Chapter 5 The Appearance of Control

(Cormac)

I hang up and toss the phone onto the table, satisfied.

"She'll be there," I tell the male sitting across from me.

Emerson Roth is my new partner. With Roth money behind Blackpine's warriors, no pack alive can outbid us for Alpha Watson’s alliance.

He leans back and folds his hands.

"Peyton was the best emissary in the territories. Watson respects her. If she speaks for your plan tonight, he might finally say yes. But she's been out of sight for months, and it makes Alphas nervous."

"She's been focusing on her health."

The lie puts a sour edge on the air. Emerson is polite enough not to sniff.

"She also just found out about you and my sister. Are you sure she'll speak for you at all?"

"She'll do what she's told."

"Ian Blackwell wants the same alliance. They grew up together, and you're not her favorite wolf right now. What if he's already asked her?"

I wave it off.

"Impossible. She gave up her post at Greyfell without a fight, and she's never once asked for it back. She isn't going to turn on the father of her pup. Peyton is harmless."

The sharp female who used to stare down Alphas across a treaty table vanished the day she got pregnant.

She swapped her power for a nursery and never complained. These days she cooks, she nods, and she stays out of my way.

A she-wolf who used a pup to catch an Alpha doesn't have the spine for revenge.

Emerson doesn't smile.

"Make sure it stays that way. And finish this divorce, Cormac. My sister won't be called a mistress forever. Leilani deserves a mark on her neck and a Luna's title, and the Roths don't accept public embarrassment."

"Everything will go exactly as planned."

The air stays clean this time, because I mean it.

A wife is paperwork. A mate is marked. I never marked Peyton, not on the Frost Moon and not once since. It's the one smart thing I did.

There's no bond to break and no rejection to suffer through. Ending it will only be a formality.

"The day the pup is born, I sign. Leilani gets what she wants, and our families are joined."

I stop at the house to change before the ball, and the place feels wrong.

Nothing is actually wrong. The staff are busy, and dinner is on the stove.

It's the small things.

The jug of cold lemon water that's always waiting by my bed is missing. In the study, my patrol reports sit in a messy heap instead of a neat, color-coded stack on the corner of the desk.

It takes me a minute to work it out, and the answer annoys me.

She did all of that. She ran my whole day so quietly I forgot anyone was running it.

Even her scent is fading from the rooms. It was never much, faint and medicinal, but my wolf has spent days pacing the upstairs hallway looking for it.

Stupid animal.

"She's well and truly gone, then."

My mother stands in the study doorway with a glass of bourbon, looking very pleased with herself.

"I made sure she took nothing." She settles onto the leather sofa. "She left her clothes and her dignity. Good riddance."

I pour my own drink. The burn takes the edge off the messy desk.

"Leilani is a massive improvement," she says. "Well-bred. Beautiful. Slim. Obedient. She comes from a family that understands how things work at our level. That's a proper Luna, Cormac. Not a glorified messenger who trapped you with a pup."

I nod, because her logic is sound.

Leilani is a Roth. The match makes sense for Blackpine in every way.

Peyton was a mistake, and the mistake is finally being fixed.

My wolf growls at that. I ignore him. He's been wrong before.

The Alphas' Ball is all chandeliers, silk and hidden teeth.

Every Alpha and Luna worth knowing is in this room. Every conversation is a deal, and every smile is a warning.

I stand by the long bar and check my watch again. Almost eight.

She's an hour late.

I gave a clear instruction. Peyton ignoring it is new, and I don't like it.

It's making me look like a fool. I promised these wolves a steady Alpha with a pregnant wife on his arm, and I'm standing here alone with a drink.

Emerson is already working the room. I need her beside me before we approach Watson.

My wolf wants to go hunt her down and carry her in here himself. For once, we agree.

Then there’s a commotion at the doors.

A gasp ripples through the crowd near the entrance. Conversations drop to whispers, and heads turn one after another.

My wolf catches her scent before my eyes can pick her out. And her smell is wrapped in another Alpha's.

I look up.

She's here.

This isn't the tired female I left leaning on my office wall. The pale dresses are gone, and so is the defeated look.

She's in dark blue that shows off the swell of her belly where the pup’s being carried, and she wears it like armor.

Her back’s straight and her chin’s up. Her eyes sweep the ballroom like a wolf who just came home to her old hunting ground.

Every wolf in the room is staring at my wife.

And my wife's hand is resting on the arm of Ian Blackwell.