The Thing He Cannot Hide

Milley’s Pov

I was halfway down the corridor with Hailey's breakfast when Liam stopped me.

"Not that bread."

I looked down at the tray. "Alpha?"

"She doesn't eat it." He glanced at the plate as though the bread had personally offended him. "Get her pancakes instead."

I hesitated. "Would you like me to ask what she prefers?"

His eyes lifted to mine. "No. If I wanted you to ask, I'd have told you to ask."

"Yes, Alpha."

I turned back toward the kitchen. It was a small thing, remembering what someone liked for breakfast, and perhaps that was why it caught at me. Liam could barely look at Hailey without turning cold, yet he remembered what she ate.

When I returned with the pancakes, Hailey was already dressed and fastening a bracelet around her wrist. Her travel bag stood open on the bed, and one of her guards waited near the door. "Your breakfast, Your Highness."

"Thank you." She shifted a few things aside to make room for the tray. "You can leave it there."

I set it on the small table. "Would you like anything else?"

"No, that's enough." She picked at a piece of pancake, then glanced at me. "How long have you worked here?"

"A few weeks."

"And you weren't born into this Pack?"

"No, Your Highness."

"Where are you from?"

I told her the name of my old Pack, and her face changed the moment she heard it. "You're one of their Omegas? What are you doing here, then?"

I lowered my eyes to the tray. "My Alpha gave me to Alpha Liam as a gift, during the All-Alpha Meeting."

Hailey stopped eating. "He did what?"

I repeated myself, unsure whether I had offended her. She let out a short, disbelieving laugh. "Your old Alpha was always a cheap bastard. Even his insults came at someone else's expense."

I did not know whether I was meant to agree. She looked at me again, and her expression softened, not quite with pity but with something nearer to recognition. "Never mind. You're here now. Enjoy your life, Milley. Liam is nothing like him."

I nodded, though I was not sure I believed her. Liam might not treat me as my old Alpha had, but I still did not know what he expected of me, and one kind act, or even a dozen, could not tell me what would happen the day I disappointed him.

Hailey ate a few more bites and pushed the plate away. "Tell my guards we'll leave in an hour, please."

"Yes, Your Highness."

I collected the tray and left her to finish packing. As I walked down the corridor, I wondered whether Liam knew she was leaving so soon. I did not have to wonder for long.

---

Liam stood by the window with a glass in his hand. The morning light fell across his face and showed the redness in his eyes and a weariness he had failed to hide. Hailey paused just inside the doorway.

"Drinking already?"

He turned his head. "I don't remember inviting you into my room."

"I came to thank you for letting me stay."

"You're welcome. Now you can go."

Her jaw set. "I'm leaving in a few minutes, and I thought you deserved to hear it from me."

"How considerate." He took a sip. "I'd hate to think the Lycan Princess had been kept against her will."

"Stop it, Liam."

"Stop what? I gave you a room, fed you, and sent for a healer. What more do you want?"

"Nothing. That's the point. I'm not asking you for anything."

"Good. We've finally found something we agree on."

She stared at him. "You could have refused to let me stay."

"And turn the Lycan Princess away from my own door? Hand the court another reason to question my judgment? I may be many things, Hailey, but I'm not stupid."

"No. You've always known exactly what something will cost you."

His mouth curved, but there was no amusement in it. "Careful. You might make me think you remember me."

"I remember you perfectly well, which is why I'm saying this." She stepped further into the room. "You need to pull yourself together. You're drinking before breakfast, shutting everyone out, and letting your Pack shoulder things you used to carry yourself."

"My Pack is doing fine."

"Is it? Or are Matthew and Marcus working twice as hard because you've decided the rest of your life can wait until you feel better?"

His fingers whitened around the glass. "You've been here less than a day. Don't pretend you understand what goes on in my Pack."

"I understand what happens when someone lets grief make every decision for them."

For a moment he said nothing. Then he set the glass down with a hard click. "Is that what you're calling it now? Grief?"

"What would you call it?"

"None of your business."

"Liam—"

"You don't get to walk back into my life, take one look at me, and start handing out advice as if you'd earned the right."

