Autumn’s steps were slow, asured, her heels clicking softly against the marble as she let go of Velor’s arm.
Each step towards the far corner of the room echoed against the silence that suddenly stretched too long, too cold, around her despite the chaos.
There she was, Lyla.
Unmoved.
Unchanged.
Unreachable.
But Autumn could only see the little girl she used to sneak out with, smiling, giggling... her partner in cri. Her other half. A part of her heart and soul.
She had been sitting in the sa posture since she had arrived there. Sa tilt of the head. Sa glass of untouched wine, trembling ever so slightly beneath her fingers but never eting her lips.
She looked like a painting...one soone had tried to forget on purpose but left in the centre place.
Autumn’s breath caught in her throat.
Her sister.She was her blood even though she didn’t have the sa father. She was family. She was hers.
The sister she loved so much...yet the sister she could not run to when she returned.
Because the truth wasn’t welco.
And tonight, Autumn was soone else.Their lives had changed. Everything else had but the fact that she was still her sister... her little one.
She paused just a few feet away, forced the tightness in her chest down deep, then gently cleared her throat.
"Is this seat taken?" Autumn asked, her voice soft, pitched lower than her usual tone, hiding her own lilt.
Lyla blinked, just barely turning her head.
There was no recognition in her eyes. No flicker of any mory...nothing.Only exhaustion and wariness. Of course. That was expected.
"No. Go ahead."
Autumn slid into the seat beside her, smoothing the hem of her crimson dress.
"Thanks. I am so... tired of the party. All that circling and smiling. I needed air, and a real place to sit, not another man’s arm."
Lyla let out the faintest hum. Noncommittal.
She clearly wasn’t interested in the chit chat!
Autumn scanned the crowd for a waiter and raised two fingers. A young man approached monts later with a gleaming silver tray, glasses clinking in perfect rhythm.
Autumn reached for two and offered one to Lyla.
Lyla stared at it a mont, hesitating.
Autumn smiled gently, coaxing but not pushing.
"Just to hold. Feels better, oddly. Makes the room seem less fake."
Lyla took it, but her fingers curled around the stem like it was fragile...like trust.
Still, she did not drink.
Autumn did not either.Of course.She was pregnant.
The tension between them sat like a third person at the table.
And then... "Oh, Goddess save from these bastards!"
It was Luna Miera.
She dropped into the empty seat across from them with dramatic flair, gown shimring like spilled ink, cheeks already flushed. A glass was thrust into her hand before she even finished sighing.
She downed it.
"One more," she commanded, and the waiter, familiar with her rhythm by now, obeyed quickly.
She lifted her eyes, fixing them on Autumn, giving her a slow once over.Her mouth twisted in half a sneer, half a smirk.
"You are new.Which pack? "
Autumn nodded politely."Just a guest. No one important."
"Hmph. Pretty little nobody, then.Co from abroad? " ira said, reaching for yet another drink."Careful. n around here like them that way. Makes you easier to ruin."
Autumn said nothing, her eyes drifting behind ira,toward the dance floor where things were starting to warm up!
And there was Alpha Varric.Grinding. Groping. Groaning.
A woman in each hand. A third tangled around his neck like a scarf. His shirt all undone, tie long discarded. He did not move like a man in celebration. He moved like a beast in heat, devouring whatever ca near with no dignity, no sha.And he wasn’t alone. There were more tangled sses working at every corner. Alphas, Gammas, Betas...
ira followed Autumn’s gaze and barked a laugh that sounded more like a sob strangled halfway.
"That one’s mine," she said, voice brittle. "Lucky ."
She drank again. Hard.
Then another.
"Marry an Alpha, they said. It is power, they said. Security. Prestige. HA!" She slamd the glass down and waved to the waiter again.
She laughed, bitter as poison. "Look at him. Like a dog in heat." She poured yet another drink, her hand shaking. "n are all the sa, aren’t they?"
Autumn’s spine stiffened. " Maybe not all."
ira arched a brow. "Oh? Found a saint, have you?"
"No." Autumn’s eyes darted to where Kieran had vanished towards the sitting area at the library."Just hoping for... exceptions.But it is hard. Being tied to soone like that."
ira looked at her in surprise, startled by the note of... truth? " You sound like you know." Then she snorted. " Then you should know as well that exceptions die young." She turned to Lyla, her voice softening. "You understand, don’t you? That ache?"
Lyla’s breath hitched, just once.
ira reached out, squeezing her shoulder. "I swear, I envy your silence. At least you don’t scream into pillows like I do."
Autumn blinked, caught off guard."No. I an... I am not married."
"Then you have been close," ira said, narrowing her eyes, "Or ruined by one."
Autumn did not reply.
ira leaned in, her whisper slurred with wine. "Tell ...why aren’t you married? Pretty thing like you?n must be throwing themselves at your feet! Are you waiting for your fated? " She burst out laughing. " You know it’s overrated in our world! "
Autumn forced a smile. "Never found one worth the chains...that’s all. "
"Smart girl." ira raised her glass in mock toast. "To freedom, then."
Lyla finally moved...lifting her own glass an inch before setting it down, untouched...still silent, her hands fidgeting on her lap. Her face was still, but her jaw was tight.
ira turned to face her completely, rubbing her shoulder in a sisterly gesture that felt both clumsy and sincere.
"I know exactly what you are going through, sweetheart. You are his wife, aren’t you?And yet...we all heard the rumors..."
Lyla flinched.Then nodded once.
ira exhaled, her tone lowered like she was sharing a secret. .
"I can’t say it gets easier. But it does get familiar. That’s worse to be honest."
Miera downed her next drink, slower this ti.
"The lies. The sll of soone else’s perfu. The lipstick on collars. The ’don’t overreact’ excuses."
Autumn swallowed hard.
She knew those feelings too well.
ira’s voice turned brittle again."And yet we stay. Because we have built lives around them. Because leaving ans war. Because soone will bla us for everything."
Lyla finally spoke...barely a whisper."I did not co for him...I did not stay for him."
ira blinked." Huh? What do you an? "
But Lyla did not answer.
Autumn stared at her sister’s profile...her heart aching.
A trumpet blared just then.And then ca the announcent.
"Ladies and gentlen...the much anticipated Couple’s Dance begins now! Alpha Velor and his honored muse, take the floor!"
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