Candace

The cool afternoon air kissed my face the moment we stepped off the jet, and for one second I heaved a sigh of relief. It was ironic I never thought I would be so glad to be back in this pack, but just a week in Paris and I had gotten suffocated.

"Welcome back, Alphas."

Four guards wearing the Pack guard vests stood outside the private jet, their hands raised in salute as we descended the stairs. Cookie barked in my arms at the men dressed in black uniforms and I chuckled, stroking her fur.

"Easy, girl."

I had found her when I had to pick up somethings from the sty on the day we left for their honeymoon.

"You and that mutt get the fuck out of the way," Ryker growled behind me.

My spine stiffened and I hurried down the remaining stairs, ignoring the parade behind me. After one week in Paris, watching my mates frolic around with Deidre, curling in bed in pain every single time they touched her, her moans tearing through every mate defense I was trying to build around my heart like nails down a chalkboard.

They had mostly ignored me while I buried myself in Cookie’s company instead and I’d made a friend. I thought the agony of my wedding night was the worst it could get, but the honeymoon had been something else entirely.

The private hangar opened onto a public strip, and the moment we cleared the doors the noise swelled as pack members recognized the Alphas, phones lifting, voices climbing over each other. I glanced over my shoulder briefly to see Deidre holding a phone up.

"Say cheese, my loves."

Reign grinned wolfishly at the camera. Ryker looped his arms around her waist while Ragnor dropped his chin onto her shoulder.

They have some nerve, Star scoffed in my head while I blinked rapidly, feeling that familiar burn at the corners of my eyes. Why did I even look back? What was wrong with me?

They used to stand like that with me. All four of them at once sometimes, jostling for space, shoving at each other trying to decide who got to hold me.

River always ended up half on top of someone, all of us laughing until our sides hurt. I used to complain about it. I used to push them off and tell them they were suffocating me, but I had secretly loved every second of it.

I swallowed hard and moved toward my luggage. There was no need rehashing the past.

"Come on, Candy, let’s take a picture too," Deidre said sweetly, sauntering over to me, her hips rolling in her red bodycon dress.

I lifted Cookie between us. "Aren’t you allergic to dogs?"

Cookie growled, baring her teeth at Deidre, and quiet satisfaction swelled inside me at the fury Deidre was struggling to keep off her face.

"Good girl," I murmured, pressing a kiss to Cookie’s nose. At least she wasn’t as blind as the three men the moon goddess had shackled me to.

Ragnor’s personal guard Victor drew him aside, speaking to him in a low voice while Reign and Ryker hovered over Deidre. I stood a few meters behind them beside my luggage, waiting for the car to be brought around.

"Oh, my goddess, Alphas!" An older woman, heavily draped in jewels and wrapped in a cream suit, swept over to them, her eyes bright with delight.

"Congratulations! I heard about the wedding. And this must be your Luna — my gosh, you are beautiful!"

My head lifted in surprise, wondering how she knew me, then my heart dropped when I watched her reach for Deidre’s hands instead.

Excuse me? I swung my gaze to meet theirs. Would none of them say anything?

Say something.

"Yes, she is," Ryker replied.

He really had just called Deidre their Luna. Deidre’s lashes swept down as she beamed at the woman, basking in her attention.

Yes, she is. Were they truly not going to acknowledge me, not even in front of strangers? Was there not a single shred of respect left for me?

I fixed my eyes on Ragnor. I didn’t know why it was always him I looked to, perhaps because he had always been the one I believed in most, the one whose word had carried the most weight.

He was gazing at Deidre with something that looked horribly like pride.

Reign’s eyes cut to mine, heavy with guilt. His lips parted and my heart lurched, hoping he would speak, but they pressed shut again. He dragged a hand through his hair and said nothing.

The burning behind my eyes crept down into my throat. I pressed my lips together and stared at the ground, breathing carefully through my nose.

"Oh, thank you so much, ma’am," Deidre giggled, color rising in her cheeks as the woman gushed over her.

Not one of them corrected her.

"We should take a picture," the woman declared. "You can hand your bag to your maid."

I forced down the sting of the humiliation burning through me, about to turn away when the woman added.

"Hey, you. Come hold the Luna’s bag while we take a picture."

I glanced down at my beige checkered dress, genuinely puzzled about what part of it made her think I was a help.

"Did you not hear her?" Ryker taunted, his heterochromic eyes glinting with something mean and deliberate.

Deidre let out a light, breezy laugh. "Oh no, that’s just my cousin Candy. Don’t be mad, Candy. She didn’t know."

I turned away from them and stroked Cookie, trying to steady the trembling in my hands. None of them had stepped in. Not one of my mates had attempted to correct the woman, not even half-heartedly.

"The car’s here," Ragnor announced, just as Deidre and the woman wrapped up their little photo. The black Lamborghini waited a few meters away, flanked by guards in uniforms bearing the pack crest.

"Thank the goddess," I muttered, hauling my luggage behind me and pushing ahead of the group, desperate to put distance between myself and all of it, when a voice stopped me cold. A voice I hadn’t heard in years.

"No freaking way — Daisy?!"