FIA
Maren’s hand settled on my shoulder as we stood near the dress racks. Her touch was warm, grounding.
"You did good back there."
I wanted to believe her. My heart still hammered against my ribs. My hands still shook slightly. Hazel had always known exactly how to get under my skin, but this time felt different. This time I had fought back.
"I don’t know if I did. I slapped her."
"She deserved it." Maren squeezed my shoulder. "But we’re definitely going to show her."
Something in her tone made me look up. She had that expression again. The one that said she was planning something.
She led me toward the counter where a woman with perfectly styled hair waited. The woman’s smile was professional, practiced.
"We’d like to purchase these items," Maren said. Then she paused. "But first, I need to report something that happened in the dressing room."
The woman’s expression shifted to concern. "Of course. What happened?"
"The other woman who was here. I think her name is Hazel... She came into our dressing room uninvited and destroyed a pearl necklace that my friend here, Fia was trying on."
The woman’s eyebrows rose. "I see. Let me check the security footage."
She disappeared into a back room. Maren turned to me and winked.
"Trust me."
The woman returned a few minutes later. Her mouth was set in a thin line. "I’ve reviewed the footage from outside the changing rooms. I can clearly see this Miss Hazel entering the space of your dressing room and then starting the altercation. I’m very sorry this happened."
"Forgive the pointing of guns," Maren said quickly. "We really believed we were in danger."
"Of course. We’ll make this right."
"Thank you."
The woman rang up our purchases. I watched the numbers climb on the register screen. Dresses, shoes, jewelry. Things I would never have been able to afford back home. Things that still felt foreign on my body.
We paid and the woman bagged everything with care. Each item wrapped in tissue paper, tucked into glossy bags with ribbon handles.
We were heading toward the exit when Maren stopped suddenly.
"Oh. Wait."
She pointed to a display of shoes near the window. Heels in every color imaginable. The leather gleamed under the boutique lights.
"We should try those."
"Maren, we’ve already bought so much."
"A woman can never have too many shoes." She grabbed my hand. "Come on."
The next twenty minutes blurred together. Trying on heels. Walking back and forth across the plush carpet. Maren insisted I get at least three pairs. She got ten.
"How are you going to wear all of those?" I asked as the store clerk boxed them up.
"Life finds a way." She grinned. "Besides, different occasions require different shoes."
Outside, the late afternoon air hit my face. Cool and fresh after the perfumed atmosphere of the boutique. The sentinel took our bags and loaded them into the trunk of the car.
I slid into the back seat. Maren settled beside me.
"Did you have fun?" she asked.
"Yes." The word came out before I could overthink it. "It helped take my mind off things."
Maren sighed. "I’m sure your sister’s presence ruined things somewhat."
"Somewhat."
"I would feel sorry for her." Maren looked out the window. "But the way she acted. I know her kind of woman." She turned back to me. "Maybe it’s a good thing you stole her place."
The words hit me wrong. Something twisted in my chest.
"That’s the thing. I didn’t."
The sentinel closed the trunk and got into the driver’s seat. The engine hummed to life.
Maren’s expression shifted to confusion. "Oh. I apologize. It’s just that is what everyone has been saying since you arrived. So I thought it to be true. Is it not?"
"I know that is whatever everyone says." I watched the boutique fade behind us through the window. "It’s technically what happened."
"But?"
"But what most people don’t know is that I had a mate before Cian." The words came slowly. I hadn’t talked about this. Not really. Not since it happened. "A mate I actually wanted to spend the rest of my life with."
Maren went very still beside me.
"On Hazel’s wedding day, she disappeared. Left a letter. My mate was nowhere to be found either." The memory played in my head like a movie I had seen too many times. "He called me to reject me and tell me that he found someone he loved. Hazel."
Maren’s hand flew to her mouth.
"My stepmother convinced me to pretend to be Hazel. With the reputation that Alpha Cian had, I was worried that the pack would be endangered. That my father would suffer for it somehow." I looked down at my hands. "So I did take Hazel’s place."
"But if that’s the case, why would you have been villainized?"
I met her eyes. "Because I was deceived. Hazel didn’t elope with my mate who rejected me. She wanted me to take her place so she could destroy me."
"She seems the type."
The comment was so matter of fact that I couldn’t help but laugh. The sound surprised me.
"Before then, I really didn’t think she would go that far." My laugh faded. "We were never close. But I still saw her as a sister." I paused. "I understood why she disliked me too. Why her mother would never give me the time of day. My mother and I were sore spots to the original marriage. But what happened on the wedding day was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I just could never see them the same way anymore."
Maren was quiet for a moment. The car turned onto a wider street. Trees lined both sides.
"Everything in the universe happens for a reason," she said finally. "Perhaps all of this was meant to happen. Because you’ve helped Skollrend. You saved a life. The Grand Luna for that matter."
"I can’t hold on to ideas like that." The words came out harsher than I meant. "Now that Alpha Cian knows his mother isn’t going to die soon, he’ll probably let me go. And it will be back to square one for me."
"I don’t think so."
Something in her voice made me look at her. She sounded so certain.
"You sound sure."
"Because I have eyes, Luna Fia." She leaned forward slightly. "Last night when that Omega tried to take your life, injured you, and you were unconscious, I saw the way the Alpha cared about you. Even if all of him won’t admit it yet, he likes you. And when Cian cares about someone, he’s willing to go to hell and back for them. I know he would do that for you."
My throat went tight. "Doesn’t he have someone?"
"What do you mean?"
"He has a photo. In his room. In his drawer. I had seen it by accident. I had opened the wrong drawer while staring at what I thought were just mundane pictures." The image had burned itself into my memory. Especially the way Cian has reacted when he saw me with the picture. "It was of a blonde woman and Cian. They looked like lovers. I got to know that her name is Madeline. She’s his first flame, isn’t she? And he hasn’t moved on yet."
Maren’s expression changed. Something shuttered behind her eyes.
"Oh. Madeline Blossom." She sighed. "We shouldn’t talk about her."
"I see she’s a sour subject in everyone’s mouth." Bo might have been a traitor but she was not entirely wrong. "I wonder why."
"Because Alpha Cian sort of forbids it."
"Why?"
Maren opened her mouth. Closed it. She glanced at the sentinel in the front seat, then back at me.
"I really shouldn’t."
The hesitation only made me more curious. More determined.
"I could order you." I kept my voice light. "You know. As your Luna."
Maren groaned. "Fine. I’ll just say what I know."
She shifted in her seat to face me more fully. The car turned another corner. We were getting closer to the estate.
"Madeline Blossom was Cian’s chosen mate. Not his fated mate. Just someone he chose." She spoke carefully, like she was picking her way through a minefield. "They were together for almost eight years. Everyone thought they would get married."
"What happened?"
"She left him." Maren’s jaw tightened. "Right after his father died. Right when he needed her most."
The words settled over me like a weight. I thought about the photo. About the way Cian had looked when I accidentally smashed the frame. Like I had touched an open wound.
"Why did she leave?"
"That’s where it gets complicated." Maren rubbed her temple. "When Cian’s father died, Cian who had never seemed the type to want power suddenly decided he was going to participate. For some reason, Madeline didn’t want that. I wish I knew more myself. But this was the basis for their breaking up. It could be more. But that is all I know."