Aria’s POV
I chose a low-key café on purpose.
No windows facing the street. Corner table. Nothing flashy. The kind of place where nobody cared who you were or what you were talking about.
I got there early. Ordered a black coffee I didn’t really want. Stared at the door.
The night before, after Kael went back inside the mansion, I’d stood alone in the dark and scrolled to Serena’s na in my phone. My thumb hovered over it for a long ti.
She picked up on the third ring.
*"What?"*
Classic Serena. No hello. No surprise. Just that flat, vaguely hostile tone she’d perfected since childhood.
I told her I needed to talk. She laughed and said she was busy. I told her it was about Lucian.
Silence.
Then: *"Fine. Tomorrow. But sowhere public. I don’t trust you."*
I almost laughed at that. She didn’t trust .
So here I was. Nursing cold coffee and watching the door.
She showed up twenty minutes late.
I spotted her the second she walked in. Hard not to. Serena had always had a gift for entering a room like she expected a spotlight to follow her. Today she was wearing a cream fur-trimd coat, gold hoop earrings the size of my fist, and sunglasses that probably cost more than my monthly rent. Her lips were painted a deep wine red. Her hair was done in elaborate waves.
She looked like money.
Borrowed money, I suspected. Lucian’s money, maybe.
The thought made my stomach turn.
She scanned the room, found , and pulled off her sunglasses with a dramatic flourish. Tossed them on the table. Dropped into the seat across from like she owned the place.
She was chewing gum.
"You finally decided to stop ssing around out there and co back, huh?" Her voice was sharp. Impatient. Like I was wasting her ti just by existing.
I wrapped my hands around my coffee cup.
"It’s good to see you too, Serena." I kept my voice level. "I’ve been back for a while actually. I just didn’t reach out."
Her perfectly sculpted eyebrow arched. "And why would you, right? Too busy playing house with your rich boyfriends to bother with your actual family."
There it was. Thirty seconds in and we were already here.
I didn’t take the bait.
"I’m not here to fight."
"Then why ARE you here?" She leaned back, crossing her arms, looking at with that expression she’d had since we were kids. Half bored. Half suspicious. Like she was waiting for to ask for sothing so she could say no.
I set down my cup.
"Are you seeing Lucian Blood Crown?"
The tiniest flicker crossed her face. Gone before I could read it properly.
Then she smiled. Slow and sharp. "My love life isn’t really any of your business, is it?"
"Serena."
"What?" She spread her hands. All innocence. "I’m serious. You don’t get to disappear for years and then show up demanding I report my relationships to you."
"I’m not asking you to report anything." I kept my voice even. "I’m asking because I know. I know you’re seeing him. And I know you’ve been giving him Wolfsbane."
The smile didn’t disappear exactly. It just froze. Set like concrete.
Her jaw worked the gum slower.
"Where’d you hear that?"
"Doesn’t matter. What matters is that it’s true."
She looked at for a long mont. Then she shrugged. One shoulder. Casual. Like we were talking about the weather.
"So what if I am? It’s not like I’m forcing anything on him. He WANTS it. He cos to for it." She picked up the nu. Flipped through it like she was actually considering ordering sothing. "n like Lucian have been using long before I ca along. I didn’t ruin him. Soone else already did that."
My fingers tightened around the cup.
"Cain, our brother."
"Yeah, well." She set the nu down. "History repeating itself, I guess."
I stared at her.
She said it like it was nothing. Like the fact that our family had now destroyed the sa man twice was just a fun little coincidence.
"Serena." I leaned forward. "I’m telling you to stop. Get out before this goes further. Because if you don’t—"
"If I don’t, what?" She cut off, voice going flat and hard. "Ooh. I’m shaking."
I took a breath. Slow. Deliberate.
"I’m telling you this because you’re going to end up in prison." The words ca out low and clear. "Distributing Wolfsbane to a known addict isn’t just risky. It’s a criminal offense. And right now, Lucian is in serious condition. If sothing happens to him—"
"Nothing is going to happen to him." She waved her hand. Dismissive. "He’s been doing this for years. He knows how much to take."
She looked at across the table. Really looked. Like she was trying to figure out the angle. What I wanted. What I was after.
"I ca here because you’re my sister," I said quietly. "Because you’re about to do sothing that will put you behind bars. Because—God help —I still care what happens to you even when you make it really hard to."
Sothing shifted in her expression. Just for a second. Sothing that looked almost like—
She blinked. And it was gone.
"You’re being dramatic." She straightened up. "Who’s going to co after , exactly? The Blood Crowns? Magnus’s people? Please. Lucian’s their embarrassnt. They’ve been hiding him for years. They’re not going to drag this into the open."
"Kael took over from Magnus." My voice was flat. "And Kael doesn’t hide anything."
That landed harder. I watched her absorb it.
"Even so." She lifted her chin. "I’m Lucian’s girlfriend. Alpha’s brother’s girlfriend. Who is going to touch ?"
"The law," I said. "The law will touch you. Wolfsbane trafficking doesn’t care whose girlfriend you are."
She looked at for a long mont. Then she sighed. Like she was exhausted by my naivety.
"You’ve been living in the human world too long." She pulled out her phone. Started scrolling. "Things don’t work that way here and you know it. Money talks. Connections talk. And right now, I’m connected."
"Serena—"
"Oh." She looked up. Like she’d just rembered sothing. "I forgot to tell you. Mom’s on her way."
The words hit like cold water.
I stared at her. "What?"
"She’s been nearby." Serena was typing sothing. Completely unbothered. "I texted her when you called. Told her you were back. She got really excited." A small smile. Knowing. Vicious. "She’s been a little short on cash lately. You know how she is."
"I told you not to tell her." My voice ca out hard. "I specifically told you—"
"You told ." She looked up again. Innocent as anything. "But I never actually agreed, did I? And she’s our mother. She had a right to know her daughter has been alive and well and just couldn’t be bothered to call."
My throat tightened.
I looked across the table at my sister.
She was sitting there looking so self-satisfied. So untouchable. Like nothing I said had landed. Like none of it mattered.
My chair scraped back against the floor.
I stood up.
"Aria—"
"I gave you the warning." My voice ca out flat. Cold. "I told you what’s coming. What you do with it is your choice."
I grabbed my bag off the back of the chair.
Serena looked up at then. I t her eyes.
"Take care of yourself, Serena."
She opened her mouth.
I turned and walked away.
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