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Luna flashed Uncle Roy her prettiest smile. Uncle Roy’s eyes narrowed, digging one sharp thumbnail into the old burn mark on his chin.

Yikes. Luna looked down at her plate instead. Medium-rare steak, a salad that was mostly lettuce, a bread bun, and a dollop of buttery mashed potato. A little boring, but Luna was starving, and she doubted there were many Uber Eats options in a town this small.

She picked up her fork.

Grandmother Musgrove cleared her throat.

Luna looked up. Everybody was holding hands, even glaring Uncle Roy. Grandmother Musgrove held out a hand on one side of her. Oliver sat stiffly on the other side, hands on his lap.

“She doesn’t have to,” Oliver said.

Luna rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand. She wasn’t a grace kind of girl, but when in Rome.

Grandmother Musgrove nodded at Leo. “When you’re ready.”

Leo sucked in a big breath. “Thank you, everybody,who made our food tonight. It isn’t chicken like I wanted, but I guess I’m grateful anyway. Thanks, everyone.” Then he blinked, looking over at Oliver. “Wait, you weren’t here. Thanks, everybody but Oliver. And hello to our temporary pack member, Luna. You’re very pretty and sophisticated.”

Luna giggled. “Wow. Thank you. You’re pretty too. I love your truck shirt—so chic.”

“Thanks!” Leo beamed at her, then looked across the table toward his parents. “Can we eat now?”

“Yes,” said Sabine, who had been hiding a smile since he berated them for not cooking chicken. “We can eat now.”

Everyone at the table lapsed back into chatter. Luna ate her boring food and tried to remember the last time she’d had a homemade family dinner. She didn’t think she ever had. They were a takeout family who ate in their separate rooms. The Stacks went out to restaurants sometimes, but only for birthdays and the occasional business milestone celebration. Hector once mentioned that it was strange that such a fun-loving family didn’t bother getting together much. Luna didn’t think so. They all had their own parties to attend.

Oliver rarely spoke. His family tried to drag him into conversations. Leo asked about a movie they watched last week, and Ben goaded him about some embarrassing moment from high school involving a wardrobe malfunction during football. But each time one of his family members spoke to him, he’d give them a one-word answer and shut it down. He kept tensing up wheneverLuna leaned to grab more salad or reached for her water glass. It was a strange tenseness. Like his body wanted him to relax, but his mind wanted the opposite. Like he still thought she was a threat.

Luna couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if she’d been bound to him last year when he wasn’t so closed off. It was probably good he wasn’t more open, she considered as she ate her terrible salad. If he actually let her in, she might feel something more than physical. Something that had nothing to do with the bond tying them together. Then she’dreallybe screwed.

“So, Luna,” Sabine said, cutting through a steak that was noticeably less cooked than Luna’s. All of them were, now that she looked closely. “What do you do?”

Luna tried to remember her official role at her dad’s company.

“A little bit of this, a little bit of that,” she said with a smirk. Then, because she would be out of here soon and was still riding the high from earlier, “And I do a little marketing.”

“That sounds fun,” Sabine said, with the polite eagerness of someone who had no idea what that entailed. “What’s that like?”

“Sofun,” Luna gushed. “Don’t tell anybody, but I was the one who designed that little logo on our most recent rebranding. Logos areveryimportant.”

She looked over at Oliver, who was watching her with a dry expression that meant he remembered her sign outburst in the lobby.

“I’ll bet,” hesaid.

Darren picked a piece of meat out from between his buck teeth and asked, “Uncle Ollie, can we still go to the movies this weekend?”

“UncleOllie,” Luna whispered, delighted.

He gave her another exasperated look.

“Sure,” Oliver said. Then he paused, fork scraping to a stop against his plate. “Uh, Luna will have to come.”

“Duh,” Darren said, like he was offended Oliver thought he had to be reminded. “Ipay attention in wolf lessons.”

“The bottle wasn’t supposed to be in the back office,” Oliver argued. “And I’ve never seen it when it wasn’t covered in flowers! It looked different!”

Darren rolled his eyes. “Ooookay, Uncle Ollie.”

“Iwould never accidentally drink the bond nectar,” Vida muttered beside him. She still had her headphones on, though she’d relegated them to her neck at her mother’s request.