Lilia’s POV
The banquet was held at the Blackwater estate.
A red carpet ran from the front gates all the way to the main hall, the trimmed hedges along it dusted with snow.
Cars queued down the drive, each one better than the last, and every guest who stepped out wore something that would have covered a year of my wages at the tavern.The moment our car stopped, Tina was there to meet us, smiling, and slid her arm through Nathan’s.
“Nathan.”
Her gaze traveled past his shoulder and landed on me.
Tina’s brow creased faintly.
“And this is…” She squinted at me for two seconds before placing me.
“The stepsister you mentioned?
Lilia?
The one who works at the tavern?”
”Yes.” I nodded, and at Nathan’s signal said, sweetly, “Miss Tina.
Hello.”
Tina’s mouth stretched into something adjacent to a smile.
“Your stepsister is very pretty.”
”Thank you.”
”We’ll be family soon enough,no need for thanks.” She gathered up my hand where it rested on Nathan’s sleeve and drew me a discreet step away, easing herself into the space between the two of us.
The claim was gentle, and absolutely deliberate.
I understood it perfectly: whatever I was to Nathan, tonight this man stood beside her.
I could feel how much effort it cost her to keep the polite smile on.
This was my first time seeing Tina, the woman whose name I had heard so many times before.
She was even more beautiful than I had imagined, with delicate features, an elegant figure, and the kind of effortless poise that came from being born into a life far removed from mine.
Everything about her, from the way she dressed to the way she carried herself, marked her as a woman of status.
Standing beside Nathan, she looked perfectly at home, and the two of them made an undeniably well-matched pair.
I had imagined that seeing Nathan with the woman who would become his Luna would hurt far more, perhaps enough to make it difficult for me to keep smiling, yet the sadness that settled over me was strangely mild.
It was still there, but it didn’t consume me the way I had once feared it would.
“Grandfather is waiting in the back garden.” She changed the subject, steering Nathan toward the house.
“About the Western Territory. He wants to talk it through properly today.”
Nathan patted her hand, the gesture leaving me in her care.
Tina agreed cheerfully, then looked back at me and beckoned. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
“Lilia, come. I’ll show you around.”
We crossed a carpeted corridor and entered the wide, bright hall at the heart of the estate.
Alaric’s birthday banquet had drawn nearly every Pack of standing on this territory.
The ground floor ran with wine and low voices,Alphas and Betas in tailored black, their jewelry catching the chandeliers, Elders holding court in the corners while their heirs circled one another like well-dressed sharks.
The air itself was perfumed with liquor, and under it, money.
Every instinct I’d sharpened at the tavern was already working the room: who deferred to whom, who drank with whom, whose rings were real.
I’d never been good at occasions like this, and my feet were hurting badly.
All I wanted was a quiet corner to rest in for a while.
But Tina led me straight through the hall, past the toasts and the laughter, never once slowing, and I had no choice but to follow,all the way to the heated indoor pool at the back of the estate.
This was the young generation’s territory.
The noise here was different.
Glass walls held back the winter beyond, the pool glowed turquoise under the lights, and every step in my unfamiliar heels sent a stab up through my ankles.
By the time we reached the water, I was counting tiles to keep my face pleasant.
The moment I stepped in, I saw Jace sprawled on a lounger beside the pool,bare from the waist up, sunglasses on, ringed by girls in swimwear.
One kneaded his shoulders; another fed him fruit.
Around them, other young men of the same idle breed held their companions and laughed without the least restraint, and something dissolute hung in the steam off the water.
I frowned and turned to leave, but Jace’s voice carried over the crowd.
“Sis!”
He waved at Tina, and then his eyes found me and lit up all at once.
He pushed the girls aside,the one feeding him fruit pouted at being displaced, and he never even looked at her,stood, straightened his loose swim trunks, and cut off my path in a few strides.
“Wow.
A girl this pretty. This chapter is updated first at novelping.com.
Where did you find her?”
”You don’t know her?” Tina smiled, meaningfully.
Jace squinted at me for a long while, entirely unable to match this face to the memory of a paint-daubed maid.
I kept my eyes on the floor and hoped he wouldn’t.
Every second of his squinting felt like standing on ice.
“The ‘ugly’ you were talking about days ago,” Tina reminded him.
“Hss,” Jace rubbed his jaw and studied me, at last recalling.
His gaze dropped to travel down the gown fitted to my figure, and the interest in his eyes caught fire at once.
“Haha,” He slapped his own cheek.
“Baby.
I owe you an apology.”
The word “baby” jolted me stiff from head to toe.
I bent politely, smiled, and tried to go around him.
But Tina turned to me instead.
“Lilia, I have to greet the guests in the main hall. Stay with Jace for a while,once Nathan’s finished talking, we’ll come for you together.”
One look passed between her and her brother,the fastest arrangement I had ever watched two people agree to without a single word,and Jace reached me at the same moment my foot found the first step.
He bent, hoisted me clean up onto his shoulder, and stood.
“Jace! Put me down!”
I pounded both fists on his back, with about as much effect as a kitten.
If anything, it raised his spirits,he bounced me once, hand under my knees to steady me, and laughed along with the rest of the room.
“Stop squirming. You’ll fall.”
The pool tilted and swung below me, half the young elite of the territory laughing and pointing.
I twisted my head toward Tina for help.
She only laughed, waved at me, and turned toward the main hall, leaving one weightless sentence floating behind her.
“Don’t worry,my brother knows his limits. You young people will get along fine.”