Her brows furrowed, but she held on to her smile. “I didn’t think I needed to. We’re together now.”
“Are we?” I asked before I could help myself, and the question tasted bitter on my tongue.
She stepped back like I’d slapped her. “I moved in, Kieran. I’m planning our future. You said yes.”
“I said yes to us living together, to giving you a place to recover,” I corrected. “Not to hosting a goddamn summit.”
The temperature in the room dropped. Her smile disappeared like a switch had been flipped.
“I see,” she said coldly. “Still dancing to Seraphina’s tune, then?”
I clenched my jaw. “Don’t, Celeste. This has absolutely nothing to do with Sera.”
“Oh yeah? Because when she moved in ten years ago, you were more than happy to let her ingratiate herself into your life.”
“It wasn’t like that! Sera never-
She crossed her arms, her eyes narrowed. “Go ahead, Kie, compare me to Seraphina.”
“Don’t.” My voice cracked like a whip, and she flinched.
I exhaled shakily, turning away. My fingers twitched with the desire to punch something.
Preferably the gaudy fucking balloons.
But I didn’t.
Instead, I walked to the staircase and looked up toward the second floor.
“What are you doing?” she snapped.
“I’m going to bed,” I called out. “I’m exhausted.”
“But we were going to have dinner.”
“Order something.” I didn’t turn back. “You’ve already proven yourself an expert at that.”
I climbed the stairs, my boots thudding against the wood.
The hallway upstairs had also changed. Her perfume clung to the walls. Her robe draped over the banister. My bedroom door was open, revealing a new set of bedsheets-silk, pink, expensive.
On the nightstand was a candle that smelled like pomegranate and vanilla.
I walked into Daniel’s room next.
And exhaled with relief.
She hadn’t had time to touch his room.
His racecar bed with the spaceship sheets, the train track that wound through his room, his toys, books, framed photos of us-they were all there.
I stepped into the room and sat on the edge of the bed, gently running my hands over his sheets. He hadn’t slept in this room in a long, long time, but I could almost convince myself that I could feel his warmth all around.
I pressed a hand over my mouth and groaned.
What the fuck was I doing?
How had I gotten here?
Divorcing Sera had been the inciting incident. I’d thought it was the right thing to do, the only way to move forward.
I’d thought the love I had for Celeste was the most important thing in the world.
But now…
Sera had morphed into a complete stranger. Daniel was miles away. My home was…gone.
My phone buzzed again. Another charge. Another indulgence. Another thing I’d have to pretend didn’t make me feel like I was suffocating.
I shifted and curled up on Daniel’s duvet, greedily inhaling the faint traces of his scent that remained.
I was an awkward fit on his bed, my long legs dangling over the edge.
And that’s how I fell asleep-uncomfortable and uneasy, feeling like a stranger in my own home.
SERAPHINA’S POV
When Maya shoved her phone in front of my face, I almost cramped while I was stretching.
“Can you believe this?”
I squinted, reading the headline.
‘Alpha Kieran Blackthorne to Host Intimate Soir?e with Future Luna, Celeste Lockwood.’
The photo attached was grotesquely polished-Celeste in a backless gown, coy smile in full bloom, clutching Kieran’s arm like he was a flight risk.
I barely recognized the man beside her. He looked like a wax figure. Too still. Too stiff.
Too… not him.
Maya snorted as she pulled the phone back, her face twisted in a sneer.
“Intimate soir?e’? Please. That shit is posted on basically every media outlet in LA. She probably hired half of LA’s photographers to make sure every angle of her new nose job gets coverage.”
I didn’t laugh. I just stretched out on the yoga mat and pushed up into a plank. “I’m guessing Ethan got an invitation?”
“Of course he did,” Maya said, sliding into cobra with way too much smug ease. “And he asked me to come, but we both know I’d rather eat glass than sit through that circus.”
“I’m not going to ask you to boycott your mate’s social obligations,” I murmured, trying to keep the conversation casual.
“You’re not asking me. It’s my choice.”
“Yeah, but-” I sighed. “You don’t have to choose. Celeste is your mate’s sister; you’re inevitably going to be pulled into her circle more and more.”
“Oh, honey.” She rolled onto her back and flopped her arms out dramatically. “Even if you weren’t a factor, I wouldn’t go. That girl’s so desperate for relevance, she’d host a funeral for a dead fish if she thought Vogue might cover the floral arrangements.”
I let out a breathless laugh before flopping onto my back, too, sweat clinging to my skin. The muffled sounds of people training all around us had become familiar music to my ears, and I smiled softly.
“You’re allowed to move on,” I told Maya. “To grow into your life with Ethan, even if it overlaps with…that.”
“I will,” she said. “But I refuse to acquaint myself with someone who has more sparkle than sense.”
I snorted before I could help myself, and we exchanged a look, understanding passing between us.
“Come on,” Maya said, slapping my thigh as she sat up. “Enough lazing around. Let’s see if today’s the day you can put me on my ass.”
I groaned, pushing myself up, too. “We both know today’s not the day.”
She grinned. “Aw, but you’re so cute when you try.” She wiggled her brows as I stood.
“Just pretend I’m a life-size blow-up doll of Celeste.”
I smirked, cracking my knuckles as Celeste’s pretty, vindictive face flashed before my leads. “
Okay. Maybe today’ll be the day”
***
Today wasn’t the day.
I was curled up in the living room in the evening, a bag of frozen peas pressed to the shoulder I’d landed on when Maya had flipped me and pinned me to the floor. Twice.
With everything that had been going on over the last couple of days, only one thing could cheer me up and distract me from my social media feed, which had been taken over by news of the most unintimate intimate soir?e known to man-and wolf-kind..
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