

Nina’s wolf stirred beneath her skin, its growl faint but enough to fill the silence between us.

She lifted her head higher. “It was what I was ordered to do,” she answered honestly, her voice

firm but low.

I narrowed my eyes, my wolf bristling faintly though it remained subdued. “Loyalty bought

with commands,” I muttered.

“Loyalty earned,” Nina retorted sharply. Her wolf growled more pointedly now, though not with aggression. “I followed Lucas because it is my role. I stay with you because it is my choice.”

Her words made me pause. I studied her, searching her steady gray gaze for signs of cracks,

of doubt, but saw none.

Her shoulders squared, and her tone didn’t waver as she took a step closer.

“You may not believe me, My Lady,” she said softly, her wolf quieting now. “But I stand by you

now. Fury won’t change that.”

I didn’t respond, my face unreadable as I turned back toward the cold window. My wolf stirred faintly, considering her words, but said nothing.

Then came the howl–piercing, sharp, urgent. It cut through the night like breaking glass,

snapping both of us to attention.

I froze as the sound filled the space around me, and Nina stiffened beside me. Her gray wolf bristled, its energy surging strongly now. She turned to the door, her tone tense. “It came from the sacred pool.”