They left the residence together, and Hazel assumed, out of habit, that Wystan would be trailing a few steps behind the way he usually was.
She looked around when he wasn’t there.
“Where’s Wystan?”
Aldrien glanced at her.
“He said we could manage without him.”
Hazel narrowed her eyes.
“He left us alone on purpose.”
“Probably.”
Neither of them said what they were both clearly thinking.
They’d spent days together because there hadn’t been any other option, forced into each other’s company by circumstances neither of them had chosen.
Today, for the first time, there was no excuse standing between them and simply being alone.
The reason for the trip was ordinary enough.
They needed supplies for the eventual journey to find the Great Priestess, things better sourced from the market in neutral territory, somewhere between the two packs where nobody watched every move they made with quite so much scrutiny.
It gave them something to focus on, at least at first, and away from their own territories neither of them had to hold themselves quite so carefully.
People noticed them anyway.
A newly married Alpha and Luna walking through a market together drew attention no matter where they went, and one older woman smiled warmly as they passed her stall.
“Newlyweds?” she asked.
Hazel froze, unsure how to answer that without sounding strange.
“Very,” Aldrien said smoothly, without missing a beat.
Hazel shot him a look.
He answered it with the smallest smirk, clearly enjoying exactly how much that single word had thrown her.
They wandered deeper into the market after that, Aldrien carrying the bags without being asked.
Hazel reached for one anyway.
“I can carry one.”
“You’re already carrying yourself,” he said, and she rolled her eyes but didn’t argue further, letting him keep the bags.
They passed a vendor selling candied ginger, the kind Hazel had always liked, and Aldrien stopped without a word and bought some before she’d even said anything.
She stared at the little paper bag he handed her.
“You remembered?”
He shrugged like it was nothing.
“You mentioned it once.”
She hadn’t realized he paid attention to things like that, small offhand comments she barely remembered making herself.
They stopped for lunch not long after, tucked into a small table outside a quiet stall, and Aldrien ordered for both of them without asking what she wanted first.
“You remembered my order?” she asked, surprised.
“You’ve complained about it enough,” he said, and she found herself smiling at that.
Then she caught herself, realizing the smile wasn’t really about the food at all.
It was about him, the fact that he’d been listening this whole time, filing away things she said without ever mentioning it.
The realization sat oddly in her chest, warm in a way she wasn’t fully prepared for.
A stranger approached their table not long after, a man who clearly assumed, given the body she was currently occupying, that he was speaking to Hazel herself.
He complimented her, easy and charming, and Hazel noticed Aldrien’s expression shift almost immediately, something tightening around his jaw.
“Your husband is a lucky man,” the stranger said, glancing toward Aldrien.
“He is,” Aldrien said, his voice suddenly cool enough that the stranger laughed nervously and excused himself.
Hazel watched him carefully once the man had gone.
“Were you jealous?”
“No.”
“You looked jealous.”
“I was annoyed.”
“Because?”
He hesitated before answering.
“Because he was looking at you.”
Silence settled between them, and Hazel felt her heart give an uncomfortable little kick.
“You mean my body,” she said slowly.
He looked directly at her.
“That’s the problem.”
She didn’t have anything to say to that, because she wasn’t entirely sure anymore whether he was talking about the body at all.
On the walk back, they found themselves near a quiet stretch overlooking the river, away from the noise of the market, away from anyone who might recognize either of them.
No pack members.
No responsibilities waiting to interrupt them.
Just the two of them and the sound of water moving past.
“What is?”
“I thought I’d hate being around you this much.”
He looked at her.
“You still do.”
She smiled despite herself.
“Not as much.”
He didn’t tease her about it, didn’t reach for the easy joke the way he usually would have.
“Neither do I,” he said instead, and it landed with far more weight than it would have a week ago.
They started walking again, closer together than either of them seemed to notice at first, and their hands brushed somewhere along the path.
Neither of them pulled away immediately.
Then her fingers accidentally caught his properly, and they both stopped walking at the same moment, looking down at their joined hands before looking up at each other.
Aldrien released her first.
“Sorry.”
Hazel shook her head.
“You don’t have to apologize.”
Neither of them said anything else after that, but the air between them had shifted into something neither of them could pretend away anymore.
By the time they made it back to the Alpha residence, Hazel expected to feel some measure of relief, glad to have the errand behind them, glad to be back somewhere familiar.
Instead, a strange disappointment settled over her, something she hadn’t anticipated at all.
She looked at Aldrien.
He looked back at her, and something passed between them that neither one of them tried to put into words.
For the first time since the wedding, she had genuinely enjoyed being alone with him.
Not because circumstances had forced it on her.
Because some part of her had wanted the afternoon to stretch on longer than it had.
You had fun, her wolf said quietly.
Don’t start, Hazel warned.
I’m not the one who wanted the walk to last longer, her wolf answered.
Hazel looked away quickly, but not quickly enough.
Aldrien caught the small smile she failed to hide before she managed to smooth her expression back into something neutral, and he didn’t say anything about it.
He didn’t have to.