The applause.
It didn't even sound like applause anymore. It hit me like a wave—a thick, crushing roar that rolled over my head and swallowed me whole.
The clearing was packed. Hundreds of wolves were cheering, stomping, vibrating with happiness… but somehow everything around me felt muted, far away, like someone had shoved cotton into my ears.
Or maybe my ears were actually ringing. It was that sharp, high-pitched sound—thin and painful, like glass right before it cracks.
It was too much.
All of it.
Lucian and Lyra.
The second their hands touched—just a simple, polite motion—the air shifted. Something invisible but violent swept through the space, brushing over skin and bone. It wasn't physical, exactly, but it slammed into me anyway: a deep, aching sting right in the center of my chest. Recognition. Loss. Both. Neither. Something in between, sharp enough to bruise.
I blinked hard. Get it together, Aria. Breathe. Smile. You're her mother. You're supposed to look proud.
When I opened my eyes, Lyra was… glowing. There was no other word for it. Her hazel eyes—dull, unsure just last night—were sparkling now, lit up from somewhere deep inside. She stood taller, steadier. And Lucian… he was looking at her with this soft, focused intensity that made my stomach twist. The kind of look an Alpha gives his destiny.
But even then…
When she grabbed his hand, his body flinched. Just a tiny jerk—barely noticeable. His shoulders tightened, his gaze cut sideways like someone touching a live wire.
Shock?
The bond?
Or something else? Something tangled and dangerous—something remembered from a dark hotel room and a name whispered into his ear that he never knew belonged to me?
Stop it.
Stop. It.
You're imagining things. He doesn't recognize you. He was drunk. You were a blur. He sees his mate—your daughter. That's all.
Fear coated my tongue, metallic and sharp. Woodsmoke from the fires, damp dirt underfoot, and beneath it all… Lucian's scent. Cinnamon. Alpha musk. Thick enough to choke on. It clung to Lyra now, wrapped around her like a claim.
I forced a smile so big it hurt. Lyra glanced back at me, relief flooding her eyes. She looked like she needed my permission to be happy. So I gave it—I nodded hard. Yes. Go. Take this chance. Want this opportunity.
But panic was tightening in my throat, inch by inch.
This wasn't just any match. This was the future Alpha of the Blood Moon Pack. And I—Aria Hale, rejected omega—had slept with him barely twelve hours ago. I had stained the bond before it even formed.
The weight of my own recklessness nearly knocked me over. I needed to disappear. Melt into the crowd. Get away before—
Too late.
Helena Vale—Luna Helena—Lucian's mother—appeared out of nowhere.
She moved through the crowd with the cold, effortless confidence of a predator. No softness. No warmth. Just sharp edges and silk. She stopped in front of me, close enough that my spine instinctively straightened.
"Aria."
Her voice didn't need volume. Somehow it cut through everything.
I bowed my head. "Luna Helena."
Old habits. Old fear. Submission coming out of me like muscle memory.
She looked me over—slow, clinical. Not my eyes. Not my expression. She catalogued my dress, my shoes, the faded rejection mark near my collar. She saw all of it.
"Lyra is beautiful," she said. The compliment felt like a blade wrapped in velvet.
"A perfect match for my son. Though…"
The pause stretched, humming with intent.
"Though?" My heartbeat stumbled.
"Though her lineage is… complicated." Her smile didn't touch her eyes. "A rejected omega for a mother. And a father who abandoned his pack duties for a housemaid."
Heat exploded across my cheeks. Shame, old and deep. I wanted to defend myself. To defend my mother. To say I wasn't weak. But the words died somewhere in my chest. I just took it, the way an old scar takes a hit and remembers everything.
Helena placed a hand on my arm. Cold. Controlling. Unmovable.
"It will be my duty to prepare Lyra," she said. "She needs proper guidance. Someone who can make up for…" Another glance at my clothes. My everything. "Lack of foundation."
Her fingers tightened—just enough to hurt, not enough to leave a visible mark—and my breath hitched.
"Bring Lyra to the Main Lodge tomorrow morning. Early. Her lessons begin immediately. We can't afford missteps."
Then she leaned closer, her perfume sharp and suffocating.
"And Aria… don't trouble yourself by trying to instruct her. Stay quiet. It's what will benefit her most."
A command. A threat. A cage.
Then she swept away like she'd never touched me at all, heading straight for Lucian and the Alpha.
My legs were trembling. I tasted blood—I'd bitten the inside of my cheek without noticing. I needed to get out. I shoved through the crowd, whispering apologies, heart hammering.
I was almost free when my foot caught on a root. My ankle twisted. I pitched forward—
A hand grabbed me. Warm. Firm. Cedar and cinnamon surrounding me like a trap.
"Careful."
Lucian.
He wasn't looking at Lyra. He wasn't watching the stage.
He'd been watching me.
His silver eyes were wide, too clear, too sharp for someone who'd just accepted his mate. He steadied me, then held me that split second too long—long enough for the connection to snap into place again, stronger, unmistakable.
He let go. But his gaze didn't.
He didn't see Lyra's mother. He saw the woman from last night. The one whose name he'd forgotten even as he burned it into my skin.
"What is your name?" he asked, voice low enough to tremble inside my bones. "Tell me your name."
I should have stayed silent. I should have walked away.
But Helena's warning, my humiliation, the raw intensity of his stare—it cracked something inside me.
I opened my mouth to say "Aria Hale."
What came out was:
"I'm Lyra's mother. That's all you need to know."
I pushed past him, swallowing the shock in his eyes, and disappeared into the tent shadows.
I couldn't look back.
Tomorrow I was expected at the Main Lodge.
Tomorrow I walked straight into the home of the Alpha I'd slept with.
And he had just looked at me like the mate bond had snapped into him—for me.
My arm still tingled where Helena had gripped it. My skin still burned where Lucian had touched it.
Lyra… my sweet, brilliant girl…
I hope this lie is enough to protect the future you just stepped into.