Chapter 4

Briony's POV

"Chin up." Rowan fell into step beside me at the bottom of the stairs, straightening the collar of the plain gray dress they put me in,nothing like Marisol's silver gown, just something that wouldn't embarrass anybody. "Whole pack's out there. Don't let them see you flinch."

"I wasn't planning on flinching."

"Good. Because Kieran's about ten seconds from doing it for the both of you, and one of us needs to hold it together."

I looked past him toward the courtyard doors, where I could already hear it, the low hum of a crowd that hadn't decided yet whether to be angry or curious. "How bad is it out there?"

"Half the pack thinks the elders lost their minds. The other half's just here for the show." He caught my face and softened it a little. "You'll be fine. Just stand there and let them look."

Kieran was waiting by the doors when we reached them, jaw set like stone. He didn't say good morning. He didn't say anything at all, just looked me over once, quick and unreadable, and held out his arm like the whole thing was a chore he wanted finished.

I took it. The second my hand landed on his forearm, that pull in my chest lit up again like a parasite, and I felt his whole body go tight under my fingers like he felt it too and hated it just as much as I did.

"Don't say anything," he said under his breath as the doors opened. "Just stand there."

"Wasn't planning on it."

"Good."

The courtyard was packed. Every face turned toward us at once, and the whispering started before we even made it down the front steps, then louder, nobody bothering to hide it. I caught pieces. ‘That's her? The spare?’ ‘Thought the Alpha had better taste than that.’ ‘Bet she can't even shift properly, soft as she is.’

I kept my chin up the way Rowan told me to and my eyes on nothing in particular, because looking at any one face felt like handing them a win.

Halric stepped forward to say the words that made it official,bond confirmed, treaty honored, Ashvale and the Thistlewood line joined for another generation and I stood there next to a man who wouldn't look at me, feeling every pair of eyes in that courtyard weigh exactly how much space I took up.

Then Petra's voice cut through, not even trying to be quiet. "Guess the pack's getting a Luna built for breeding instead of fighting. Works out, I suppose. Plenty of room in there for pups."

A few people laughed. Not many but enough.

My face went hot, and I opened my mouth to say something, I didn't even know what yet,when Kieran's whole body shifted beside me. His arm went rigid under my hand, and a sound came out of him low in his chest, not quite a growl, but close enough that the laughter cut off dead.

"Say that again." His voice wasn't loud because it didn't need to be.

Petra's face went white. "Alpha, I didn't mean"

"I know exactly what you meant." He hadn't looked away from her once. "You'll apologize to your Luna, or you'll find out what happens to pack members who forget who they're standing in front of."

The courtyard went dead silent.

"I'm sorry," Petra said to the ground more than to me.

"Louder."

"I'm sorry." She said it to my face that time, and it still didn't sound like she meant it, but it was something.

Kieran didn't relax. If anything his grip on his own arm, the one I was holding tightened, like he was fighting something under his skin that hadn't gotten the memo about how much he was supposed to hate me. Halric wrapped the ceremony up fast after that, like he wanted everyone gone before something else happened, and the crowd started breaking apart, still whispering, just quieter about it now.

Kieran pulled me toward the side door without a word, away from the last stragglers, and didn't let go of my arm until we were both inside the empty hallway with the noise from outside fading behind us.

"Why'd you do that?" I asked.

"Do what?"

"That. Back there." I pulled my arm free, and my skin felt cold the second his hand left it, which annoyed me more than I wanted to admit. "You made it very clear last night I'm not somebody you want. So why does it matter what Petra says about me?"

His jaw worked. For a second I thought he wasn't going to answer at all. "It's not about you."

"Sounded like it was about me."

"It's about respect for the bond. For this pack. If they think they can talk to you like that, they think they can talk about me like that too." He said it fast, clipped, like he'd rehearsed the excuse on the walk over. "That's all it was."

"Right." I didn't believe him, not even a little, and something in the way he wouldn't hold my eyes told me he didn't fully believe himself either.

"It's true."

"Okay."

"Don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Agree with me like you don't mean it." His voice had an edge now, frustration bleeding through the control he'd been holding onto all morning. "I said what I said last night. Nothing's changed."

"I didn't say anything changed." I crossed my arms, matching the same stubborn set to my jaw that he was wearing. "You're the one standing here explaining yourself to a woman you supposedly can't stand the sight of."

That landed. I watched it land,something flickered across his face quickly, gone before he could stop it from showing. For half a second he looked less like an Alpha defending his territory and more like a man who just realized he walked straight into a corner he couldn't talk his way out of.

He stepped closer instead of stepping back, close enough that the pull in my chest went from a hum to something loud, something that made it hard to remember I was supposed to be angry with him.

"You should go to your room," he said, quiet now, none of the earlier edge left in it.

"Didn't answer the question though..”

"No." His eyes dropped to my mouth for half a second, barely anything, gone as fast as it came before he caught himself and stepped back like I burned him. "It's not."

He turned and walked off down the hall without finishing the thought.

My heart was going too fast for a conversation that didn't even last five minutes, wondering what exactly he'd been about to say before he changed his mind.