After My Alpha Betrayed Me Before the Lycan Prince

Daniel came home at eleven-forty-three.

I was in the sitting room with a book I had not turned a page of in an hour. The clock on the mantel ticked. My wolf pressed against my ribs in a rhythm that matched it. Press. Release. Press. Release. A slow building vibration I could not quiet and had stopped trying to.

The door opened. He walked in smelling of pine and cedar and something else. That floral musk. Sweet. Cheap. Worked into his collar like she had rubbed her wrists there on purpose.

I did not look up from the book.

"You're still awake," he said.

"Banquet logistics," I said. My voice was even. My Luna voice. The one I have used for twenty years when I need to sound like nothing is wrong. "There's tea if you want it."

He poured a cup. He did not sit. He stood by the window with his back to me and drank in silence.

Then he said, "A guest may be attending tomorrow. Pack courtesy. She should be welcomed."

My wolf went very still.

I turned a page I had not read. "Has she been added to the attendee register?"

"It's not necessary."

I set the book down. I looked at him. His shoulders were tight under his shirt. He was not looking at me. He was looking at his own reflection in the dark glass.

"I'll handle it," I said.

He nodded once. He set the cup down. He left the room without another word.

I sat in the chair for another hour. The book stayed closed. My wolf pressed and pressed and pressed against my sternum until I could feel my heartbeat in my throat.

I did not sleep.

---

Leslie arrived at six in the morning.

I was already dressed. Silver-grey. Hair pinned. The mate mark on my neck cool under my fingertips when I checked it in the mirror. I had the seating chart spread across the dining table, every name positioned with the precision of someone who has decided exactly where everyone will be standing when the evening breaks open.

She walked in without knocking. She set her handbag on the table between us. It landed with a heavy thump. A thick dossier inside. I could see the edge of it through the open clasp.

She poured two cups of tea. She handed me one. She sat.

We drank in silence.

It was the most honest conversation we had had in years.

After a long time she said, "You knew."

"Six weeks," I said.

"I knew longer," she said. Her voice was flat. "I kept hoping I was wrong."

I set my cup down. I adjusted the seating chart. The Lycan Prince's name sat at the dignitary table with an unobstructed sightline to the full assembly. His Beta had requested it for security. I had given it to him for something else.

"You weren't wrong," I said.

Leslie's hand tightened on her cup. She did not look at me. She looked at the chart.

"I waited too long with his father," she said quietly. "I won't wait with him."

I nodded. I did not ask what was in the dossier. I did not need to.

We finished our tea. We did not speak again. When she left, the handbag stayed on the table.

I locked it in the study safe with the rest of the file.

---

Three hundred wolves filled the banquet hall as evening fell.

I stood at the head table in silver-grey, my Luna composure perfect, my hands steady. The room hummed with conversation. Delegates from four allied packs. Elder representatives. The Ironvale Pack in formal dress, filling the long tables that stretched the length of the hall.

The Lycan Prince arrived with a small security detail. I watched from the corner of my eye as he positioned them at the perimeter. He moved without ceremony. No announcement. No fanfare. He took his seat at the dignitary table and scanned the room with the practiced neutrality of someone who has attended a hundred events exactly like this one.

His gaze moved across the assembly. When it reached me, it paused.

Not long. A fraction of a second. But something at the edge of his awareness shifted. I could see it in the way his shoulders went still. The way his head tilted, just slightly, as though he had caught a scent he could not place.

My wolf, which had been pressing against my ribs all day, suddenly went silent.

Not quiet. Silent. The way a wolf goes silent when it is listening for something it has been waiting for.

The Prince's gaze moved on. He returned his attention to the formal proceedings. But a fraction of his senses stayed trained on the head table. I could feel it the way you feel a gaze on the back of your neck.

I turned away. I accepted a compliment from an Elder delegate with warmth and grace. I smiled. I nodded. I was the perfect Luna. I had absolutely nothing on my mind.

Daniel stood beside me and placed his hand on my shoulder during the opening address. The weight was casual. Ownership. His attention moved across the room in a pattern I had learned to read over twenty years.

It kept returning to the hall's main entrance.

I followed his gaze once. The doors were closed. The assembly was complete. There was no one there.

I turned back to the room. My wolf pressed once against my ribs. Then she went still again.

Waiting.

I pressed two fingers lightly against the mark on my neck. It was cold. Colder than this morning. The bond fluttered under my skin like something dying.

I smiled at the Elder delegate. I thanked him for his kind words. I did not flinch.

Across the room, the Lycan Prince's gaze found me again. This time it stayed a beat longer.

I met it. I held it. Then I looked away.

The evening had just begun.