DIANA
I went straight for the drinks. I needed it.
I poured carefully, steady enough that no one would notice my energy was off. When I lifted it to
my lips, the taste was sharp and comforting.
Only then did I look back at them.
Alexander stood there with his new mate near the center of the space.
Faye… I had known about her, of course. News traveled, even to places I had tried to bury myself in. A Luna from Silver Hollow. An alliance turned bond.
Seeing it was different.
The way Alexander leaned slightly toward her as she spoke, listening with an attentiveness that caused ache in my chest.
He looked… settled, and that unsettled me.
I had expected time to move him forward, but not like this. I had imagined duty, obligation, a careful arrangement that filled the space I left behind without ever truly replacing it.
This wasn’t that. He…he was in love with her.
I took another sip, slower this time, eyes never fully leaving them.
I remembered him after I left–how the edges of him had frayed, how the pack whispered about how he worked too hard and slept too little, how he stopped caring about anything else. I remembered the fights he picked, the risks he took the way his grief sat just beneath his skin.
I had watched him then… Closely. And a part of me enjoyed the indirect attention.
Even after his father passed, there had been moments… quiet ones… when I thought he might ask me to stay. When his gaze lingered just long enough to suggest hesitation. Possibility.
I left anyway.
Now I watched him with another woman, saw how easily he reached for her presence, and felt the weight of having misjudged the situation.
Faye stood with a quiet confidence that surprised me. She wasn’t trying to command attention or assert herself. She didn’t need to. She belonged there, and the pack responded to that instinctively.
I felt the shift then…a slight imbalance I hadn’t prepared for.
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It wasn’t anger.
And it wasn’t directed at her.
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She hadn’t taken anything from me. She hadn’t interfered or schemed or intruded. She had simply existed in his life at the right moment, and Alexander had chosen her.
That truth settled slowly.
But Alexander and I had shared something that lived beneath titles and ceremonies. A history that didn’t dissolve just because time had passed. A bond shaped by firsts and intensity and choices made too young and too deeply.
I wasn’t frightened by the word Luna… I didn’t want it anymore.
Power had lost its appeal. Politics even more so. I hadn’t returned for influence or position or
recognition.
I had returned because he was still in my heart.
Because watching him now… so present, so attentive… stirred something I hadn’t finished reckoning with.
I didn’t need to disrupt his life.
I didn’t need to replace his Luna.
There were spaces in a heart that didn’t close simply because someone else occupied them.
I finished my drink and set the glass aside, smoothing the front of my dress. The music softened as the night deepened, the celebration easing into something more intimate.
Alexander bent slightly to hear Faye better over the noise, his expression warm, unguarded.
I straightened, composure fully restored, and allowed myself a small smile. The past had a way of resurfacing.
I hadn’t come to make demands.
I had come to remain in his life.
And sooner or later, Alexander would feel it too.
I was about to take a step when I heard my name.
“Diana?”
Cole’s voice reached me from behind, in a way that told me he wasn’t sure whether to believe his own eyes.
I didn’t turn immediately. I took a slow breath.
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Of course it was Cole. I hate him… I can’t even stand his presence. But I tried to keep it cool; I didn’t want to look bothered like old times.
If there was anyone in this pack I had expected to collide with tonight–someone who would look at me like I was a ghost that refused to stay buried it was Cole. Because the hatred was mutual.
Annoyance flickered in his eyes the moment our gazes met.
Good. At least some things hadn’t changed.
Cole had always been observant. He’d seen things long before others dared to look closely, and he’d known more than he ever admitted out loud. When my relationship with Alexander’s father came into the open… when the Alpha himself announced me as his mistress to a stunned pack…
most of them were blindsided.
Cole wasn’t. He had already seen me and the Alpha in a suspicious situation a couple of times before that announcement. That was the origin of the dramatic hatred.
Right now, he was just standing before me, looking at me.
I met his stare evenly, my expression calm. “Relax,” said lightly. “I’m not here to cause trouble. You
can stand down.”
His mouth twitched, like he was fighting a laugh and losing. “That’s funny,” he said. “Because
trouble is kind of your whole thing.”
I arched a brow. “Is that so?”
“I saw you from a distance,” he went on, voice low. “Had to make sure it was really you. Because I figured…” his eyes swept over me with open disdain, “…you’d have enough dignity left to stay away. But I guess I was wrong.”
I laughed softly, genuinely amused. “Why would I stay away?”
I gestured vaguely around us. “This is my home too. Or did you forget that part? And what exactly gives you the right to talk to me like this?”
His jaw tightened. He shook his head, slow and deliberate, like the very sight of me disgusted him.
That did it.
“You’re being disrespectful right now,” I snapped, heat creeping into my voice despite myself. “And even Alexander wouldn’t be proud of you if he were standing here.”
Cole’s expression hardened instantly. “Shut up, Diana.”
The word cracked through the air, sharp enough to draw a few glances our way.
He leaned closer, his voice dropping. “What do you know about respect?”
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For a moment, I thought he might say more–might finally unload everything he’d been holding onto for years. Instead, he straightened, inhaled slowly, visibly forcing himself back under control.
“I don’t have the right to throw you out,” he said evenly. “Believe me, I wish I did. But that’s by the way,” he trailed off.
His gaze slid past me then, deliberate… intentional
I followed it without meaning to.
Alexander stood across the space, close to his Luna. One hand rested at her back, casual, protective, as if it belonged there.
As if she belonged beside him.
Something unpleasant twisted low in my stomach.
I understood then–this was the point. Cole didn’t need to say it. He wanted me to see it.
To see that Alexander was settled. That he was whole again. That whatever place I once occupied had been filled.
Satisfied, Cole looked back at me, a small smirk playing at his lips. “…things aren’t the same around here anymore,” he said. “Keep that in mind.”
Then he stepped away, already dismissing me. “Enjoy the rest of the event.”
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