KEISHA’S POV

She gestured slightly to the side, away from the main corridor and I followed because I wanted to hear what she had to say and I wanted to look her in the face when she said it.

We stopped near the window at the end of the hall which was far enough from everyone but close enough that I could still hear the distant murmur of the others moving toward the corridors.

She turned to me with that smile still in place. "How long have you been in Ashveil?" She asked, her voice light like this was going to be a casual conversation.

"A few months." I shrugged.

"It suits you." She looked around briefly. "It’s a beautiful pack. Very— homely." She said it in a tone that meant she meant anything but. "Coldridge must feel very far away now."

"It does." I admitted. "That’s fine with me."

"I’m sure it is." She smiled. "Fresh start and all that." She gave a small pause. "Though I imagine it wasn’t easy. Leaving somewhere you’d lived your whole life. Starting over in someone else’s pack." She tilted her head. "That takes a certain kind of resilience."

"Is there a point coming?" I asked.

She laughed, the sound short and light. "I like you." She said. "You’re very direct."

"Thank you." I didn’t smile. "The point?"

She studied me for a moment. Then, she continued. "I didn’t see you at the mating ceremony." She said it pleasantly. "I looked for you actually. I had been so curious about what your face would look like."

There it was.

"Had you?" I muttered.

"Mhm." She smoothed the front of her coat with one hand. "I imagined it would be— difficult. Watching someone you loved stand up there and choose someone else. Say someone else’s name." Another small pause. "But then I heard you’d already left Coldridge before it even happened and I thought— oh. She couldn’t even stay." She tilted her head. "That must have been a very hard night for you."

I looked at her blankly.

Four months ago, this would have landed differently. Four months ago, I was on those stone steps outside the ball in my green dress with nowhere to go. Four months ago every word of that would have found exactly what it was looking for.

Right now I just felt tired of her smile and wanted to get back to work.

"Are you done?" I asked.

Irritation flashed in her eyes. "I’m just making conversation."

"No you’re not." I said. "You came over here to make a point. Make it."

The pleasantness dimmed slightly. "Fine." She straightened. "Stay away from Riven."

I blinked. "I’m sorry?"

"You heard me." She said it simply like she was telling me the weather. "Whatever he said to you in that corridor just now— and I know what he said, I know exactly how he gets — ignore it. He chose me. He stood up in front of his entire pack and said my name." She looked at me with a frown. "He’s mine. And I don’t share."

I looked at her for a long moment.

"You came all this way." I huffed. "Left the others and followed me down a corridor to tell me that."

"I’m telling you as a courtesy." She gave a stiff smile. "Before things get complicated."

"Right." I said. "Well—" I held her gaze. "Put a leash on your mate if you’re that worried about where he wanders. That’s not my problem and it’s not my job." I paused. "And for what it’s worth, I have absolutely zero interest in going back to something I already walked away from. So you can take the courtesy somewhere else."

Her composure slipped for exactly one second and the expression beneath the mask was nothing short of an ugly snarl. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"You think this is funny." She growled quietly.

"I think you’re threatened." I shrugged. "By someone who left. That’s interesting."

Her jaw tightened. "Be very careful." She warned. "I’m not someone you want to make an enemy of."

"Is that right?" I asked, my voice mocking.

"Riven listens to me." She said. "He makes decisions based on what I tell him. If I tell him this pack’s proposals aren’t worth pursuing—" She let it hang there and I looked at her.

"If I tell him the girl he used to know is causing problems—" She paused. "Things get complicated. For everyone."

"Are you threatening pack business over a conversation in a hallway?" I raised a brow.

She smiled again but it was the cold version. "I’m having a conversation." She smirked. "Girl to girl. Remember that."

She turned and walked back down the corridor and I stood there and watched her go.

I felt the anger sitting low and hot in my chest and thought about how she followed me down here knowing exactly what she was going to say. She had this planned before she walked through those gates.

"Hey."

I turned slowly.

Dane was leaning against the wall behind me with his arms folded and the expression of someone who had been there long enough to have caught most of it.

I looked at him.

Something like irritation moved through my chest. Because he was standing there looking at me with those eyes and that quiet watchful expression he looked like someone I trusted and I had trusted Riven once and Lyra had trusted Dane and he had—

"I’m fine." I said before he could ask.

"Keisha—"

"I said I’m fine." I picked up my notebook from where I had been holding it against my chest, turned and walked back toward the office before he could stop me.

He didn’t follow and I didn’t look back to check.

I sat down at my desk, stared at my screen and thought about Mara’s smile and everything she had said to me.

She had been watching me before she even got here.

"Keisha." Pren appeared at my desk. "Full written record of today’s meeting. Everything you can recall. Deliver it to the Alpha when you’re done."

I looked at my screen and nodded.

He walked away and I put my fingers on the keyboard and started typing. I thought about Callum and the note he had left under my door about an inter-pack delegation arriving in a few days, business matters and how carefully he had said it.

He knew that they would come earlier than they’d said.

He knew the whole time and he didn’t tell me.