The message arrived that morning, and Hazel went pale the moment she read it.
Her parents were coming to visit before the two of them left on the pilgrimage.
“My mother is going to know something is wrong,” she said, pacing the length of the room.
Aldrien gave her a look.
“You said she was perceptive.”
“She is.”
“Then stop looking terrified. You’re going to give us away before they’ve even walked through the door.”
“I’m terrified because you’re terrible at pretending to be me.”
He looked genuinely offended by that.
“I’ve survived Alpha council meetings.”
“My mother is worse,” Hazel said, and something in her voice told him she wasn’t exaggerating.
Arabella Pinecrest arrived first, elegant and composed in a way that made the whole room feel more formal the moment she stepped into it, her eyes moving over everything with the kind of quiet attention that made Aldrien immediately nervous.
William followed behind her, warmer in every visible way, and before Aldrien had a chance to brace himself, the man had pulled him into a hug.
Aldrien went completely rigid.
He was used to formal greetings, a nod, a handshake, something with distance built into it.
He was not used to being embraced by a father-in-law who genuinely seemed happy to see him.
William pulled back, studying him with mild amusement.
“Marriage hasn’t changed you that much, has it?”
“I’m adjusting,” Aldrien said, awkward and stiff, and beside him Hazel nearly choked on nothing at all, because as far as answers went, that one happened to be entirely true.
Arabella noticed small things throughout the visit, the way Aldrien sat with a straighter back than Hazel usually managed, the careful way he chose his words, something in his posture that didn’t quite match her daughter’s usual ease.
She didn’t suspect anything as strange as the truth.
She simply seemed to think her daughter had changed since the wedding.
“Are you happy?” she finally asked.
Aldrien froze at that.
He knew, with complete certainty, what Hazel’s honest answer would have been before any of this started.
Probably not.
He looked over at her instead, at the woman who was technically wearing his body but was somehow, in this moment, entirely herself.
Hazel hadn’t expected that answer.
Neither had Arabella, whose expression shifted just slightly, something unreadable passing behind her eyes before she let it go.
William pulled Aldrien aside not long after, away from the women, and asked quietly how the marriage was actually going.
“Better than expected,” Aldrien admitted.
William smiled at that, genuinely pleased.
“That’s good to hear.” Then his expression sobered slightly.
“Your father and I never agreed on much. I’d like to think you and Hazel might manage something different.”
Aldrien didn’t know quite what to say to that, so he simply nodded, and something about the sincerity in William’s voice stuck with him longer than he expected it to.
Across the room, Arabella had pulled Hazel aside for a conversation of her own.
“You don’t have to pretend for me,” Arabella said quietly.
Hazel froze, certain for one terrifying second that her mother somehow knew the truth.
But Arabella was talking about the marriage itself, about how difficult it must be adjusting to a husband from the Black family, and Hazel felt something twist in her chest at how close she’d come to blurting out everything.
“Don’t let yourself forget who they are,” Arabella warned, gentle but firm.
Hazel looked over at Aldrien, at the way he was listening to her father with genuine attention, and found herself, for once, not immediately agreeing.
“Maybe we don’t know who they are as well as we think we do.”
Arabella studied her for a moment, something thoughtful crossing her face, but she didn’t push further.
Dinner turned into its own small trial.
William asked Aldrien question after question about married life, and Arabella watched him carefully the entire time, while Hazel sat across the table silently willing him not to sound too much like himself.
He nearly slipped once, answering something with the kind of blunt authority that belonged entirely to an Alpha, and caught himself just in time.
“And how has Hazel been?” William asked eventually.
Aldrien looked over at her.
“She’s surprising.”
Hazel’s eyebrows rose.
“Surprising?”
“In a good way,” he said.
Her parents exchanged a glance at that, something warm passing between them, and for the first time since the wedding, Aldrien and Hazel actually looked, to the people watching them, like a couple who might genuinely care about each other. This chapter was taken from novelping dot com without permission.
It sat uncomfortably in Aldrien’s chest, mostly because it didn’t feel as far from the truth as it should have.
Before they left, Arabella pulled Hazel into a hug, though of course it was Aldrien standing there wearing her, and she whispered something meant only for her daughter.
“Whatever happens, you can always come home.”
Aldrien stood there stunned, understanding for the first time just how deeply Hazel was loved, how much softness existed underneath everything he’d only ever known as rivalry and hatred.
He’d spent years thinking of Hazel Pinecrest as an enemy.
He had never once considered what it meant that she was also someone’s daughter.
William clasped his shoulder on the way out.
“Take care of your husband.”
Aldrien looked over at Hazel.
“I will.”
Hazel heard it, and it settled somewhere in her chest with far more weight than it had any right to.
Once her parents had gone, the residence fell quiet again, and Hazel finally asked, “What did you think of them?”
“Your mother scares me,” Aldrien said honestly.
Hazel laughed, the sound loosening something in the room.
“And my father?”
“I like him.”
She smiled at that, something soft settling into her expression.
“They love you,” Aldrien added quietly.
“I didn’t understand that before.”
Hazel looked at him for a long moment.
“Yes.”
Neither of them said anything else for a while after that, the silence comfortable rather than strained, until Wystan arrived with the travel arrangements finally settled.
They would leave in the morning.
And just like that, the journey to find the Great Priestess stopped being an idea they’d talked around and became something entirely real.