Chapter 156 AURORA

Lillian.

If I'd had a wolf, my fingers would have turned to claws at the sight of her. As it was, something a lot like a growl came from my throat.

Years ago, when I had first come here, my children weren’t with me. Then they’d showed up on my doorstep, a continent away from where they were supposed to be, because Evander feared Lillian was trying to poison them.

I tried to pull away from Dane, but he held onto me. I bared my teeth at Lillian. My cousin looked so much like me, except for her coloring. Tall and slender, with the same cheekbones, same nose.

“My children are his, too,” I hissed.

Dane’s hold on me, which had been welcome just a moment ago, was now imprisoning. I pulled against him again. “Let me go. Why did you bring her here?”

Lillian laughed and wrapped her hands around Dane’s wide bicep. “You haven’t heard? Dane and I are an item.”

I looked up at Dane, but his face was blank. He didn’t react to Lillian. She might as well have been a fly buzzing around him.

Still, I said, “Is this true?”

Dane looked down at Lillian. As tall as we both were, he was still several inches taller. Before he could say anything, another woman marched up. Significantly shorter, with golden blond hair and armed with a sword.

“Oh, Lillian!” Evelyn said. She laughed, and it sounded as bright and sparkling as champagne. These days, I almost forgot Evelyn’s origins as an actress. She’d given it all up when Dane was taken from the pack.

Now, Evelyn’s charm was back in full force. So much so that it reminded me forcibly of the time we hated each other, and she was actively trying to ruin my life. I pulled away from Dane again.

“Evelyn,” my voice was sharper than it needed to be, but given the situation, I decided it was called for. “Do you know my cousin?”

Evelyn threaded her arm through Lillian’s, and Lillian’s expression suddenly turned strained, as if she was trying to hide pain.

“Oh, yes,” Evelyn said. “We go back a long way. She knew my mother.”

Confused, I furrowed my brow. “I see.”

I didn’t know anything about Evelyn’s mother. She’d never spoken about her before. Though I did know that her maternal aunt was mated to the Alpha of the Hundred Lakes Pack, one of the few packs in the Southeastern US that thought it could still stay out of the war that Dane was bringing to the rest of the world.

“Come on, Lilli,” said Evelyn with a bright smile on her face. “Let’s talk.”

Lillian’s look of hidden pain was replaced with a toothy smile that was clearly angry. “Fine,” she said through her teeth. She followed Evelyn, and the two slipped away.

Dane still hadn’t let me go. He looked after the two retreating women with a neutral expression on his face.

“Did you sleep with my cousin?” I asked.

Dane glared at me. Then he moved his hold to my wrist and pulled me through the crowd. I swallowed an annoyed sound.

Trajan reached out to me through the pack bond – a connection that was sacred to me after spending so much of my life without it. Luna, what would you like us to do?

My eyes fell on Trajan. I found him casually sipping a drink and leaning against a column. Dozens of other warriors, all formally dressed for the gala, slipped Dane and I looks. There was Dane, he guaranteed, after all, that the Nameless hadn’t sent just to murder me.

Nothing yet, I told Trajan. Be ready.

My beta nodded, and I let Dane pull me from the glittering, packed ballroom toward a darkened hall.

A little fear buzzed in my blood, but so did anticipation.

I was stronger now than I looked. Even if I was wolfless, I’d found in the last few years that I was hard to kill.

But that wasn’t why I let Dane pull me into the hall, where the air was dark and cool, and the sounds of the gala were muffled.

I did it because part of me was still a foolish girl, and I wanted to be alone with him. I wanted to know what he would do. What he would say.

Besides, I could feel Trajan and several other warriors follow us. If I needed them, they would be here in less than a second.

When we got into the hall, Dane shocked me by pushing me against the wall and crowding me with his body. He dropped his nose to my neck and breathed in.

“I had to get away from their eyes,” he said.

He didn’t have to tell me for me to know he was talking about the shadow wolves he’d come with.

“Why?” My voice was breathless. His nose nuzzled my skin, and I tilted my head back.

Dane growled at the submissive show. Then, with a quiet exhale, he brushed his lips across the place where my pulse hammered against my skin.

“Why?” he repeated. His voice was rough as gravel. “Because I… know you. I know this.” He pressed his lips there again, harder. I had to bite back a groan.

“Do you remember?” I asked. “Who I am? What you did for me? What we used to be?”

Dane kissed my neck again. Then, before he could answer, a new voice cut through the darkness. A young voice, filled with heartbreaking hope.

“Daddy? You’re home!”