Chapter 013

The gown clung like it had been poured over me. A pale green silk threaded with ivory lace that left my shoulders bare, the neckline just low enough to make me fidget in the mirror. The bodice hugged my waist, cinched tight by Clara’s careful fingers, before the skirt spilled down in soft folds that whispered with each breath I took.

Clara had tugged my hair free from its braid, letting the loose white strands fall like winter snow around my face and down my back. For a moment, I hardly recognized myself.

I’d grown up thinking of my hair as something odd, something that made me different. Now, against the soft sheen of the gown, it looked deliberate, almost regal.

Clara stepped closer, fastening a delicate chain around my throat. The pendant, a single teardrop emerald, rested at the hollow of my collarbone, cool against heated skin. She added simple earrings, then stood back, her lips curving into the first real smile I’d seen from her.

“You look—Radiant my lady,” she whispered, almost like she didn’t mean for me to hear.

I didn’t answer. My gaze was locked on the reflection in front of me, the bare shoulders, the shimmer of lace, the way the dress made my curves look sharper, more defined. It wasn’t me. And yet, it was.

I lifted a hand, fingers brushing over the pendant. The weight of it felt like a claim, like I’d been chosen for something I hadn’t agreed to.

Before I could say anything, the door opened.

The air changed instantly, thicker, heavier.

Darius.

He stepped inside without asking, as if every room in this house belonged to him, and maybe it did. His black tunic clung to his frame, the sharp lines of his shoulders and chest impossible to miss. His gaze swept over me once, slow, deliberate, like a blade dragging across skin.

Clara stiffened beside me, then dipped her head quickly. “Alpha.”

He didn’t look at her. His eyes were locked on me.

The silence stretched, thick enough that I felt my pulse hammering in my ears.

“Leave us,” he said finally, his voice low, threaded with command.

Clara bobbed her head again, almost tripping over the hem of her skirt in her rush to the door. She slipped out, closing it softly behind her, leaving me alone with him.

The room felt smaller instantly, the walls pressing in.

I forced myself to breathe, to stand still beneath the weight of his stare. My reflection in the mirror no longer looked like mine, it looked like a stranger Darius was studying, deciding whether to devour or dismiss.

His jaw flexed once, but his expression didn’t shift. Cold, controlled, unshakable.

The silence stretched until it threatened to strangle me. His eyes had not left me once. Not when Clara slipped out. Not when the click of the latch signaled we were alone.

I shifted on my feet, the lace of the gown whispering against my thighs. He noticed. Of course he did.

“Do you approve?” I asked finally, my voice thinner than I’d meant it to be.

His head tilted slightly, eyes narrowing the way a wolf studies prey before it strikes. “Approve?”

Heat climbed my neck. I forced myself to meet his gaze through the mirror. “The dress. You had it sent, didn’t you?”

A pause. Then, deliberate, “I do not waste thought on dresses.”

The words cut, but when his eyes slid lower—down my bare shoulders, the curve of my collarbone, the pendant resting at the hollow of my throat—I knew it was a lie. His gaze lingered too long, tracing every inch of me as though he’d memorized the shape of my body without ever laying a hand on me.

He moved then, slow and purposeful, boots whispering against the floor as he circled me. My heart stuttered, my reflection shifting as his dark figure passed behind me, then to my side. He stopped just close enough that I could feel the heat radiating off him.

“You look…” He didn’t finish, just let the word hang heavy between us.

My fingers clenched in the folds of my skirt. “Say it.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw. His eyes flicked to mine in the mirror, and when he spoke, it was low, rougher than his usual calm. “You look like trouble waiting to happen.”

A shiver coursed through me.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he added, but the way his gaze dragged over me told me the words were meant more for himself than for me.

I turned then, breaking the invisible thread that tied me to the mirror. He was closer than I thought, and I nearly collided with the wall of his chest. My breath caught, trapped between us.

“Then why keep me here? Let me go, and your lives can get back to normal” My voice cracked at the edges, softer than I wanted it to be.

His lips curved, not quite a smile, not quite a snarl. “Letting you go would be worse. That’s not in the cards anymore Rain, you belong here”

He lifted a hand, hovering just shy of touching me, fingers tracing the air above my bare shoulder. Close enough that the heat seared, but never close enough to satisfy the ache that bloomed in my chest.

Every nerve in my body screamed to lean into him. To close the sliver of space. To feel.

But I held still, my breath shallow.

“Tell me,” he murmured, “do you enjoy the way my brothers look at you?”

The question hit like a lash.

I swallowed. “I don’t—”

“Don’t lie to me, Rain.” His voice dropped lower, each word deliberate, dangerous. “I can smell the truth on you. You burn for us. For them. For me.”

My nails dug into my palms, half in shame, half in fury at how easily he saw through me.

“You hate that it’s true,” he said, softer now, his mouth a breath from my ear. “But you’d hate me more if I denied it.”

The room spun. I turned my face away, but his scent, smoke, iron, and somewhat intoxicating—wrapped around me, tethering me in place.

“I don’t want to play your game,” I whispered.

He huffed a dark laugh, stepping back just enough to look at me fully. “Little wolf, you were part of this game the moment you breathed our air.”

I flinched at his words, but something inside me twisted, a treacherous part that thrilled at the promise in them.

Silence settled again, thick, unyielding. His gaze held me fast, neither of us breaking first.

Finally, he drew a long breath, eyes shuttering. “Our guests have arrived, and Dinner will be announced soon. Be ready.”

He turned toward the door, the controlled lines of his body once more in place, like the moment had never cracked through.

But just before stepping out, he glanced over his shoulder, eyes molten and sharp all at once. “And Rain, don’t let Amelia near you without me present.”

The door shut, leaving me trembling, the echo of his nearness still carved into my skin.