CHAPTER EIGHT

The envelope felt like a slab of ice in my hand, its creamy thickness and ornate wax seal burning my skin. Riri’s words—‘a substitute mate trying to crash the main event’—echoed in the silence she left behind, the slam of the door her final punctuation mark. I stood frozen in the entryway, the sounds of the apartment—the hum of the refrigerator, the distant traffic—muffled by the roaring in my ears.

Engagement.

The word was a physical blow, knocking the air from my lungs. He wasn’t just hosting her; he was marrying her. And he wanted me to watch.

A small, sleepy voice cut through the suffocating haze. “Mommy? Who was that?”

I crumpled the invitation behind my back, shoving it into the pocket of my jeans as I turned. Elisse stood in the hallway, rubbing her eyes with one small fist, her little grey wolf stuffie dangling from the other.

“No one important, sweetheart,” I said, the lie ash on my tongue. I forced a smile, my face feeling like it might crack. “Just someone from the pack with a… reminder about something boring. Grown-up stuff.” I walked toward her, willing the tremors in my hands to stop. “You should be in bed. You need your rest after today.”

She peered up at me, her head tilted. Her eyes, so perceptive, saw too much. “You look sad, Mommy.”

My heart shattered. I knelt, pulling her into a tight hug, inhaling the scent of her shampoo—simple, clean, and *hers*—to chase away the lingering poison of Riri’s perfume. “Oh, my love. I’m not sad. I’m just tired. It was a long day at the hospital. But you were so, so brave. My strong girl.” I pulled back, cupping her face. “How are you feeling?”

“Better,” she said, and a genuine, tiny smile touched her lips. “The medicine didn’t hurt as much today.”

The relief was a tangible thing, a warm blanket over the icy dread in my chest. The money had done that. Kairi’s filthy, condescending money had bought her a less painful day. The contradiction was enough to make me nauseous.

“That’s the best news I’ve heard all day,” I said, and this time, my smile felt a little more real. I scooped her up—she was getting so big, yet still felt so fragile in my arms—and carried her back to bed. “Now, let’s get you tucked in. Dreams of running through fields, okay? No bears.”

She giggled, a soft, beautiful sound. “Okay, Mommy. No bears.”

I stayed with her until her breathing deepened into the rhythm of sleep. Then, and only then, did I retreat to the kitchen, pulling the cursed invitation from my pocket. I dropped it on the counter as if it were radioactive.

The Alpha and the Moonrise Pack request the honor of your presence at a gala celebrating the unification of our houses…

Unification. What a pretty word for a political merger. For a betrayal that had been years in the making.

My phone buzzed, shattering the silence. It was my mother.

I almost didn’t answer. But the habit of a lifetime was hard to break.

“Sze! Have you heard?” Her voice was shrill with excitement. “The ball! The engagement! Oh, it’s all anyone is talking about! What are you going to wear? You have to go, of course. It’s a direct order from the Alpha!”

I closed my eyes, leaning against the cool countertop. “I heard, Mom.”

“Jack says it’s the social event of the decade! He says…” She prattled on, a stream of gossip and sycophantic praise for Kairi and the mysterious, wonderful Bianca. I held the phone away from my ear, her words blurring into a meaningless buzz.

He had told them. He’d told the whole pack he was marrying Bianca, and he’d sent Riri to personally deliver my invitation. To rub my face in it. To show me my place.

‘Take good care of me tonight, and I’ll give you pocket money. As usual.’

The memory of his voice, his touch, his kiss in the car—it was all a sick game to him. A way to keep me compliant and on the sidelines while he built his royal future.

My mother was still talking. “…and of course, I’ll need a new dress. We all will! This is so exciting!”

“Mom,” I interrupted, my voice hollow. “Elisse just had a treatment. She’s exhausted. I’m not sure I can leave her.”

There was a pause on the other end, a rare moment of silence. When she spoke again, her tone was dismissive. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Sze. Don’t be such a martyr. I’ll watch her for the evening. It’s not every day your… that the Alpha gets engaged. It’s your duty to be there.”

Your duty. To witness the man you love, the father of your child, pledge himself to another woman. To smile and clap while your world ends.

“I have to go, Mom,” I said abruptly. “I’ll… I’ll think about it.”

