Chapter 4

The dress was a declaration of war.

Midnight black, floor-length, but cut so low in the front it defied gravity, with a slit running up my left thigh that showed every inch of leg right up to the hip. The back was virtually non-existent, held together by two whisper-thin golden chains resting against my spine. It didn't scream pack royalty. It screamed trouble.

Sin. That was the word. I looked like sin.

I pinned my hair up, left my neck bare, and put on the only pair of heels I owned that made my legs look like they went on for days. Then I walked downstairs.

Mother was the first to see me, her eyes nearly popping out of her head. "Goddess, Ava! This is a decent event, not one of your frivolous acts."

"Decent?" I did a slow turn at the bottom of the stairs, mostly for her benefit. "I'm covered. Technically."

"Technically." She pressed two fingers to her temple. "Your father will have a stroke."

"Then he'll have it with excellent posture. He always does."

"Ava Humphrey, you will go upstairs and change this instant."

"Everything else I packed looks like a funeral, Mother. You said so yourself." I smiled sweetly. "I'm only following feedback."

Her lips thinned into a line so flat it could have been ruled with a pencil. In the end, she did what she always did when she couldn't win: she turned away like the argument had never mattered. A maid shoved a black wrap into my hands, and I took it, because I wasn't stupid.

---

The gathering was held at the grand hall of Dakota, one of the oldest establishments in the pack. It was the sort of place designed to remind everyone who walked through its doors that they were important.

Chandeliers hung from the high ceilings. Gold-trimmed pillars lined the walls, and enormous arrangements of white flowers decorated the entrance.

Everywhere I looked, there were Alphas and Lunas dressed in expensive suits and gowns, exchanging pleasantries.

In other words, my favorite kind of nightmare.

I stepped out of the car, adjusting the wrap over my shoulders. "Keep it on," Mother murmured without looking at me.

"I wouldn't dare take it off, Mom," I replied dryly.

"Don't embarrass this family." She gritted out before walking off to meet the other Lunas.

I was left standing beside a floral arrangement large enough to hide a body.

Perfect.

I took a moment to look around. I'd heard plenty about the Grey pack, but I'd never actually met many of its members. They were easy enough to identify. There was a particular confidence about them—the kind that came from belonging to a powerful Alpha and knowing exactly where you stood in the hierarchy.

I was studying a group near the bar when someone approached me.

"Miss Humphrey."

I stiffened at the name, growing a particular dislike for it.

I turned around only to see the man from the bar. Nathan. He looked rather different from the man I'd met at The Hollow. Tonight, he wore a fitted black suit, a crisp white shirt, and a dark tie. His hair was neatly styled, and he carried himself with confidence.

His eyes traveled over me, lingering for a moment before returning to my face. "Hungover?" he asked, dimples appearing.

"Considering it happened a night ago, no." I lifted my chin. "I'm a professional."

"I can see that." His gaze dropped again—to where the wrap had slipped and the slit of my dress had slid into the open—then came back up too slowly. I tugged the fabric closed. Mother would have my head.

"Thank you," I said. "For the ride. Not for telling my father you picked me up from the bar, though."

At that, he chuckled loudly. "I'll take it." He grinned, and for a second he looked like the man from the bar again—all dimples and no agenda. Then something underneath it sharpened. Hunger, plain and unhidden, there and gone before I could be sure I'd seen it.

I looked away first, while he cleared his throat, mumbling some excuse before leaving.

I shook my head. I was an attractive woman and I knew it. The hunger I'd just seen in his eyes wasn't a foreign thing to me. I'd spent time in the gym to carve my body to this point. While I wasn't as graceful and dainty as Aileen, I wasn't a total ugly duckling either.

Across the hall, my father stood in a circle of old Alphas, his eyes found me. They dropped over the wrap, over the slit I'd just tugged closed, and went flat. If he'd been alone, I'd have heard about it—but he had an audience, and the great Alpha of Dakota did not scold his daughter in front of his peers.

Small mercies.

Then I found the others. Aileen stood near the dais in champagne silk, her hand resting on the arm of the man beside her. Elias wore a black suit with no tie, the signet ring I knew too well.

Two men flanked him—both tall, both dangerous in the way good tailoring made men dangerous—and I would have called them handsome if I hadn't been busy hating everything within a hundred yards.

Aileen laughed at something one of them said. Elias didn't. He was listening to her, head bent.

I took a glass of red from a passing tray and drank half of it in one swallow. I hadn't gotten to finish it when I felt an unbearable presence behind me.

"Ava." Mom's fingers closed around the stem and plucked it from my hand. "Act normal."

"People drink at parties. That's normal."

"Not like that. Not here." Her voice dropped. "I could have sworn you were better before you went to live among those humans."

Better—like I was a dog she'd sent away to be trained.

"They have wine in the human world too, Mom. It's very civilized." I said, but she'd walked off with my glass.

