Husbands Swapped, But I Am Still the Superior Luna

CHAPTER THREE

SOPHIA

My fist clenches so hard I feel my nails bite into my palm.

Arden is standing beside Daphne—not just standing, shielding her, and he barely knows her name. His brother and him never once stood like that for me. Never. With me, they were always cold and formal, two walls of ice I spent months trying to c***k.

I pull on my smile before the bitterness can reach my face. I'm not letting pieces of s**t like them know they got to me.

"Arden." I let his name land with the right amount of warmth, just enough, not desperate. "Nice of you to finally join us."

"Really? I'm not so sure you're happy to see me," he says, that smug look sitting on his face like he was born wearing it. I feel like slapping it off. Instead, I press my nails deeper into my palm.

"Why on earth wouldn't I?"

"Because then you could bully my mate however you liked."

I fake a gasp and press my hand to my chest. "I would do no such thing. I love my sister—why would you think I'd ever bully her?" I make sure every bit of my face reads offended, wounded, misunderstood.

Daphne just sighs beside him and rolls her eyes.

"Then you won't mind apologizing for what you said," Arden says, and I swear my anger doubles on the spot. He wants me to apologize. To her. In front of everyone.

I breathe in slowly. I can't lose my cool. I can't be the crazy one when she's the one being a b***h.

"Of course." I smile and put everything I have into it. "I don't mind at all. And if my sister needs to let out some frustration—slap me, whatever she needs. I truly don't mind." I mean every word of the performance, because I know she won't do it. She never does. She doesn't have it in her to hit me in front of her future mate.

The c***k of a palm against my cheek sends my face snapping sideways.

The heat blooms before the pain even registers. I stand there, stunned, my ears ringing faintly, staring at the floor.

I whip my head back toward her. What the actual f**k.

The rage comes fast and bright, and I clamp down on it hard.

"I can't believe you just did that." My voice cracks on cue. I press a hand to my cheek and let my eyes fill—not too much, just enough to shimmer. "I'm your sister, Daphne." I turn to Arden before he can speak, making sure my voice carries just the right note of sad bewilderment. "I know she has a temper, but I never thought she'd—I only hope she never turns it on you the way she's turned it on me."

I press my face against Crux's chest and feel his arms come around me, sturdy and automatic.

"I don't think I have much to worry about," Arden says.

I pull back just enough to look at him.

He's watching Daphne. And there's something in his face that wasn't there a moment ago—not pity, not concern—something quieter than that. Approval, maybe. Recognition. Like she'd confirmed something he'd already suspected.

He's smiling.

The trembling starts somewhere deep in my chest and radiates out through my hands. My fingers curl against the fabric of Crux's jacket.

"If anything," Arden says, "I think I'm lucky to be marrying a woman who doesn't just stand there and take it."

The words land like stones in still water, and I watch the ripples of them spread across every face nearby. Soft laughter from somewhere to my left. A knowing look exchanged between two of the Nightfall Pack's attendants.

He turned it around on me without raising his voice. Without even trying.

I look at Daphne. She isn't smiling exactly, but there's something at the corner of her mouth — a quiet, private satisfaction she isn't bothering to hide from me, because she knows I can't do anything about it here.

I breathe in. Breathe out.

It doesn't matter.

I turn to Crux at my side— solid, steady, powerful—and I remember: I have him. Everything she had in her past life, all that luxury and status, it's mine now. I couldn't care less that she's getting mated to the twins. They were neglectful husbands then, and they'll be neglectful husbands now. She'll spend the rest of her marriage eating alone.

I have the better end of this deal. I just need to remember that.