Chapter 8: AURORA

Evelyn made her way up the stairs, practically shoving the pack guards out of the way.

Connall Montague saw her coming and sighed. “Please excuse me. I’d rather not ruin my night by having to speak with a mongrel from Hundred Lakes.”

“She’s my fiancé,” Dane growled.

The old man shook his head. “You know my history with them. I will never accept her into our pack or our family.” He left.

Evelyn stomped up the stairs in her candy pink and crystal designer stilettos. I had no problem with things being pink and glittery–feminine things are beautiful, after all. But Evelyn wore her femininity like a weapon to use against other women, and I hated that.

My eyes went to Dane. His whole body had gone tense, the muscles of his chiseled jaw flexing. I was surprised. That look was one he used to get when he was about to face a challenger, or when he had to face down his greatest rival: the Alpha of the Fall Line Pack, Holden Coleridge. To be this tense when his own fiancé approached him meant there was trouble in paradise.

“I thought you were going to wait for me near the door,” Evelyn pouted, slinking up to him. She pressed her body into his side and pouted up at him. “I told you I was coming twenty minutes late so I could make an entrance and people could take pictures, and you ruined it.”

Then she turned on me. Even though she’d shrieked when she first saw me, now she had composed herself. She put her left hand on Dane’s shoulder, wiggling her fingers so the massive diamond on her ring finger glittered. “Forgive me, Ann. I was so surprised to see you. What brings you back?”

I wondered what would happen if I told her that he’d been in a dark hallway kissing me instead of waiting.

I met Dane’s eyes and smirked. His brows drew together like he could read my mind, and he glowered at me. I could practically hear his thoughts: Don’t you dare.

So, I gave Evelyn a dry smile and answered her question. “Just business.”

Evelyn’s eyes widened in fake interest. “Oh! Are you having financial trouble?” She leaned in like we were the best of friends and whispered, “If you need money, I can ask Dane to help you. We try to help the less fortunate whenever we can.”

I matched her fake smile and kept my voice bland. “How kind. But no. I have no need of your…charity.”

Before she could ask more, I took a flute of champagne from a passing waiter and said, “Excuse me. I need to find my date.”

As I walked away, Evelyn started whispering furiously at Dane. Other people had been watching with interest and whispering.

I found Trajan leaning against a wall, scanning everyone and everything in sight, like he always did. Time as a rogue mercenary made it impossible for him to relax in public.

I sipped my champagne. “I’m surprised you let me out of your sight for that long.”

He dipped his head toward the balcony, between two large columns, and I realized he’d had a perfect view the whole time. “I didn’t.”

I moved to look and saw that Dane was gone, but Evelyn was there talking to the woman in white who’d confronted me when I got here.

‘Have you finished your business?” Trajan asked.

I pressed my lips into a thin line and handed him the champagne. “Almost. Dane knows who I am, anyway. It may take him some time to accept it. But I…should say goodbye to his grandfather.”

He took it, tossed it back, and set the crystal flute on a side table. “I told you the guilt was going to get to you.”

I glared at him, hating that–as my best friend for most of the last five years–he knew me that well.

“You were right,” I said. “Speaking of which, did you bring his gift?”

“Obviously.” He produced a small bag from somewhere.

I clapped my hands. Despite my wealth, my gift wasn’t expensive. I’d brought a clever little carved bird made by an artist who lived high in the Alps. I’d also brought a small wheel of his favorite cheese from Italy. Those who knew Connall best knew he’d come from humble beginnings and still treasured small things.

“I’ll just give him these, then we can go.” I stepped away from the wall and back into the crowd with Trajan behind me like a shadow. Just as I was about to go upstairs again, Trajan said, “Watch out!”

I paused just in time to watch Amy Miller–who pretended to trip–spill wine all over the floor right in front of me.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” she said. Unlike Evelyn, Amy was a bad actress. Her voice dripped with insincerity. She even winked at a nearby group of people clustered at the bottom of the stairs. “I would have hated to ruin the only nice dress you can afford. Even if you had to rent it.”

They burst out laughing. I knew their type, and Amy’s: hangers-on who were desperate for the attention of their Alphas, or anyone more important than them, really.

Amy’s laughter cut off when she saw my face, though. I was completely expressionless.

Wolves only abuse those they believe to be lower than them in dominance.

Without a wolf, that meant me. Always, always me.

No longer. I had bigger plates spinning. There was no time for petty displays with petty wolves like these.

I smiled sweetly, picked up a glass of bloodred wine off the table next to me, and poured it slowly over the front of Amy’s white satin dress.