Chapter 4

SIMONE

I walked back to the dining table, Flora's eyes tracking me the entire way, searching my face for something she couldn't quite name.

I let her look. Let her wonder.

"Dad, let's train more soldiers," I said, turning my full attention to my father. "We never know what could happen."

He raised an eyebrow, mild surprise crossing his face. "That's a sudden request, Simone."

"Better prepared than sorry." I kept my voice light, casual.

"But Simone," Flora started, brow furrowed, and I could already hear the question forming behind her teeth.

Why now?

What aren't you telling us?

"Just trust me on this one," I said, softer than before, and something in my tone must have carried enough weight that she let it go, though her eyes lingered on me a moment longer, unconvinced.

"I'm so sorry, but..." Rose appeared in the doorway, wringing her hands.

I already knew what was coming. I'd heard this exact apology before, in another life, delivered with the same nervous flutter in her voice.

"Alpha Leo won't be able to make it."

The old me would have panicked, certain the world was ending because her crush hadn't shown up on time.

I only smiled and nodded like the news meant nothing at all.

Rose blinked, clearly braced for tears that never came.

***

I found Leo in the hallway of the packhouse an hour later, leaning against the window, that same effortless charm radiating off him like heat.

"I'm sorry, Simone." He pushed off the window frame, closing the distance between us. "I meant to be here, my beta caught me on the way out. Border dispute with the André pack, nothing that could have waited, except he made it sound like it couldn't."

He said it easily, a little rueful, the kind of excuse built to sound like an inconvenience rather than a choice.

I let out a soft laugh and accepted his open arms anyway, my body folding into the hug like it hadn't already learned, in blood and broken glass, exactly what those arms were capable of.

He smelled the same as he always had; pine, and something warmer underneath.

My stomach twisted at how easily the old comfort still tried to surface, even now.

"Walk with me?"

I nodded, watching him the way I hadn't known how to the first time, the slight tightness at the corner of his mouth, the half-second his eyes took to find mine when he lied.

He seemed genuine, that was the terrifying part.

He'd always seemed genuine, right up until the night he called me a means to a throne and walked out while Olivia's claws were still in my chest.

Not this time.

We walked in silence for a stretch, his footsteps unhurried beside mine.

I gave him nothing, just enough warmth to keep him guessing, just enough distance to keep him hungry.

"Will you be my date for the Crescent Festival tomorrow? At my packhouse."

The first time I'd lived this day, I'd said yes before he'd even finished the sentence.

I remembered the rest of it too well to make that mistake twice, the way he'd knelt in front of both packs at the height of the festival and asked me to be his bonded mate, the crowd roaring before I'd even opened my mouth to answer.

I'd thought it was the beginning of my life. It had been the opening move in a war I hadn't known we were fighting.

I could refuse. Walk away and never let him touch me again.

Or I could do something more dangerous.

Say yes, stand beside him at that festival exactly like before, and use every hour between now and then to find what I hadn't thought to look for the first time.

PROOF.

A name. Something that would hold up in front of both packs when I finally brought this down around him.

"Yes," I said, letting my voice catch, just slightly, the breathless delight he'd expect from a woman who thought she already belonged to him.

His smile widened, satisfied. He laced his fingers through mine like he'd already claimed something that had never truly been his.

I let him. I even smiled back.

He thought this was easy. He had no idea what he'd just invited back into his life, or how carefully I intended to take it apart, piece by piece.

.