45 Chapter 45 NO. FUCKING. WAY
“Ethan and I are mates, sweetie.” I stroked a hand down his chest. “And you could throw all the bitch fits you want, and that’s not going to change.”
I frowned, my gaze snapping up to meet Ethan’s. “You know her?”
Definitely not as devastated as Emma, though.
But I saw it.
The sight of her friends made my stomach clench with something that felt an awful lot like panic. But I didn’t understand why-the feeling was needless.
My eyes narrowed at the blonde with her arm looped around a tall, dark-haired man. “You,” I hissed.
He guided me towards the small gathering at the end of the path we were on. As we moved closer, I could hear snippets of their conversation.
“Maya?”
Ethan stood at the entrance to the garden, one arm wrapped around the waist of a stunning woman whose confidence radiated through the air like static.
Davina chuckled, murmuring behind a champagne flute, “Once bitten, twice shy. I’m sure Alpha Kieran won’t let that shameless sister ruin things a second time.”
And in that moment, I knew this night wasn’t done unraveling.
Then Ethan inhaled sharply. I turned to him. “What?”
He ran a hand through his hair, still slightly tousled from my handling. “If you hadn’t refused to change-”
He didn’t even flinch. Didn’t hesitate.
She opened her mouth, no doubt to spew more bullshit, but a soft, hesitant voice cut her off.
“Who is she?”
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Thankfully, someone else spoke.
I sighed. “Fine.”
No, he didn’t. I was as shocked as the rest of Celeste’s friends.
Sera.
Especially since I, too, growled at every female who ran their appreciative eyes over him.
Ethan’s hand tightened around my waist, and his voice rang out into the night, a sweet,
sweet melody.
The slight quiver of her mouth as she smiled too brightly, turning to say something to the small crowd she brought back out with her.
1 gave
them a charming smile, and they dissolved into giggles. “It’s lovely to meet you all.”
“Of course I would.”
I frowned. Those names sounded eerily familiar.
Ethan’s hand clenched around my waist, and there was an instinctive reaction between my thighs even though I’d spent the better part of the last hour with him pounding between them. “Why would you say that?”
Celeste ignored me, glaring at Ethan. “Reject her right this instant! I won’t have this… this bitch as my sister-in-law!”
They laughed. Celeste joined in.
And the pieces of the puzzle clicked into place. If Celeste, Sera’s sister, was also Ethan’s sister, that meant-obviously, dumbass-that Ethan was Sera’s brother.
Celeste was going to be my future Luna, and the whole world would know, so why was the idea of this… display putting me off so badly?
I felt Celeste’s head shift, and I looked down to see her looking up at me expectantly, her eyes sparkling. I smiled. “Yeah, we are.”
“Who is she?”
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He groaned under his breath and followed, his hand at my lower back as we walked into the gala. It was too late for subtle entrances-we’d already missed most of the
formalities.
I blinked. “Excuse me?”
I pressed the phone to my ear and played Sera’s voicemail. When it was over, I closed my eyes and groaned. “I’m such a piece of shit.”
They erupted into ear-splitting squeals, and it took all my willpower not to cringe.
I snorted. “Whatever. Let’s go find my friend.”
“Oh, thank the gods,” Abby said. “We were beginning to worry you’d let her win.”
He arched a brow. “Me?”
I opened my mouth to say something, to tell her that Ethan would absolutely do that-he was traditional right to his core and had been waiting his whole life to meet his fated mate-but I was beaten to it.
Was this how they talked about Sera when she wasn’t around? Seeing the way Celeste spoke to her earlier, they probably did this when she was around, too.
“You need to reject her, Ethan.” Her voice pitched. “Now!”
Ethan grinned, oblivious to the silent murder radiating between us. “Celeste, this is Maya Cartridge, my mate. She’s also an elite OTS combat trainer. And she’s going to be overseeing your training from now on.”
When I ascertained. that Sera wasn’t in the ballroom, we stepped out through the back. I wouldn’t put it past my new friend to be hiding in the shadows after rocking the spotlight. The voice cut through the group like a knife through butter, and all heads turned.
I saw the missed call and voicemail and sighed. It probably came in while Ethan and I were going at it in my driveway.
I turned, and my eyes widened. “Sera,” I breathed.
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I stiffened, realizing they were talking about us.
My eyes scanned the room. I spotted Lucian in the middle of the room, surrounded by men in suits hanging on to his every word. I did another once-over but couldn’t find Sera.
He smirked, his eyes darkening with the memory. “Yeah. Well,”-he pulled me closer -“you weren’t exactly resisting.”
So I put on my best smile as she neared and slid her arm through mine, resting her head against my shoulder.
“What?” Her voice wobbled, her hands clenching her champagne flute a little too tightly. The silence that followed his announcement was sharp. Celeste stiffened beside me.
He turned to me and beamed. “Come on, I’ll introduce you to my sister and best friend.”
“I haven’t met her. Don’t know who she is.
KIERAN’S POV
11
“Shit,” I murmured, reaching for my phone in my purse.
“If you’d changed like I so kindly asked, I wouldn’t have lost control.”
“No.”
We followed the cobblestone path, my head on a swivel, looking out for Sera. I debated calling out her name, but the night was so peaceful and still, I didn’t want to interrupt it.
Celeste shrugged. “I’m sorry, babe.’
I huffed. “I need to find my friend first.”
