I should have known, that voice was never gone for long. But it certainly didn’t belong to my alpha.
A bright piano note cut through the low hum of violins. The melody was delicate, crystalline, and impossibly light—Sirena Murphy. My chest jerked. The sound was sunlight slipping between leaves, laughter in a quiet courtyard, waves lapping on a shore. Peace.
Freedom.
And in my head, I found myself singing the words before I realized I was thinking them:
Golden, glowing, feel the breeze,
Beats of my heart, open seas.
Dark fades away, shadows fall,
This is my sound, I’m keeping it all.
This used to be my favorite song. I remembered singing it at a karaoke night with Nellie.
Nellie? Nellie… who was Nellie…
And once I get the Premier’s attention and become his new girlfriend, I will be more than happy to share the rewards I’m gonna reap the fuck out of.
Nellie… my friend. My friend who’d tried to get the Premier’s attention, but had accidentally drawn it to me.
Me.
Running.
Scared.
Nellie.
Kaleb.
Dead.
No.
No.
No!
I sat up straight, my brain rebooting.
“Sage?”
Vorthain’s touch, his realization that my resistance to Victor’s claim was due to the existence of my real mate, and the magic that had tried to erase Ronan… all of it raced back to me like a tidal wave, swallowing me whole.
I had to pretend. To keep up the charade before he tried something more drastic. More permanent.
“Sorry, alpha,” I whispered, leaning back into him. “I thought I had to sneeze for a moment.”
Hehmphedquietly, appeased with my excuse, and we watched the rest of the performance.
They wrapped up with a song I didn’t know, and after a standing ovation, Victor pulled me in close.
Don’t flinch. Don’t wince. Don’t fight.
“Are you ready, darling?” His hands ran down my sides.
