KEISHA’S POV

I stared at the dress she wore.

It was the same dress. The one with the coffee stain that had apparently come out perfectly because it was sitting on her body without a mark on it and she had walked into this hall wearing it like she wasn’t about to rip someone’s head off for it.

Wow, how petty could she get? When she had been yelling about the dress, I had assumed she was going off to burn it or something, but the way she now wore it? Truly despicable. The poor assistant at the store had just been humiliated for nothing. She claimed the stain wouldn’t come out, but she got it out and used it.

Wow.

Nadia leaned slightly toward me from where she stood and murmured, "Is that—"

"Yes." I said under my breath.

"That’s the same—"

"Yes." I said again, keeping my face the same.

She looked at Vanessa and then at me, the expression on her face anything but pleasant.

Vanessa was already at the head of the table, touching Callum’s arm lightly. "I’m so sorry for the delay." She said, her voice apologetic in the way that had clearly been rehearsed. "The travel was longer than expected and I wanted to make sure I looked presentable for you."

Callum looked at her hand on his arm. "It’s fine." He said.

"Can I pour you something?" She was already reaching for the water jug before he answered. "You must have been waiting so long. I feel terrible."

"Really." He nodded. "It’s fine."

She poured his water anyway and smiled at him before she then looked around the table at the elders with a bright expression on her face. Like she belonged here.

Osric looked delighted.

I moved back to the trolley and kept my face completely still.

The lunch started properly. Conversation started with the elders asking Vanessa questions about her background, her interests, her thoughts on pack governance, and she answered everything smoothly and confidently and said all the right things in all the right ways. She talked about her father’s work in war supplies with pride. She talked about her own studies in pack law. She talked about her vision for what a Luna should be in the modern pack era.

I served the dishes quietly.

Dane’s eyes found me every few minutes. I could feel them without looking up. He wasn’t obvious about it— he was never obvious about anything— but the bond was pulling at me and I wished he would stop because feeling it made it harder to keep my face where it needed to be.

Callum? I didn’t look at him once.

Not once.

I refilled water glasses, moved around the table and kept myself useful and small and invisible.

Vanessa finished her drink, looked up and found me standing near the trolley and her eyes moved over me quietly.

"You." She said pleasantly. "Can you refill this?"

I picked up the wine bottle and came around the table to her side without a word.

"Thank you." She said, watching me pour. Then she tilted her head slightly. "You look familiar."

I said nothing and kept pouring.

"Where do I know you from?" She asked, more to herself than to me. She studied my face. "Were you at the—" She stopped. Then a small smile appeared. "Oh." She hugged. "I remember now. The clothing store." She said it lightly, almost amused. "You were playing the hero. Paying for things that weren’t your business."

I set the bottle down with a tight smile.

"Standing there like you owned the place." She continued. "Very impressive performance for—" Her eyes moved over me again. "An assistant."

The table had gone quiet.

I didn’t move or speak, I just kept my face exactly where it was.

She was just trying to rile me up. A part of me felt irritated that Callum and Dane were doing nothing to stop her verbal attacks. But I knew how that would look— siding with a nobody over the woman he was supposed to marry. It was for my own safety that the pack didn’t suspect anything, but it didn’t make it any better.

It made it even worse.

"What pack are you from?" Vanessa asked pleasantly. "You’re not Ashveil born, are you? You have the look of someone who—"

The wine bottle moved before I could blink. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Nadia had stood up and taken it from the center of the table and she was pouring Vanessa’s glass again, slowly. Then before anyone knew what was happening, wine went over the rim, spread across the tablecloth and directly onto the front of Vanessa’s dress in a dark red wave.

Vanessa gasped and pushed back from the table.

"Oh my god." Nadia gasped. She looked at the spreading stain on the dress, then at Vanessa. "I’m so sorry." She said it in a tone that meant she wasn’t sorry at all. "My hand slipped."

"That’s—" Vanessa looked down at herself. "That’s wine. That’s all over my—"

"Yes." Nadia agreed. She set the bottle down carefully. "It is." She looked at Vanessa directly. "And I want to be very clear." Her voice had changed but it held a bit of bite to it. "That woman you were just speaking to is my best friend. She has been my best friend since we were nine years old." She held Vanessa’s gaze. "I won’t sit at any table and watch her be disrespected. Not by anyone." She gave a pause. "Especially not in her own pack."

The table was completely silent and Osric looked like he had swallowed something.

Oh.

Vanessa’s mouth was open.

Nadia turned to Callum. "I’m sorry for leaving early, Dad." She said, back to her normal voice like she hadn’t just done what she had done. "I hope you enjoy the rest of your lunch. We have other things to do and places to be." She looked at me. "Come on."

She walked out and I followed her, my eyes blown wide, leaving the hall quiet and tense.