Chapter 81

• Lilah's POV
• My heart hammered in my chest as I made my way through the grand corridors of the palace. The quiet after the ceremony had done little to soothe my worried nerves. If anything, the weight of what was coming seemed even more pressing now. I had seen the way Bennett looked at me during the event, his eyes cold with a mixture of anger and something darker—something I couldn’t quite name.
• But it wasn’t just Bennett that worried me. It was Alpha Elione. The old Alpha, who had avoided any direct confrontation with me thus far, but had made his disdain for me known in the most insidious ways. He could tolerate me as Bennett’s mate, but my presence in the court, my pregnancy—everything about me was a reminder of the shift in power that threatened his reign.