The knife was still raised toward Brian’s throat, steady in Kira’s grip.

He had not moved since he stepped back, hands half-lifted, but his eyes were doing something she did not like. Searching hers. Studying her face like he was looking for something buried underneath all that hatred.

"Really?" he asked softly.

Kira said nothing.

"Come to me, Kira." His voice had lost its mocking edge now, gone low and almost pleading. "It isn’t too late, you know. Not yet. Come to me now, while the door is still open, and I’ll keep you safe from all of it. We will leave all of this."

Kira raised the knife further as he made a move to come closer. "Don’t try me, Brian. I can tell the entire pack I killed you out of self-defense."

"I’m trying to save you," he almost yelled. "Derek doesn’t even love you. If you come with me, I’ll tell you everything."

Kira’s mouth opened, a sharp answer already loaded on her tongue.

Someone cleared their throat.

Her head snapped toward the sound, and there, standing at the far end of the hedge, was Alpha Braxton, hands clasped behind his back, his expression blank.

"Forgive me," he said evenly. "Am I interrupting anything?"

Kira quickly lowered the knife, slipping it back into its hidden sheath.

"No," she said quickly, smoothing her face into something composed. "Not at all. We were finished."

Brian took several unhurried steps backward, that easy smile sliding right back onto his face as though it had never left.

He smoothed down the front of his jacket, gave Kira a small, mocking little bow, and turned and walked away into the dark without another word.

Kira watched him go for a beat, then turned back to Braxton and offered him a smile, working very hard to look a great deal calmer than she felt.

"Alpha Braxton. Long time no see."

"My Queen." Braxton inclined his head in a respectful bow.

And there it was. That tug.

The same strange, warm pull she felt every single time she came near this man, blooming somewhere deep in her chest as she stepped closer to him.

It made no sense to her. She had felt it from the very first time they met, this odd, instinctive sense of safety, like coming in from the cold to a fire. He smiled at her, and the warmth of it settled something in her she could not name.

"You really don’t need to be so formal," she said. "Not with me. All this bowing and ’My Queen’ business is a bit much between the two of us, don’t you think?"

"We need to observe protocol, Your Highness," Braxton replied, the corner of his mouth tilting. "Especially tonight, of all nights."

They fell into step together, drifting slowly along the moonlit path away from the hedges.

"Congratulations," he said as they walked. "On the crown. For what little my word is worth, I think you’ll make a fine queen. A good one. The kind this part of the world hasn’t seen in a long time."

"Thank you," Kira said, ducking her head, trying to stay humble under the weight of it. "That means more than you know."

They walked on a few paces more.

Then, quite suddenly, Braxton stopped.

He turned to face her fully, and Kira was startled to see that the calm, composed Alpha looked, for the first time since she had known him, genuinely flustered.

There was a tightness around his eyes, a hesitation in the set of his shoulders, as though some great weight was pressing up against the back of his teeth, trying to get out.

Kira frowned, thrown by the change in him.

"What is it?" she asked. "What’s the matter?"

Braxton drew a breath. "There’s something I need to tell you," he said. "Something I should have told you a long time ago."

Kira stared at him, her confusion deepening. "What is it?" she pressed gently.

His throat worked. "I—"

"Kira, dear."

Nana’s voice cut clean through the night.

Kira’s head turned away from Braxton at once, and her gaze went past his shoulder to where Nana stood a little way down the path. And beside Nana, tall and still and silent, stood Derek.

Kira’s breath caught.

Derek’s eyes were fixed on her, and they were deadly. There was something in his face she had not seen turned on her in a very long time, a cold, controlled fury that made the hairs on her arms stand on end and sent a shiver crawling all the way down her spine.

He looked like the man she had first met. The cold Lycan King. The one who had married her like signing a contract and looked at her like she was an inconvenience.

She had no idea what she had done to put that look back on his face.

