Osias
EIGHTEEN
The Telling of Love and Forever—the title she’d chosen—honored both the pride’s ancient tradition and their own impossible love story.
It was exactly the kind of authentic storytelling his mother would have championed, the kind that turned painful truth into something beautiful.
For a brief moment, he’d allowed himself to imagine a future where shifters didn’t need to hide, where their world could exist openly alongside the human one.
But today’s meeting would determine whether they’d have a future at all.
Beside him, Celina stood with her arms crossed, her green eyes fixed on the digital display counting their ascent.
She wore a sleeveless charcoal dress that made her look impossibly attractive, but her jaw was set in a line he’d learned to recognize as her preparing for war.
Through the bond, he felt her anticipation mixing with fierce determination—a combination that reminded him why she’d been able to survive thirty years in an industry designed to consume people.
“Whatever Juno found,” she said quietly, “we handle it together.”
The elevator chimed softly as they reached the twentieth floor and Osias felt his lion stir restlessly, sensing the tension that awaited them beyond those doors.
In the fifteen years he’d been CEO of Fellan Entertainment, he’d never missed three consecutive days of work, and the absence felt wrong.
But protecting Celina and allowing her to care for him while he healed properly had been more important than any meeting or contract.
“Together,” he agreed, his hand finding hers as the doors slid open.
The familiar space of Fellan Entertainment’s executive floor stretched before them, but something felt different. The usual bustling energy was replaced by an undercurrent of unease that made his shoulders tense and when they finally reached his corner office, his door was already open.
Inside, Juno stood with his back to them, staring out the floor-to-ceiling windows that offered a commanding view of Hollywood, and Seth and Thomas flanked the room’s perimeter like sentries, their expressions grim.
Pell sat in one of the leather chairs facing Osias’s desk, his usually composed demeanor marred by visible concern.
None of them looked like bearers of good news.
Osias didn’t waste time with pleasantries or settling into his chair. The Alpha in him demanded immediate answers, and every instinct screamed that whatever they’d discovered was worse than he’d anticipated.
“Tell me what you found out.”
Juno turned from the window, his dark eyes meeting Osias’s with the kind of direct honesty that had made him invaluable as a Beta. No cushioning, no careful phrasing—just the brutal truth.
“It’s not good,” Juno said, his voice filled with the heaviness of someone who’d spent days uncovering information he’d rather not possess. “It’s worse than we imagined.”
The silence that followed felt suffocating. Celina’s hand tightened in his, and through the bond, Osias felt her steeling herself for impact.
“Rennick is behind it,” Juno continued, each word dropping like a stone into still water.
“But he didn’t work alone. He coerced Braxton and Margot into helping with not only this recent alley attack, but also the bad press campaign against you, Celina’s accident on set, and the attempted kidnapping at her mansion. ”
The words hit Osias like physical blows.
Each revelation landed with devastating precision, dismantling everything he’d believed about the people closest to him.
Rennick being the mastermind wasn’t surprising—he’d sensed the lion shifter’s possessive manipulation from their first meeting. But Braxton and Margot…
Their betrayal cut deeper than any claw wound ever could.
These were the people he’d protected since he was twenty years old.
The family he’d chosen to love despite the complications, despite Margot’s subtle undermining and Braxton’s resentment.
He’d covered Braxton’s mistakes, smoothed over his scandals, and quietly paid his debts.
He’d respected Margot’s position in the pride and included her in decisions, honoring her as his father’s widow. And they had turned against him.
Worse—they had tried to harm Celina.
Rage flooded through him, hot and primal, his lion roaring for blood. The careful control he’d maintained for fifteen years as Alpha began to fracture and the beast wanted revenge.
In the pride, there was no forgiveness for this level of betrayal.
Family who conspired against the Alpha, who endangered his mate, had crossed a line that couldn’t be uncrossed.
Through the bond, he felt Celina’s shock and pain crashing over him in waves.
She swayed slightly, and he immediately moved to her side, his arm sliding around her waist to steady her.
Her face had gone pale, and her eyes wide with the kind of devastation that came from having fundamental beliefs shattered.
“We’ll handle this,” Osias said, his voice rough with barely contained fury. The promise was as much for himself as for her.
“I know,” she whispered, but her voice carried a tremor he rarely heard. “It’s just... worse than I expected. I didn’t think the man who swore he loved me and would protect me would turn against me and my mate.”
Osias understood her shock, even though he’d suspected Rennick’s true nature from the beginning.
For Celina, Rennick hadn’t just been a manager—he’d been the closest thing to a father figure she’d known since childhood.
The man who’d guided her career, protected her from exploitation, stood as a buffer between her and an industry that would have devoured her without his intervention.
Learning that same protector had orchestrated attacks against her, had manipulated the man she’d worked with professionally, had nearly caused her serious injury on set—it was the kind of betrayal that rewrote history.
“I wonder how long he was betraying me,” she said, the question barely audible.
Osias wanted to lie, wanted to soften the blow, but their bond made deception impossible. She would feel his dishonesty as clearly as his love. And she deserved the truth, no matter how much it hurt.
