The Night He Proposed
Milley’s Pov
By the time I finished dinner, the talk at the servants' table had turned to the Lycan Princess.
"She hasn't changed much," Mrs. Bell said, collecting the empty plates. "Still has that look about her, as if she expects every door to open before she reaches it."
"Would you prefer the princess knock and wait?" Thomas asked.
Mrs. Bell gave him a sharp look. "I would prefer you eat your dinner before it goes cold."
A few people laughed. I kept my eyes on my plate, though I listened closely as I brushed the crumbs from the table.
"Whatever you think of her," Thomas went on, "you should have seen Alpha Liam the night he proposed."
Mrs. Bell paused with a plate in her hand. "Oh, that night." Her face softened in spite of herself. "I've never seen a man so pleased with himself."
"He had every right to be," another servant said. "The whole Pack was invited. Even the kitchen staff got to sit and eat instead of serving everyone else."
"Three days of feasting," Thomas added. "And I still say the roast on the second night was better than anything they served at the proposal."
"You say that because you ate half of it yourself."
"I was making sure it was safe."
Laughter filled the room, and then Mrs. Bell shook her head, smiling at a memory I could not see. "Do you remember how the princess arrived that evening? She thought it was just another celebration. She had no idea what he'd planned."
"What did he tell her?" I asked before I could stop myself.
The table quieted. Mrs. Bell looked at me, then set the plate aside. "Nothing useful, I imagine. That man could keep a secret when he wanted to."
Thomas leaned back in his chair. "He nearly spoiled it himself. He kept asking whether the hall was ready, whether the musicians had arrived, whether the flowers were in place. I thought she'd guess just from watching him fret."
"But she didn't," Mrs. Bell said. "Not until he stood in front of her." She glanced toward the window, and her voice drifted. "I remember it as if it were yesterday."
The great hall had never looked so magnificent. Gold lanterns hung from the high ceiling and spilled their light over polished floors and long tables dressed in fine linen. Flowers wreathed the pillars, banners bearing the Pack's crest hung beside the royal colours, and musicians played near the staircase while servants carried platters to tables already crowded with guests. There were nobles in formal dress, warriors fresh from patrol, children in their best clothes, and servants seated beside the people they usually waited on. Liam had insisted on that last part.
"If this is supposed to be a celebration," he had told the steward that afternoon, "then everyone celebrates. I won't have half my Pack standing in the corridors watching the other half eat."
Now he stood near the entrance, greeting guests and glancing at the doors every few moments. When Hailey finally arrived, he straightened. She wore a pale silver gown, her dark hair pinned back beneath a delicate crown, and she stopped just inside the hall to take in the decorations and the crowd.
"Liam?" she called over the music. "What is all this?"
"A celebration."
"I can see that." She looked from the flowers to the banners. "What are we celebrating?"
He offered his arm. "You ask too many questions, Princess."
"And you dodge too many answers, Alpha."
"Then we're well matched."
She laughed and took his arm, and he led her through the hall, pausing to greet the people who called out to them. She seemed delighted by the feast, especially when she noticed servants sitting among the guests instead of standing behind their chairs. "You arranged all this?"
"I had help."
"Liam."
"All right. I arranged most of it."
"For what occasion?"
He glanced at her. "You'll find out."
She narrowed her eyes. "If this is your idea of making me curious, it's working. I'm beginning to think I should leave before you tell me."
"You wouldn't."
"Wouldn't I?"
"No." His smile turned wicked. "You'd want to know what you were missing."
She tried to look offended, but he caught her smile before she could hide it.
After the first course, Liam rose from his chair and tapped his glass. The musicians fell silent, and the conversations faded as the guests turned toward them. Hailey glanced around in confusion. "Have I done something wrong?" she whispered.
"Not yet," he murmured.
She elbowed him lightly. "You're enjoying this far too much."
"Perhaps."
He stepped away from the table and held out his hand, and after a moment's hesitation she placed hers in it. He led her to the centre of the hall. "I asked all of you here because there's something I want to say," he began. "And because if I said it privately, I suspect Hailey would find a way to argue with me before I finished."
The hall erupted in laughter. Hailey stared at him. "I would not."
"You interrupted me just now."
"That was different."
"Of course it was."
His teasing smile softened as he turned fully toward her. "I've spent a long time building this Pack. We've fought for our place, and we've lost people along the way. I know what it means to carry responsibility, and I know that being an Alpha means making decisions that touch more lives than my own." He paused, his eyes on her. "But none of it means much if I have no one to share it with."
Hailey's smile faded into something more uncertain. She searched his face, as though she were only now beginning to understand why he had brought her there. "Liam…"
"I want you beside me," he said. "Not because you're a princess. Not because the King would approve, or because it would make some alliance easier. I want you because when I picture the life I'm building, you're the one I want in it."
Then he lowered himself onto one knee.
A gasp rippled through the hall. Someone near the back let out a startled cheer, only to be hushed by the person beside him. For once, Hailey had nothing to say. Liam drew a small velvet box from his pocket and opened it, and the ring inside caught the light of the lanterns.
"Hailey, will you marry me?"
She stared at him, then at the ring, and her hand rose to her mouth. "You planned an entire feast," she whispered, "just to ask me that?"
"I did."
"You could have asked over dinner."
"I could have."
"Or sent a message."
"That would have been a terrible message."
A shaky laugh escaped her, and her eyes began to shine. "You are impossible."
"So I've been told."
He waited, the confidence draining from his face until only something raw and unguarded was left. For the first time that evening, he looked as though her answer might truly frighten him. "Hailey?"
She reached for him before he could say another word. "Yes."
The hall burst into cheers.
"Yes?" Liam repeated, rising to his feet.
She laughed through her tears. "Yes, you ridiculous man. Now put the ring on before I change my mind."
He slid it onto her finger and pulled her into his arms, and she wound hers around his neck and kissed him while the Pack roared around them. Liam laughed against her cheek. "You're not changing your mind."
"Don't tempt me."
He kissed her again. The feast went on long after the musicians should have gone home, and Liam danced with Hailey beneath the lanterns, raising his glass at every toast as if he could not quite believe his own happiness. He looked at her as though the whole hall had vanished and she were the only person left in it.
"He wouldn't stop looking at that ring," Thomas said, drawing me back to the servants' table. "For days afterward, he'd turn her hand over just to admire it."
Mrs. Bell smiled faintly. "He was happy. Truly happy."
No one spoke for a moment. I thought of Liam as I had seen him, with his cutting remarks and guarded face and the way his expression had changed when Hailey arrived. I tried to picture him on one knee in a crowded hall, waiting for her answer as though nothing else in the world mattered.
"What happened?" I asked quietly.
Mrs. Bell's smile vanished. Thomas lowered his eyes to his plate, and even the servant who had been teasing him earlier found something to do with her cup. At last Mrs. Bell began gathering the dishes again.
"Life happened, child."
It was an answer, but not an explanation. I did not press her. I knew what it was to ask a question and find that the truth could be more dangerous than silence. Still, as I left the table, I could not stop thinking of the man who had once looked at Hailey as though she were his whole world. I wondered how a person could go from loving someone like that to looking at her as though remembering her hurt more than losing her.
