"Your brain is fine, Ivar. It’s your mouth that’s over-leveraged," Vidar said without looking up from his plate.
"Let the boy have it, Gunnar," Magnus rumbled, his voice like a low-frequency hum. "He’s still growing. You’re just expanding."
Gunnar aimed the fork tines at his eldest brother. Magnus didn't even flinch. His gaze shifted to Vidar.
"Vido, what’s the status on the Ironwood pack? Their Alpha has been quiet since the docks went dark in Jersey."
Vidar swallowed a sip of his wine and leaned forward. "They’re testing the perimeter. I’ve tracked three separate offshore accounts they’ve tried to insulate in the last forty-eight hours. They think they’re being subtle, shifting their liquid assets into the textile sector."
He flicked a glance toward the head of the table, acknowledging the silent weight of his father.
"If we squeeze their logistics at the port, they’ll have to come to the table by Thursday. But," Vidar paused, deferring to the heir, "that’s only if you want to play it as a negotiation. If you want a demonstration, we can collapse their credit lines by morning."
Magnus hummed, a sound that felt like a vibration in the floorboards. He looked at Fenrir, waiting for the Alpha’s lead before turning back to Vidar. "Keep the squeeze internal for now. I want them hungry, not desperate. Desperate wolves take bites they can't swallow."
"I could come along and?—"
"No," came the chorus of deep growls before Ivar could even finish his sentence.
"You said if I got an A on my Calculus test?—"
"Sorry, bud. Your test is on Tuesday. This is a weekend job."
"But you're getting married this weekend."
That brought my head up. My head was already spinning that they were being this cavalier with pack information with anoutsider present. But I wasn't an outsider. I had a literal seat at the table.
"You're getting married?" I asked Vidar.
There was a part of me that thought he was marrying some other woman. That I was about to be his second wife. Some packs did that.
"Yes, Addie. We're getting married this weekend."
"But… but I thought I had months."
"Oh, no, dear." Mei Ling interrupted, her grin widening. "We’ll have the big society circus for the outsiders in a few months. The marriage—the real ceremony for the family—is tomorrow. Before sunset."
CHAPTER ELEVEN
VIDAR
The rule in the Blackwood household was: if you ate the food, you cleaned the dishes. Even though our mother had taught each of us to cook meals from scratch, she preferred to rule over her stove. Which meant her children always got cleanup duty.
It was fine with me and my siblings. Mainly because our parents tended to get a little randy after they ate. The clatter of cutlery and glassware only barely muffled their activities upstairs. Since Addie had helped serve, she was spared from cleanup duty.
I found her in the garden, at the edge of where the manicured perfection of the Blackwood estate surrendered to the wild. White moonflowers climbed the stone trellises, their petals glowing like fallen stars in the dark. Low stone walls—weathered and furred with silver lichen—snaked through rows of dark lavender and wild rosemary. It was a sensory gauntlet designedto provoke a shift, a place where the domestic and the feral bled together.
I stopped a few paces behind her. I didn't need my eyes to know she was struggling. The scent of her wolf was thick, a metallic tang that clung to the back of my throat. She was vibrating with the need to change, her shoulders hunched as she fought to keep the animal behind her ribs.
"You can shift out here. The perimeter is secure. All humans in the area are either pack or they work for a pack family."
Addie didn't turn around. She didn't even acknowledge the offer. "I can't marry you tomorrow, Vidar."
My jaw clenched, a reflexive snap of bone. The contract was signed in blood and bank transfers. There was no world where she wasn't officially mine by tomorrow's sunset.
I stepped closer, close enough to see the fine hairs on the back of her neck stand up. I realized then that I liked this: the way she bristled, the way her scent spiked into something spicy and flustered when I crowded her. It was a hunt of a different kind.
"I have nothing to wear. No dress. No... anything."
