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She leaned closer. “You don’t need to pretend anymore. We both know I’m the obvious choice.”

Too close. Too sure of herself. I couldn’t stomach this right now.

“I need to—” My voice cracked.

Eyes were on me.

Lucien. The elders.

I couldn’t let her win. Couldn’t let them decide for me, even if this was about the future of the damn pack.

“I’m already with someone,” I blurted. “She’s… human. Her name’s Maggie James. I plan to mate with her.”

Silence.

Seraphina blinked. Her expression twisted, hurt and disbelief curdling into something colder.

Me? I was smiling. Not because it felt good, but because I’d learned early on how to charm through panic. Mask harder. Smile tighter. Get out fast.

But on the inside, I was unraveling.

What the fuck did I just do?

Lucien arched one perfect brow, and I could feel the interest in the room shift toward him, like everyone was waiting for him to call my bluff. Instead, he gave me a thin, calculating smile.

“Good.” The warmth in his tone made the knot in my stomach tighten. “That leads us perfectly into the next item on our agenda.”

He pulled a sleek, obsidian device about the size of my palm from the inside pocket of his suit jacket. Its screen glowed faintly with a scrolling blue-green pulse, the numbers shifting in time with an unseen rhythm. Even from here, I could hear the faint hum of magic inside it.

“This,” Lucien said, holding it aloft so the pack could see, “is a ley line resonance monitor. It’s a very recent acquisition from a rather exclusive contact. It allows us to measure the stability of our wards and the strength of the ley lines that feed them. No more guesswork. No more relying on my own intuition—which, I’ll add, has been spot on.”

He tapped the screen, and a sharper spike of light rippled across it. Murmurs of awe, curiosity, and skepticism swept through the room. “It reads fluctuations in real time and will tell us if our corrective measures are having the intended effect.”

Corrective measures. Mating mandate.

I didn’t move a muscle, but my mind was already chewing on the problem. If that device said the wards weren’t improving, Lucien would double down.

Lucien’s gaze slid over the pack, lingering just long enough on a few of the unmated to make his point. “I will be carrying this with me. The betas patrolling the perimeter will also be using it. When the bonds start sealing, we should see the proof right here.”

His smile widened, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “If the readings don’t improve… we will take further steps. But for tonight, we celebrate the beginning of a stronger, more connected pack.”

Applause rippled unevenly across the room. I didn’t move, didn’t clap. My eyes stayed on the tracker in his hand. The glowing numbers seemed to breathe.

Somewhere in my chest, that rising dread turned into nausea and an urgent need to escape the confines of this room.

4

MAGGIE

I hadn’t seen Roman since yesterday.

Not in the hallway, not in the kitchen, not even a flash of those brooding eyes from behind a closed door. Part of me wondered if he was avoiding me after the whole debacle with the plate and window treatments. I knew I needed to be more mindful of his rules and quirks, but I had been deep in my head about the design I was stuck on, and it had been a lapse. But I was working on it.

I’d keep working on it.

Still, I figured he was just busy. Pack business, as he called it. Whatever that meant. Mafia? Werewolf HOA? High-stakes event planning?

I didn’t ask. Not my circus, not my moon-blessed wolf cult.