Chapter 116

Evelyn

I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the attention. And it was exactly the reason I had worn the dress I did.

When I had seen it among my other gowns, slipped behind the gaudier pieces made of tulle and various embellishments, I knew that the best way to get his attention was not to don something that begged for him to look at me. Instead, the occasion called for something more subtle, a bit sophisticated, and screaming of sex.

And I knew as soon as I arrived that I had been successful. From the moment I walked into the ballroom, Logan’s eyes never left me. I could feel them trailing the length of my gown, lingering on the bare skin my dress so boldly revealed. The plunging neckline dipped almost to the navel, and I did not miss the way he focused on this feature.

Though I kept my chin high and my steps steady, every moment under his gaze set something inside me aflame. I was actively aware of his attention, and so I forced myself to meet it directly.

Two pairs of eyes, meeting across the room, ignoring the sea of people in between that separated them. It was like we were the only two people there in the first place.

And then he came to me, eager but poised, ever the Alpha. And as he approached, my breath had been hitched in my throat, my heartbeat thundering in my ears.

He didn’t make a spectacle of it, but I could tell that everyone was watching. His attention was bold and unwavering. The way he lowered his voice and purred and growled, each syllable striking me anew like flint and steel starting a fire.

The faintest brush of his hand against the small of my back sent my stomach fluttering as he leaned in closer. And I let him. I allowed him to step into my space, perhaps even encouraged it.

Everyone else here was indulging, so why couldn’t I as well?

And every time, his eyes caught mine with that same look that had undone me in the first place. There was hunger there tempered with something softer, something terrifyingly close to devotion.

It should have been too much. Especially after how frightened I had felt by the intensity of his affection last time. It should have made me want to put even more distance between us.

Instead, I caught myself leaning into him, savoring the heat of his presence like it was something I had been starving for.

The way my body betrayed me was dangerous. And thrilling. I couldn’t deny that this was when I felt most alive. When I was with him.

I wanted, with an honesty that made my breath quicken, to sneak off with him. Just the two of us, hidden away from all these watching eyes. To let go of the mask and fall into whatever this thing was between us. And I had implied as much. Later, I had said. And I intended to investigate that instinct later indeed.

But then my father’s voice cut through the crowd, severing my thoughts before they became too vulgar. Too desperate.

The Alpha King rose from his seat at the head table, raising his goblet high. “My friends,” he began, bringing a hush over the room, “my warriors, and my great allies. Raise your glasses! I would like to toast o the end of war, and the dawn of a new peaceful era!”

His deep voice boomed throughout the hall. He had everyone’s attention, rapt and awed. He had led his soldiers through the war and to victory. Loyalty sparkled in their irises as they watched my father.

“Let us not forget the price of this triumph. There has been plenty of blood spilled and lives lost. We honor them tonight. And we celebrate the death of Jesse, our enemy, our betrayer, who will plague us no more.”

The hall erupted in cheers, goblets lifted in unison.

I felt Logan’s hand at the small of my back again, steady and warm. My eyes flicked to him, searching and wanting to know what he was thinking. Jesse had been his enemy too, in more ways than anyone else in this room. But they had also shared blood. I couldn’t imagine how that complicated his feelings.

But he only looked calm. I couldn’t read his expression as he raised his own glass.

Then he turned, and his lips brushed my ear, voice low enough that only I could hear. “I dedicate my toast to you and all that you sacrificed in this war. We wouldn’t have won without you, Evelyn.”

“Stop,” I said, feeling suddenly breathless.

“No,” Logan said. “I won’t stop. It’s the truth. Alex told me earlier tonight that he went to your father asking that I be awarded for my efforts in the war. But it was you who won this for us by helping to bring down Emma and Jesse. I couldn’t have done it alone. You deserve every ounce of recognition for it.”

Something twisted deep inside me at his words, pushing restlessly against the walls I’d built.

“I couldn’t have done it without you either,” I said. “We make a good team.”

“I know,” he said, his voice solemn. “I know we do.”

We really did. I remembered fighting together, multiple times, overcoming the odds because we were waging war back to back. It was the two of us who had brought the war to an end. Together, not either of us as individuals.

I swallowed hard and raised my glass as my father turned his smile out over the crowd.

“To peace,” the Alpha King declared.

“To peace,” the room echoed. Logan and I said as much, too, clinking our glasses.

I took a hearty sip of mine as everyone else in the room tossed their heads back and drank as well.

And then, as if the words themselves had cursed him, my father swayed like a sharp breeze had caught him unawares. His goblet slipped from his grasp and clattered loudly against the marble floor in the near-silent ballroom.

“Father!” I cried, lurching forward as he collapsed, his massive body tumoring to the marveled floor like a felled tree. I was by his side in an instant, without even a thought crossing my mind other than the fact that I needed to get to him. Alex was suddenly there too, leaned over as well, two children shocked by the fainting of their father.

The hall erupted in gasps and screams, goblets clattering to the floor as panic rippled through the crowd.

“Someone get another medic!” I cried. “Chris!”

“I’m here,” he said, manifesting by my side. Logan was there too, a protective wall lingering over me. He looked down at my father’s prone body, his expression grim.

The Alpha King lay still, his lips pale, his eyes unfocused. I held my hand to his nose and felt his breath, faint and nearly unnoticeable. Then I took his pulse, barely a flutter beneath my two fingers.

I was a healer. I knew the effects. I knew what I was looking at.

“Evelyn, he’s—“ Chris began, but I cut him off.

“I know,” I said. “We need antidotes. Now.”

My father had been drugged.