PAULINE
Sleep didn’t come.
I lay flat on my back, staring at the ceiling because there really was nothing better to do at this point. The sheets tangled around my legs. I kicked them off. Then pulled them back up. Then kicked them off again.
Aldric’s voice kept replaying in my head. That smooth, condescending tone. The way he’d spoken to me like I was a child who’d gotten caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
"Don’t ever move without my permission again."
Who the fuck did he think he was? I only had Valentine to blame for this.
My fingers curled into the sheets. I wanted to scream. I wanted to throw something. I wanted to reach through time and space and wrap my hands around his throat until that smug superiority drained out of his eyes.
But I couldn’t do any of those things.
I was his piece. His fucking chess piece on a board I didn’t even fully understand.
The thought made my stomach turn.
I rolled onto my side and stared at the wall. Time stopped making sense.
The healer had failed.
That single thought circled my mind like a vulture over carrion. The healer had failed. After all the money I paid for her to exist. After that giant ball of risk...
The Omega girl had walked away without a scratch.
Oh. The truth it was tormented me. I had orchestrated for a clean, and simple car accident that would look like nothing more than bad luck and mortal error. For fuck sake. Even Aldric had said two sentinels had died from it. The Omega should have been crushed in the wreckage. She should have been mangled beyond recognition. She should have been a closed casket funeral that her loved ones—if she had any left—would weep upon.
But no.
She’d walked away perfectly fine with not even a bruise.
And worse than that, she’d probably walked away with that face still looking exactly like her.
My jaw clenched so hard my teeth ached.
It wasn’t the first time I’d used my healer. It wasn’t the second or third either. We’d worked together for almost four years now. She’d handled things for me back in Nocturne territory. Sometimes small things. Sometimes necessary things. Problems that needed to disappear without raising questions.
She’d never failed before. Not once.
But this time. With this girl. With this fucking Omega who had the audacity to wear Athena’s face...
It had been a failure.
A complete and utter failure.
I sat up and swung my legs over the edge of the bed. My bare feet touched the cold floor and I welcomed the shock of it. Anything to ground me in the present instead of the spiral my thoughts kept trying to pull me into.
Divine mockery. That’s what it was. The universe or the Moon Goddess or whatever cosmic force controlled fate had decided to play a joke on me. A cruel, pointed joke that said no matter how far I ran, no matter how many bodies I buried, the past would always find a way to resurface.
And it would always somehow wear Athena’s face.
I stood up and walked to the window. The curtains hung limp and heavy. I pushed them aside and looked out at Silver Creek in the dawn faded glory. The territory stretched out before me. Trees and buildings and sleeping wolves who had no idea what moved in the shadows around them.
My hand pressed against the glass. It was cool against my palm.
I’d thought about it constantly since that first meeting. The way the girl had looked at me. Those eyes. That face. The tilt of her head when she’d spoken. Every detail had been wrong and right at the same time. Wrong because it wasn’t Athena. Right because it could have been.
The memory rose up unbidden. Sharp and clear despite the years that had passed since.
***
Two sentinels flanked her. One on each side with hands gripping her arms tight enough to leave bruises. She had a bag over her head. Some rough canvas thing they’d probably found in the storage shed. Her voice came through muffled but still intelligible.
"You fuckers!" She thrashed between them but they held firm. "Do you know who I am?"
I watched them drag her across the clearing. We were deep in the woods. Far enough from pack grounds that no one would hear. Far enough that even if someone came looking, they’d never find this place.
"Do you have any idea what he’ll do to you when my Alpha finds out what you are doing?" Her voice pitched higher. Panic creeping in around the edges of the bravado. "He’ll kill you. Both of you. He’ll tear you apart."
The sentinels didn’t respond. They’d been paid well for their silence. Paid well and threatened thoroughly. They knew what would happen if they spoke. They knew what I was capable of.
They stopped in front of me. One of them looked at me and gave a small nod.
I reached forward and yanked the bag off her head.
Athena blinked in the sudden light. Her hair was a mess. Her eyes were wild. She looked between the sentinels and then at me and I watched the recognition slam into her like a physical blow.
I smiled.
"Who are you exactly?" I asked. My voice came out light. Almost conversational. Like we were old friends meeting for tea instead of what this actually was. "Tell me, I want to know."
She stared at me. Her mouth opened and closed. No words came out.
I stepped closer. Close enough that I could smell the fear on her. Sharp and sour and intoxicating.
"Were you really about to use the fact that you’re fucking my husband to somehow wriggle your way out of this?" I tilted my head. "Is that what you thought would save you?"
"Luna Pauline." Her voice came out small. So much smaller than it had been moments ago. "No. Forgive me."
The words hung in the air between us. Pathetic and weak. Exactly what I’d expected.
"For which one?" I asked. I folded my arms across my chest. "For seducing my husband? No? Fucking him? For letting rumors spread that there’s a chance you’d be a second wife? Or just existing? Which one?"
She looked at the sentinels. Then back at me. Her throat worked as she swallowed.
"He came for me." The words tumbled out fast. Desperate. "I had no choice. I didn’t want him. But I cannot deny him. He is Alpha. What he wants is mine to obey."
I laughed. The sound came out cold and sharp. It echoed through the trees around us.
"In the past," I said, "Omegas loyal to their Luna’s social standing would mutilate and scar their bodies or take their lives so their Alpha’s wandering eyes would stop. It’s something you could have done."
"What?" Her eyes went wide.
"Did I say something wrong?" I examined my nails. They were perfectly manicured. Deep red polish that looked like dried blood in the dim light. "I’m sure I didn’t. Or is that too big an ask?"
Her spine straightened. Some spark of defiance flared to life in her eyes.
"I might have been born designated a runt." Her voice came out stronger now. Steadier. "But that doesn’t mean I have to spend all my life making up for it. Omegas are not just your slaves. There’s a reason the goddess made us the way we were. For a pack to work, everyone needs a role."