Grandmother Elizabeth materialized beside us with the uncanny timing she’d perfected over decades. She wore deep purple robes embroidered with silver stars, and her eyes sparkled as she surveyed us.
“Three successful matches,” she said, her voice full of satisfaction. “Three strong alliances.” Her gaze slid to Victoria, who was already distracted by something across the ballroom. Calculation flickered in Grandmother’s eyes, there and gone so quickly I almost missed it.
“Don’t,” I said quietly. “Victoria needs time.”
“All my granddaughters need time,” Grandmother said. “Until they don’t.” She patted my arm. “You’ve done well, Sasha. Better than I dared hope.”
The words settled warm in my chest. Grandmother’s approval had always been hard-won, and hearing it now meant more than I wanted to admit.
When a hush fell over the crowd, I turned to see why.
A man stood at the entrance to the ballroom, and the word “imposing” didn’t begin to cover it. He wore a fur tunic that emphasized broad shoulders and raw power barely contained. His dark hair gleamed in the faelight, falling to just above his collar. But it was his intense, assessing eyes that caught me as they swept the ballroom, his chiseled face wearing with a scowl that suggested he’d rather be anywhere else than here.
“The wolf shifter king,” Dominic said by my ear. “I’m surprised he accepted our invitation.”
The shifter king’s gaze moved across the crowd again, dismissing most people before they’d even registered his attention. Then his eyes locked on someone, and his entire body went rigid.
I followed his line of sight to Victoria, who stood frozenmid-reach for a pastry. Her face had gone pale, her eyes wide with shock as she stared back at the wolf king.
The air between them practically crackled.
“Oh no,” I breathed.
“Oh yes,” Dominic said, sounding much too amused.
Grandmother Elizabeth moved over to stand beside Victoria’s, her expression serene despite the tension suddenly filling the ballroom. She said something too quiet for me to hear, and Victoria jerked her attention away from the wolf king, nodding mechanically at whatever Grandmother was saying.
The shifter king’s scowl deepened. He strode into the ballroom like he owned it, his presence demanding attention even as people instinctively moved out of his path.
“I should go intervene,” I said, already stepping toward my sister.
Dominic’s hand on my arm stopped me. “Let’s see what happens first. Your grandmother seems to have this handled.”
“That’s what worries me.”
But he was right. Grandmother was already guiding Victoria toward a quieter corner, away from the shifter king’s intense gaze. But I noticed she was smiling, wearing that expression that said she’d just seen another piece fall into place.
“Your family is going to give me gray hair,” Dominic said.
“You love my family.”
“I love you. Your family is a complicated bonus.”
I laughed, some of the tension easing from my shoulders. “Fair enough.”
The music resumed, and conversation picked back up as people processed the wolf king’s arrival. He’d positionedhimself near the far wall, accepting a drink from a servant while radiating ‘don’t approach me’ energy so strongly it was almost visible.
Victoria was doing all she could not to look his way.
“Want to escape?” Dominic asked, nodding toward the terrace doors.
“Desperately.”
We slipped through the crowd, weaving between dancing couples and clusters of conversation until we reached the doors leading to the gardens. Cool night air washed over us as we stepped outside, the sounds of the celebration fading to a pleasant background hum.
The gardens we’d saved together spread out around us, their pathways lit by softly glowing flowers throbbing with light.
We walked until we reached a tinkling fountain. Dominic settled on the stone edge, urging me down beside him.
