Seraphine’s heart was doing something completely out of control inside her chest, loud and fast and totally traitorous, and the worst part was she was almost certain he could hear it. alpha wolves always could.

Heat crawled up the back of her neck, moved slow across her cheeks, and she hated every second of it. She pressed her palm flat against his chest and pushed, but he didn’t move.

He just stood there like the wall behind him had grown a heartbeat, solid and warm and completely unbothered, and her hand stayed right where she’d put it because pushing him was apparently just something that wasn’t going to happen tonight.

"Voren." Her voice came out lower than she wanted it to. "Let me go."

Something changed in him all at once.

He stepped back, but sudden, like a switch had flipped behind his eyes. He blinked once and the intensity that had been sitting all over his face a second ago just... lifted. He looked at her the way someone looks when they’ve just walked into a room and can’t remember why they came.

"I’m sorry." A small crease formed between his brows. "What just happened?"

Seraphine pressed her lips together and said nothing. She had a feeling that it hadn’t entirely been him. Bloodfang must have been behind it.

She turned away from him and finally got the door open. Ravyn and Daisy were standing right there in front of the door. Ravyn’s hand raised like he was just about to knock.

Daisy’s eyes went straight to Seraphine, and Voren right behind her, something sharp and calculating moving through her gaze before she could smooth it over.

"What are you doing in Alpha Voren’s room?" The question came out fast, her voice carrying that particular edge she liked to use when she wanted to make sure someone else was also paying attention. Her eyes cut sideways to Ravyn for just a fraction of a second.

Seraphine opened her mouth.

"I had her shower in my room." Voren’s voice rolled past her shoulder, flat and unbothered, and the weight of his attention landed on Daisy like something physical. "Do you have a problem with that?"

Daisy’s chin pulled back slightly. "No...no, I just remembered, Ravyn told everyone not to enter your room."

"Right." Voren stepped beside Seraphine, just enough to hold the space. "And since it’s my room, in this pack that isn’t mine, I decide who comes in and who doesn’t. Same courtesy Ravyn gets when he stays at Grimroot." His eyes stayed on Daisy’s face the whole time. "I’m sure you understood that the first time."

Daisy had heard the gossip when she woke up that hospital bed long after the punch Voren gave her, enough to collect every word that drifted through the ward.

How Voren had carried Seraphine through the rain on his back without a second thought. She’d rolled that image around in her head afterward, picking at it the way you pick at something that shouldn’t bother you but does.

Ravyn had never done that for her, making the thought cut through her chest before she could stop it.

She pulled her shoulders back and let a small, carefully placed smile rest on her mouth. "It’s just...you two look good together, that’s all." She paused intentionally, wanting Voren to refute it and loaded, "If you want her, I don’t think even the Alpha code could really—"

"Funny you should bring up wolves." Seraphine’s voice slid in clean and smooth, cutting straight across Daisy’s sentence like it had never existed. She tilted her head slightly, the picture of casual interest, her eyes moving to Ravyn. "Actually, Ravyn, have you ever seen Daisy’s wolf?"

The color left Daisy’s face so fast it was almost impressive.

Ravyn’s head turned. "What are you talking about?"

The air in the hallway tightened. Seraphine held Daisy’s gaze for exactly one long second for Daisy to understand that the only reason this conversation was stopping here was because Seraphine was choosing to stop it.

If Ravyn got this information, he might begin to investigate other things and ruin Seraphine’s revenge plan.

Daisy’s jaw worked silently.

"Forget it." Seraphine waved a hand, breezy and unbothered, like she was brushing crumbs off a table. Her chin lifted, the quiet authority that came so naturally to her sliding back into place like she’d just remembered she was the smartest person in this hallway.

"You’ve been coddled long enough." She snapped her fingers twice, crisp and sharp, and looked at Daisy the way you look at someone whose time you are no longer interested in wasting. "Where are your people? Round them up. The rain’s eased off. Start the punishment, chop chop."

From behind her, she heard Voren make a quiet sound. Not quite a laugh, but something smaller, warmer, the kind that escapes before a person thinks to catch it.

Daisy’s throat bobbed. The tears were there, she could feel them threatening at the corners of her eyes, but she would not give anyone in this hallway the satisfaction of watching them fall. She looked at Ravyn instead, waiting. Expecting his voice to come in, to smooth things over the way it always did.

But his eyes were on Seraphine.

He wasn’t even looking at her.

Daisy’s chest caved in a little.

She straightened up, pulled in a slow breath through her nose, and nodded once like this had all been her idea. "You’re right. I should finish the punishment." Her voice stayed steady. Barely. "Even if I’m not completely recovered yet."

She let the last part hang there, aimed at Ravyn, clearly meant to land, but he didn’t take it.

"Can you redo the cure?" he asked Seraphine, and there was something in his voice when he said it, something stripped back and unguarded that had no business being in a public hallway. "Please."

Seraphine raised one eyebrow. She looked at him for a moment the way you look at a math problem you already solved once and don’t particularly feel like solving again. "I have some reserves left," she paused, thinking of her next words. "But the price triples this time. I’m not running a charity."

Ravyn didn’t even flinch. "Fine."

"And—" she held up one finger before he could settle into that agreement too comfortably, "she finishes the punishment. All of it. Through the end of tomorrow, and the salary cut stands against her too. I’ll have Damon send me updates."

Something moved through Ravyn’s face then. A flicker of something real and unguarded there for just a second before the Alpha in him pulled the shutters back down. He wanted to argue. She could see it sitting right there behind his eyes, pressing against the inside of his composure.

But Voren was standing four feet away.

"As you wish," Ravyn said quietly.

Seraphine turned to Daisy with the kind of smile that doesn’t reach the eyes and doesn’t need to. "So?" She tilted her head toward the stairs. "What are you waiting for?"

Daisy turned. She walked to the staircase and went down it with her back straight and her face composed, and the moment she hit the ground floor and cleared the corner she let the tears come, blinking rapidly, mind-linking her people with shaking focus.

Everything had been fine until Seraphine had come back and the whole careful structure of things had started listing sideways, tilting degree by degree, and her Ravyn, always stood beside her, kept looking at another woman like she was the only solid thing in the room.

Upstairs, the hallway had gone quiet.

Ravyn stood there a moment longer than he needed to. His eyes moved off the staircase and came back, and when they landed on Voren, and whatever he’d been holding back since he got here settled into his jaw like something heavy.

"Voren." His voice had dropped all the way down, rough at the edges. "We need to talk."