I turned around to find Vesper and Lucian seated at a table near the far wall, beneath hanging moonstone lamps that cast a warm amber glow across pale linen. Vesper was beaming up at me. "It's so nice to see you. Here for their specials too?" She leaned forward, her excitement unmasked, as though running into me were the most delightful coincidence in the world. Beneath her lily-and-ozone scent there was something cold and faintly wrong, a metallic note my wolf flicked an ear toward without knowing why.
Lucian froze for a moment when he saw me, but quickly recovered, his expression rearranging itself into something easy and welcoming. "I was just about to call you and invite you to join us for the evening meal. What a coincidence that you also came to this neutral den. This place is packed, come sit with us," he said, gesturing for the server to bring another setting. His jaw shifted once to the side before the smile settled, a faint tell I had learned to recognize over eight years and had only now begun to understand. I hadn't eaten much at midday, and now my stomach was rumbling. I figured I might as well stay and join them.
"Selene, I remember you like spicy food," Vesper chimed in. "Let me order some for you."
I glanced at the table. Everything was light and mild, totally not what Lucian and I usually went for. We both loved spicy food. He had once told me that dishes without chili were like lifeless meals. Without spice, it was as if the food had no soul. Of course Lucian didn't bat an eye, as the fresh spread laid out before him told a different story now, one rewritten entirely for the woman sitting at his side.
"Hold on, now. I think we both know who's gonna eat the spicy dish," Lucian said with a teasing grin. He shot Vesper a displeased look. "Vesper... didn't you hear what the moon-healer said? You need to lay off the spice and stick to lighter food."
Vesper rolled her eyes playfully. "Alright, alright, Mr. Nagging. I won't order it, jeez. Happy now?"
Watching them bicker, my heart, already battered, didn't even twitch. It was numb to it all now. The warmth in his voice, the gentle scolding, the easy rhythm of two people who had built their own private language. None of it reached me anymore. I sat in a den full of strangers with a man I had loved for eight years and felt nothing but the quiet, hollow hum of absence. Somewhere beneath my ribs my wolf lay flat and silent, the way she did when there was nothing left worth rising for.
He sighed and shook his head. "You two go ahead, I need to make a quick call."
As soon as Lucian walked away, pushing through the crowd toward the quieter corridor near the back, Vesper's smile faded. The transformation was immediate, like a lamp being switched off. She shot me a look filled with challenge, her posture straightening, one manicured nail tapping a single brittle beat against the rim of her water glass before going still. That cold wrongness under her scent sharpened, and my wolf's ear twitched again.
"So, Selene, right? I have to admit, I'm impressed," she said, her voice laced with scorn. "You know Lucian just made me his promise of mating, yet here you are, still clinging to him. You sure have some nerve."
I heard the contempt in her words, but I didn't flinch. The den's noise pressed in around us, cutlery clinking, laughter from a nearby table, someone uncorking a bottle of moon-wine. None of it mattered. Looking up at her, I replied, "Is stealing someone's man something to be proud of? Do you think it's worth flaunting in front of everyone?"
"You—" She started, her mouth opening in surprise, but before she could finish, a thick cloud of smoke suddenly wafted from the kitchen.
