Page 21

And land on the baby being held in pale arms, resting fitfully. Something unsettling travels down my back. Something dark.

I let my eyes rise higher. A low cut blouse. Full bottom lip. Thinner upper lip. Red. A small nose—one I must have kissed the top of a thousand times whenever she got mad. Violet-blue?—

Shit.

I freeze in place, the blood in my veins icing over. The room falls quiet. Air... the air is sucked from the room, leaving me reaching for whatever pockets of air I can get and finding none.

Worse yet, those eyes are trained on Tova in a gentle smile, lips moving, but I can't hear shit. Can't think of anything other than the fact that she—Seraphina is sitting in front of me, a babe in her arms.

I think I might be hallucinating, but no one looks like her .

She might look a little different, cultured, poised, dressed in fine silks and adorned in diamonds, but the fire behind her ungodly eyes remains.

And then I see the hands gripping her shoulders. Male hands. Soren fucking Winter stands behind her, the weight of him pressed against her back like he belongs there. Like he has any fucking right to touch her with such intimacy and protectiveness.

Griffin growls deeply inside, and as if hearing the sound of torment and misery, Soren smiles.

Like he knows exactly what he's doing.

Like he's reveling in it.

"I don't believe you've met my wife," he says, the last two words slow and deliberate. His thumb strokes her cheek affectionately. "This is Seraphina. Sera, Alpha Ronan Callahan. He heads the Southern regions."

Shit.

Violet blue eyes meet mine. They hold. And for the longest minute, she stares at me, into me. Eyes assessing deeply, searching. And for all her beauty, there is an eerie coldness that grabs me by the throat as she regards me.

There is something crucial missing in her eyes.

She smiles at me, and there is everything missing in that smile. "I have heard quite a lot about you, Alpha Callahan. I can't say I have looked forward to meeting the man who nearly carved out my husband's eye and is trying to steal my home."

Her husband.

My skin crawls. My insides curdle up like spoiled milk.

I don't notice the hush falling over the crowd at the blatant accusation no one else would have outrightly stated, because it's not the least surprising thing about Seraphina. She's always been one to call other people out on their bullshit irrespective of the event or location.

Still, my fingers seem to have turned icy, too, because I suddenly figure out what her smile is lacking, what her eyes lack.

Warmth. Love. More importantly, recognition. We might as well have been strangers meeting for the first time.

Seraphina leans the sleeping child against her arm and laughs heartily. "You must not have a very great sense of humor, Alpha Callahan." She extends an elegant hand to me, a large diamond sitting on her ring finger. "You may call me Fina. Welcome to the Glacial Pack."

I leave her hand hanging too long, staring at it. The tie around my neck feels too tight and the suit on my skin chafes uncomfortably.

What in the cluster-fuck of all fucks is this?

Tova's fingers squeeze my arm. "You're staring," she whispers and I try not to flinch, try not to let it show.

I take Seraphina's hand and if she feels the steady hum of electricity that runs from the tip of her fingers and burrows underneath my skin, she doesn't show.

And what should have been a firm handshake turns into my lips grazing her knuckles, kissing the top of her diamond ring as I hold that studious, preternaturally violet gaze.

Her brows arch in mild surprise and I marvel at how well she has learned to school her expressions, her perfect poise of elegance and grace, her focused observation that is nearly clinical.

No. That is hardly the Seraphina I know.

I wonder what else she's learned. To lie? To deceive? How does one go from being a fucking nobody to High Luna? Did she fuck Soren to attain this position by bearing his child?

My eyes droop to the child and I freeze. The curls flat on his round head are unmistakably blonde. It could be a coloring that leaves as the child progresses in age, but his eyebrows and lashes are blonde too.

Neither Seraphina nor Soren are blonde.

I think back to the last nine months. Seraphina's been missing for seven months. The only way she has a child is if she was pregnant before she went missing or had the boy prematurely.

If the latter is the case then... It couldn't be.

The boy can't be mine. She would have told me. She would have...Would she though? After I rejected her and locked her up like some wild animal? Would she have told me that she was pregnant with my child after what I did?

The longer I stare at the boy, the more I see it. My lips. My jaw. My brows. My hair. If I hadn't known what I looked like as a child, I might have missed it.

My world tilts harshly and I have no idea how my legs still carry me.

" If you did end up hurting me, I wouldn't cry. I would hurt you right back, " Seraphina had told me once, her head resting against my chest as she drew circles around my heart.

How could I have missed any of this? That Seraphina's revenge, her retaliation would be getting married to my one rival, and giving both herself and our baby another man's last name?