Chapter 57
Evelyn shut her eyes, her jaw tight as the carriage sped past the tavern, now heading back to the Valemont estate.
Tristan glanced at her from where he sat. He knew she wasn’t asleep, and so he cleared his throat once, but she didn’t budge. He cleared it a second time, louder this time.
Still, she didn’t budge.
He then shuffled closer, clearing his throat for the third time, earning her attention.
"Three times in a row—you better have a fly stuck in there," she gritted out, clearly irritated.
Of course she was irritated. Being ambushed by three men—no one would be accepting of it.
Kael she could understand. His delusion, at least, was predictable. Damon she could make excuses for. But Lucien?
She hadn’t expected him at all. With the amount of ego and pride he seemed to carry about, ambushing her in such a place wasn’t what she ever expected.
Tristan blinked, taken aback slightly. He’d never heard her speak that way. "Will you soften it? The blow on Lucien, I mean. Given the border, Valemont’s losses—"
Evelyn’s brows creased. "Soften the blow? No." She replied straight.
"Not even slightly?" he asked.
She stared at him, puzzled. "Not even slightly. He doesn’t get relief because he’s uncomfortable, Tristan." Evelyn turned to face him fully. "He gets relief when he comes to me properly. When he admits, without an audience forcing him into it, that he was a fool for treating Valemont like it deserved to burn for my choices. Until then, he can sit in exactly as much discomfort as he’s handed everyone else."
"You’re certain."
"The most I’ve been about anything." She paused, brows creased. "Why was Damon at the tavern? How did word spread of me being there today?" she asked, clearly confused.
Tristan was short of words. He always had an explanation ready for her, but not this time. "I’ll find out what happened exactly."
Evelyn shook her head. "There’s no need for that. Whatever’s done is done. Send a message to Alpha Adrian instead and apologize for the inconvenience today. We can reschedule our appointment."
Tristan nodded, his mind flashing back to Evelyn laughing boisterously with the said man.
---
Lucien didn’t say a word as he stormed out of the Amber Hearth, the door slamming behind him hard enough to make several wolves turn.
Marcus hurried after him. "Alpha."
Lucien kept walking, his jaw clenched so tightly that a muscle twitched along the side of his face.
He had never been dismissed like that—not by another Alpha, not by a woman. And certainly not by someone who had once stood in his presence and understood exactly how much power his title carried.
But Evelyn had looked him in the eye and told him to wait.
Like everyone else, the humiliation burned deep inside him, and he stormed out of the tavern, leaving Kael and his stupid questions behind.
Marcus hurried after him and caught up. He hadn’t even been there and had merely watched, yet even he could tell it was a total disaster.
"I told you this would happen, Alpha," Marcus said.
Lucien stopped walking so abruptly Marcus nearly ran into him. His jaw clenched so hard his veins threatened to pop out. "What did you say?"
Marcus immediately slowed. "I said I warned you that we shouldn’t have ambushed her. We should have—"
"That’s enough," Lucien snapped. "I don’t require a recap of what you warned me about. I was there, Marcus. I don’t need it narrated back to me a second time."
Marcus shut his mouth, though his jaw remained tight with everything he clearly still wanted to say.
They reached the carriage in silence. Lucien climbed in first, staring out the window with the particular stillness of a man holding himself together through sheer will.
The mind-link opened faintly at the edge of his awareness before Ashira’s voice cut through it, careful in the way she always was when delivering news she knew he wouldn’t want.
Alpha. There’s a visitor waiting for you at the pack house. Alpha Cedric of Yellowstone.
Lucien’s jaw tightened further. Cedric—one of the First Houses’ oldest and most respected members, one of the first to formally withdraw his standing contracts. If he’d come in person rather than sending word, it likely wasn’t to deliver good news.
Tell him I’ll receive him within the hour, Lucien replied through the link.
There’s something else, Alpha.
Something in her tone made him go very still. "What is it?" he said aloud, forgetting himself, and Marcus glanced over sharply at the shift.
Luna Veronica arrived at the pack house more than half an hour ago. She’s currently in the receiving hall, awaiting you.
"Alpha, what is it?" Marcus asked.
Lucien dragged his hand over his face. "She’s back."
Marcus’s eyes widened at his words. He didn’t need an explanation of who it was. There was only one person in the world who could elicit this kind of reaction from Lucien.
Luna Veronica. His mother.
Veronica wasn’t merely Lucien’s mother. She had been Luna of the First House alliance before retiring from its political affairs. She had spent decades watching Alphas rise, fall, betray one another, and destroy their own territories through pride.
And unlike most people, she had never been impressed by Lucien’s title.
The carriage rolled to a stop, and its doors opened. Lucien stepped down, and behind him Marcus followed suit.
Ashira, who had been waiting, walked toward them. "Alpha, there has been—" She didn’t get to finish her words as the grand doors opened.
Lucien looked up and immediately straightened. Steps away from him stood his mother.
"Luna," he greeted.
She gave a single curt nod. "Alpha Lucien."
The formality in her voice was deliberate. She’d always done that.
Ashira stood several steps behind her, clearly uncertain whether she should continue speaking or leave. Marcus, meanwhile, had gone completely silent.
Everyone knew Luna Veronica.
She had been one of the most influential women among the First Houses long before Lucien inherited the position he currently held. She had accompanied her husband through the years when their influence had been little more than a collection of alliances and promises, and she had remained beside him as those alliances grew into what eventually became the First Houses.
She understood politics. She understood wolves. And most importantly, she understood her son.
Which was precisely why Lucien wasn’t pleased to see her.
His mother looked past him. "Is there somewhere we can speak privately?"