Lilia’s POV
Kael laughed, low, right into the receiver.
“I only called to ask,have you missed me the way I’ve missed you?”
”Of course.”
The phone made me bolder.
A little mischief rose in me, and I went on, lips pressed together to hold back the smile.
“I think about it every single day…”
I let the pause hang for a second,until his rough laugh came down the line,and finished it.
“Every day I think about what it would take for Kael to finally let me go.”
The line went quiet.
Nothing but wind, howling somewhere on his end.
When his voice came back, it had dropped.
“Stand up. Open the curtains.”
I didn’t understand, but I went obediently to the window, drew the curtain back a crack, and stole a glance down.
“Open the curtains, what for,”
The rest of the sentence died in my throat.
I was pinned to the spot as if by a spell.
Through the gap in the curtain I could see a familiar black sedan parked at the Pack House gate.
Kael stood in the halo of the streetlight, gray trench coat, one knee bent, leaning back against the car.
The phone in his left hand, a cigarette in his right, the smoke curling up along his long fingers.
Behind him the snowfields ran on and on, white to a point past believing.
Snowflakes landed on his shoulders, one after another, and the wind took them, lifting the hem of his coat.
As if he felt me, he looked up in that exact moment,through the dark, straight toward my window,with the faintest curve of a smile on his mouth.
Those near-gold eyes crossed the smoke and the falling snow and hit mine without any warning at all.
My heart stumbled.
I stepped back half a pace, wanting to shrink back toward the bed,and his voice drifted through the phone again, lazy.
“I know you’re at the window now. Open them wider.”
I didn’t move.
He laughed softly.
“After the business with Alex, I couldn’t stop worrying about you. So I came to see.”
I glanced back,Nathan had most likely gone to his room; the corridor outside was silent.
Something possessed me, and I pulled the curtains fully open and leaned my upper body over the sill, facing him across the distance.
“You’ve… you’ve seen me. I’m fine. Can you… go now?”
“A while longer.”
My stomach knotted.
Nathan’s room was one wall away from mine.
If he came to his own window, he’d see everything below as clearly as I did.
After the fire the brooch had lit this morning, I wanted no new complications,so I simply showed the guest out.
“A man of your standing is never short of company.
I’m just an Omega who pours drinks.
I’m not fit for you.
You should…
go find someone else.”
”What’s this?
Still can’t forget Jace?”
The name made me choke.
I started to deny it,then thought better of it.
If I gave him Nathan’s name right now, it would only tangle this mess tighter.
Far easier to let the current carry me.
“Yes. I have only him in my heart. There’s no room for anyone else. The brooch you gave me,I’ll return it tomorrow.”
Kael lowered his eyes and drew his gaze back.
His fingertip tapped the ash off the cigarette, and his tone cooled with it.
“You’ve thought it through?”
”Mm.”
”Keep the brooch.”
He turned.
Derek climbed out of the driver’s seat and bent to open the door for him.
Before getting in, Kael looked up at me one last time through the night.
I still had something to say, but the line had already gone dead.
I watched the car vanish around the empty corner, put down the phone, went downstairs to pick up the bloodstained brooch, and carried it back up to bed.
The next morning I stood in front of the mirror in a blue gown, tailored close,the same one Nathan had chosen for me with his own hands not long ago.
The hem brushed my ankles, and the fabric threw a soft sheen in the morning light.
I turned a circle, and the fine sequins scattered across the skirt shimmered.
A pair of velvet gloves covered the wound on my palm.
“Beautiful…” I murmured to myself.
“Miss Lilia, you’ve looked like this the whole time? That makeup you’ve been wearing was doing you a grave disservice.”
I laughed, embarrassed.
“That’s exactly why I need you to do my makeup today.
It’s an important occasion,keep it light.”
”Of course.”
I sat at the vanity and let her sweep my hair into a loose knot, soft strands left at my cheeks.
The old cringe and hunch were gone, and even Helen couldn’t look away.
“Truly beautiful…” she said again, and took my hand to lead me out.
I had no practice in heels.
Every step wobbled, and it took real work to make it to the stairs.
Nathan was waiting in the living room in sharp black formal dress.
When he saw me come down, his stride checked, and undisguised admiration moved through his eyes.
He had always known what I looked like.
He simply hadn’t expected that, stripped of the disguise, I would look like this.
He waited, composed, until Helen delivered me to him, then offered his arm with perfect courtesy, his gaze tender and very deep.
“You’re beautiful.”
”Alpha, Miss Lilia isn’t used to heels.
You’ll need to steady her the whole way.”
”Of course.”
He walked me out.
I lurched into him every few steps, and by the time I got into the car I was grimacing, complaining under my breath.
“My feet hurt. Can I… not wear these shoes?”
He tapped the tip of my nose.
“This is only the beginning. There will be more and more of these occasions, and heels and gowns are required. Start getting used to them.”
I had nothing to argue with, and bent to rub an ankle that already ached after a few dozen steps.
“You’re the one who said I couldn’t draw attention in this territory,the one who made me dress ugly all this time. And now you’ve suddenly turned me out in full dress. Who can adjust overnight?”
It was a small complaint, but he heard it.
He reached over and tidied the hair at my brow, watching my profile without answering.
After a moment, the subject turned, and his voice came down low.
“Today is Elder Alaric’s birthday banquet, and you’re appearing as my stepsister. It’s the first time you’ll stand in public under that name,it matters a great deal to our Pack as well. Once we arrive, be good. Don’t make trouble.”
I understood the stakes perfectly well and had no plans to run wild.
But the fact that he felt the need to say it at all dropped a small stone into my calm.
I turned my face to the window.
“I know.”