That’s not all being my father’s daughter brought me…
It brought me Marcus Haley, my honor guard turned bodyguard who isn’t immune to me at all. The alpha who has been lying to me for years.
I push that thought away. Tonight is about my pack, and though I yearn for him, Marcusisn’tmy pack.
Tonight, I reclaim my family name. Tonight, my pack wears the moniker Rose.
After touching up my lipstick—becauseIan’s sweet kissdidsmudge it—he helps me from the chair before my vanity, gives me a quick spin that makes my dress twirl around my knees, and then kisses my cheek. He escorts me down to the kitchen where my other men are waiting for me, and when I see them, I instantly perfume.
Saints, they’re so fuckinghandsomein their finery. While Ian has opted for a black tux over a white shirt, Cassian and Simon are in matching suits sporting Fairhaven colors: navy coats with burgundy shirts and ties. But it’s Luca who steals my breath. Dressed in all black, he’s a study in contradictions. His black suit is a masterpiece—though I’d expect nothing else from Ian’s master-tailor beta father. On Luca, it’s transcendent, a perfectly contradictory complement to the curls of ink that decorate his hands and neck, the shimmering silver of his piercings, his too-long, slightly messy blond hair. His pale green eyes meet mine after roving overmy body, taking me in just as I did him, and desire sparks between us.
Simon quirks a rust-red brow and casts me a wicked smile that makes my toes curl in my elegant heels. “Call the whole thing off and stay in?”
“Hell with that,” Ian mutters. “I have a beautiful mate to shamelessly show off.” He gives me another twirl, passing me right into Cass’ waiting arms.
My first mate takes me in with breathless appreciation, his smoke-and-whiskey eyes flashing. “Exquisite, Junes.” He takes my jaw in his hand and guides my lips up to his, claiming my mouth in a kiss that makes desire unfurl in my belly. But his kiss is brief, and I’m in Simon’s arms in an instant.
Simon’s kiss is even more wicked, a delicious tease that has me swaying into him, rumpling my silk dress as I press my body against his. “Can’t wait to take this beautiful dress off your even more beautiful body later,” he murmurs, a perfect, dark promise in his words. Before I can protest, he spins me straight into Luca’s strong arms.
I stare up at my bad boy alpha as he holds me to his hard body, and when he kisses me, sweeping his tongue stud against my tongue, I shiver.
If I didn’t have a mate who wanted to shamelessly show me off, saints, Imightjust call the whole thing off.
Marcus, our security for the night, presses my clutch into my hand, and I feel a compact and lipstick through the smooth midnight blue silk. Good. There’s no way my lipstick survived those kisses. I spare Marcus as long of a glance as I dare. His suit is simple, intended to let him fade into the background with other honor and bodyguards. Unlike my pack mates, he isn’t dressed to impress, to stand out. Tonight, like he has for nearly two years, he’ll watch over me. He’ll keep me safe.
He’ll act like he doesn’t long for me just as much as I long for him. Like he’s immune to my scent and perfume. Like we could never be anything more than friends.
The truth is so much more complicated, a thorny barb in my breast that pierces even deeper when I catch his eyes in the rearview mirror of the SUV as we head to the ball, just like I’ve done so many times before.
He hasn’t realized that I know he’s not immune to me.
And so, we dance around each other and this thing between us I so wanted to call love. But Marcus Haley lied to me, and I don’t know how to forgive him, even as I long for him.
My thoughtsof Marcus are driven from my mind when we arrive at All Saints Hall, Fairhaven Academy’s ballroom for the night.
Like it was last year, it’s resplendent. An illusion has been cast over the high ceiling to show the moonlit firmament above us, the light of the full moon bright against the inky night sky. It’s this first full moon of the season we’ve gathered to celebrate. Lunaria marks a period of change, and I feel that with my whole being.
Because tonight, I show the world how I’ve changed.
At last year’s Lunar Ball, I couldn’t save a taken omega from a tragic fate. Trinity, a junior at Fairhaven, who had been taken by Andrew Radcliffe and the Soldiers of Saint Aldous after confiding in me about Andrew’s dark past, killed herself after months of torment and torture.
I couldn’t save her, but Ididsave the fifty omegas Rad was experimenting on in a facility hidden away in New Brunswick’s dense pine forests. Working with the resistance, we saved those omegas and destroyed the machines Rad wasusing to create the mind-control collars he was developing in the facility.
Just weeks ago, I escaped his terror for the last time. With the help of the omega Radcliffe had collared and made into his personal bodyguard, Blair, we toppled Radcliffe and destroyed the facility—for good.
Tonight is about showing the world that I was victorious. Andrew Radcliffe tried to end me, but I survived him, the alpha who tried to rape me, the alpha that stalked and tormented me for over a year. I survived the man who threatened to tear my pack apart, who nearly killed my beloved beta with dark magic, who lured Ian into a trap to hurt him, too.
His death is still on the lips of those in attendance at the celebration of the Feast of Lunaria.
But it’smyname they gasp as I step into the hall, my pack flanking me.
Pack Rose.
They’ll talk. They’ll talk about my unconventional pack and how I broke with tradition, renounced the alpha who had bought my mating contract and mated for love instead. They’ll talk about my broken betrothal to Andrew Radcliffe, his very publicized fall from grace and the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death.
Let them talk.
Tonight, I reclaim my name and my thorns.