He was staring ahead of us, his brows furrowed. “I think that’s Kieran and Celeste.”
Celeste’s face twisted like she’d bitten into a lemon. “You have got to be joking.”
He looked confused as he looked between me and Satan’s apprentice.
“What the fuck, Celeste?” Ethan said.
She looked vaguely familiar, and I narrowed my eyes, trying to figure out where I knew
45 Chapter 45 NO. FUCKING. WAY
those daring eyes and self-assured smirk from.
“It got caught on your belt,” I shot back, adjusting my thigh-high slit, which was now hip-high, a direct result of him brutally shoving the dress to my hips.
Emma scoffed, her shock and devastation giving way to something ugly. “This is ridiculous,” she sneered. “Ethan’s not going to marry some random woman he just met and make her his Luna.”
“I missed my friend’s speech,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him. “I blame you.”
Celeste began to point them out. “Emma, Abby, Marcia, Yasmine, and Davina.”
I chuckled bitterly. “Of course you’re a lost cause who needs extra training.”
I rolled my shoulders and steeled myself. I was going to do this-no matter how I felt about it-for Celeste.
“You,” she sneered. Her eyes flicked above me. “Ethan, tell me this isn’t who I think it is.” True to his word, Ethan stayed glued to my side as I moved through the ballroom, trying to find Sera. He growled at every male who even glanced in my direction-which was all
of them.
Her wide eyes darted between me and Ethan, taking in our embrace, and she gulped. “He’s your mate?”
I’d hurt her enough and couldn’t afford to do that anymore.
“Looks like you don’t have a choice,” I said sweetly, enjoying the way the vein in her forehead bulged. The rest of the crowd was watching us in stunned silence.
It felt wrong, letting that kind of talk go unchallenged. But after what just happened, after the promise I’d made, I couldn’t come to Sera’s defense. Not now. Not in front of her friends.
“Kie, darling,” she crooned, practically vibrating as she handed me a champagne flute. “You remember my friends?”
“You tore the slit higher,” Ethan accused as we stepped out of the car.
“I haven’t met her. Don’t know who she is.”
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45 Chapter 45 NO. FUCKING. WAY
Celeste had always despised pain. A papercut made her recoil; even faded scars ruined the perfection of her designer dresses. Yet she’d hurt herself many times-deliberately- in the past years. For my mistake.
I barely contained the grimace threatening to twist my features.
My heart jackknifed at her words, and panic flared, making it difficult to breathe. Difficult
to form an answer.
I rolled my eyes and pushed away from him. “I need to find Se-”
“This is ridiculous. Ethan’s not going to marry some random woman he just met and make
her his Luna.”
“Actually,” Celeste countered, her voice softening a little as she looked at a blushing Emma. “Ethan recently found his mate.’
My mate had been one of the people who’d hurt my new friend.
He pulled me back, his hand splaying against my bare back. “You’re not leaving my side. That dress is a magnet, and I’ll be damned if all these greedy males think for even one second that you’re single.”
“Oh, they just got back together,” Abby said. “Let them enjoy their reunion. Besides,”— she nudged Emma with a wink-“they’re likely in no rush since Ethan hasn’t married his Luna yet.”
I gritted my teeth, pieces of a puzzle clicking in place to form a picture I didn’t like. If Celeste was Ethan’s sister, then-
“Maya, this is my sister, Celeste.”
The thought lodged in my chest like shrapnel. How deep must her despair have cut to make pain feel like an escape?
“Of course I would.’
By the time Celeste returned from the bathroom, her face was flawless again-lipstick and mascara reapplied, eyes dry, every trace of what had happened earlier buried beneath powder and poise.
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Then I froze.
My jaw clenched, and I looked down at my drink to mask the storm brewing behind my
eyes.
“So,” Emma-not Elaine-said, smirking suggestively, “is it official? Are you two finally back together?”
Her cold eyes flashed. “Absolutely not. I’m not training under her.”
He kissed the side of my hair. “I promise we’ll find your friend and I will apologize properly for making you miss her speech, but my sister is right here, please let me introduce you to
her.”
I saw Emma’s face fall in the split second before my gaze snapped to Celeste. She looked up at me and shrugged. “He didn’t tell you?”
“Reject her!”
My eyes almost fell out of their sockets as I turned back to the icy bitch.
“I told you,” I said, cutting him off as my heels clicked across the pavement, “this dress makes me feel powerful. Not my fault if you can’t handle it.”
To be honest, I’ve always been put off by possessive, jealous behavior, but somehow, on Ethan, it was almost… adorable.
MAYA’S POV
Her.
Celeste’s mouth opened in shock. Her nostrils flared. “You expect me to accept this? Her?”
I thought of the tattoo on her arm, of the marks they covered, and guilt swam through me, overpowering the panic.
“Are you two planning to announce anything soon?” Marcia asked with a sly smirk. “Should we start planning the wedding?”
No. Fucking. Way.
I snorted. “Kindly asked, my ass. You demanded I change, and when I pointed out that you
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might be an Alpha but you don’t control me, you lost your shit and fucked me against the steering wheel of your car to ‘assert your dominance.””
I nodded, my gaze drifting down to his crotch. “You.”
No, I absolutely didn’t. It was only the brunette in front, wearing a red strapless dress, who looked vaguely familiar-I wanted to say Elaine?
I smirked as all heads turned to us. I surveyed the crowd of gawkers, taking them all in, reveling in their shock.
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