Without a word, his gaze slid from her, drifting slowly to the man standing beside her. To Braxton.

Braxton dipped his head in a respectful bow. "Your Grace. Lady Genevieve."

Nana’s eyes moved over Braxton with open suspicion, narrowing slightly, and she gave him a nod, before she turned back to Kira and beckoned with one hand.

"Come along, dear."

Kira nodded. She turned to Braxton and gave him a quick, apologetic smile, the unfinished words still hanging in the air between them, and crossed the path toward Derek and Nana.

But the moment she drew near, Derek spun on his heel and walked away.

No word. No look. Nothing.

Kira stopped short, staring after his retreating back, her chest tight with a confusion that bordered on hurt. What on earth had got into him?

Before she could chase the thought any further, Nana’s warm hand closed around hers and began tugging her firmly back toward the lights and noise of the ceremonial hall.

"Come on, now," Nana said briskly. "We need you inside. There are documents to sign for tomorrow’s Luna’s Conference, and goddess knows that lot won’t organise themselves."

Kira let herself be led, glancing back over her shoulder once toward Braxton, then toward the dark where Derek had disappeared.

Once they were well out of Braxton’s earshot, Nana’s grip tightened and she leaned in.

"Now then," she said, dropping her voice. "Would you like to tell me why my newly crowned queen was out here all alone in the dark with that odd Alpha from that odd little pack?"

Kira blinked. "We were only talking, Nana."

"Mm." Nana did not sound convinced in the slightest. "It doesn’t look good, dear, that’s all I’ll say. That Alpha looks about your own age, and he’s got a pleasant enough face on him too, which makes it worse, not better."

She gave a small sniff. "And the vultures are all gathered here tonight, every gossiping mouth in the West under one roof. This is exactly the sort of thing that breeds rumours, and rumours are the last thing you need right now."

Kira winced. "You’re right. I’m sorry, Nana. I won’t let myself be left alone with anyone again. I promise."

"Good girl."

They walked on a few steps, and then Kira’s curiosity got the better of her.

"Nana," she said carefully, "why do you call Braxton and his pack weird?"

Nana huffed a soft laugh. "Oh, not in a wicked way, dear. Don’t mistake me." She patted Kira’s hand. "But that pack has been strange and shut away for the longest time. Years and years."

She glanced about to make sure no one was close, then continued in a low, confiding tone.

"Many years ago, back when the blood feud between Lycans and werewolves was at its very worst, the old Alpha, Braxton’s father, found his soulbond. Trouble was, she was a werewolf."

Nana shook her head. "I don’t know the entire story, but his father forbade the union outright. Wouldn’t hear a word of it. And it was rumoured, mind you, only rumoured, that this soulbond of his was already a married woman besides."

Kira’s brow creased.

"After his father died," Nana went on, "Braxton’s father shut the whole pack away. Closed the gates entirely. No one in, no one out. It went on so long that a good number of his own people gave up and left, and the pack shrank down to almost nothing."

She paused, frowning at the memory.

"Then one day, out of nowhere, the Alpha walks out into the world with this boy at his side. The very image of him. His spitting likeness. And he names the child his heir, just like that. Nobody ever knew who bore the boy. Not a soul. But you couldn’t deny whose son he was, not with a face like that."

Kira listened, oddly riveted.

"They kept to themselves for years after," Nana said. "Sold off their old lands and moved right out to the Western Outskirts, hiding away from the rest of us. Never came to a single function. Not one. Weddings, festivals, gatherings, nothing. You’d never see hide nor hair of them."

She slowed, and her brow furrowed thoughtfully.

"Which is why," she added slowly, "I find it so very curious that this young Alpha has suddenly started turning up at every event under the moon."

Her eyes slid sideways to Kira. "And not just any events, mind you. Yours. Every function you happen to be attending, there he is."

She was quiet for a moment, turning it over.

"It’s a bit weird," Nana murmured. "Don’t you think?"