Aldrien was still getting used to the rhythm of Hazel’s world when Evangeline pulled him toward another gathering that afternoon, this one smaller and more relaxed, though nothing about the last two days had suggested relaxed was ever really an option in this life.
He was starting to understand the difference between being watched by an entire chamber and being quietly known by the people around him, and he wasn’t sure yet what to do with that understanding.
That was when Selene found them.
She was the daughter of a visiting Alpha, and it took Aldrien about thirty seconds to work out that she had never much cared for Hazel.
Her comments started small, aimed right at him since as far as she knew she was talking to Hazel herself, the kind of thing that could pass for conversation if you weren’t paying attention.
He ignored the first few.
He wasn’t interested in stirring up trouble in a life he barely understood yet, and this wasn’t his fight to pick, at least not on paper.
Then Selene crossed a line he hadn’t expected her to cross so casually.
“You’ve never had to earn anything in your life, you know that?” she said, smiling like it was a compliment.
“Everyone says it. Spoiled, obsessed with how things look, only important because of who your family is.”
Aldrien went still.
He’d spent the entire day before discovering exactly how wrong that was, the healer who’d thanked him for medicine Hazel had quietly fought for, the girl who lit up over books nobody else remembered to send, the old woman whose grandson had his training fees paid without a single soul finding out who’d done it.
He knew, with complete certainty, that Selene had no idea who she was actually talking to, in more ways than one.
“That’s not fair,” he said, keeping his voice level.
Selene laughed, delighted.
“Defending yourself now?”
Something in her tone told him this wasn’t something Hazel normally did, standing up to people like Selene.
She usually let it go, apparently, and Selene had built an entire habit around that fact.
“You spend half your time playing Luna while everyone else does the real work,” Selene pressed, clearly enjoying herself.
His jaw tightened before he could stop it.
He thought of the note he’d found among the healer’s supplies, the quiet petition Hazel had never mentioned to anyone, the countless small things she’d done without ever expecting credit for a single one of them.
“You have no idea what I do when nobody’s watching,” he said.
That landed harder than he expected it to.
Selene’s mouth opened and then closed again, momentarily thrown off her rhythm.
She recovered fast, though, and tried a different angle, suggesting Hazel only bothered helping people because she wanted to be adored for it, some calculated performance dressed up as kindness.
Aldrien felt his expression change before he could control it.
“I’ve helped people who had nothing to offer me in return,” he said. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
“People who didn’t even know it was me.”
“Sure you have.”
“You don’t have to like me,” he said.
“But don’t mistake kindness for weakness.”
Selene’s face went red, clearly unprepared for any of this, and she scrambled for one last jab.
“Since when do you talk back?”
“Since I realized you were wrong,” Aldrien said, without a second of hesitation.
Nobody said anything for a moment after that.
Selene left shortly after, furious and unwilling to stick around for whatever came next.
Evangeline watched her go and then turned back to him with an expression he couldn’t quite place.
“That was intense,” she said.
He shrugged, trying to sound casual about it.
“She was being rude.”
“You sounded like Aldrien just now,” Evangeline said, and his heart stopped for half a second before he managed to smooth it over.
“Maybe spending so much time around him lately is rubbing off on me.”
She didn’t look entirely convinced, but she let it go, and he spent the rest of the walk home hoping she wouldn’t bring it up again.
Word of the whole thing reached Hazel before he’d even had the chance to explain it himself.
She walked into the room that evening with her arms crossed, wearing his own body but somehow managing to look exactly like herself while doing it.
“Did you really tell Selene she was wrong about me?” she asked.
“She was insulting you,” he said.
Hazel blinked, clearly caught off guard.
“So you actually defended me?”
“She was wrong.”
She tried to laugh it off, waving a hand like the whole thing was unnecessary.
“You could have just ignored her. I always do.”
“I tried,” he admitted, and something about that made her pause properly for the first time since she’d walked in.
He told her what Selene had said, and Hazel went quiet listening to it, the sarcasm draining out of her expression bit by bit even as she tried to hold onto it.
“You’re getting dangerously good at pretending to be me,” she finally said.
Neither of them said anything for a moment after that.
She tried again to brush it off.
“I’ve dealt with Selene plenty of times before. I didn’t need defending.”
“I know,” he said.
“Then why did you interfere?”
He didn’t answer right away, turning the question over before he let himself say it out loud.
“Because I didn’t like hearing her talk about you like that.”
Something in Hazel’s expression softened, just slightly, just enough that he noticed it even through the body that wasn’t his own.
You’re happy, her wolf whispered somewhere he could sense but not hear directly.
I’m not, Hazel shot back, and even Aldrien could tell it wasn’t entirely convincing.
“What did you actually say to her?” Hazel asked quietly.
“That she had no idea what you do when nobody’s watching.”
Hazel looked away at that, and he understood exactly why.
That was the part that mattered most, the part she’d never expected anyone to notice, let alone defend on her behalf.
“Thank you,” she said, and it came out completely sincere, nothing sharp hiding underneath it for once.
He looked at her, and something about the moment felt like it deserved more weight than either of them was prepared to give it.
Predictably, she ruined it a second later.
“Don’t get used to it.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he said, smiling anyway.
Later, once she was alone, Hazel lay awake thinking about what he’d said to Selene, the way he’d known things about her that she’d never told anyone, things she hadn’t expected anyone to notice at all.
Nobody had ever defended that particular version of her before, the quiet one nobody saw.
You like him, her wolf offered.
I appreciate what he did, Hazel corrected.
That’s not what I said, her wolf replied.
Hazel pulled the blanket over her head, muttering to herself about how annoying he still was, how incredibly, unreasonably annoying, and then, despite every part of her that wanted to keep believing that, she smiled anyway.
Dear readers, I’m setting some update goals for the book!