Chapter 2

There are worse ways to die, I'm sure.

Off the top of my head, coming back to Dakota ranks pretty fucking high.

I considered running. I considered changing my number. I even considered pretending I'd been kidnapped.

Unfortunately, none of those options would solve the problem, so here I am—back in the same place I had run from. I'd spent three days telling myself I wouldn't go. I'd even packed a bag for the opposite direction. Then I'd unpacked it, because apparently I was a coward.

The pack house looked the same—big, pale, surrounded by servants for no reason. Honestly, I had forgotten just how unnecessarily enormous the place was.

My father had always enjoyed reminding everyone that the Humphreys were not only one of the oldest Alpha families in Dakota but the rulers of Dakota. Apparently, having a ridiculously large house was part of the family legacy.

I climbed out of my beat-up Corolla between two black SUVs that even selling my kidney couldn't afford.

I hadn't even reached the top step when the front doors opened.

"Ava."

My mother stood in the doorway in cream silk, pearls at her throat, not a hair out of place. She looked me over once, head to toe, the way you'd inspect a fruit you'd been told was fresh.

"Mom." I tried a smile. "You look…"

"What have you done to your hair?"

I blinked, taken aback. She hadn't heard from me in three years, and this was what I got? "I washed it?"

"It's dull. And you've lost…" She paused, searching for the cruelest possible phrasing. "…in the wrong places. Your face is too thin, and everything else is the opposite. Is that what they feed you out there?"

"Nice to see you too, Mom."

She pressed her lips together and turned, expecting me to follow. I did, but walked past her before she could find something else to complain about.

The entrance hall looked exactly as I remembered it—the polished floors, the enormous chandelier, the expensive furniture nobody was allowed to sit on without permission.

And the photographs.

I slowed down as I walked past the hallway. My sister's face was everywhere—her graduation photograph, her academic awards, a picture of her standing beside Father at some pack ceremony, another with Mother, both of them smiling at the camera.

There was even a framed newspaper article celebrating one of her university achievements.

I paused by one—it was a picture of Mom, Dad, and Aileen. Behind me, Mom's footsteps faltered slightly.

"Aileen wanted a picture, just the three of us," she said, as though it were some sort of explanation. The smile on my face strained, and I nodded.

It didn't matter that none of my pictures were on the wall, none of my achievements. Hell, I wasn't even in the family picture. What was there to display? My rebellious years? My decision to leave the pack? My veterinary studies? The daughter who had chosen a life her parents considered beneath her?

I exhaled, turning to face Mom. "It's beautiful."

Her face warmed at the compliment. "Ah, come on in, Ava. You've been far from the pack. What do you say about moving back to Dakota? Find a proper job—perhaps Dad can help you—"

I shook my head, memories of three years ago flashing in my head again. "Not again, Mom."

She paused, turning to look at me, then after some seconds she nodded with a sigh. "Fine. But your father will bring it up. You should know that now."

"Trust me, I haven't forgotten," I said, and followed her up the stairs—because the alternative was standing under all those frames pretending they didn't sting.

Mother gave me one of her familiar you're being difficult looks before continuing down the hallway.

My brows furrowed, seeing we weren't headed toward my room, and she seemed to notice.

"Your old room has been cleared."

I glanced at her. "My room?"

"We've been using it for storage. Your father's old files, some of Aileen's things." She said it lightly, as though she were reporting the weather. "Don't worry, we'll clear it out and make space for you."

Make space for me. Like I was an object.

"I'll take a guest room," I said.

"Of course you will." She waved a hand at a maid hovering nearby. "Take her to the blue room. Ava, freshen up. Aileen and her mate will be here any moment, and I want you presentable."

I blinked. "Wait—her mate? I thought the whole pack would be here. Father's message said…"

"Custom, Ava." His voice came from the study doorway, and the floor tilted, because he looked older and exactly the same—broad shoulders, gray at the temples, the Alpha of Dakota in a sweater. "The families dine first. The pack gathers after the formalities. I suppose you've forgotten, living among humans."

"Father." I bowed a little.

His expression remained unreadable as he studied me. For a moment, neither of us spoke. It was strange seeing him again after so long. I had imagined this moment more times than I cared to admit—usually with me saying something clever and walking away before he could respond.

Unfortunately, standing in front of him again, I couldn't think of a single clever thing to say.

He held my gaze a second too long, then turned back into his study. No hello. No you look well. Not even a lie.

I let the maid lead me away before I did something stupid, like speak.

The blue room was fine. I checked my phone, seeing that I'd gotten messages from Vivi, who was obviously worried for me after the bits I'd told her about my family.

I stood in front of the mirror and tried to do something about my hair, which fought back. I changed into the only decent dress I'd packed—black, plain, nothing anyone could criticize without sounding petty.

I looked like I was going to a funeral.

"Okay," I told my reflection. "One dinner. You smile, you nod, you meet the perfect little groom, and you leave."

My wolf paced under my skin like she could sense the entire atmosphere was just wrong.

