Caspian’s POV
By the time I drove into Jorah Group’s private underground garage, I had decided one thing.
Before I named Danae publicly as my partner, I would know exactly who she was.
Later, Garrick entered my office carrying a folder.
“Ciara Arvendel’ recent movements, sir.
The information Luna requested.”
I set down my pen with a sigh.
“Mother had her followed?
I thought she liked Ciara.”
His look suggested I should know better than to be surprised.
“Luna has ways of finding things out.”
I opened the folder.
Surveillance photographs showed Ciara entering a luxury hotel with a man the notes identified as Duke Brenna.
Disappointing, perhaps.
It didn’t surprise me.
“Thank you, Garrick.”
I closed the file.
At the family estate, I found my mother among the roses in the private garden.
“I hear you’ve been keeping track of Ciara Arvendel.”
She looked up, composed as ever.
Dark hair streaked with silver was arranged in an elegant chignon.
Even gardening clothes couldn’t diminish the regal posture of the Ashmoon’s current Luna.
“Caspian.
Whatever do you mean?”
I lifted the folder.
“Photographs.
Surveillance.
Duke Brenna.”
“And what did you learn?”
“Exactly what you already know.
She’s been seeing Brenna for at least three months.”
I placed the folder on the stone bench between us.
Mother removed her gloves without the slightest disturbance to her serenity.
“Does that upset you?”
“Not particularly.
She can see whoever she likes.
It isn’t my concern.”
Her blue eyes, so like mine, fixed on me.
“Then why spend time with her?
You’ve appeared together at three functions this month.”
I ran a hand through my hair.
“To see whether she might make a suitable partner.
Finding out about Duke simplifies the question.”
She considered me in silence for a while.
“You’ve never brought a woman home.
Not once in all these years.”
“I haven’t met anyone worth bringing.”
It was the plain truth.
“And when you do?”
I met her gaze.
“You’ll know before anyone else.”
That seemed to satisfy her, though only partly.
“Six months.
That’s all you have before you formally become Alpha and CEO.
A settled mating would make that transition easier.”
I turned the obsidian ring on my finger.
Responsibility, worn where I could never quite forget it.
“I know the schedule, Mother.”
“I want the best for you.
And for our pack.”
“I know.” My own tone softened.
“I appreciate it.
But deciding who I see is my business.
Stop investigating women I’ve barely had a conversation with.”
“Very well.
Just don’t wait forever.
The right mate gives an Alpha strength.
Balance.”
I nodded and turned toward the car.
Ciara had already left my thoughts.
So had the latest example of my mother’s interference.
Instead, I saw chestnut curls and a defiant green gaze.
A human woman who had looked the Ashmoon’s future Alpha in the eye and told him to go fuck himself.
Despite everything, a small smile found its way onto my face.
Danae’s POV
Back at Eirwen’s, we settled onto the couch with hot tea.
Here, at least, I could breathe.
Colorful cushions, framed fashion prints, little succulents occupying practically every available surface—the room was unmistakably hers.
Its familiar brightness made the clinic and the parking lot feel further away than they were.
“Caspian Jorah,” she said again, as though repetition might make the story easier to believe.
“You slept with him.
Then told him to go fuck himself.”
She looked at me over her tea.
“Are you actually trying to get killed?”