Julian POV
“Have me apologise by licking her shoes?”
Penelope turns her gaze on me. Her lips curl into a cold smile of unfiltered mockery.
“You probably thought the same thing, didn’t you?” she says.
Her eyes cut straight through me. She digs right down to that old instinct I try to bury. My habit of smoothing things over. Making her concede for the sake of Pack harmony.
I do not answer.
In the past, I asked her more than once to back down. To apologise to my mother. To apologise to Marcella. All for peace.
But this time is different. I see the piercing calm in her eyes. I feel the full weight of her Alpha presence.
I hesitate.
“Julian Alpha wants me to apologise too?” she asks. Her eyebrow goes up. The sarcasm in her voice gets deeper.
My fingers tighten on her forearm.
“Before