By the time I came down, the dining room was set. Mother was already in her chair, Father at the head, and the air was thick with a tension that, for once, had nothing to do with me.

"Sit," Father said. Then, as I did: "I trust you'll behave. It would be nice to get through one meal without your opinions."

"I haven't said anything."

"You will." He leaned back, studying me with that dissatisfied squint I remembered too well. "Four years, Ava. Four years and a mountain of debt, to look at animals' teeth…"

"Not now." Mother laid a hand on his arm. "Let her sit. There's time for all that."

Time for all that. They never ran out of ways to make me feel insufficient.

The sound of a car pulling into the driveway interrupted us. Mother's face immediately brightened, and she glanced toward the entrance.

"That must be Aileen."

Ah—the golden child had arrived. Father stood. Mother stood. After a moment, so did I.

Aileen walked in first.

I'd had three years to forget what my sister looked like when she entered a room. It hadn't helped. She wore a pale green dress that was probably from some designer I didn't care to know, her dark hair swept off her neck, shoulders back like she'd been born in a spotlight and simply never left it. She was even more beautiful than I remembered, which felt personally rude.

The smile on her face waned slightly once she laid eyes on me. There was that mean bitch I'd always known.

"Ava…" Her smile strained. "You came."

"I was summoned," I said, sweet as poison. "It would've been rude to ignore a direct order."

Mother cleared her throat. Aileen's smile reassembled itself, flawless again, like it had never slipped.

"You look…" Her eyes moved over me—my dull hair, my plain black dress, my scuffed flats—and I watched her search for a compliment and come up empty. "…well."

Well. Like I'd recovered from a long illness.

"Thanks. So where's the lucky guy?" I glanced past her to the empty doorway. "He must be someone special. Or someone desperate. Honestly, I'm dying to meet the man who took one look at you and thought, yes, this one, forever."

I paused, smirking, because I couldn't help myself. "He must be a fool. Or half blind."

"Ava!" Mother hissed.

Father's jaw flexed. Aileen only lifted an eyebrow, her expression so calm it made my skin crawl.

"Sit down, Ava." Father's voice was low—a warning I remembered from childhood.

I opened my mouth to say something worse, only to hear it—footsteps headed our direction. And then they stopped.

Well, this was it. The man who had somehow managed to win the heart of the Humphreys' golden daughter.

I wondered what he looked like. Whether he was handsome, whether he was old-fashioned, whether he was one of those pompous Alpha males who thought the world should bow whenever they entered a room.

"Forgive the delay."

A familiar voice wafted through my ears. My stomach dropped before my brain could catch up. His smell wafted into my nose—cedar and smoke.

No. No, no, no. God, no.

"Forgive the delay," the voice said again, and I knew, before my head had even turned, exactly who I'd see.

Alpha Elias Grey stepped into the dining room in a charcoal suit with his collar open at the throat, the edge of a tattoo curling above it. Last time I'd seen him, I'd been bent over a filthy sink in a club restroom with his teeth on my shoulder.

For a moment, I forgot how to breathe.

Of all the men in Dakota, of all the Alphas in existence, it had to be him.

"Elias!" Father crossed the room with his hand extended, and I swear I watched the old man's whole face change. He was smiling. Not the tight, pained curve I'd gotten at the door—a real smile, the kind I'd stopped hoping for at fourteen.

"Come in, come in. I was beginning to think you'd changed your mind."

"Never, Alpha Humphrey." Elias clasped his hand. The two of them looked like a business merger in a photograph. "Forgive me. I'd hate to start a family dinner on the wrong foot."

I wanted to puke. Family dinner?

Aileen slid her arm through his, resting her fingers on his sleeve, and tilted her face up to him with something so soft and so private that I wanted to throw the entire table across the room.

"You're here," she murmured.

"I said I would be." His hand covered hers.

I stared at the long fingers I knew—the signet ring I'd felt against my hip—wrapped around my sister's hand like it was nothing.

"Ava," Mother said sharply. "Greet your sister's mate."

"Betrothed," Father corrected. "Alpha Grey and Aileen will formally announce their engagement before the pack at the gathering tomorrow."

"The Grey and Humphrey packs have been negotiating this for nearly a year," Father said. "Once the engagement is announced tomorrow, our territories will stand together. No other alliance in Dakota will come close to it."

"Ava." Mother's voice could have cut glass. "Stand up and greet your sister's betrothed."

I was already standing. I just hadn't figured out how to make my legs work.

Elias turned to me, and I braced for something—a crack in that smooth, expensive mask he wore. Anything that said I know you, I fucked you three nights ago against a sink.

There was nothing.

"Miss Humphrey." He extended his hand. "Elias Grey. Your father mentioned a younger daughter. I'm glad to finally put a face to the name."

I pressed my tongue against the inside of my cheek. The bastard.

I stared at his hand for a second before taking it. "Alpha Grey."

His fingers closed around mine. It was nothing but a brief handshake. My stomach twisted at the pretense he was pulling.

"Pleasure to meet you," he said.

I looked straight into his eyes. "Likewise."