Chapter 4
Sera's POV
I stared at him.
"Five hundred thousand dollars," I repeated, because I needed to hear myself say it before I could believe it.
"That's what I was told, Luna."
I walked past him and looked into the open back of the nearest truck.
There were dresses still sealed in garment bags and jewelry boxes stacked three high.
There was furniture wrapped in blankets, carried by two omegas at a time because the pieces were too heavy to lift alone.
There were bottles of perfume I recognized from a boutique that only sold to packs with money to spare.
And near the back, decorations in silver and white, the kind used for a Dual Luna presentation.
I instantly thought about the early years of my marriage.
I had worn the same three dresses to every pack function for two years because we couldn't spare the money for anything else.
I had postponed my own birthday celebration because a supplier needed to be paid that week instead.
I had combed through every account myself, every invoice, every debt, until Nightveil finally climbed out of the hole it had been buried in when I first became Luna.
I remembered Tristan holding my hand across our kitchen table and telling me we couldn't afford unnecessary luxuries. Not that year. Maybe not the next one either.
And now he had spent half a million dollars on a woman he had known for less than a month.
"Bring me the invoices," I said.
The guard hesitated. "Luna, I don't think..."
"Bring me the invoices. Now."
He nodded and jogged off toward the security office. He came back a few minutes later with a folder thick enough to need both hands.
I opened it right there in the driveway.
A furniture company I had personally saved from bankruptcy three years ago.
A jeweler I had convinced to extend the pack a line of credit during our worst financial year.
A boutique that only stayed open because I negotiated a deal with their supplier myself.
I had built every one of those relationships. I had kept every one of those businesses afloat when Nightveil couldn't pay on time. And now Tristan was spending a fortune with them in a single afternoon, all of it for Willow.
"Which account?" I asked.
"The discretionary fund, Luna."
My stomach dropped. That fund was allocated for the border security project. Tristan had signed off on that budget with me three months ago, sitting across from me at this very table, going line by line through every dollar we could and couldn't spend.
I closed the folder.
Tristan arrived twenty minutes later, and his face changed the moment he saw me standing there.
"Sera."
"You spent half a million dollars," I said. "On her. On a ceremony I wasn't even told existed."
"It's not what it looks like."
"It looks exactly like what it is."
He raked a hand through his hair, the same gesture he always made when he knew he was wrong and hadn't decided yet whether to admit it.
"Willow is new to this," he said. "She's never been a Luna before. The ceremony matters. It's how the pack accepts her. I wanted her to feel secure."
"When I became Luna, I inherited a pack drowning in debt," I said. "I wore the same three dresses to every function for two years because we couldn't afford anything else. Did you ever spend half a million dollars making me feel secure, Tristan?"
He didn't answer right away, and the silence told me more than any answer could have.
"That was different," he finally said. "We were building something then. We didn't have the money."
"We have money now because I spent ten years making sure we did," I said. "This came out of the border security fund. You signed off on that budget yourself."
"I'm the Alpha," he said. "I can approve expenditures as I see fit."
"Being Alpha doesn't mean you get to be reckless with pack resources," I said. "It means you're responsible for every dollar in this pack, not just the ones you feel like spending to impress someone."
"You're making this bigger than it needs to be."
"I'm telling you the truth. You don't like hearing it."
His jaw tightened. "What do you want me to say? That I made a mistake? Fine. I made a mistake. But I'm not apologizing for wanting her to feel welcome here."
"I'm not asking you to apologize for wanting her to feel welcome," I said. "I'm asking why welcoming her costs more than everything I ever asked this pack to spend on me in ten years combined."
He had no answer for that.
"You used to tell me every dollar mattered," I said. "You used to tell me we had to think of the pack first, before comfort, before ourselves."
"Things change."
"Clearly."
Willow appeared in the doorway of the guest house wearing one of the new dresses.
She took in the scene slowly, and something settled across her face that she tried to pass off as concern.
"Tristan, I told you not to spend so much," she said. "I don't need any of this. I really don't."
"You deserve it," he said, crossing to her side.
"I don't want to cause problems," she said, glancing at me. "I know this must be hard for Sera to see."
I said nothing.
Tristan wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "No one's causing problems. Sera's upset about the accounts."
I noticed how fast he did it. How instantly he moved to defend her, before he had even asked whether I might have a legitimate point.
That was the moment something in me shifted.
He wasn't just choosing her over me.
He was choosing her before he even considered me at all.
That was when I saw it.
A pendant rested against Willow's collarbone, a pale blue stone set in old silver.
My stomach dropped the second I recognized it.
"Where did you get that?" I asked.
Willow's fingers rose to touch it. "Tristan gave it to me. He said it would look pretty with the dress."
I looked at Tristan and watched the color drain from his face.
"Sera," he said.
"That pendant belonged to my mother," I said. "It's the only thing of hers I have left. I gave it to you the day we pledged ourselves to each other. You told me you would keep it safe."
"She admired it," Tristan said. "I didn't think it would matter that much."
"You didn't think it would matter."
"Sera, it's just jewelry."
"It's my mother's."
Willow's hand stayed at her throat. "I didn't know where it came from, Tristan. You should have told me."
I looked at her, and I saw it clearly. The small flicker underneath the concern. She knew exactly what that pendant was.
"Take it off," I said.
"Sera..." Tristan started.
"Take it off," I said again, and I walked toward her.
Willow's hand closed around the pendant. "Tristan gave this to me."
"Then Tristan gave away something that was never his to give."
"Sera, calm down," Tristan said, stepping between us.
"Don't tell me to calm down." My voice rose.
"You brought her into our pack. You gave her a key to my home. You spent pack money on her ceremony. You let her omega insult me under my own roof. And now you've given away the only thing I have left of my mother."
"Sera, I..."
I reached for the pendant.
Willow pulled back, her fingers tightening around the chain. "It's mine now."
"It is not yours."
I reached again, and for a moment we were both holding onto the same thin silver chain, neither of us letting go.
"Let go of it," I said.
"You're hurting me," Willow said, though I hadn't touched her at all.
Tristan grabbed my arm. "Sera, stop...."
Willow yanked backward at the same moment, and I lost my footing, my hand flying out to catch myself.
I felt the world tilt.
My other hand flew instinctively to my stomach as I flew down the stairs.
