Chapter 2

There are two guards standing at the entrance. Big and muscular and trying way too hard to look scary.

One of them sniffs the air when I approach and his face scrunches up confused. He smells something on me that doesn't fit. Something not human and not wolf. I can see his brain working overtime trying to figure it out.

Good luck with that buddy.

"Ma'am we need to verify your…"

"I have a meeting with your Alpha," I say flatly. "Move."

Something in my voice or maybe something in my eyes makes him step aside without finishing his sentence. His partner gives him a look like "what the hell man" but I'm already past them both.

The hallway inside is cold stone and dim lighting and portraits of past Alphas covering every wall like some kind of testosterone museum. Kaelen's father with his stern jaw and battle scars. His grandfather looking like he ate nails for breakfast.

All of them with the same golden eyes and the same expression like they could bite through steel and wouldn't hesitate to prove it.

I used to walk through this hallway as Luna. Head down, quiet, trying to shrink myself small enough to belong in a world that never wanted me. I would rush past these paintings because the eyes felt like they were judging me. The human girl who somehow tricked their bloodline into loving her.

I don't shrink anymore. And the paintings can judge all they want.

The double doors at the end of the hall are closed but I can hear voices inside. Deep and male and arguing about something. Territory lines probably. Or resource allocation. Boring wolf politics that used to make my eyes glaze over during dinner.

I check my reflection in the dark glass of a window. Hair in place, suit crisp, face giving away absolutely nothing. Perfect, cold and ready.

I take one breath and push the doors open.

Council members fill most of the seats, maybe ten or eleven of them. I scan the faces quickly. Most of them are new which is good because that means less people who remember the quiet human wife who used to sit in the corner pretending to understand pack law.

Gerald Huxley is still here though. Old man with white hair and shaky hands who always smelled like tobacco and disapproval. And Lady Voss of course, because that woman will outlive the sun itself. She's sitting near the middle looking bored and picking at her nails like she'd rather be anywhere else.

And at the head of the table.

Kaelen.

My heart does something stupid. It stutters and trips like seeing him activates some broken wire in my chest that never got properly fixed. I hate it. I hate that my body still reacts to him like this after everything he did.

He's bigger than I remember. Broader in the shoulders, thicker in the arms. His hair is shorter now, and there's a scar running down the left side of his neck that definitely wasn't there before. Someone tried to kill him at some point. Part of me wants to know who. A smaller darker part of me wants to send them a thank you card.

He's reading a document with one hand resting on his jaw, looking bored out of his mind. The great Alpha suffering through another meeting. Poor baby.

He hasn't looked up yet.

Dorian is sitting to his right. Same pretty face from five years ago, same kind gentle smile that always made everyone trust him instantly. He hasn't aged a day which is almost suspicious. A new Beta stands behind Kaelen's chair, some tall guy with a buzz cut and no expression, but Dorian is still right there. Still close. Still in the inner circle even though he's technically not Beta anymore.

My skin crawls when I see him and I don't know why. Something about Dorian always made me uneasy even back when we were all playing happy family. He was always too nice, too helpful, too perfectly supportive. Like a character in a movie who's trying too hard to seem normal.

I shake it off. Not the time for paranoia.

"You're late," Kaelen says to the document without looking up. "I don't like waiting and I don't appreciate…"

He looks up.

The document slips from his fingers and lands on the table with a soft sound that nobody notices because every single person in this room is now staring at me.

I watch it happen in slow motion. Recognition crashing into him like a truck hitting a wall. His golden eyes going wide, then narrow, then wide again. His jaw dropping just half an inch which doesn't sound like much but on a man who never shows emotion it might as well be a scream. The color draining from his face like somebody pulled a plug somewhere.

Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

For five years I've imagined this moment. Standing in front of him in this exact room where he threw me away, except this time I'm not the girl crying over divorce papers. This time I'm the one with the power. The money. The upper hand.

It feels even better than I imagined.

"Hello, Alpha," I say. Voice steady as concrete. Chin up. Eyes locked on his. "I believe you wanted to meet your investor."

Dead silence. The kind of silence that has weight to it.

The council members exchange confused looks. They have no idea who I am. I'm just some woman in an expensive suit who walked in like she owned the place. But Kaelen knows. Kaelen looks like he just watched a ghost walk through his front door and sit down for tea.

Gerald Huxley squints at me, trying to place my face whiles Lady Voss tilts her head like a bird examining something shiny.

Give it a minute sweetheart. It'll click.

Kaelen stands up slowly. The chair scrapes against the stone floor and the sound cuts through the silence like a blade. His hands are trembling and I can see it from across the room, the slight shake in his fingers that he's trying to hide by pressing them flat on the table.

Good. Shake. Feel something for once in your miserable life.

"Elara?" His voice cracks on my name like it's a word he forgot how to say. Like his mouth remembers the shape of it but his brain can't believe it's real.

I tilt my head slightly and let the corner of my mouth lift just enough to look unbothered.

"Perhaps we should sit down," I say casually, gesturing to the table like this is my meeting and he's the guest. "I believe we have business to discuss. Territory funding, resource contracts, the usual boring stuff. Unless the council would prefer to keep staring at me with their mouths open."

Gerald closes his mouth. Lady Voss doesn't.

Kaelen still hasn't moved. He's gripping the edge of the table and his knuckles are white and his golden eyes are locked on me with an intensity that I can feel in my bones. Not anger exactly though, I’m hoping it’s regret.

I can almost feel his wolf pressing against the surface, restless and desperate and clawing to get out.

Good boy. Stay.

I pull out a chair and sit down, crossing my legs, placing my hands flat on the table like I've done this a thousand times. Because I have. Just not here and in front of him.

"Well?" I say coolly. "Are we meeting or are we staring?"

Kaelen slowly lowers himself back into his chair. His eyes never leave my face, not for a single second. He looks like a man trying to solve a puzzle that keeps changing shape.

"How," he says quietly. Just that one word.

I lean back in my chair and give him the coldest smile I own. "That's a long story Alpha. And you haven't earned it yet."

The tension in the room is so thick you could choke on it. The council members are looking back and forth between us like they're watching a car crash in slow motion. Dorian is sitting perfectly still with his hands folded and a small unreadable smile on his face.

"The contracts," I say, pulling a folder from my bag and sliding it across the table. "Three territory agreements, two resource allocations, and one infrastructure deal for the northern border. My terms are outlined on page four. They're generous but non-negotiable."

Kaelen doesn't touch the folder. He's still staring at me. "Where have you been."

"Page four, Alpha."

"I don't care about page four."

"Then this meeting is going to be very short."

His jaw clenches so hard I can hear his teeth grinding from across the table. The new Beta shifts uncomfortably behind his chair. Gerald starts shuffling papers for no reason just to have something to do with his hands.

And then I hear it.

Something behind me that makes every drop of blood in my body turn to ice.

Small footsteps, quick and familiar. The sound I know better than my own heartbeat because I've been listening to it for four years, running down hallways and across kitchen floors and through grocery store aisles.

No.

No no no.

He was supposed to stay in the car. I told Marcus to keep the doors locked. I told him not to open them for ANYONE.

"MAMA!"