Chapter 2

Wren's pov

Maribel found me still standing in the driveway ten minutes after Kade left. "You are going to catch a cold standing out here," she said, though the sun was warm and there was no wind at all. I followed her in without a word.

The kitchen smelled like rosemary and roasted meat. Every surface had been polished twice. Every flower rearranged until Vivian finally approved. Maribel poured me a glass of water I did not ask for and studied my face while I drank it.

"You look pale," she said.

"I am fine."

"You keep saying that word like it means something."

I took the glass anyway. My hands were not quite steady. "Kade wants to talk tonight. After the ceremony."

Maribel went still. "Talk about what."

"I do not know. He would not say."

"Wren. You know what tonight is."

"I know."

"Then why would he need to talk to you after, unless”

"Do not," I said. "Do not say it out loud."

"I am not trying to hurt you. You have spent years watching that man look at you like you are the only person in a room. I am not blind."

"Who else has noticed?"

"Enough people." She set the pitcher down and did not say more, and I did not push her to.

I spent the rest of the afternoon avoiding my own family. Not hard. Celeste and Priya were locked upstairs with hairstylists. Edwin and Vivian were greeting guests who had already started arriving. Celeste found me anyway, slipping into the hallway outside my room while I was changing.

"You are wearing that," she said, looking at my dress like it offended her personally.

"It is what I have."

"It is what you always have." She leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed. "You could at least try to look presentable. People are going to be looking at our family tonight."

"Nobody looks at me, Celeste. You know that."

"True." She almost smiled. "Kade might, though. He has a habit of looking at you when he thinks nobody notices."

My stomach dropped. "I do not know what you mean."

"I think you do." Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Just remember whose night this is."

"I know whose night it is."

"Good." She pushed off the doorframe. "Because I did not wait for many years to watch you ruin it." She left before I could answer, her heels clicking down the hall.

By evening the whole pack house had changed. Lights strung between the trees. Long tables covered in white cloth and candles. Music drifting from speakers near the dance floor, though nobody danced yet. I stood near the edge of the crowd in the same plain gray dress I always wore to these things, until a voice beside me made me turn.

"You clean up nice." Grier, arms crossed, watching the crowd like he was counting exits instead of enjoying the party.

"Thanks. I think."

"It was a compliment. Mostly." He almost smiled. "You alright?"

"Is it that obvious?"

"To me. Most people in this room only look at Celeste tonight." I glanced toward the front, where Celeste stood glowing in deep red, laughing with a circle of pack members hanging on every word.

"She looks happy," I said.

"She looks like she is about to get everything she has ever wanted." Grier's eyes flicked to me. "Kade has been distracted all week. Did you know that?"

"Why would I know that."

"I did not say you would. I asked if you did." He was quiet for a second. "Missed two pack meetings. Snapped at three council members. Not like him."

"Maybe he is nervous. About tonight."

"Maybe." He did not sound convinced. "You have known him a long time."

"We grew up together. You know that."

"I do. I also know he trusts you more than he trusts most of the council. More than he trusts me, some days."

"That is not true."

"It is a little true." He said it without bitterness, just fact. "Whatever is going on with him this week, if you know something, now would be the time to tell me."

"I do not know anything." He held my gaze a second longer than felt comfortable, and I did not have anything else to say, so I let the silence sit between us instead.

Across the hall, Priya leaned close to whisper something to a man I did not recognize. Tall, sharp featured, pale eyes scanning the room like he was looking for someone specific. Not pack. I would have remembered him.

"Who is that," I asked.

Grier followed my gaze and went stiff. "Ronan Voss."

The name meant nothing to me. "Should I know him?"

"Kade's cousin. Alpha of Blackthorn." Grier's voice dropped. "Was not invited tonight."

"Then why is he here?"

"That is what I intend to find out." His eyes stayed on Ronan, on the way Priya laughed at something he said, her hand resting on his arm. "Bad blood between him and Kade. He wanted this pack once. Did not get it. Stay away from him, Wren."

Before I could ask why, the music shifted, louder, more formal, and the crowd began moving toward the front where a small stage had been set up. "It is starting," Grier said. "Find a spot."

I made my way through the crowd until I found a corner near the back where I could see without being seen. The room was packed tight, warm bodies and perfume and low chatter all waiting for the same moment. Kade stood at the front already, dark formal wear, jaw tight, eyes sweeping the crowd until they found mine, and for a second everything else disappeared. Then Celeste stepped up beside him, radiant in her red dress, and his gaze tore away from mine.

Elder Thane rose from his seat near the front. "Tonight," he said, his voice carrying easily across the hall, "under the laws of Ashwood Pack, Alpha Kade Calloway will formally claim his mate before us all." The crowd erupted, applause rolling through the hall loud enough to shake the lanterns strung overhead. Somewhere near the front, Ronan watched the stage with a strange, satisfied look, like a man enjoying a show only he understood the ending of.

Kade's eyes found mine one last time before it began, and he looked like a man already saying goodbye.