CH3 His Declaration

Sienna Marlowe (POV)

If I could, I'd take that slap back right now.

Callum was standing right behind us.

Kieran and I were barely half a step apart, my right hand still hanging in the air, the print of my palm blazing clearly across his cheek. No matter how you looked at it, this was not a scene a single word like "misunderstanding" could explain away.

"Sienna?" Callum came over, his amber eyes landing on my face first before drifting slowly to Kieran, his brow visibly knitting together. "What happened?"

"Nothing." I answered too fast, so fast it made even me feel guilty.

Callum studied me for two seconds, then turned and called out to him directly. "Kieran?"

My heart shot straight up into my throat.

The moment Kieran said the words Fated Mate, the engagement I'd been scheming toward for so long would be finished for good.

I stared at him, hard. I'd only just warned him: don't you dare say it.

Kieran met my eyes and held them for a beat. We looked at each other for several seconds, the red mark from my hand still burning on the side of his face, yet his expression stayed calm, giving nothing away. In the end, all he said was, flatly, "We had a disagreement."

I froze. He actually hadn't said it.

Callum clearly wasn't so easily convinced. His gaze returned to me. "What kind of disagreement calls for hitting someone?"

"He…" My mind raced through a full circle. "He said my winter collection was mediocre."

The air went strangely quiet for an instant.

Kieran lifted his eyes to me. Something indefinable flickered through those deep gray eyes, as if to ask: that's the best you could come up with?

I steeled myself and pressed on. "The centerpiece stone pairings, especially."

Callum was silent for two seconds. "So you hit him over that?"

I lifted my chin. "A designer's dignity is not to be provoked."

Kieran suddenly turned his face away.

I strongly suspected he was laughing. The absolute bastard.

But Callum wasn't laughing. His gaze made one slow pass between the two of us. Then he stepped forward, placing himself squarely between me and Kieran, his voice noticeably colder as he spoke. "Sienna is my fiancée."

Kieran raised his eyes, his expression thinning by degrees. "And?"

"Stay away from her."

The air between the two Alphas snapped taut. Callum rarely used a tone like that. Yet Kieran only stood there, not so much as a flicker in his gaze, as though the warning wasn't worth the smallest corner of his attention.

Terrified of whatever he might say next, I grabbed Callum's arm at once. "Let it go." And I hauled him away by force.

Back in our room, I looked out the window.

Callum was quiet for a while, then suddenly asked, "You and Kieran, were you close before?"

"No."

"Really?"

I turned back to him. "You don't trust me?"

"It's not that." He paused, his brow never fully smoothing out. "It's just, the way he looked at you back there was strange."

My heart skipped a beat. I looked away immediately. "You're overthinking it."

The words were barely out before the guilt came pressing down after them.

Callum had never wronged me. We'd known each other for years, knew each other inside and out. I'd never expected some blazing romance out of a Pack alliance marriage, but I had honestly thought about building a real life with him. More than that, this engagement carried a meaning for me I could never afford to give up.

Whatever it took, I could not let Kieran destroy all of it.

That night, I barely slept. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the look on Kieran's face as he'd leaned in close, and the way my Wolf Spirit had reacted the instant he drew near, almost beyond my control.

The next afternoon, Callum and I arrived at the Aegis council hall.

Tonight the Alphas of the West Coast's major Packs, their Beta stewards, and representatives of several ancient bloodlines would nearly all be in attendance. Werewolves had blended into human society for centuries, but the conglomerates, the boardrooms, the foundations were only the surface. What truly bound the Packs together had always been Aegis.

Above the hall's domed ceiling hung a silver-white orb of moon, a symbol of the Moon Goddess's protection. Carved into the surrounding walls were the twelve Ancient Laws of the Lycan, each one a prohibition every Alpha was sworn to obey.

I walked in on Callum's arm, met at once by a wave of congratulations.

"Master Callum. Lady Sienna."

"Our congratulations to you both."

I kept a gracious smile in place. Callum raised his glass in reply. "Thank you."

I turned my head to look at him, and he happened to look over at the same moment, that familiar warmth in his amber eyes.

"Nervous?" he asked, low.

I managed a thin smile. "A little."

"Don't worry." He patted my hand. "Everything that needed confirming has been confirmed. Nothing will go wrong tonight."

Something in my chest eased. As long as tonight went smoothly. As long as the engagement proceedings moved forward, I'd be one final step from unsealing my mother's estate.

I forced myself to stop thinking about Kieran.

But in the very next second, the entrance of the hall fell silent.

I didn't need to turn around. My Wolf Spirit had already stirred, a beat ahead of me.

My heart dropped hard. Kieran had arrived.

He walked into the hall in a black suit, two of the Ashford people trailing behind him. Some stepped forward to greet him, some raised glasses from a distance, and others instinctively looked away. But from the moment he crossed the threshold, his gaze cut past every one of them and landed squarely on me.

Our eyes met, and my heart lurched. I looked away at once, yet my fingertips tightened without my willing them to. That sense of being out of my own control grated on me to no end.

Soon the banquet moved into its formal order. Several senior councilors spoke in turn, and at last the councilor overseeing the engagement proceedings picked up the Voss and Marlowe file.

"Since both parties are present, we will now proceed with the final confirmation."

My breath went quiet. Here it came.

Callum took my hand.

The presiding councilor continued. "The engagement between the Voss and Marlowe lines has been sanctioned by both Packs and recorded with Aegis. If no one raises a valid objection under the Aegis Codex—"

"I do." A low voice cut in abruptly from the other side of the hall.

My smile froze on my face. The entire hall went as silent as if the sound had been severed all at once. Everyone turned at the same moment.

Kieran slowly set down the glass in his hand.

My heart plunged to the very bottom. No!

Callum's expression changed too. "Kieran, what are you doing?"

Kieran didn't look at him. Those eyes, a gray so deep it was nearly black, had been fixed on me from the very start. His words from the night before flashed through my mind, and in an instant I understood exactly what he meant to do.

"Kieran!" It burst out of me almost before I could stop it. My voice came too sharp, and everyone around turned to look at me.

I couldn't bring myself to care. I stared at him, hard, my eyes all but a command now. Don't say it.

Kieran only gave me a single glance. And didn't stop.

He came forward, step by step, the crowd parting to clear a path for him.

The presiding councilor asked gravely, "Kieran Voss, on what grounds do you raise your objection?"

Kieran stopped a few paces away. Then, before the entire Aegis council, he spoke, calm. "Under the Aegis Codex, the right to bond with a Fated Mate outranks any political marriage between Packs that has not yet received final confirmation."

The hall erupted into a rush of hushed murmurs.

Callum's head snapped toward me. My whole body felt as though it had plunged into a pit of ice.

"What does he mean?"

"Why has he suddenly invoked the Mate Priority Law?"

"Could it be…"

"Kieran!" I called to him again, clinging to the faintest hope. But he paid me no mind.

The presiding councilor's expression had turned entirely grave now. "Do you confirm that you are asserting your priority right to bond with a Fated Mate?"

"I confirm it."

Callum shot me a look, his face darkening completely. "Who is your Fated Mate?"

The whole hall was dead silent.

I watched Kieran, my heart slamming so fast it nearly bruised against my ribs. Everything I'd spent three years scheming toward seemed to hang suspended in the air in that single moment.

Kieran lifted his eyes. Past Callum, past every Pack in the room. In the end, he looked only at me.

There was no joke in those eyes, no hesitation, and certainly not the slightest yielding.

Then, before the entire Aegis council and before Callum himself, he declared it, word by word:

"Sienna Marlowe is my Fated Mate."