Chapter 3

Athena's POV

Alpha Voss's office smells like cedar polish and old cigars, the kind of room built to remind everyone sitting in it who owns the walls. I take the seat across from Dimitri because Asher steers me there with a hand at my elbow, and I don't fight him on it, even though some new, unfamiliar part of me wants to sit closer to the man on the other side of the table instead of directly across from him like we're about to negotiate a border dispute.

Hailey sits on Asher's other side, and every trace of the woman who teased me an hour ago about the face I make at unwanted suitors is gone. In its place is the Luna she's becoming, back straight, eyes sharp, watching the room the way Asher taught her to watch a room, for the thing nobody says out loud until it's too late to stop it.

My mind is a mess of things I haven't had time to sort through yet. The scent of him still sitting under my skin. The word that left my mouth without my permission. None of it feels like regret, and that surprises me more than the bond itself did. I was never against the idea of a mate. I just never once, in twenty-four years of imagining who might stand across from me someday, pictured Alpha Romanov.

"Alpha King." Voss clears his throat, folding his hands on the desk like a man who has rehearsed his next words more than once. "It is nothing but an honor for our pack that your sister found her mate at our Alpha's ball."

Then his tone shifts, the honor sliding off it like water off stone. "But given the seriousness of the alliance between our packs, I want to be clear. If there is a rejection of this bond, my pack will side with Silverwater."

He looks at Asher first, then lets his eyes settle on Dimitri, and there's a weight behind the look that has nothing to do with diplomacy.

"Alpha Voss." Dimitri's voice stays level, but I catch the fury running underneath it, banked but not gone. "What exactly suggests to you that there would be a rejection?"

"She is a pureblood." Voss says it like an accusation, his jaw tight, and the hatred in his eyes when he looks at Dimitri isn't hidden well enough to pretend it isn't there.

"So is he." I don't wait for either of them to fill the silence. "And with respect, Alpha Voss, my mate bond is not anyone's business in this room. It is not a bargaining chip for you to lay on a table."

The room goes quiet in the way rooms go quiet when someone has said the thing everyone else was too careful to say. Asher's anger reaches me through our bond because he is clearly not liking how Alpha Voss is trying to negotiate using my mate bond; I feel Hailey's attention sharpen, but I keep my eyes on Voss until I'm certain he understands I mean every word.

"I'm done with this conversation," I say, and I stand before anyone can decide whether I'm allowed to. "I have no interest in discussing my bond with people who see it as leverage. The only person I intend to discuss it with is Alpha Romanov, and that will happen on my territory, not this one."

I look at Asher. He gives me one short nod and rises with me.

"We're leaving," he says to Voss, polite in the flat, practiced way he's perfected over ten years of Alpha meetings, reigning in his anger. "Thank you for having us."

Dimitri doesn't bother with a goodbye. He's already on his feet, already moving, and he falls into step behind me without a word as we walk out through the hall and into the cold night air.

The car is waiting where we left it, and I'm reaching for the door when a hand closes gently around mine, stopping me before I can pull it open.

"You're coming with me," Dimitri says. "I'll take you back to your pack myself."

I glance at Asher. There's a flicker of something in his face, the same protective instinct he's carried since we were young enough that protecting me was the only thing either of us knew how to do, but he nods anyway, because he knows as well as I do that this isn't a fight worth having tonight.

Dimitri walks around to the passenger side and opens the door for me before he rounds the car to get behind the wheel himself. Reese and Carter peel off toward a second car without needing to be told, and I understand, watching them go, that Dimitri wants this drive to be just the two of us.

Asher and Hailey pull away first. The moment they clear the gate, Dimitri guns the engine and we're moving too, faster than the roads through Voss territory really allow, like he can't get us off this land fast enough.

Neither of us says anything for the first few minutes. The silence isn't uncomfortable, which surprises me. It feels more like the kind of quiet that happens between people who don't need to fill every space with noise.

"Why did you stand for me?" he says finally, eyes on the road, one hand loose on the wheel. "I've handled worse than Voss."

"Isn't that what mates are supposed to do? Stand with and for their mates." I look out the window at the trees blurring past. " And I was stating what's right. There's a difference."

"Is there."

"You heard what he said. Pureblood, like it's something that makes me above you. Like the only reason I'd reject you is because of what you are instead of who you are." I turn to face him. "I don't know you yet. But I know that's not a good enough reason to reject anyone. And, Romanov is a respected lineage of Alphas, and I will not stand and let anyone disrespect it."

He glances at me, something unreadable moving behind his eyes, and for a second I think he's going to say something, but he lets it go and looks back at the road instead.

We drive for a while without talking, and I find myself watching him from the corner of my eye more than I mean to, the way his hands sit easy on the wheel despite the tension I can still feel humming under his skin, the way his eyes flick to the mirror every few seconds out of a caution that feels less like habit and more like something he's never allowed himself to turn off.

"Why did you accept it?" Taking a breath, I ask, "The bond."

He's quiet long enough that I think he isn't going to answer at all.

"My wolf needs his mate," he says. "I don't walk away from things that matter. I never have."

Of course, it is because of his wolf... I don't know what else I was expecting.

His words surprisingly hurt. But there's an honesty in it that lands harder than a prettier answer would have, and I find myself believing him completely, in a way I haven't let myself believe anyone in a very long time.

I don't have anything to say to that, so I let the silence hold instead, and for the rest of the drive back toward my territory, the quiet between us doesn't feel like distance anymore. It feels like the beginning of something neither of us knows how to name yet, sitting there in the dark between two people who spent tonight discovering they might actually want the same thing, even if neither of us is ready to admit exactly how much.

The gates of Silverwater come into view sooner than I expect, torches lit along the drive the way they always are when the pack knows their Alpha is on his way home. He drives straight through the gates like he already belongs on this side of them, and something in me settles at that instead of bristling the way I think it should.

He pulls up in front of the main house and cuts the engine. Neither of us moves.

The quiet stretches out longer than it should for two people who have somewhere to be. I lock my fingers together in my lap and stare down at them, at the strange, foreign feeling of not knowing exactly what to say to the man sitting a foot away from me, when I have never once in my life run out of words in front of anyone.

"Thank you, Alpha Romanov." My voice comes out firmer, concealing any of my emotion. "For being honest with me about everything tonight. From what I've learned, trust and truth are the only two things that decide the future of any relationship. And I think we'll be okay, as long as those two things stay between us."