“Probably for a very long time,” he said quietly.
The admission ignited something fierce in her eyes. The devastation transformed into fury, her spine straightening as the actress who’d survived thirty years in Hollywood reasserted herself.
“I want to make him pay.”
The words carried a venom that made his lion purr with approval. This was his mate—not the carefully managed celebrity, but the woman who would fight for what mattered.
“We will,” he promised, meaning every word. “But we have to be smart about this.”
Pell cleared his throat, drawing their attention. “We need to address Braxton and Margot soon,” he said, his usual diplomatic tone strained. “The longer we wait, the more time Rennick has to manipulate the situation further.”
The thought of confronting his stepbrother and stepmother made Osias’s stomach turn, but Pell was right. In pride law, betrayal of this magnitude demanded immediate action. As Alpha, he couldn’t allow personal feelings to compromise the safety of his people.
“I know,” Osias said, the words tasting bitter. He turned to Juno, Seth, and Thomas. “Secure the pride lands perimeter and then find Braxton and Margot and detain them.”
The order felt like swallowing glass, but Rennick had already proven how far he was willing to go. And now that Celina had fired him, the man had nothing left to lose—which made him infinitely more dangerous.
The weight of betrayal settled between them like a physical presence as Pell, Juno, Seth, and Thomas filed out of his office, their expressions grim with the knowledge they’d shared.
The door clicked shut with unusual finality, leaving Osias alone with Celina in the space that had once felt like sanctuary but now seemed exposed and vulnerable.
Through the bond, Osias felt her processing the revelation in waves—shock giving way to anger, anger dissolving into something deeper and more dangerous. Her green eyes had gone dark with a fury that burned cold and steady.
“We need to deal with this now,” Celina said, her voice carrying steel. “Not tomorrow, not next week. Now.”
“I know.” His response came out rough, his lion prowling restlessly beneath his skin.
She moved to the window, her silhouette sharp against the Hollywood skyline. “We cannot let them destroy what we’re trying to build together. And we certainly can’t let them harm our pride.”
The possessive way she said our pride sent heat flooding through him.
Two weeks ago, she hadn’t known shifters existed.
Now she was claiming his people as her own and ready to fight for them with fierce protectiveness.
He moved to stand beside her, his hand finding her back, and the contact steadied them both as the mate bond hummed with shared determination.
“The press event,” he said, remembering their abandoned schedules. “Your Best Actress nominees’ luncheon—“
“Doesn’t matter anymore.” Her reflection in the glass looked resolute, every trace of the carefully constructed celebrity replaced by something rawer and infinitely more dangerous. “Nothing matters except protecting what’s ours.”
They left his office minutes later, the familiar corridors of Fellan Entertainment feeling foreign under the weight of what they now knew. His employees nodded respectfully as they passed, unaware that their CEO’s world had shifted fundamentally in the space of a single meeting.
The drive back to their mansion passed in tense silence, Beverly Hills blurring past the windows as his mind calculated strategies and contingencies.
Juno would call when Braxton and Margot were detained.
Until then, they had to stay safe, and had to avoid giving Rennick another opportunity to strike.
The bastard had escalated beyond all reason. Two attacks in broad daylight, manipulation spanning weeks, coercing family members into betrayal—it spoke to desperation.
“I cannot believe I trusted Rennick for so long,” Celina said suddenly, her voice barely audible over the Ferrari’s engine. “I let him control my life and decisions without ever questioning his loyalty to me.”
Osias’s hands tightened on the steering wheel, his lion snarling at the pain radiating through their bond. “It isn’t your fault. Rennick was a master manipulator who preyed on your vulnerability after your mother’s death. He sensed exactly what you needed to hear and used that for his own gain.”
“But he also used my mother.” Her words came out flat, but he felt the rage building beneath her careful control. “Used her memory, her love for me, to justify his possession.”
“Yes.”
There was no point softening the truth. Rennick had weaponized Joyce’s death, and had positioned himself as the only person who truly understood Celina. It was psychological manipulation of the most insidious kind.
They finally pulled through the gate of their mansion, the familiar sight of home offering little comfort. The sprawling gardens and elegant architecture that usually soothed his lion felt exposed now, vulnerable to attack.
“I don’t trust that Rennick will go away quietly,” she said as he parked in the garage.
Osias turned to face her fully, his blue eyes meeting her green ones with absolute honesty. “He won’t. He’s going to come looking for a fight, and when he does, we’ll be ready for him.”
Through their bond, Osias felt her fear spike—not for herself, but for him, for their pride, for everything they were building together. It was the fear of someone who’d finally found home and couldn’t bear to lose it.
“We’ll protect each other,” he said, his tone gentle but firm. “We’ll prepare our pride for whatever’s coming. And we’ll fight for our future together.”
Her hand found his across the center console, their fingers intertwining with the certainty of a bond that couldn’t be broken by betrayal or manipulation or violence.
“Together,” she agreed, and in that single word, he heard everything he needed to know about the woman who’d chosen to stand beside him.