The glass was filled more times than it should have been.
The first was out of courtesy. The second, to calm my nerves. The third… to forget Gabriel. To stop hearing the whispers crawling between the walls of the hall, to avoid seeing Gabriel with Elianne stuck to him like a leech crossing my field of vision every few minutes, as if their mere presence wasn't already punishment enough.
When I realized it, the music was playing too loud, the lights were a golden veil caressing my skin, and my emotional shield… cracked with every sip.
"Sofía, are you okay?" asked a young alpha from the Southern Pack. His voice sounded distant, as if it came from behind a wall of water.
I nodded. I didn't trust my voice.
I needed air. And silence.
I pushed my way through the guests, crossing the glass doors that led to the inner garden of the Grand Hall. The night breeze greeted me with the fresh scent of damp earth and the sighs of the nearly full moon hanging over the trees like a silent threat.
I let myself fall onto a stone bench. My heels were off to the side. My feet hurt. My memories hurt more.
I closed my eyes.
And I felt it.
His scent.
Gabriel.
I didn't turn around. Not when I heard his steps, nor when he sat next to me without asking permission. We stayed silent, surrounded by a world that no longer belonged to us.
"You shouldn't drink like that," he finally said, his voice barely a whisper. "It's not like you."
I laughed softly, without joy.
"What do you care?" I answered.
He didn't respond. He just looked at me. With that look of his—half shadow, half fire. The one that knew how to pierce me without touching me.
"I just came to breathe," I said.
"And I just came to see you."
I looked at him. Straight on. I was no longer afraid of what I might find in his eyes.
And what I saw was real.
Pain.
But it wasn't enough.
"You have a fiancée. Go back to her."
"I don't love her," he said, with a raw sincerity that cut the air between us. "I never could."
My heart faltered. The world seemed to tilt.
Gabriel leaned toward me, as if drawn by something inevitable. His hand brushed mine, then my cheek. His breath mingled with mine. For one second, just one, everyone else disappeared.
Laisa roared inside me. She wanted to leap at him. Kiss him. Feel him. Engrave him on her body.
And I wanted to too.
But I couldn't.
Not after everything. Not if he already belonged to another.
I pulled away just before contact, with a clear, irrevocable gesture. The silence that enveloped us was more brutal than any word.
"No," I whispered. "I'm not going to be your escape from a lie you created."
Gabriel closed his eyes. Hurt. Human.
"Sofía…"
"Don't kiss me, Gabriel. Not this time. Not if tomorrow you're going to look the other way."
The garden still breathed tension. The air was charged with what we didn't say. And though I had left it behind, I knew Gabriel was still there. Fighting with himself.
"Why do you do this?" he asked, his voice broken by an anger he didn't fully understand.
"Me?" I laughed bitterly. "You're the one who chose. You signed that commitment."
"I never took you out of my mind, Sofía."
I watched him struggle. His face, the one that should have been my home, was now a battlefield. And when he raised his hand to touch my face, I tensed.
He stopped. Didn't touch me.
But his gaze held me. And for a moment, something inside me wanted to give in.
"Gabriel…" I whispered. A part of me trembled.
"Just once," he murmured. "Tell me you don't want it."
I wanted it. For the gods, I wanted it.
My body called him. My wolf claimed him. But my soul… my soul bled for not kneeling again.
And just as his lips nearly brushed mine, a firm voice broke the atmosphere.
"I think she already told you no."
We both turned.
Aidan.
Standing firm like a protective shadow. Arms crossed, his gaze burning with a strength he rarely showed.
Gabriel stepped back. Surprise on his face mirrored his wounded pride.
"What are you doing here?" he asked coldly.
"I'm here for Sofía," Aidan said without hesitation. "We're dating, in case you hadn't heard."
His words were an anchor. A beacon. And he looked at me with that fierce calm that had saved me from myself so many times. I played along.
Gabriel searched for me with his eyes.
"Is it true?"
My heart beat hard. Not for the past. For the present. For the man who offered me his loyalty without conditions.
I took Aidan's hand. Firmly. Decisively.
"Yes. It's true."
Gabriel lowered his gaze. Said nothing. Only nodded once. As if he had just lost something he never knew how to keep.
And this time… I was the one who walked away.