She rose on her toes, pressed a kiss to my jaw.The touch of her lips sent warmth spreading through my chest, down my spine, into the places where the wolf lived beneath my skin.“When you are ready.I will be here.”
Standing here with her, the world felt brighter than it had in decades.
I had not believed I deserved happiness since my mother died.But with Lena, I was starting to.
She had accepted my wolf, had chosen to stay, and now she waited for me with a patience I had done nothing to earn.
I will be ready, I promised silently.I will learn to trust myself the way she trusts me.
21
LENA
He defied his Alpha.For me.
The thought kept circling as I stood on the terrace, his hand warm in mine, the gala glittering through the glass doors behind us.Inside, the string quartet had shifted to softer music.The crowd was thinning as guests drifted toward the exits, servers clearing champagne flutes and dessert plates.The evening was winding down, and my staff had everything under control.
They had earned that.I had built a team that could run this event without me hovering over every detail.
And tonight, I needed to not be here.
The speech I had rehearsed kept trying to surface.The words I had sharpened into weapons, ready to cut him open the way he had cut me.
But that was before I learned what he had done.
He had refused the Pakhan.Defied his Alpha.Chosen me over his pack, over his standing, over everything he had spent fifteen years building.
The speech sat in my throat like ashes.I could not say those words anymore.Could not look at the man who had just sacrificed everything for me and tell him it had all been a lie.
Because somewhere along the way, it had stopped being a lie.
I was supposed to destroy him tonight.Instead, he destroyed every wall I had left.
I caught Michael’s eye through the window.He was directing a server toward a table that needed clearing, his clipboard tucked under his arm.When he saw me looking, he gave me a small nod.A question and permission in one gesture.Go.We’ve got this.
I squeezed Raphael’s hand.“Take me home.”
His eyes searched mine for a long moment.Then he nodded.
We slipped through the service corridor, away from the lingering guests and the staff who would pretend not to notice their boss leaving with her husband.As we passed the entrance to the kitchen, I caught a glimpse of someone near the back stairwell.A man, average height, sandy blond hair, watching us from the shadows.
Something about him looked familiar.The set of his shoulders, maybe, or the way he held himself.
“Lena?”Raphael’s voice was soft.“What is it?”
I blinked, and the man was gone.Just empty hallway and the distant clatter of dishes being cleared.
“Nothing.”I shook my head.“Someone was there a moment ago, but it was probably just a server taking a break.”
A guest I had met earlier, perhaps, or someone from the catering company.The gala had been packed with faces I half-recognized.I was tired, distracted by everything that had happened with the Pakhan.My mind was playing tricks.
I pushed the thought aside and kept walking.
The hotel had seen stranger things than a married couple disappearing before the last dance.
Parsons was waiting with the car.The drive to the manor passed in silence, but it was not the cold silence of our early days.This was something else.Anticipation.His hand found mine in the darkness of the backseat, his thumb tracing small circles against my skin.A nervous gesture.Or maybe hopeful.
“There will be consequences,” he had told me earlier, when I asked what the Pakhan had wanted.“He does not forget.”
