He Rejected The Wrong Wolf

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Brielle’s POV

The silence after Grandma’s comment lasted all of two seconds.

Then Wren completely lost her mind.

“Oh my God,” she wheezed, nearly folding forward against the table. “Even Grandma ships you two.”

“Wren,” Brielle hissed, heat instantly flooding her face.

“What? She said it, not me.”

Grandma looked entirely unapologetic as she took another sip of wine. “I’m old, not blind.”

“That somehow made it worse,” Brielle muttered.

Across the table, Grandpa looked deeply exhausted already. “I knew inviting him to dinner was a mistake.”

“Emotionally, maybe,” Wren agreed.

“Stop saying emotionally before random words.”

“No.”

Brielle reached automatically for her water glass just to have something to do with her hands, only to realize too late that Thaddeus was doing the exact same thing beside her.

Their fingers brushed lightly against each other.

Both of them paused.

It should not have mattered.

It absolutely did.

Brielle pulled her hand back first, trying very hard to pretend the brief contact hadn’t sent warmth shooting embarrassingly fast up her arm.

Across from them, Wren looked seconds away from combusting from secondhand entertainment.

“I am witnessing character development in real time,” she whispered dramatically.

“You need hobbies,” Brielle informed her.

“I have hobbies. This is one of them.”

Grandpa looked ready to develop a migraine.

Dinner somehow continued after that, though Brielle spent most of it aggressively avoiding eye contact with literally everyone at the table. Which became increasingly difficult because Grandma kept smiling at her knowingly while Wren acted like she’d personally discovered reality television.

At one point, Grandpa finally set his fork down and looked directly at Thaddeus again.

“So.”

Brielle immediately knew she wasn’t going to like whatever came next.

“You rejected my granddaughter,” Grandpa said calmly. “Why?”

Straight to attempted murder apparently.

“Grandpa—”

“No, I’d actually love to hear this,” Wren interrupted immediately.

Grandma sighed softly into her wine glass. “None of you know how to behave.”

Thaddeus stayed quiet for a second longer than normal, his expression unreadable.

Then finally:

“Because I thought it was the right decision.”

The answer settled heavily across the table.

Brielle stared down at her plate.

Even now, hearing it out loud still hurt more than she wanted it to.

Grandpa noticed immediately.

Of course he did.

“And now?” he asked.

Brielle’s head snapped up instantly.

“Grandpa.”

“No,” he replied calmly. “Now I’m curious.”

Wren looked like she was moments away from applauding the conversation.

Thaddeus exhaled quietly through his nose before answering.

“…Now I think I was wrong.”

The room went completely silent.

No jokes.

No interruptions.

Nothing.

Brielle honestly wasn’t sure she’d heard him correctly at first.

Beside her, Thaddeus kept his gaze fixed on the table instead of looking at her directly, tension visible in the set of his shoulders like the admission had physically cost him something.

Wren slowly lowered her fork. “Oh,” she whispered. “That’s actually serious.”

Grandma looked emotional immediately.

Grandpa just looked unsurprised.

And Brielle—

Brielle couldn’t breathe properly for a second.

Because part of her had wanted to hear those words for days now.

But not like this.

Not suddenly sitting at a dinner table in the middle of the capital while her entire family watched it happen in real time.

“You can’t just say something like that casually,” she said before she could stop herself.

Finally, Thaddeus looked at her.

“I’m not saying it casually.”

The honesty in his voice hit harder than the actual words had.

Wren looked physically unwell from excitement now.

“I need everyone to understand,” she whispered dramatically, “that I have been right this entire time.”

“No one asked,” Grandpa informed her.

“That’s never stopped me before.”

Brielle barely heard them.

Because Thaddeus was still looking at her in that same steady way he had been since arriving at the capital.

Only now—

Now she finally understood why it felt different.