Chapter 139: Unsafe
Riven nodded slowly, his expression open yet tinged with hesitation. He knew Eli was someone he could trust, and he didn’t want to hide the truth—especially not after everything.
He could not in good faith throw Ronan under the bus again. That would only bring him more troubles.
"Yes," he said quietly. "Ronan won’t have any issues with it. We are... A couple now."
He spoke the words gently, almost cautiously, as if testing how they’d sound in the open. And for a moment, it felt strange to admit it like that—to label it so plainly. But it was the truth. Whatever had happened between them, whatever was continuing to happen—it was real.
Eli’s eyes widened, the pink hue of his irises practically glowing under the indoor light. His mouth opened slightly, a silent gasp escaping before he could stop it.
A couple.
So it was true, Eli thought. The Alpha really had forced Riven to stay.
Eli’s mind spun with terrible possibilities. It all made sense now—the reason no one had seen Riven for days, the hushed whispers and the vague answers about where he’d gone. This was what they were hiding. This was why Riven had ’vanished’. The Alpha had taken him, claimed him, and forced him to stay here in silence.
His stomach turned at the thought. His poor friend. Riven, who had always been half-wolf, half-human, belonged to neither world. Of course, he’d been vulnerable to someone like Ronan. Eli had seen it before—how the Alphas sometimes took what they wanted, no matter how kind they pretended to be on the surface.
Riven’s words replayed in his mind. "We are a couple now."
To Eli, it sounded like something someone would say after giving in. After deciding that resistance was no longer worth it. Maybe Riven had convinced himself that this was love—maybe it was the only way to survive it.