Sarah
Blake lifts his head from the carpet in the sitting room off the foyer, his chubby fingers gripping the carpet fibers as he whines, his mouth pulled in a frown.
“This is supposed to be good for you, honey,” I urge when he starts to fuss. Dalia, on her knees beside me, nods in silent agreement. “See? You’re learning how to push up with your arms. Soon you’ll be rolling over onto your back if you want it bad enough.”
In response, Blake turns purple with rage and lets out a howl that I’m sure can be heard in the village.
Dalia and I exchange looks, but she chuckles softly and promptly scoops him into her arms. “Bath time, then bed, I think,” she says, meeting my eyes for confirmation.
I nod, shrugging. I watch them walk away and feel a pang of guilt ghost through my chest. My milk dried up. It was my fault for being so stupid and reckless. Blake doesn’t need me for that anymore, but I’ve been spending all my days with him. Dalia is a massive help, though. I often don’t feel like I know what I’m doing, but Dalia has so many siblings, she’s a professional baby wrangler, and I’ll take all the help I can get.
But my free time is just that… free. I have nothing else to do. My flowers and plants in the atrium are fine, needing very little pruning this time of year. Outside, the snow is still thick and the warm late spring weather hasn’t made a dent in the silver-white landscape. It’ll be a few weeks until I see anything green again.
Cosette appears in the foyer carrying a basket of laundry. I walk toward her. “Can I help?”
“Get away,” she says sharply, but her smile is teasing. “As the lady of this house, you’re meant to sit around, rest your feet. Let your hands grow soft.”
“Cosette, please,” I beg, padding over to her. I’m wearing one of Sydney’s sweatshirts from college and a pair of jeans, my hair tied back. I don’t feel like the lady of his house in this outfit. Shouldn’t I be wearing a fancy robe that flows out behind me while I stalk his hallowed halls, counting our gems? “I’m bored. I don’t know when Sydney’s supposed to get home. And honestly, with the lady of the house thing, we haven’t confirmed anything of that nature–”
A sharp knock on the front door makes us both jump. Cosette mumbles a curse as she sets the basket down on the stairs. “Who could that be at this hour?”
“It’s only eight,” I reply, following right behind her as she flutters to the door and throws it open.
“Thank the Goddess,” Hadley says. She looks between me and Cosette. “Aren’t you going to let me in?”
“Of course,” I say, stepping forward, but I notice the odd look on Cosette’s face. She opens the door all the way for Hadley despite looking suddenly… suspicious. Weird. Cosette can be really odd sometimes.
“Alpha Ryan kept telling me you were sick, and I shouldn’t bother you. She did, too.” She jabs a thumb at Cosette.
To my surprise, Cosette has nothing sharp nor witty to say. She closes the door with a snap, turns to me, and says, “I’ll be upstairs for a few minutes,” and walks away.
“Do you like her?” Hadley asks, watching Cosette disappear out of sight.
“I love Cosette. Why?”
“I dunno, I guess she kind of rubs me the wrong way.” Hadley takes a minute to look around the foyer before tucking her hands in the pockets of her jacket. “So, what the hell happened?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Those are the only kinds of stories you have,” she laughs.
I lead her into the sitting room. She shrugs out of her coat and lays it over the back of the couch before plopping down. I sit on the other side of the couch, thankful she’s here, but also curious about Cosette’s odd look earlier. I shove it aside for now and turn to my friend.
“Sydney and I are mates,” I begin.
Hadley looks shocked but smiles wickedly. “So that’s the real reason why you’re here, huh?”
I chew my lip, unsure how far to take this. Do I tell her the whole truth?
“So he’s gonna be like, Blake’s stepdad, right?”
“Blake is his son, Hadley.”
Hadley listens as I tell her about the night after the ball. She hadn’t been there that night for whatever reason, so I was on my own, hanging out with a group of friends from our old high school. I tell her about the one-night-stand without going into too much detail, but when it comes time to elaborate on my reasons for not telling him sooner, and for not telling her who the father of my son was, I find that I can’t bring myself to do it.
I can’t tell Hadley that my name is actually Sasha. She knows I came from a group home somewhere rural, that I don’t have parents or family looking out for me, but we met as teenagers in the city, and that hadn’t mattered back then.
But those secrets, secrets I should be able to tell her, my best friend, stick to the tip of my tongue.
“I didn’t think he’d believe me,” I tell her instead, a bold lie. “But he found me and Blake, and we’ve grown close since then. The mate bond clicked into place and… yeah.”
Discomfort travels up my spine. I shift my weight, trying to banish it. I don’t like keeping secrets from her, but I feel like I have to. It’s for her safety, honestly, not mine.
If Gabriel does come for me, he’ll tear a path through the people I love most, and I don’t want Hadley stuck in the crosshairs.
“Wow,” Hadley laughs. “You’re going to be Queen of Crescent Falls one day. You realize that, right?”
“When I’m old and gray,” I amend, shaking my head. “Sydney’s parents are still so young. I don’t even want to think about it. I’m just happy–” I’m just happy being happy. I’m happy being with Sydney.