The speeches began. Alpha after Alpha climbed the dais to talk about unity and legacy and the future of Dakota. Then my father took the stage, and the room went still.

"It is my honor," he said, "to announce the engagement of my daughter, Aileen Humphrey, to Alpha Elias Grey."

The applause was thunderous.

"Our packs will stand as one. They will be mated officially in six months, under the full moon."

I watched Aileen step forward, radiant. I watched Elias take her hand and turn her toward the crowd. And then, because the universe was a bitch, his eyes cut across the room and found mine.

I didn't look away. I wouldn't give him that.

He held my gaze for three seconds, then his arm curved around my sister's waist, and Aileen rose onto her toes and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek.

The crowd cooed. I felt something crack in my heart.

"They look good together."

Nathan had appeared at my shoulder again. I plucked the glass from his hand without asking, and he let me.

"Meh. I've seen better," I replied dryly.

Aileen was receiving congratulations from the guests, her hand tucked into Elias's arm.

I watched as one of the men standing with Elias leaned in to say something to him. Elias responded with a brief smile—the kind I'd seen him give business associates and people he considered useful. The man laughed and clapped his shoulder.

I hated that I knew the difference between his smiles.

"Do you want to dance?" Nathan's voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

I looked at him. "Are you asking me?"

"Unless there's another Ava Humphrey standing behind you."

I chuckled softly. "I'll tell you now, I'm no good on the dance floor."

"I'll take my chances."

He offered his hand, and I took it. The music had changed to something slow. Nathan placed one hand at my waist, careful at first, and guided me onto the dance floor.

Nathan leaned closer. "I heard you left for the human world," he began.

"People talk too much, and apparently, you listen."

"Only when the subject is interesting." He said quietly.

I looked up at him. "Careful. That almost sounded like a compliment."

"It was."

I rolled my eyes, but I couldn't stop the small smile that tugged at my mouth.

Across the room, I caught sight of Elias.

He was still beside Aileen, but his attention wasn't on her anymore. It was on us.

I felt a strange little thrill crawl up my spine.

I deliberately moved closer to Nathan, allowing my hand to settle against his shoulder. Nathan didn't seem to mind. If anything, his hand tightened slightly around my waist.

"Having fun?" he asked.

"Immensely."

His eyes searched my face for a second, perhaps sensing that my answer had very little to do with him. But he didn't ask.

When the song ended, I rose onto my toes and pressed a kiss to the edge of his jaw, just shy of his mouth. "Thank you," I whispered. I didn't have to look to know Elias was watching. The back of my neck prickled like I'd stepped into direct sunlight.

I slipped away from the main hall, toward the staircase leading to the upper terrace.

I pushed through the door and stepped outside. The cool night air hit my skin, and I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding.

The door opened behind me, but I didn't turn.

"You shouldn't be up here alone," Nathan said.

"I'm not alone. You followed me, didn't you?"

"I did." He didn't pretend otherwise. I liked that—and I hated that I liked it.

I unhooked the wrap and let it fall from my shoulders. The golden chains glinted against my bare back, and the slit parted with every step I took toward the edge. I knew exactly what I looked like. Sin, again.

Behind me, Nathan swallowed. I heard it.

"I'm leaving tomorrow," I said. "Back to my life. My real one. After tonight, I'm never setting foot in this town again."

"Ava."

"I just need an anchor." I turned and found him closer than I'd expected. "Something to hold on to for one night. And then we never speak of it."

He stared at me, his throat working, his eyes dark in a way that had nothing to do with the dim light. For a moment I thought he'd say no. A decent man would have.

"Do you really not remember me?" he asked instead.

I frowned. "What?"

He shook his head once, like he was clearing something away. "Never mind."

Three strides. That was all it took, and then his hands were in my hair and his mouth was on mine.

He kissed like he'd been waiting to. There was nothing lazy about it. His hand slid down my spine and found the chains, his fingers tracing them as if they were made of glass. I gripped his lapels and kissed him back because it was easier than thinking.

His mouth moved to my jaw, then my throat, and I tipped my head back to give him room. The slit of my dress rode higher as he lifted me against the wall. His teeth scraped just beneath my ear and I gasped, and when he pulled back I could feel the first sting of what would be a mark.

"Tell me to stop," he murmured against my skin.

"Don't stop."

He didn't. Hickeys bloomed along my collarbone, my neck, one more where my shoulder met my throat. I was breathless, flushed, and so wonderfully numb that I almost didn't hear it.

The click of the door—and Nathan froze. I opened my eyes over his shoulder, and every drop of warmth drained out of me.

Elias Grey stood in the doorway, one hand still on the handle. His eyes moved from Nathan's face to his hand on my waist, then lower—taking in the dress, the discarded wrap, and the fact that Nathan's mouth had just been on mine. His face grew murderous.

"Get your hands off her."