Chapter 9: The Back Row

Faye's POV

I walked into the Stillwater ballroom on the arm of the Alpha of Ironwood, in a green silk dress with my back bare to the waist.

The same wolves who had watched me searched in this room turned and watched me come in.

Nobody said my name.

Nobody had to.

I had run every event in this ballroom for eight years, and I knew where every one of them was supposed to be.

"Breathe," Darek said, low, against my hair.

"I am breathing."

"You're counting."

I was.

I was counting the chandeliers.

The ballroom was the same room, with white flowers instead of lilac and a new dais built of pale wood.

The ring sat in a velvet box on a table by the stairs, guarded by two Redfern wolves.

I did not look at it.

Imogen's family sat in the front rows in cream and gold.

The Redfern Alpha was a broad, weathered man with a gray beard and a heavy jaw, and he was already frowning at the people who looked at me.

I had never met him.

His daughter had always been the one who came.

Near the aisle, a young woman in a Stillwater cardigan stepped out and took my hand without a word.

She squeezed it and let go.

Then another one did.

A grandmother who had been my neighbor for eight years pressed a hard candy into my palm.

"For the wait," she whispered.

By the time we reached the middle of the room, I had four pieces of candy and my throat had closed up.

An usher with a seating chart stepped into our way.

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