The Alpha's Secret Luna novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Plus-One

Corbin takes Camille to the gala, an Elder bows to Cassandra, and the serum route is named for tomorrow.

The council meeting had just ended when Vaughn came down the hall with a tablet.

Vaughn was Corbin's lieutenant, and he had been my father's student before he was Corbin's.

At dawn Joan had texted me about the gray truck.

The plate was Dale Mercer's, Camille's husband, the Redmaw Alpha.

The Tower gate log showed no truck at all, and Joan said the entry had been wiped by hand.

I had said nothing to Corbin yet, because I had no one inside the Tower I could trust with it.

"Alpha, I need your plus-one and the escort route for tonight's charity gala," he said.

The hallway went quiet.

I stood half a step behind Corbin with a stack of lab results against my chest.

Four years as his secret mate, and I had never stood beside him at a single public event.

The pack knew me as the chief scientist in the white coat, cleaning up after him in the dark.

Camille's husband had left her three weeks ago.

Corbin was going to take someone, and I knew who.

Something stupid and stubborn made me step forward anyway.

"Do you want me to come with you tonight?" I asked.

Corbin stopped walking.

He turned his head and looked down at me with his cold wolf eyes.

He didn't answer.

The silence went on, and the guards down the hall found something interesting on the floor.

I felt it all the way down my spine.

Vaughn cleared his throat and kept his eyes on the tablet.

"Camille Dray," Corbin said to him. "Send the car at seven. Send the dress she liked at the boutique."

He did not look at me again.

"Understood, Alpha," Vaughn said, and he gave me a quick, sorry glance as he turned.

I said, "Of course."

My voice stayed steady. I had practiced that, too.

I went back to the lab, and I hung up my coat, and I put on the only dress I owned.

I was going to the gala anyway.

The Elders had asked me, months ago, to present the stabilizer serum results to the donors, and nobody had told me I couldn't.

Hours later the ballroom glittered under chandeliers.

I stood near the wall with a glass of water and watched Corbin walk in with Camille on his arm.

Her dress was silver and her smile was soft.

Every head turned to them.

He held her chair for her, and he leaned in to hear what she said.

The champagne arrived in a gold bucket without anyone ordering it.

"Your favorite," Corbin said, and poured her glass himself.

He knew the label, the year and the vineyard. In four years he had never learned that I did not drink alcohol.

Camille spotted me across the room and waved.

She crossed the floor with both hands out and caught mine.

"Cassandra! You came. I was so afraid you'd hide in the lab and miss all of this."

"I'm presenting," I said.

"Of course you are. Everyone says you're brilliant." She squeezed my fingers. "Sit with us at the head table. Please. Corbin won't say it, but he'd like it."

He would not have liked it, and we both knew it.

I said no thank you and went back to my wall.

An hour later I gave my talk to four hundred people. I made it short, and I did not look at the head table once.

When I finished, an old man pushed back his chair and rose.

He was the eldest of the pack's Elders, white-haired and stiff-backed, and he had known my father for fifty years.

He crossed the floor in front of everyone and stopped before me.

Then he bowed, low and slow, as he would to an Alpha.

"Miss Greaves," he said clearly. "Your father's line honors us tonight."

The ballroom fell silent.

At the head table, Corbin's chair scraped back.

His ring was glowing. It lit his hand from underneath, a pale silver light, so bright the champagne glass beside it shone.

Corbin looked down at it, and then up at me.

His mouth opened.

Camille laid her hand over his and the glow stayed.

"Oh, how sweet," she said brightly. "The Elders always love a tribute."

Her smile didn't move. Her fingers on his were white.

The old Elder straightened, said nothing more, and left.

Later, when the dessert plates were cleared, Corbin stood to give the toast.

"Stonehaven's serum ships to the southern outpost at dawn," he said, and the room cheered. "The border road, four trucks, no escort. Nobody will look for it there."

Camille lifted her glass and smiled up at him.

I was standing by the doors with my water in my hand.

That route had been mine. I had planned it on paper, in my own lab, and only five people knew it.

I looked at Camille.

She set her glass down, picked up her phone and walked away from the table.

She was typing as she went.

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