The world fades, and for a moment it’s just him and me, suspended in the heavy stillness between one breath and the next.
And the way he stares at me, like he’s been waiting for me to crash through the doors and shatter the pretty lie happening here today, makes my heart forget how to beat.
Chapter 23
Rennick
The space feels too small for the lie we’ve crammed into it.
I stand in the middle of the lodge while the spectacle unfolds around me, and it takes everything I have not to claw my way out of my skin.The music hums low, dressed up to sound refined. The decorations catch the late-morning light, gleaming like everything here isn’t just a sparkly bow knotted around something rotten.
Since the momentCathal and his entourage rolled through my gates, the diplomat’s mask I don has felt like something stitched on in a hurry and far too tight. Every pleasantry has been a chore, each word a scalpel dragged down my throat. All of it another cut I don’t have time to bleed from.
I’ve kept moving since the party started. Not to avoid confrontation, but to stop myself from inviting it. If I stand still long enough for Cathal’s smug condescension or Talis’s sugarcoated bullshit to find me, I’ll ruin everything. I’ll blow up the careful choreography I’ve spent all this time shaping just for one moment of self-serving gratification.
But this isn’t about me.
It’s about her. Noa needs to see this. Needs to know that every word, every calculated move, it’s a performance I’ve planned for with her in mind. She’s the only audience member that matters.
True to her word, Seren’s been at home working both literal and figurative magic to save the plan I’d envisioned for today. She even roped Siggy into it, asking her to tell one small,necessary lie to get Noa through those doors. The younger omega didn’t hesitate. Her devotion to Noa runs bone-deep and is unflinching. The same kind Noa gives in return.
Canaan’s been helping me orchestrate this circus since the beginning, and his mate joined the chaos this morning when our guests arrived.After I rejected Noa, I thought I’d lost both Canaan and Rhosyn—their friendship, their trust, their belief that I was an Alpha worth following. But they didn’t walk away. Not for good, anyway. They held me accountable first, tore into me when I deserved it. And then they came back. That’s what makes Seren’s words from this morning about chosen family stay with me. Blood doesn’t guarantee loyalty. People’s hearts do.
I twist the stem of the untouched champagne flute in my hand. The drink’s gone warm, bubbles long dead, but I don’t put it down because it gives my fingers something to do. I twist the stem until my knuckles cramp as I let my eyes drift across the crowd. The portion of my pack in attendance mixes with two dozen McNamara wolves. Who think they’re here to witness their princess’s big moment. It’s almost funny. They’re wrong, and they’re so smug in their wrongness.
My spine stiffens when I realize my evasion efforts have finally failed.
Cathal pushes through the press of bodies with a swagger that doesn’t fit the man. There’s nothing impressive about his build. Thick in the middle. A soft layer where his alpha genetics should provide him muscle. Skin flushed to match the rust of his hair. He reminds me more of a greedy farm pig in an expensive suit than a wolf. The thought pulls at the corner of my mouth and I let the near smile live long enough to ease the initial burn of fury at his arrival.
He stops before me and drags his gaze down my frame like I’m a product he’s looking for faults in. I return it with all theboredom I can muster and let my wolf rise high enough to peer out. The sound that builds in my chest isn’t loud—a low vibration of warning—and the air between us thickens, heavy with competing dominance.
Cathal lifts one brow, smirking like he’s won something. He takes a sip of his scotch and lets out a quiet, unimpressed scoff. The sound grates and I bite back the growl that wants out.
“I hear you’ve taken in some refugees, Fallamhain,” he drawls, trying for casual but failing. “A pack of she-wolves and a coven of witches. Heard some of them are even staying in your home. How delightfully…charitableof you.”
I don’t take the bait. “That so?” My tone stays even, almost dull. “And where’d you hear this?”
This is a question I really do want an answer to. If there’s a leak in my ranks, I need to know. Cathal takes his time swallowing his mouthful of liquor and just stares at me over the rim. I know he won’t tell me a thing.
“I was also told,” he continues, round face hardening and his fake charm finally faltering completely. “That the wolfless girl was one of them.”
My wolf surges at the spiteful moniker.Wolfless girl.He hates hearing his mate referred to in such a way. So do I. Especially since I now know the truth about Noa’s caged wolf.
But Cathal daring to speak about her at all is enough to make my blood burn.
Cathal laughs, an ugly hacking sound. “But I told them that couldn’t be right. That you’re too honorable, too disciplined to embarrass my daughter—your future Luna—in such a public fashion. Not when you understand what’s at stake. Not when you still need my help,boy.”
The rope of my control burns through my palm as it slips. He doesn’t see it, but I feel it, the surge of my wolf against my skin, desperate to get out and defend his mate’s honor. The idea ofanyone but Noa being referred to as his Luna is an unthinkable sin. Noa’s bite is the only one he was destined to wear, and his mark on her skin is more important than ever. What he learned this morning about how his bite is the only thing that can anchor her here with him proves that.
I draw in a slow breath, hold it until the urge to rip out Cathal’s throat passes, and lift one, unconcerned brow. “Do I?”
He blinks. “Do you what?”
“Still need your help.”
The red of his skin climbs his neck and settles in ugly splotches on his cheeks. Watching doubt carve itself into his features feels like a small victory.
“Last I checked, your omegas are still dying,” he spits. “Or did you forget the girl they sent back to you? Torn apart. Barely recognizable.”
