[ Back to the ga]
Autumn’s lips trembled as they neared Lyla’s ear. Her breath hitched, her lashes fluttered shut.
And then, so quiet that only Lyla could hear, she muttered, "Let’s pretend like I said sothing."
For a mont, nothing.
Then Lyla blinked... just once.
Her shoulders didn’t stiffen. She didn’t flinch. She simply turned her head the slightest degree...as if brushing a lock of hair aside...and gave the faintest nod.
No one saw it.
But Autumn felt it.
A mont of truce in the midst of a hostility that shouldn’t exist.
A thread of sothing... buried sowhere... Almost sisterly. Even if Lyla didn’t know... or maybe she did.
Then Autumn pulled back and returned to her seat.
The room was still frozen.
Velor’s wives watched with narrowed eyes, their expressions unreadable.
Serra tilted her head, clearly itching for a reaction.
"Well?" she prodded, tone thick with booze and curiosity. "Did we break the ice?"
Lyla gave a small smile, "The Dare’s done.Let’s move on to the next one."
A ripple of laughter followed. Uneasy. But no explosions. No accusations.
Just that unnerving, ticking quiet where sothing should have cracked...but didn’t.One could sniff so disappointnt as well.
Autumn sank back onto her cushion again,pulling a pillow on her lap...her pulse hamring in her neck.
She didn’t et Lyla’s eyes.Nor anybody else’s. Just stared square at the wall!
The bottle spun again.
This ti, it stopped on Niva again.
Mara clapped like a child. "Yesss! Our fearless queen. Truth or dare?"
Niva’s eyes glittered. "Truth."
Serra leaned in with a grin that looked more like a snarl. "What’s one secret Velor must never find out?"
Niva hesitated this ti. She looked between the other two wives. Then reluctantly uttered. "He mustn’t know...but I don’t care if he does anyway...I saved the second child..."
The room went dead quiet again... nobody quite understood what she ant but it seed like her co-wives did.
"The what now?" ira breathed, her drunken eyes trying to focus filled with new curiosity
"It’s a long story...," Niva said calmly, reaching for the wine. "A girl. From before our marriage. He doesn’t know that I found out. He thinks it was...dealt with.He wanted her dead...but I paid the hunter to spare her. She is safe...growing up...sowhere. I pay her tuition. She sends drawings...sotis."
Autumn’s stomach twisted.
Even Lyla blinked, as if shaken from her own haze.
"You... kept her?" Mara asked, stunned.
"She has every right to exist like the rest of us," Niva said simply. "I owe her nothing. But she is a child. An innocent one."
"Holy..." Serra muttered, pouring more wine with a trembling hand. "This ga’s cursed.I will just pretend I did not hear that...I am not going to be part of that witness box...nah...hear ...I heard nothing..." She looked at Mara. "Did you? "
Mara raised both hands up, shaking her head... making a hilarious face.
They all laughed...but it was hollow. Uneasy.
"Alright," Niva said, voice sharper now, like snapping thread. "Spin it again."
This ti the bottle pointed straight at Lyla.
Everyone looked up, expectant.
"Truth," she said. Her voice had gone colder.asured.
"Okay..." Mara said slowly, eyes glinting. "If your husband had to choose between saving you... or soone else...who would that soone else be?"
The question felt like poison dipped in honey.
Autumn’s entire body tensed.
Lyla smiled...but it didn’t reach her eyes.
"I don’t know. But I know I wouldn’t be the first..." and then glaring at Mara she continued.
A beat.
"I know I never was."
It hit the room like a slap.
" But I have a feeling that this is common knowledge at this point. Can we move on please??? "
Autumn felt the burn of it.
The confession. The hurt behind the pride.
The bottle spun again. This ti landing on Serra.
"Oh, no," Serra sighed, dramatically placing her hand on her chest. "Truth. Let’s go."
ira’s eyes glead. "What’s the dirtiest thing you have done that your pack or acquaintances still do not know about?"
Serra cackled. "Define dirty."
"Illegal," ira added. "Or... bed related."
"Oh." Serra swirled her glass. "Then that would be... both."
She leaned forward. She had all the attention. "Let’s just say, one ti, I and the ex-Alpha’s daughter broke into the archives to burn a mating docunt. The next morning... she wasn’t promised to anyone anymore."
Even Niva whistled low at that one.
" Ex- Alpha’s daughter??? You an our sister in law? "
Sierra nodded.
Wine spilled as everyone choked and gasped at the sa ti.
"What?" Serra grinned. "He was a prick. She loved . And she got out."
"She?" Autumn repeated softly.
"Oh yes," Serra winked. "I don’t discriminate. Heart doesn’t care who it skips for.Does it now? When I look at Velor,I still see her. "
A few more shocked gasps.
Utter uneasy silence...And then... applause.
The ga was unraveling them now.
Stripping them down, layer by layer.
The bottle spun once more.
This ti it landed on Mara.
"Dare!" she shouted.
"Easy," Lyla said suddenly. Her voice low. "I dare you to pick soone in this room... and say who you think is hiding the most."
Everyone turned.
Autumn’s breath caught.
Mara blinked. "What kind of..." She laughed nervously. "Well, it seems like you guys are hell bent on turning this into a knife fight..."
"No," Lyla replied. "Just a ga. Isn’t it?"
Mara looked around.
Everyone was drunk.
Eyes wide. Mouths tight.
And yet... she pointed.
Her hand trembled.
Straight at Autumn.
"Her."
Autumn’s heart dropped.
"Why?" Niva asked, eyes narrowed.
Mara gave a half shrug. " I don’t know. She looks like she is always one second away from running."
A pause.
"And... I don’t think we got her na yet...or who she actually is...where is she from..." Miera added from the other end.
A chill ran through the room.
Autumn stared back at her, stunned.
She opened her mouth.
But nothing ca out.
Not a defense.
Not a laugh.
Not a denial.
Just... silence.
And the soft, steady rise of Lyla’s gaze landing on her again.
Sothing new in those eyes.
Not hatred.
Not anger.
Suspicion?
Recognition?
And the tiniest sliver... of sothing almost like fear.
" Did we not formally introduce her already? She is an esteed guest of Velor’s... And she prefers keeping her affairs to herself... And we respect that... " Niva to the rescue again.
Before anyone could say another word Serra gave an exaggerated sigh and flopped backward onto the pile of cushions.
"Okay, okay. That was intense. I think we need sothing stupid now. Like, really stupid now...too much stress...can’t take it anymore..."
"You an besides this whole evening?" ira muttered, swaying a little, wine sloshing dangerously close to the rim of her goblet.
"No, I an stupid but fun," Serra grinned wickedly. "Let’s play ’Touch and Tell.’"
Reviews
All reviews (0)