Chapter 7: Dinner With Delphine

Delphine's suite took up the whole top floor of the lodge.

A table for two stood by the window, set with white linen and a single candle.

She poured me a glass of red wine and pushed it across the cloth.

I looked at it, and I remembered Rook's whisper.

"I'll have water," I said.

"Of course."

She poured water from a pitcher and took a sip of it herself first, which was almost funny.

"Sit, Juniper. Is it Juniper, or do you prefer Junie?"

My spine went rigid.

"Only one person calls me that."

"Hiram Kavanaugh," Delphine said. "He signs his texts that way. I have a drawer full of them."

She said it so calmly that I laughed.

"So you know."

"I know everything about you.

"You're twenty-four, a guard in a prison pack, rank omega-grade. You can't keep a secret from your own face."

"And you let me into your house."

"I bought you," Delphine said, and cut her steak.

"Eleven months ago. I needed one unclaimed woman of the lowest rank, with no family to ask questions. Hiram had you."

The knife and fork felt heavy in my hands.

"Bought my wolf," I said.

"For the finale. Don't look at me like that. He needed a roof for his pack."

My stomach rolled over.

Under the table, the bond in my chest gave a mean little pull, trying to make me say something.

I let it hurt.

Delphine watched my face.

"He forbade you to speak of your mother," she said. "I know. He told me. Don't try."

Keep reading free with an account. Start Mating Season: Luna Trials from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.