Chapter Two

Maeve's POV

On the third day, Ronan’s parents invited us to dinner at the pack house.

Ronan’s mother, Helena, was the former Luna of the Blackthorn Pack. She had the housekeeper call and tell me to bring the moonstone bracelet that had been passed down from one Luna to the next.

She’d fastened it around my wrist herself the night Ronan and I sealed our mate bond.

Helena had never truly accepted me. If Ronan hadn’t insisted, she never would have given me that bracelet.

I still remember my first dinner with his parents. Helena had set down her knife and fork and said in front of everyone that I was just an Omega, not good enough for an Alpha.

Ronan had taken my hand and said firmly, “No one gets to change what the Moon Goddess decided.”

Looking back, those words felt like a joke.

I tightened my grip on the box holding the bracelet. Since I was going anyway, I might as well give it back tonight.

Everyone was already seated when I entered the dining room. Vanessa sat between Ronan and his parents, in my usual spot.

The only empty seat was in a corner near the door. I went over and sat down.

Helena glanced at me. “Maeve, we don’t get to have dinner together very often. Don’t be upset with Vanessa.”

Ronan had also changed the menu for Vanessa.

I was severely allergic to wolfsbane. We’d been mated for seven years, but his parents still served desserts made with wolfsbane honey when they invited us to dinner.

At first, Ronan would remind the kitchen about my allergy. Later, he just told me to be careful.

Vanessa couldn’t stand the smell of mint, so whenever she was there, the kitchen was kept completely free of it. If even a little ended up in her soup by accident, Ronan would have it remade immediately.

“The smell makes her sick.”

It had been the same last year. Vanessa had sat beside him while his parents fussed over her more than they did over me. When I’d gotten up to leave, Ronan had criticized me for getting upset over something he considered so trivial.

Later, he’d followed me outside and pulled me into his arms.

“That’s your spot. No one can take it from you.”

This year, I sat by the door. He didn’t even turn to look at me.

Before the family photo, Helena glanced at the bracelet on my wrist.

“Take it off and let Vanessa wear it for a bit. She needs to look like a Luna for the picture.”

Vanessa quickly waved a hand in refusal. “That wouldn’t be right.”

But she never pulled her hand back.

Before I could say anything, Ronan took my wrist and removed the bracelet himself. The moonstone dragged against my skin, making me wince, but he just looked down to check the stone for cracks.

Then he fastened it around Vanessa’s wrist.

“She’ll give it back when the ten days are up. It’s just a bracelet. Don’t make a big deal out of it again.”

For the photo, Vanessa stood beside Ronan, with his parents seated in the front row. I’d been squeezed out to the edge, barely in the shot.

The photographer asked everyone to move closer together. Ronan deliberately put a hand on Vanessa’s waist, then glanced at me, waiting to see how I’d react.

Instead, I turned to Helena.

“Let her keep the bracelet.”

Helena’s expression tightened. “It’s just a game, Maeve. Are you really going to embarrass me in front of the whole pack? You should know better.”

Not long afterward, a relative who didn’t know what was going on shared the family photo through the pack link.

“Finally got the whole family together this year.”

Everyone immediately started saying how good Ronan and Vanessa looked together. Someone even asked when they were going to seal their mate bond.

Helena didn’t correct anyone. She just responded with an approving emoji.

I looked at the messages in the pack link I’d been part of for seven years, then quietly cut off my end of it.

Ronan noticed almost instantly. A message popped up.

“You’re really selling it this time. Let’s see how long you can hold out.”

He didn’t know that every connection I cut took me a little further away from him and his family.