Zaria never expected to see him there.
Not at the opening of her firm’s second branch. Not among the sea of flashing cameras and clinking champagne flutes. Not standing in the shadows of her empire, wearing the same haunted expression she had once worn for him.
Alpha Kael Fenris.
The mate who had once torn her soul apart and left her bleeding with his betrayal.
She didn’t flinch. She didn’t falter. Her heels clicked with confidence as she stepped off the stage, camera flashes following her every movement like stars trailing a queen.
Her staff parted respectfully. Her guests whispered. And he stood at the far edge of the gala, just inside the velvet ropes, looking like a ghost from another life a life Zaria had long since buried.
He moved first.
“Zaria,” Kael’s voice cracked across t