"I'm not trying to take anything from you."

He gave a bitter laugh. "You've already taken enough."

Her face hardened. "How long are you going to blame me for everything?"

"Everything?" He finally looked at her properly. "No. Only the part you played."

"I did what I had to do."

"Of course you did."

"You make it sound as though I had to choose between you and nothing."

"You had to choose between me and the throne."

"And you wanted me to throw it all away." Her voice rose as frustration broke through her composure. "You wanted me to become your ordinary Luna and pretend that was enough."

"Ordinary?" He repeated the word as though it tasted foul. "You were the one who wanted to be Queen, Hailey. I never asked you to be ordinary. I asked you to stand beside me."

"And I couldn't give you the life you wanted."

"No. You decided I wasn't worth the life you wanted."

She looked away first, though only for a second. "Love isn't everything, Liam. Neither is the Mate bond. You know that as well as I do."

"Maybe you do." His voice dropped. "I thought the bond meant something to both of us. I thought the years before it, our friendship and everything we'd been through, meant something too. It turns out I was the only fool who believed that was enough."

"That isn't fair."

"Neither was learning what I meant to you in front of my entire army."

Her face went still, and for once she had no quick answer. He turned back to the window. "You should leave."

"I'm trying to tell you that you can still have a life. You can still build something beyond what happened between us."

"I've built a life. You're standing in it."

"Then stop living as though I'm still the person who gets to ruin it."

He rounded on her, his eyes hard. "You're right about one thing. You don't have that power anymore."

Hailey held his gaze, searching his face for something he refused to give her. Then she picked up her bag. "Goodbye, Liam."

He did not answer. She waited a moment, perhaps hoping he would stop her, and when he did not, she walked out and shut the door behind her.

---

By the time Hailey reached the front entrance, I had delivered her message to the guards and was waiting beside the steps. She thanked me for helping her during her stay, and then she opened her purse and held out several notes. "Here. Buy yourself something."

I stared at the money. "I can't accept that, Your Highness."

"Why not?"

"I was never allowed to keep money in my old Pack."

Her hand stayed outstretched. "You're not there anymore, Milley."

I knew that. But knowing a thing and being able to act as though it were true were two different matters. "It's a gift," she said. "You looked after me when I was unwell, so at least let me thank you. Buy yourself some clothes, or whatever you need."

I looked at the notes again. I could not remember ever being offered money without someone expecting something in return. Before I could find an answer, a voice drifted down from above.

"She doesn't need your money."

I looked up. Liam stood on the upper balcony with one hand on the railing, his glass still in the other. Hailey glanced toward him. "I'm thanking her for taking care of me. Must you turn everything into an argument?"

"I'm not arguing. I'm telling you she doesn't need you to provide for her."

"Then perhaps you should have thought of that before leaving her to wait on me."

"She's a member of my Pack. If she needs clothes or food or anything else, we'll provide it."

"Wonderful. Then let her decide whether she wants to accept a gift."

His face tightened. "Strangers don't hand out money to my family."

Hailey gave him a long look. "Your family? You've known her a few weeks."

"She belongs to this Pack."

"I never said she didn't."

"You're behaving as though you can walk in, hand her a few notes, and feel better about what you left behind."

The words landed harder than his volume suggested. Hailey slowly lowered her hand. "This has nothing to do with her, does it?"

"Don't flatter yourself. Not everything is about you."

"Then stop making it about me."

For a moment they stared at each other across the distance between the steps and the balcony. Whatever answer Hailey wanted, Liam would not give it. She put the money back in her purse, then turned to me. "Take care of yourself, Milley."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"And don't let anyone convince you that you're worth less than they are."

She left before I could answer. I watched her carriage roll away, then glanced up at the balcony, but Liam had already turned from the railing. I could not decide which unsettled me more: that Hailey had offered me something I had never been allowed to own, or that Liam had refused it on my behalf before I had a chance to choose. He had defended my place in his Pack, and I understood that much. But I was beginning to learn that being treated better than before was not the same as being free.

And I still wanted to know what that felt like.