I hung up before she could protest, sinking into a chair at the kitchen table. The invitation lay there, taunting me.

I couldn’t go. The thought of it was unbearable. To see him with her, to see the pack fete them, to have to pretend I was okay…

But if I didn’t go, I would be defying a direct order from my Alpha. I would be confirming every accusation Riri and the others leveled at me—that I was unstable, bitter, unfit. It would give them more ammunition, maybe even give Kairi a reason to limit my access to Elisse. He’d already proven he believed their lies over my truth.

I was trapped.

The night passed in a fitful blur. I didn’t sleep. I paced. I stared at the invitation. I checked on Elisse a dozen times, each sight of her peaceful, sleeping face strengthening my resolve and breaking my heart in equal measure.

When dawn finally broke, painting the sky in weak, grey light, I had made a decision. I would go. Not for him. Not for the pack. But for my daughter. To prove my stability. To show them I couldn’t be broken.

I would wear a mask so perfect no one would see the cracks.

I spent the day in a determined frenzy. I took the last of the money from the envelope—pocket money—and went to a modest boutique downtown. I bought a dress. It was simple, a deep emerald green that didn’t scream for attention but somehow commanded it. It was armor.

The hours bled away. I helped Elisse with her homework, made her dinner, read her another story. I was hyper-aware of every moment, memorizing the feel of her small hand in mine, the sound of her laughter, as if I were preparing for a long journey.

“Are you going to the big party, Mommy?” she asked as I tucked her in.

“Yes, baby,” I said, smoothing her hair.

“Will Daddy be there?”

The question was a knife to the heart. “Yes,” I whispered. “He’ll be there.”

“Tell him I said hello,” she murmured, already half-asleep.

I kissed her forehead, my vision blurring with tears I refused to shed. “I will, my angel.”

My mother arrived, a whirlwind of cheap perfume and gaudy jewelry. “Oh, let me see the dress! Good, good, it’s respectable. Not too flashy. You don’t want to upstage the princess, after all.” She cackled at her own joke.

I numbly let her chatter wash over me as I got ready. I applied my makeup with a steady hand, outlining my eyes, painting my lips a neutral shade. I looked in the mirror. The woman staring back was beautiful, composed, and utterly empty.

A pack car was sent for me. The drive to the Grand Hall was a silent, nerve-wracking journey through streets decked out in Cresendo and Moonrise banners. The air itself seemed to crackle with anticipation.

The Hall was a blaze of light and sound. Werewolves in their finest silks and tailored suits glittered under crystal chandeliers. The air was thick with the scent of expensive perfume, champagne, and the potent pheromones of powerful Alphas and their mates.

I hovered at the edge of the crowd, my emerald dress feeling suddenly too dark, too simple. I was a shadow in a room full of suns.

And then I saw them.

A hush fell over the crowd near the entrance, followed by a wave of excited murmuring. Kairi stood at the top of the grand staircase, looking more commanding and devastatingly handsome than I had ever seen him. His gaze swept the room, Alpha power rolling off him in waves.

And on his arm was Bianca.

She was ethereal. Dressed in a gown of moonlight-white silk, her pale hair was swept up in an intricate style, a delicate diamond tiara glittering on her brow. She was smiling, a serene, practiced expression that didn’t quite reach her eyes. She looked every inch the princess. They looked… perfect together. A matched set.

My breath hitched. The mask I had so carefully constructed threatened to crumble into dust.

Kairi’s eyes continued their scan of the room, and for a heart-stopping second, they landed on me.

His step faltered. Just for a fraction of a second, so slight I might have imagined it. The confident Alpha mask slipped, and something raw and unreadable flashed in his gaze—shock? confusion?—as he took in the sight of me standing there, alone, in my simple green dress.

He hadn’t expected me to come. He’d thought his cruel invitation would make me hide.

Our eyes locked across the crowded, glittering room. The noise faded into a dull roar. In that suspended moment, it was just us. Me, the substitute mate he kept in the shadows. Him, the Alpha ascending to his throne with a princess by his side.

Then, his expression hardened again, colder and more remote than ever before. He leaned down, his lips brushing Bianca’s ear, and whispered something that made her smile widen. He never looked away from me as he did it, a deliberate, brutal dismissal that felt like a slap.