That’s all that matters.
Hadley leans forward and squeezes my knee. “I’m happy for you, Sarah. If anyone deserves what’s coming, it’s you.”
I smile. “Thanks, Hads.”
I tell her about the family dinner tomorrow and how Maddy found out about Blake before the rest of the family. She sits quietly, listening as I spill my nerves and doubts.
“We just did things so unconventionally. Sydney doesn’t think it’s that big of a deal, but he should be with a princess or something.”
“Well his mom’s not a princess, per se, but I heard a rumor she’s actually an Alpha’s daughter.”
“Exactly. I’m not.”
“Well I’m sure whatever you guys do will be fine because Alpha Ryan is still up to his fiendish ways,” she jokes.
“Really? What do you mean?” I’m reminded of how weird Ryan was around Hadley when they visited me in the atrium a few weeks ago. Ryan, who looked at Hadley like she has the ability to light up his world, and Hadley, totally oblivious.
“James is always telling me to leave him alone,” Hadley admits with a sly smile. “I’ve been texting Ryan–about you, mostly–but sometimes I flirt with him a little, and he likes to flirt back. It’s cute.”
“Just cute?” I ask.
“I think he’s cute,” she laughs. “But James hates it. He threatened to send me away if I kept it up.”
“Send you away?” I move a little closer to her.
“Back to Eastonia.” She yawns, rolling her eyes. “I told him good luck with that. I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.”
“He’d send you packing for–for flirting back and forth with your Alpha?”
“We’ve done more than flirt.”
I open my mouth, but I can’t find the words I’m searching for.
She leans in, smiling from ear to ear, “I kissed him. The night we left here, when I saw you last. He drove me back to Silverhide, and I leaned over when he was at a stoplight and kissed him, and he kissed me back. I wanted him to take me to his place, but didn’t. He said we couldn’t.”
“But you said he was being fiendish?”
“I assume that's why he didn’t want to take me home. Maybe he had someone waiting there for him already.”
I scan Hadley’s face and see an expression I’ve never noticed before. She’s normally so bright, light as air, and slightly oblivious.
Right now, her gaze is cool and calculated, though.
“Are you okay? You seem… worked up–”
She stands, grabbing her coat. “I’m super late,” she says, ignoring my question completely. “James is going to be livid. So, you won’t be here tomorrow night, right?”
I shake my head.
“I’ll come back over this weekend, then. You can tell me all about your dinner with his family.”
I rise, reaching for her so I can give her a hug goodbye, but she whirls and walks out of reach.
“I’ll see you later,” she calls out from the foyer then walks right through the front door.
I race after her, but her little blue car is already turning around in the driveway. Slowly, I close the door against the cool night air.
“I don’t want her coming by the house anymore,” Cosette says.
“Goddess, Cosette, you scared me to death!” I turn to her with my hand pressed against my racing heart. “Why? She’s my friend.”
“Did you tell her the truth, Sarah?”
I eye Cosette, who's standing on the bottom step looking more serious than I’ve ever seen her before. “About Sasha?”
She nods, a bit of panic flashing behind her eyes.
“No, of course not.”
She lets out the breath she must have been holding and nods, running her fingers through her hair. “Good. That’s good.”
“Is something wrong?” I’m beginning to think I’m growing crazy. Maybe it’s just that I’ve been cooped up in the house all day, but Cosette isn’t normally like this, and neither is Hadley.
“Just be wary of who you trust right now, that’s all.”
“I can trust Hadley,” I laugh, trying to shake away the heavy feeling of her stone-cold gaze. “I trust her with my life.”
“All right,” Cosette says, nodding, but she doesn’t look any less tense.
I’m missing something. Something happened here tonight that I didn’t catch.
“Cosette–”
We both turn to headlights flashing through the windows on either side of the front door, and then the sound of the garage door rolling up thrums through the house.
“I have a lot to do before dinner tomorrow night. Goodnight, Sarah.” Cosette turns on her heel and walks upstairs, disappearing into the darkened recesses of the second floor like a ghost.
A few seconds later, Sydney appears carrying a briefcase, his hair slightly disheveled and eyes lined with fatigue. He kisses me on the top of the head, but pauses there. “Why are you just standing in the foyer?”
“I was talking to Cosette,” I tell him.
“Okay…” He glances around, looking for her. “Did Hadley come by?”
“Yeah,” I try to say as brightly as possible, but it comes out totally flat.
Sydney pulls away and looks down at me. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know,” I admit, rubbing my temples. “Just tired, I think.”
“Well, we didn’t sleep last night. We should probably do that.”
“Yeah.” I look at the place where Cosette disappeared, a sinking sensation blooming to life in my belly.
I should definitely get some sleep.
Tomorrow might be the best, or worst, day of my life so far, and I can’t face his entire family with my brain as rotten as it feels right now.
I follow my mate upstairs and turn into my room instinctively, but he takes my arm. “You’re with me from now on, remember?”